The Story Behind The Reign of the Anti-Santas
How and why and when the book was written, from a recent interview.
Here are a few highlights from an interview I did with IndieReader about The Reign of the Anti-Santas, which received the publication’s IndieReader Approved label, and was also named one of its Books of the Month. You can but the book here: Independent Booksellers - Amazon - B&N - ibooks - Kobo
IndieReader: What’s the book’s first line?
Colin Dodds: “I don’t know who Santa is to you. But I have an idea of what you’d prefer to hear. So if you’re a child, then stay a child a little longer. Leave this story alone.”
IR: What inspired you to write the book?
CD: I didn’t really want to write it. But it became oddly irresistible.
It started one night when my wife and I took our two kids to see the elaborate Christmas lights over in the Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. The walk from our house, up and down the streets and back is about four miles, so we brought a big stroller.
I was in my 10th year of hating Christmas. The whole thing felt like an emotionally, physically and financially draining series of obligations. And where I worked at the time, Rockefeller Center was between me and the subway, so I had to walk through the holiday tourist hubbub every weekday. That’s a lot of Mariah Carey.
That night, the stroller with both kids in it was about 120 pounds. It wasn’t even Christmas yet, but it felt like it had been Christmas for a few months already. Even nipping at a thermos with a festive beverage, I was tired and peeved.
We were walking home from the lights. The kids were 2 and 7 and not always easy to corral. As we crested candy-colored the hill of illuminated houses, I talked to them, mostly to keep them calm and in the stroller.
The subject was, inevitably, Christmas. I started running my mouth about Rudolph, and what really happened that foggy Christmas Eve - the dubious deal that the vindictive reindeer struck. I just kept yapping. And half of the book had clicked into focus by the time we reached the overpass of the Verrazano Bridge onramp.
During the next week or two, more pieces fell into place. I had to ask myself a few times if I was really serious about doing this. But there was pain in Christmas. And as an artist, that’s where you go. The book certainly wasn’t anything I had wanted to do. But it had incredible momentum. New pieces of it just kept coming, and all them fit.
IR: What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
CD: Christmas and the end of the year is an incredibly powerful, mysterious time, and also a time of crisis and depression. It’s a statistical falsehood that suicides spike at the holidays. But it’s a falsehood that people are drawn to.
The holidays are an invitation to revisit childhood - an invitation that seems to ring more hollow every year. The book is an attempt to reckon with the fact that the entire world is holy, that its commercialization and manipulation necessarily pains us, and that pain sets us at odds with our practical selves. I guess The Reign of the Anti-Santas is about that painful mass of practicality, self-deception, desire and holiness, played out over seventy years, from the perspective of an elf.
IR: What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
CD: It’s his voice. Henry Hill, Robert Evans
IR: How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
CD: With two young kids and a full time job, it’s a lot of stolen moments. I never have the same answer twice from week to week.
IR: What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
CD: The best part starts with the creative control. I’ve had a few agents over the years. And I shudder to think what an agent and an editor would have done to this book. This is the first book that I didn’t bother offering up to agents or small presses. Operating independently, there are no committees, no personalities to navigate, no market trends to consider, no uncertainty. I don’t have to worry about my editor trying to cover their ass. And I can work directly with a designer to get the cover I want.
When I’m selling the book, I can do different versions, set prices, offer discounts, and do all kinds of promotional things. For The Reign of the Anti-Santas, I was able to design the physical book the way I wanted - like a lump of coal. And when that came out to be a bit expensive, I could release a slimmer, thrift edition that cost eleven bucks less.
There’s also the speed. This book itself was this incredible single flowing inspiration to write, rewrite, rewrite again and edit. And, given the subject matter, it had to come out in late October or early November. I’d hate to sit on it for a year or more to get it out to readers. And I didn’t have to. I just had to hustle.
That said, the downsides are real. There’s no reputational air cover from a publisher. You don’t sound very cool when people ask you who published the book. You’re pretty much on your own, which can be scary. And it’s tough to get into bookstores. The whole financial outlay falls on me (and my family). And there’s limited immediate exposure to high-end opportunities in film and TV.
For better or worse, the commercial success and failure of the book is all on me.
IR: Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
CD: Maybe. I am a creative person with two small children in a major metropolitan area. There is never enough money. But it would have to be a good deal.
IR: Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)
CD: This seems like one of the worst times in history to be famous. More money would be nice, just in terms of having more time to work on the things that interest me. I certainly wouldn’t mind wearing khakis less often, and I have some sleep I’d like to catch up on.
Reaching readers is what excites me. Opening up new ideas and ways of looking at the world with my readers excites me. The work excites me. It contributes more to the richness of my life than money or recognition could. Ultimately, it’s about the books, aphorisms, scripts, software projects, films and essays. I’d like if that could pay enough to free me up to do more of it. But there’s enough heat in the work itself that I can also scrape, scrap and muddle through.
NOTE: You can read the whole interview, along with IndieReader’s lovely review of The Reign of the Anti-Santas here.