Today marks the official kickoff of the Duckett & Dyer: DicksFor Hire Book Tour presented by Storytellers On Tour, and we’ve got a great lineup helping us spotlight this incredible Sci-Fi/Comedy mashup! Duckett & Dyer: Dicks For Hire is G.M. Nair’s debut novel, book one in his Duckett & Dyer: Dicks For Hire series. I’ve had the pleasure of reading this book, and it is easily one of the most entertaining and memorable reads of recent years. Rather than reposting my review, I had a nice chat with G.M., and invite you all to give this wild story a try!
You can ready my review of Duckett & Dyer: Dicks For Hire here.
We’ve enlisted the help of a group of wonderful and talented bloggers, vloggers, and Bookstagrammers to help us feature Duckett & Dyer: Dicks For Hire. This is what we have going on, so make sure to check out each and everyone one throughout the week for some brilliant content, including reviews, spotlights, interviews, and more.
The Tour
MAY 17TH–THE WELCOMING
Whispers & Wonder
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MAY 18TH
Susy’s Cozy World
Ebookwyrm’s BlogCave
The Good Book Nook
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MAY 19TH
Dream Come Review
BooksNBites
Knapsack
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MAY 20TH
Before We Go Blog
Fantasy Book Review
Book Invasion
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MAY 21ST
The Paperback Voyager
The Swordsmith
Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub
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MAY 22ND
@bibliophilesandcoffee
The Grimdragon
@the.littlest.bookshelf
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MAY 23RD–THE ENCORE
RockStarlit BookAsylum
For more about this tour visit Storytellers On Tour.
SERIES: Duckett & Dyer: Dicks For Hire
PUBLISHED: March 30, 2019 (Self-published)
PAGES: 300
GENRE: Science Fiction, Mystery, Comedy
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The Blurb
Michael Duckett is fed up with his life. His job is a drag, and his roommate and best friend of fifteen years, Stephanie Dyer, is only making him more anxious with her lazy irresponsibility. Things continue to escalate when they face the threat of imminent eviction from their palatial 5th floor walk-up and find that someone has been plastering ads all over the city for their Detective Agency.
The only problem is: He and Stephanie don’t have one of those.
Despite their baffling levels of incompetence, Stephanie eagerly pursues this crazy scheme and drags Michael, kicking and screaming, into the fray only to find that they are way out of their depth. They stumble upon a web of missing people that are curiously linked to a sexually audacious theoretical physicist and his experiments with the fabric of space-time. And unless Michael and Stephanie can put their personal issues aside and fix the multi-verse, the concept of existence itself may, ironically, no longer exist.
The Author
G.M. Nair is a crazy person who should never be taken seriously. Despite possessing both a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering, he has written comedy for the stage and screen, and is the author of the highly unlucrative Duckett & Dyer: Dicks For Hire series.
G.M. Nair lives in New York City and in a constant state of delusion.
WEBSITE: http://www.ds-df.com/
The Interview
Thanks so much for joining us, G.M.. Since we already have your official bio, care to tell us about yourself in ten words or less?
I’m the kind of guy who’d correct ‘less’ to ‘fewer’.
What’s a day of writing like in the shoes of G.M.? Do you have any quirks, routines, or rituals?
Honestly, I wish I did, because it’d make me sound like a more interesting person. There’s really no routine or rituals I have. I just try to sit down as much as I can and bang out a vomit draft in a few months than I just then go back to and constantly tweak until I’m satisfied with it. I’d like to say I have discipline too, but right now I’m filling out interview questions instead of working on a new manuscript.
I need to reiterate how much I absolutely loved Duckett & Dyer: Dicks For Hire – it’s easily one of the most entertaining and memorable things I’ve read over the past few years. Can you share with us something about the book that isn’t in the blurb?
Aw, thanks! I think something about Duckett & Dyer that isn’t evident in the blurb, nor is it evident until the last few pages of the epilogue, is that it’s the start of a series with an undercurrent of background lore that’s (hopefully) going to pay off in a few books down the line. If people really like it, there’s a lot of hidden info and hints that nerdy weirdos like me can go back and pore over.
Give us an idea of how Duckett & Dyer: Dicks For Hire came to fruition.
Duckett & Dyer: Dicks For Hire is a project that went through many iterations. It started off as an idea for a webcomic about a singular incompetent detective titled ‘You’re A Mystery Michael Dyer’. The main character was going to be a bumbling detective that I based on my then-manager. Eventually, I figured, rather than a single Inspector Clouseau-like main character, a double-act would be better. So I added a sidekick by the alliterative name of Duckett. When I came up with the rhyming subtitle ‘Dicks For Hire’, I knew I had to do something with it FAST or it’d drive me crazy.
That was in 2008.
Flashforward to my post-college years, when I plucked the idea out of my head again and decided to put it into novel form, because it wouldn’t require me learning how to draw. Over the next four years I struggled with drafts and redrafts – changing base concepts and adding and subtracting characters – until a final version clicked in 2018. A few polishing edits later and I self-published in 2019.
A huge congrats on your recent publication of The One-Hundred Percent Solution! Do you think we’ll be seeing more of Stephanie and Michael in the future?
Oh, most definitely. As frivolous as some of the plots and jokes in the Duckett & Dyer books seem, there’s a steadily building background plot that I’d like to keep in motion. I’m aiming to have the next installment – a book of short stories – out next year (which is a crazy timeline, but I’ll try!)
What comes first, the plot or the characters?
To me, the plot comes first, and for a few (two) reasons:
a) I’m really into detail-oriented storytelling, which you kinda have to be if you mess around with time travel and multiple universe stuff like I do, and having a carefully architected plot really helps in this case.
b) I don’t really write chosen-one style characters that are central to the plot. I’ve had enough of those. I much prefer fish-out-of-water characters that have greatness thrust upon them and have to react to how the plot goes.
What about the Sci-Fi and Comedy genres appeals to you most?
Sci-Fi has always been really fun for me to write. There’s something about logical, precise world-building that really hits the spot. Comedy, on the other hand, is something that just feels natural to me. It’s how I interact with the world, for better or for worse. Plus, since Duckett & Dyer was my first book, I figured if it wasn’t good I could just fall back on the fact that it’s not meant to be taken seriously. I think comedies often get a pass.
Do you have a favorite character you’ve written? If so, who? What about them sets them apart from all the others?
Stephanie is probably my favorite character to write, just because she’s come really far from the early drafts of Duckett & Dyer. Originally she was pretty much a one-note character full of jokes, but over time developed into kind of a tragic individual once I figured out the insecure reason for her constant wisecracks. I tried to mirror the feeling of discovering who she was as a character in the overall journey of Duckett & Dyer: Dicks For Hire, so hopefully those readers who’re as annoyed by her as Michael was get the same reaction when she starts opening up.
I also kinda like writing Rex Calhoun, because a grizzled loose cannon cop is always fun to play with.
What do you think makes a good story?
Woof. This is a hard one. There’re so many things. Interesting world-building. A tight plot. Relatable characters.
But overall, I’d have to say consistency of vision. If the story feels like it’s invested in the reality of itself and its audience’s feelings as it goes forward, all of the other things fall in line and that makes a good story for me.
Is there one particular book you hold dearest to your heart?
I’m gonna go with the obvious one and say The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy. It’s the gold standard for sci-fi comedies and deservedly so. It does a lot of things that haven’t really been seen before or since and was a huge inspiration to me growing up. It showed me you can still have a well-built, interesting, elaborate story that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Writing can be a stressful pursuit. Do you have any tips for aspiring authors?
Write what you want and when you can. Stop worrying and don’t overthink things. Also, don’t take advice from some rando on the internet.
Ok, let’s see what kind of person you truly are.
Coffee or Tea?
Tea
Winter or Summer?
Summer
Physical books or Ebooks?
Physical books
Mountains or Oceans?
Mountains
Beer or Wine?
Wine
Books or Movies?
Movies
Cowboys or Aliens?
Aliens
Pie or Cake?
Cake
Rural or Urban?
Urban
Work hard or Play hard?
Play hard
Thank you again for taking the time to chat with us, G.M.. Do you have anything coming up in the future that you’d like the world to know about?
Well, having released The One-Hundred Percent Solution last month, I’m trying to relax a bit and work on other projects. Some novels. Some screenplays. But I’m always working on new Duckett & Dyer content and should have a few short stories set in that universe going out later this year. If anyone’s interested in hearing about those first, I’d recommend you hop on over to my website (ds-df.com) and sign up for my newsletter, which is its own kind of absurd comedic content.
The Giveaway
Enter to win one physical copy of Duckett & Dyer: Dicks For Hire, courtesy of G.M. Nair
(US Only)
That’s all I got for ya! Check back in throughout the week to see all the amazing content my fellow tour hosts come up with, and be sure to pick up Duckett & Dyer: Dicks For Hire from your favorite retailer!
Happy Reading!
🖤