Interview with Bill Boggs, Author of Spiked Unleashed

Interviewed by Kristi Elizabeth

1.   You’ve had an incredible career in the entertainment industry — as a talk show host, producer, writer, and stage performer.  SPIKE UNLEASHED is a sequel to your last book, THE ADVENTURES OF SPIKE THE WONDER DOG.  Why focus on satirical fiction at this point in your career?

Great question. There are a couple of reasons—I’ve been in and out of the world of comedy my entire career. When I decided to commit to writing the Spike books, the voice of Spike came through me, I had the central character instantly, and the voice was that of an outsider (read: a Dog) commenting on us and our society in a rather Seinfeldian manner. It was funny and that’s the genre that came about once I started the writing process. So it began with the miracle process of what writing fiction can be, and I “went with it.”

2.   What inspired you to write this book? 

3.   Did you have any challenges while writing this book? If so, what were they?

No. I enjoyed the process so much that it never felt like work. Once I started, the idea of having “discipline” to do it was not an issue. many days I could hardly wait to get going. I wrote this book in the afternoon.

4.   What is your favorite scene in the book and why?

5.   SPIKE UNLEASHED is a terrifically fun — and funny — read, but it also also has offers lots of sly commentary on the world in which we live.  For example, the “Angry Men” in America.  Tell us about Angry Man meals and other spoofs in your book. 

Well, there are now a great deal of angry men in our country who are pissed off all the time for many reasons. Men are angry (and angrier than ever since the release of the “Barbie” movie, I must note).  “Angry Man Meals” were invented by one of these men to serve the newly emerging “Anger Market.” The meals are really bad food laced with just enough steroids to keep you in a chest-pounding fury all day, and go to bed vowing to punch someone in the face first thing in the morning.

There’s another invention in SPIKE UNLEASHED called the “Sex Bit.” It’s worn on a woman’s wrist like a Fit Bit. It measures the level of excitement in her body during sexual activities. At the conclusion of the intimacy, it delivers a score that is assigned to her lover. Many men, by the way, are angry at their scores.

Or there’s “Tony the Talking Trophy,” an app on a child’s phone that enables parents to give completely unwarranted, over-the-top praise to their child no matter where the kid is. All of a sudden, the App says stuff like, “You’re the Greatest, have a trophy.” Or “So what that you struck out four times in the game yesterday? Have a trophy for your collection.”