I thought I was done with these interviews, but no! Joshua Mays has emerged from hiding to tell everyone about his contribution to the Indie Superhero StoryBundle, Alpha Male!

It’s high-concept pitch time. In 20 words or fewer, what is your book about?

Alpha Male is thematically about hero worship and the celebrity lifestyle that can rise up from uncontrolled adoration.

Why did you decide to tackle a superhero story as a prose novel rather than as a traditional comic book/graphic novel?

I couldn’t find an illustrator. This ended up being a good thing though. If I hadn’t given up on the idea of doing comics, I never would have written my first book.

One of the notable earmarks of our current Indie Superhero StoryBundle is that “indie” part. Are you an independent author by choice? And what are the big pros and cons of life as an indie author?

I chose indie in the beginning to help me get started without any real consequences, but I’d like to see a publishing deal at some point. It’s not about the money, but just the accomplishment of it. I’ve always wanted that achievement.

Superheroes are well-established archetypes, and their stories have their own sensibilities and internal logic. How did you play with or subvert the tropes of superhero fiction in your story?

I wanted to explore the idea of subjective morals. Good and evil is always so easy in comics. Even when the characters have good intentions, they still have noticeably evil actions.  I wanted to work with that and try to turn it on its head. What if the hero is only good because of what he gets out of being good.

Beginnings, middles, and ends. What is your favorite/the easiest part of a story to write and which is the hardest/least favorite?

The ending seems to be the easiest for me. Beginnings are hard because it’s difficult getting started, and then I always seem to stall out in the middle, but once that ending is in sight, I can type it out without a problem.