Q1. Hello, can you please introduce yourself? Readers would love to know more about you.
My name is Mark Swan. I’m a producer, reporter, musician, and author from Denver, Colorado, USA. I’m a Gemini and I like petty crime. When I’m not writing and stressing out, I’m on the radio as a traffic and weather reporter. When I’m not doing either of those things, I’m playing music with my best friends in Pretty. Loud., a three piece weird rock band. I love dogs and when I am outside and see a dog, I will smile at the dog. I have been writing professionally for about 12 years but only recently published my first novel, Death and Human Resources. Now that the book is out, I have absolutely no idea what to do with my life.
Q2. What were the key challenges you faced while writing your book “Death and Human Resources”?
The largest challenge I had came nearly a year into writing the initial manuscript. I had a detailed idea of events within the story and how and when I wanted them to take place. I was well into writing the twenty-second chapter when I decided to check my word and page count. To my horror, I had written nearly five hundred pages and I wasn’t even halfway through the story I wanted to tell! Since this was my first novel, I didn’t want to bog potential readers with an intimidatingly thick book. So, I found a stopping point in the story and, remorsefully, began to cut out elements of the plot that were either unnecessary or could be used in future installments of the series. Death was never meant to be a series but, who knows, I may revisit those cut details at a later time.
Q3. What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?
Anyone who reads the book will find Neil Gaiman’s, Christopher Moore’s, and Stephen King’s finger prints within. This trio taught me as a young reader that you could inject humor into the religious and mythical. Gaiman and Pratchett’s Good Omens is an enormous influence on every creative thought that I have. Moore’s Lamb is the reason Death and Human Resources exists at all. I grew up with a certain reverence for organized religion, and felt as though it was somehow “above” being the subject for satire or irreverent writing. Lamb changed my world and I invite anyone of any religious background to read it.
I also want to express my adoration for Diana Wynne Jones, who taught me through her writing how to think with both whimsy and pragmaticism. Her series are full of magic and fantasy that somehow makes sense to the reality-obsessed reader. I always wanted to emulate her style.
Q4. What’s your favourite spot to visit in your own country? And what makes it so special to you?
I’m fond of my basement because it keeps me from the sun. If I have to give a more traditional answer, I enjoy going to any coastal city in the US and finding excuses to be on the beach during the night time. When I can find the time, I like to escape to rural Maine where my family lives. If I can ever make it back, I’d like to visit New Orleans again and take in the general ethereal energy of that sleepless city. Any haunted forest throughout the continental US will get my attention. I won’t say no if someone invites me to Disney World.
Q5. Is there lots to do before you dive in and start writing a book?
Answering from experience, decades of work goes into writing a book. I spent years considering nebulous ideas and how to stitch them together into a coherent story. There are multiple journals filled with chapter snippets, character biographies, and hastily scribbled notes that all contributed to the final product. I have at least two work documents with semi-organized descriptions of locations, histories, and designs. This was a story that I first imagined when I was twenty years old. I am now thirty-five.
Q6. How long did it take you to write your book ‘Death and Human Resources’?
I wrote the first two chapters in the Summer of 2019. The draft was a distraction against the worst office job I had ever worked. When the Covid pandemic hit in 2020, I suddenly found myself without that awful job and a lot of newfound free time. Stuck at home, I committed to writing a chapter a week and finished the rough draft in May of 2021. I published the complete novel in June of 2022.
Q7. On what platforms can readers buy your book ?
Death and Human Resources is available in paperback from Amazon. You can find the ebook on almost every major retailer. Check out DeathandHumanResources.com to read the first chapter and to purchase the whole thing if you like it.
Q8. Tell us about the process of coming up with the book cover and the title ‘Death and Human Resources’?
The title, Death and Human Resources, came to me as I was writing the first few chapters of the manuscript. Incidentally, I was working in an HR department for a major corporation and having a miserable time. I had been mulling around the idea for a story about the more mundane workings of Heaven, Hell and the supernatural world for years (see above.) The title, Human Resources, popped in my head as I imagined the paperwork a demon would have to file away after tricking a human into signing over their soul. I thought the pun was pretty funny and wondered to myself what the manager of a supernatural Human Resources department would look like. The answer was almost too obvious: the Angel of Death would manage such a department! The official title and major workings of the story came quickly afterward.
The artist behind the cover for the book is the impossibly talented Justin Gray (burntobuild.com,) whom I met while doing some freelance work. I told him the premise of the story and he was enthusiastic to get the artwork out ASAP.
As for the cover itself, the art depicts Azrael, Angel of Death, looking over a metropolitan Heaven. Throughout the story, Azrael changes his appearance many times, and eventually comes to resemble what many people would recognize as the Grim Reaper: a skeleton in a black cloak with a scythe. I wanted his modern day design to look like the next iteration of that appearance. In a universe taken over by corporate bureaucracy, the Grim Reaper trades his cloak for a three piece suit, and his scythe for a pen. Justin nailed Azrael’s design with his comic book style.
Heaven is depicted as futuristic and almost alien, with contrasting warm and cool colors. People often conceptualize Heaven as this place in the sky where angels play harps on wisps of clouds. I wanted Heaven to look industrial, with every square inch covered in stone and steel. Justin’s use of color brought something that my imagination couldn’t hold a candle to.
Q9. When writing a book how do you keep things fresh, for both your readers and also yourself?
The biggest surprise I had while writing this book was how often I felt my characters were getting away from me as I was writing them. It’s somewhat of a cliche for authors to say their characters “developed minds of their own,” but it is truly a strange thing to see first hand. I do not believe a single one of my characters ended up where I intended. As I wrote them, I would feel a weird pull at my fingertips, as if they were saying, “you want me to do this, but what if I did that instead?” I was apprehensive at first, but I ultimately let these characters do what they wanted to do, rather than try and shoehorn my story to what I had originally intended. The result was I was still surprising myself by the last chapter. That certainly kept things fresh for me and I hope the impulsiveness of these characters keeps readers intrigued as well.
Q10. Are there any secrets from the book (that aren’t in the blurb), you can share with your readers?
Prepare to get your feelings hurt, especially if you’re coming into this hoping for an honorable interpretation of any one religion. This book is a satire of religious doctrine at best and downright blasphemous at its worst. That’s not to say it was my intent to bash or insult any person’s sense of spirituality; I consider myself a deeply spiritual person. My goal was to bring a bit of humanity to entities in myth and canon that are otherwise depicted as “divine” and “perfect.” If anything, it is my hope that you laugh alongside these depictions and maybe even develop a stronger sense of your own spirituality.
I can’t reveal many secrets without giving away my favorite parts of the story. I will just say that the title of the book ends up revealing a pun and I hope that readers find it as funny as I do.
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