Welcome to A Month of Rain and Reads, a celebration of self-published and indie SFF throughout the entire month of November. To find out how you can take part and view the whole list of content, visit our introduction post.
Today, we have an interview with Ben Schenkman, author of My Boss is the Devil (from Contemporary Fantasy series The Devil You Know) and most recently of Let Sleeping Gods Lie.
Describe yourself like you would a character in one of your books.
I have a funny habit of not describing the main characters, often giving the reader a chance to either self-insert or decide for themselves (it’s first person POV).
Ben was medium height with broad shoulders. Piercing blue eyes, a warm smile, and laugh-lines told me volumes about him. Heavy bags under those eyes told me even more.
He had short, brown hair with an aggressively receding hairline and a growing baldness that looked like it ran in the family.
Our theme for November is A Month of Rain & Reads. Do you subscribe to the idea of curling up with a good book while the rain pours down outside. What book would you read? Would you bring tea and a blanket? What would make the moment perfect?
Curling up with a good book out of the rain is a wonderful idea. I read the genre I write, mostly Urban Fantasy.
I’d curl up with a cup of coffee (tea is for when I’m too jittery for more coffee) and read my latest UF. Probably no blanket, unless it was super chilly. Right now it’s By a Silver Thread by Rachel Aaron. It would be a perfect moment if the steam was rising from the cup and I was having a good laugh about a particularly good one–liner.
What else do you want our readers to know about you?
I’m a (somewhat) queer, Jewish, neurodivergent author with a penchant for dark humor and a heavy caffeine dependency. UF is my jam, but I also enjoy high/epic fantasy, some thrillers, and simply appreciate good books. I mostly listen to audiobooks these days, as well, which is why providing audio for my own is so important to me.
I also want your readers to know that I’m not any one thing. My first series has a not-too-cozy vibe, but my newest book is aggressively fast-paced. I’ve got so many things in the works I don’t want to be known as a “cozy” writer, because there are too many mismatched expectations if I come out with something adjacent.
Why did you decide to self-publish, and what has been your biggest success so far?
A little backstory about my first book. My Boss is the Devil started taking shape in 2005 or so. Then the first quarter of the book sat idle until 2014 when I finished the draft in a NaNoWriMo fueled haze. Then the draft languished in the query trenches for a bit before I abandoned the project to the shelf for another nine years.
I was on TikTok, watching @atomicapplepie reading bad romance prose written by men (sorry, fellow men, it’s often really bad). I said to myself “I wrote a book once and it can’t possibly be as bad as this, and these are published”. Then I dusted off the manuscript, added another 10-15k words, read it aloud to my partner, had some friends read and proof it, and decided to self-publish. I’m in my forties, I don’t have ten years to sit around the Trad trenches waiting for enough luck and favor to have an agent care about my story.
The rest is history, I guess. I’ve been writing since then and publishing more books
I’d say my biggest success is the number of ratings and reviews I have on my first series. The Devil You Know, which currently consists of three books (the fourth is in draft) has over 600 ratings and 250 reviews across all three books. Each has over a 4-star rating, which I think speaks volumes about the…uh…volumes.
What is your favourite thing about being an indie author?
Hands-down my favorite thing about being an indie author is the community. We support each other, lift each other up, and support everyone’s work. Need a blurb critiqued? Talk to the community. Want opinions on a cover? Post it up and get feedback. Need to cry on some shoulders? We’re all there for you. It’s been beautiful, and I’ve made so many friends it’s just impossible thinking about not being an indie.
You did your own narration for My Boss is the Devil and Dueling Shoulder Angels. Generally, it seems the advice is for authors not to narrate their own audio books, even if it’s cheaper. However, in your books, it seemed just fine. Do you have experience with voice acting and audio production, and what is your advice for someone who does not?
The general advice of “don’t narrate your own audiobooks” is a bit hyperbolic. I think it would be better if it was “don’t narrate your own audiobooks if you can’t make it sound professional”.
Thank you so much, I’m glad that my audiobooks have been well-received by listeners. I do have some experience with acting, in general, and have been doing voices/accents since I learned to speak. So I think I had a leg up when it came to doing my own books, but the biggest differentiator is that I was willing to put in some time (and a little money, for tools/plugins) to make my audio clean and professional.
My advice for someone without experience is: You can still narrate your own books if you want, but you have to take the time to make it the most professional product you can. Just like you pay for an editor, if you’re producing your own audiobooks you are the editor. It’s going to take hours to put together a solid product, and starting from scratch means you might do a lot of re-takes and editing to make it sound good.
Don’t worry about having “a great voice”, some of my favorite audiobook narrators are a bit quirky-sounding, but the audio production value has to be top notch for people to listen with interest. So if you do it yourself, there’s a burden of “getting it right” that paying someone else to do the audio for you takes care of.
From your books, it’s clear that you take an interest in good food, good drink, and in what makes someone a good/bad person. What themes are important to you, and how are they reflected in your writing?
I’m a bit of a foodie, and have a hard time not diving into what people are eating and drinking. It’s part of what gives the first series a cozy vibe, despite some of the heavy topics. I think it also breaks things up and makes the characters relatable. If you’re a coffee person you’ll relate to Nick, the MC in My Boss is the Devil. If you couldn’t care less about food, and it’s mostly fuel for the body, you may relate more to Corbin in my new book, Let Sleeping Gods Lie.
The most important themes in my writing have to do with the lengths people are willing to go for what they believe in, love, or support. Along with that, whether the ends justify the means and whether anything can be absolutely good or bad. I think this gets reflected in the complexity of my characters.They often try to do the “right” thing, but will make choices that are absolutely ethically questionable in pursuit of that.
You sure do write about coffee a lot. How do you take yours?
Soy milk and stevia, for the most part. I’m a connoisseur in that I enjoy “good” coffee, but I’m not a snob. I will absolutely drink down mug after mug of diner stuff if that’s what’s available.
What are you working on next? Can you tease us?
Well my next book, Let Sleeping Gods Lie, will be released on October 27th (that’s a few days ago at the time this is published /RIF). It’s a new standalone/series starter that takes place in yet another alternate reality New Haven, CT. It follows a community college professor/archeologist/environmentalist on his mission to protect the indigenous spiritual flora/fauna of the area. It’s got some murder mystery, a half-spirit raccoon, and a heist to boot. It’s apparently hitting readers as very fast paced, so if you’re in the mood for a fast, fairly traditional Urban fantasy offering it might be up your alley.
As far as a teaser, my next-next book (likely not releasing until the end of January) is another new standalone/cycle starter that focuses entirely on Jewish magic as the framework for the magic system. It’s called My Brother’s Keeper, and I’m really excited for it to come out.
For lovers of the first series, I’m also writing the fourth book in The Devil You Know, A Little Death Among Friends, which I hope to have out early next year.
And a few quick questions. What’s your favourite…
…book, in recent times?
I’m going to be a cliche in that I’ve really enjoyed the audiobooks for the Dungeon Crawler Carl series.
…game, in recent times?
Death’s Door, where you get to play a sword-wielding reaper-crow.
…writing advice?
You can’t please everyone, so don’t try. Write as good a book as you can, and then accept that not everyone is going to like it.
…advice for someone who wants to publish their own book?
Do it! Do it. Please do it?
But seriously, decide why you want to publish. If you want your story to be read, that’s one thing. If you want to make a living as a writer, that’s entirely different. The reason for self-publishing may guide you as far back as which genre to write. If I wanted to make money, I wouldn’t be writing Urban Fantasy. But I write because I want my stories to be told.
…source of inspiration?
My latest book was inspired by a lot of the work of Charles de Lint (who I would love it if he read this book, hah), but also the Indigenous tale of The Sleeping Giant from Connecticut.
…way to clear your mind when everything gets a bit much?
I tend to melt my brain with a little TV, honestly. It’s mindless, and I get to yell at the screen about someone else’s writing.
Do you have any last words? Any shoutouts to authors who have supported you or whose books have inspired you?
Oh my. Shoutouts to all of the wonderful authors and readers of Read Indie Fantasy for the support. There are too many to name, but you know who you are.
Huge shoutout to AJ ‘Poppy’ Alexanders, who blurbed my latest book. “F*&^ you for writing a book this good.”
More shouts to my early readers (Tanya, Laurie, Dave, Poppy, and more), for the feedback and the love.
Ben Schenkman
- Website Link: https://benschenkman.com
- BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/benschenkman.bsky.social
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benschenkman.author/
- Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/47639912
Ben Schenkman likes many things in life: his 20-pound Maine coon cat, his family, his coffee, and his eclectic hobbies—not necessarily in that order.
Ben also likes to play devil’s advocate in his urban fantasy books by exploring the gray areas of good and evil with questions like, “Does the end really justify the means? Or is it all simply black and white?” Ben leaves these questions lingering in the ether to challenge readers’ conventional thinking and delve into the complexities of moral dilemmas.
As a native of Connecticut, Ben draws inspiration from his upbringing and college years in New Haven, where his novels take place. When he wants to escape being a writer, he’s a massive foodie who goes on gastronomic adventures, an overachiever who collects degrees in Theater, Nuclear Engineering, and an MBA, or the manager/performer of the fire dance troupe, HVBRIS—all in a day’s work, really.
Want to know more about his work, or talk about coffee and cats? He loves hearing from readers!
Links
Reviews
Find our review of My Boss is the Devil here.
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