10 Questions for Thomas J. Devens

Over on our community forum, we thought it would be fun to ask for volunteers for a series of interviews we’ve creatively dubbed 10 Questions. When someone volunteers the community bands together to post questions to ask them. Then we post the questions and answers here weekly. Our first volunteer is Thomas J. Devens!

Thomas, where can people find you?

Keep an eye out for updates. I’ve got a few bits of news on the way. Links to all my social medias and books can be found at linktr.ee/thomasjdevens

Let’s get to it!

1.) What’s the strangest food combination you’ve ever tried and liked?

Hmm, I’m not entirely sure. I suppose there’s quite a few food combinations I like, that others would consider strange. But to me, they’re not. I’m the sort of person that will make random concoctions out of what scraps I can find in the fridge. Using whatever leftovers just to make sure they don’t go to waste.

One thing, I haven’t had in a while, but used to eat a lot, was Peanut Butter, Jelly, and Hot Sauce sandwiches. I didn’t think it strange at the time, and still don’t, but people would often tell me it was. Many of those people, that actually gave it a try, ended up enjoying it. I like the sweet/savory/spicy combination. Also usually put hot sauce and a bit of maple syrup on my eggs or a breakfast sandwich.

I kinda just put hot sauce on most things.

2.) You’ve been given an elephant that you can’t give away or sell. What would you do with it? 

Oh that’s an easy one (hypothetically speaking, in actuality there’d probably be nothing easy about it), I’d fashion some sort of saddle-like device, raise the elephant, feed it, treat it well, and ride it around… I’d have an awesome pet elephant.

3.) If you could time travel to any point in history, where would it be and what would you do?

I’ve been over this recently on a Page Chewing Friday Conversation with Steve and Jarrod… responsibly speaking, I’m pretty sure I’d have to kill Hitler. I mean… right? There’s plenty of times/places/things I’d like to see but, you know… gotta kill Hitler. (Yeah, yeah, there’s the risk of paradoxes, but that’s another discussion).

4.) What’s your favorite word?

Ah, funny you should ask. For that answer and more, tune into Spotlight Indie over on YouTube in the coming weeks!

https://www.youtube.com/@Spotlight-Indie

5.) If a tree falls in a wood, and no one is there to hear it… Does it still cause mass homelessness for squirrels and birds?

Does it still cause mass homelessness for squirrels and birds?

That all depends. What is the economic state of the forest? Has gentrification set in yet?
On one hand, I’d like to think there’s plenty of other trees nearby for them to move into and that would be that. But let’s face it, there’s a tree crisis. Open trees in the forest are limited, and some city chipmunk is moving in and buying all the good trees up sight-unseen, and spending minimal effort to turn them into WoodBnBs. All the good trees become overpriced short term rentals, and there’s no way the local birds and squirrels can afford that shit.

I’d like to hope those affected had squirreled away enough acorns to set up a decent nest egg to fall back on, but let’s be realistic, times were hard and those handfuls of nuts they did manage to save will never be enough in the current market, especially when those damned chipmunks are asking for first, last, and security up front.

In the end, the birds end up flying away, riding the wind rails, taking on what work they can find here and there. Meanwhile the squirrels get desperate, some seek shelter in what burrows they find, throwing caution to the wind. They end up squatting in snake pits and foxholes, some even breaking into those very trees they had been priced out of. Until the chipmunks organize sweeps to have the squirrels run out.

I’m sorry friends, but it does not seem fate has good plans in mind for those poor squirrels.

6.) What is your spirit animal?

I think I usually go with a bear on this sort of question. A big ole, bumbling black bear (sorry for the alliteration).

7.) What non-fantasy books or stories inspire your work?

Tons of them, to varying degrees. It’s hard to say. Whatever fantasy related stuff I could consume when I was a child, though I’ve forgotten so much of it, the effects are still there, burrowed into my subconscious. Even things like the lore in the manual to the original Warcraft games (the old RTS games) I was obsessed with all that stuff. And the books I would read at the library about vikings and pirates and medieval weaponry, sieges, castles, whatever I could find on mythology. I read a lot when I was little.

In my teens, my interests shifted, but just as influential were the ratty copies I had of George Orwell’s “1984” and “Homage to Catalonia” and Aldous Huxley’s “Island” and “After Many a Summer Dies the Swan”. I think some of those may have cemented my tendency toward kinda bleak stories.

Especially influential in my teens were the countless books I’d find on the labor movement and class struggle, and the poems of Arturo Giovannitti. I think all of that carried pretty strong throughout my life and into my writing.

Going forward, in my mid-late 20’s eventually returning to mythology, especially the Poetic Eddas and Lady Gregory’s “Gods and Fighting Men” which led me back to fantasy finally.
A bit of a long winded response, but I think that whole journey has greatly impacted my work today, and it would feel weird to favor any one thing above the others.

8.) What care products do you use to keep that beard so luscious and bushy?

Every second Tuesday of the month that also happens to fall on a waxing gibbous, a sacrifice is made of one goat born naturally with one red eye. Its blood is stored in a vessel carved of moose antler and placed on a silver dais for a fortnight…

Nah, bar soap. I wash it when I shower with the same bar of soap I use for my face, hair, everything else. Just bar soap. And maybe I’ll run a cheap plastic comb through it once in a while to remove some loose hairs.

9.) What do you like most about being an author?

The self loathing.

But mostly the writing, just getting these stupid little stories out of my head and seeing the characters I create grow.

10.) Do you believe in anything that your heart tells you yes but your brain tells you no? Essentially, although I left this open ended and feel free to go that route with your answer…but what I am really asking…do you believe in Bigfoot?

I don’t not believe in Bigfeet (I think it’s silly that there would be just one though). But, I don’t really believe in them, but I also don’t think the possibility of some type of large hairy forest creature we don’t know about is all that far fetched. So, could be.

Now some of the “Bigfoot Hunters”, yeah, I don’t believe them.

And don’t get me started on Lincoln.