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Interview with Dom Ossiah, author of Leonard Bliss and the Accountant of the Apocalypse

Leonard-Bliss Dom Ossiah

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Can you tell us about your new book?
Okay, my new book is called Leonard Bliss and the Accountant of the Apocalypse and is a literary comedy set on Earth and in the Afterlife.

The devil absconds from the Hereafter, placing the destiny of mankind in jeopardy, and so Heaven dispatches a celestial field operative to track down the devil and return him to the Afterlife. This would be a straightforward task for any immortal except Alfred Warr – a
disgraced Horseman of the Apocalypse who suffers from anxiety issues too numerous to mention.

What genre is it?
The strange thing is that up until a few weeks ago, I wasn’t quite sure. But a few readers have been kind enough to tell me that it falls into the Magical Realism/Comedy Spy Fantasy Thriller/Romance category. Hope that helps.

What kind of readers will it appeal to?
Anyone who likes to laugh and leans towards the bizarre.

Complete this sentence for us: if you like _________________, you’ll love Leonard Bliss and the Accountant of the Apocalypse.
Right, okay.

Well, if you like Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, you’ll love my book. How was that?

That’s definitely great company to be in. Here’s another question for you; how would you like the reader to feel as they read the last word of your book?
I’d like them to feel sad that they’ve reached the end. I think that’s a good sign that the reader has got something out of it. That’s what I aim for in all my writing.

Have you written any other books that we should read next?
So glad you asked me that! I’ve also written a Science-Fiction crime thriller called Regarding Avalon. It’s set in an alternate near future, and tells the story of a police unit tasked with fighting crime in a virtual reality.

Tell us a bit about yourself.
Okay, well, I made my first serious attempt at writing while at primary school; I spent two weeks crafting a fifty-page epic that I insisted on reading in front of the class. My teacher’s
comment, as I remember, was something along the lines of, ‘It could do with a bit more pace.’ And, as I remember, my thinking was something like, ‘That’s a bit harsh – I’m only eight.’

Anyway, I grew up, drifted away from creative writing (nothing to do with Ms Harmon’s comments – at least I hope not), fell into technical authoring, and then, some time after that, fell down a flight of stairs. Now, the bad news was that I was house bound for
four months; the good news, it did give me a lot of free time — to write. And instead of churning out another article on Engineering for the Uninterested, I decided to rediscover my love of fiction.

I filled the house with short stories and some rather suspect poetry, then enrolled on an MA Creative Writing programme. And it was the most rewarding year I’ve spent in education; a year spent honing the skills and thickening the skin (Up until that point, I thought Ms Harmon was a tough audience.)

So a few years out, and I’m still slotting words together to see which ones fit. I think that might be the engineer in  me.

Where can we keep up with you online? Do you have a website?
I most certainly do. You can find me at http://www.domossiah.com.
Twitter: @DomOssiah
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/domossiah.

What’s next?
A long trip around Norway, where I’ll be researching my next book.

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Enjoyed this interview? Check out our conversation with AJ Knauss.

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  1. Pingback: Woo hoo! Interview featured at Indie Author Land | Dom on Writing

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