AI: I used to write poetry in high school, in a (mostly but not entirely) vain attempt to impress girls. I started tinkering with writing fiction in college, but never took writing seriously until I was in my early 20s. I was an actor at the time and decided to take a swing at playwriting. The plays were lousy, but I got more interested in writing and started working harder at fiction. I went to the Clarion workshop in 1993 and then wrote obsessively for the next five years until I started to publish.

IFP: Tell us about some of the original projects that you have done, like The Narrows and Buyout.

AI: The Narrows started off with a line that jumped into my head: “Midnight in the golem factory.” That got stuck together with an impulse I’d had for a while to write about Detroit and my family’s history there. What came out was a secret history of World War II in which the Axis and Allies are both researching ways to deploy mythological and supernatural creatures in the war. It centres on a guy named Jared who works in part of Henry Ford’s River Rouge complex, building golems.

With Buyout, I tried to write a hybrid SF/crime novel since I’d never done that before and it seemed like the best way to get at some of the questions I wanted to ask. The book is about a program through which prison inmates serving life without parole can accept buyouts of their sentences. The insurance company writes a large check representing part of the money they would spend on the inmate over the course of his or her life; the inmate decides where that money is going to be spent; and the inmate takes the needle the next morning. This sets up all kinds of deforming pressures on the criminal justice system, and also lets me take a look at the way we set value on things like human life. Plus, there are nifty conspiracies and dirty deeds set in an imagined 2041 Los Angeles.

IFP: In addition to being a writer of fiction, you’ve also been a journalist and a teacher. What kind of work have you done in these professions?

AI: I currently teach creative writing and literature courses at the University of Maine, everything from introductory workshops to grad seminars. This fall (to give you an idea of the variety), I’m teaching Intro Creative Writing, a survey class called “Homer to the Renaissance”, and an upper-level seminar on the graphic novel. I got through grad school on teaching assistantships, and also spent a year teaching high school English at Gardiner Area High School in central Maine.

As a journalist at the Portland Phoenix, I did a little bit of everything. Features, reviews, short notes about local politics, etc., made up about half of my workload. The other half was longer investigative pieces, mostly about environmental chicanery and state government. Those were great stories to write, but also stressful. People call up and scream at you on the phone, make threats, call you names. Usually, when that starts to happen, you know you’re onto something. One of those stories, about a sweetheart deal between the state and two of its biggest industries – paper and solid waste – won a New England Press Association award, which was unexpected and pretty cool.

IFP: Can you tell us about how you got into writing tie-in works? How did you become involved in writing Supernatural tie-in books?

AI: My first tie-in was for Byron Preiss, back in 2003. It was set in Asimov’s robot universe and called Have Robot, Will Travel. Byron was killed around the time that book came out, and I’ve never actually had a copy of it. Since then, I’ve done a lot of licensed work and had a blast doing it. I’ve done novels about Batman ), The Ultimates, and Iron Man; a big reference book called the Vertigo Encyclopedia ; and of course the two Supernatural books. Those happened because Chris Cerasi, who edited my Batman novel, was working on Supernatural licensed publishing and asked me if I was interested. I’d already done a sort of backstory document that DC had used to pitch Supernatural book projects to publishers, so I was in a good spot to step in and get to work on the monster book. That book went over pretty well at the Supernatural writers’ office – I’m told they use it as reference, and I’ve seen a couple of things in the show since it came out that I’m pretty sure came from the book, which is fun. Then the idea for John’s journal came along and I dove into that.

IFP: What sources did you use the most for your research into the mythology behind the show for your two Supernatural books? What sources would you recommend on the subject?

AI: Since I’ve always been a bit of a research nerd, I had plenty of books on mythologies and folklore. Those were where I started. Then I went and dug around in libraries to see what I could find there. Some internet sources are useful for this kind of stuff too, especially sites like Bartleby or Project Gutenberg that have complete copies of old texts. The sources that are name-checked in the monster book and John’s journal, like the Pseudomonarchia Daemonium, are available online. More scholarly sources, like Frazer’s The Golden Bough or the old Myths and Legends series from Senate Books, are great resources too.

IFP: Do you have any future Supernatural projects in the works?

AI: Other than a possible update of the monster book at the end of Season 5, nothing definite. We talk about other things sometimes. I was asked to write a Supernatural novel, but I was already so overcommitted for the fall that there was no way I could do it. Which is too bad; I had a couple of cool ideas.

IFP: You’ve earned both an MA and a PhD. Can you tell us something about your degrees and what your thesis and dissertation were about?

AI: Both of my graduate degrees are in English (after a BA in theater). My MA thesis was about information theory and entropy in Philip K. Dick, specifically, his novel Martian Time-Slip. After I finished my PhD coursework, I had begun a dissertation on Dick, looking at him in the broader context of American literature of the 50s and 60s. I sort of let that slide when I started to publish novels, so when I was offered the job at the University of Maine, I had to complete another dissertation project – which, because the University of Denver has a creative writing PhD, I ended up doing as a collection of new short stories. One of these days, I’d like to write that long piece about PKD, though. I still have all the research in a box. Every once in a while, I look longingly at it.

IFP: Can you tell our audience a little about ARGs (Alternate Reality Games) and the two that you have helped create, The Beast and I Love Bees? How did you get into doing them?

AI: ARGs came about (at least insofar as I understand it) as a way to harness the internet’s potential for new ways of telling stories. One problem, as with all online endeavors except pornography, was figuring out ways to make money; the solution, at least in the case of The Beast and I Love Bees, was to create an excellent and innovative story that could do things stories couldn’t do before the internet…and then to make that story a viral marketing campaign, but in such a way that even after people knew that, they’d want to keep playing. So, you have a story that is delivered in the form of a game, where people discover it by accident, start telling their friends, and then work cooperatively to solve puzzles and do real-world activities that move the game narrative forward. It worked spectacularly well with both of those projects. I got into The Beast because I’d been friends with Sean Stewart for a while and he asked me if I wanted to do it. Then he and I worked together on I Love Bees. He (and Jordan Weisman and Elan Lee) was a big reason why those first two ARGs worked as well as they did.

IFP: What do you think of the Apocalypse storyline for seasons four and five of Supernatural?

I think it’s terrific. They’re swinging for the fences, you know? Too often, a show will set up long-term consequences of its first season and then fail to follow through on them. Supernatural dives right in and takes everything where it needs to go. Plus, it’s just been a lot of fun to watch.

IFP: What has been your favourite scene in the show?

AI: My favorite single scene is probably from “In the Beginning”, when we see Mitch Pileggi as the YED.

IFP: Which do you like to write more – novels, short stories or nonfiction?

AI: I hope I never have to choose. I keep doing all of them, and would like to keep on keeping on. Each form has its own rewards – the room and expansive feel of a novel, the pared-down precision of a short story.

IFP: Do you have a favourite film, television series or novel?

AI: A single favourite? No. I have touchstones that I keep coming back to – Don Quixote, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Withnail & I, Huckleberry Finn, Midnight’s Children…a list like that could go on for a while. Most of the TV I watch is sports, either baseball or soccer. When I want to decompress sometimes, I lie around watching endless reruns of Law & Order.

IFP: Do you have a favourite filmmaker or author (or both)?

AI: Here too, I don’t have a single favourite. If I told you my favourite right this second, someone else could come along and get a different answer an hour later. Maybe I’m just fickle.

IFP: What artistic accomplishment are you the most proud of in your career so far?

AI: On purely artistic grounds, I would go with a couple of my short stories. Short fiction is so hard to write well, but when you do get it right, it’s possible to have something nearly perfect (at least for your purposes, to your sensibilities, at that moment). I’ve never had that feeling about a novel or any longer piece I’ve done. They’re always so big that if you go back and look at them, inevitably you see things that you wish you’d done differently. (Which short stories? Hmmm. I guess I would say “Akhenaten”, “The Dream Curator”, and “Gus Dreams of Biting the Mailman”. But as with any other list of favorites, ask me again in an hour and I might give you a different one…)

IFP: If you could be a Lovecraft/Mythos monster (or character), which one would you be? Why?

AI: Probably Abdul Alhazred, because then I would know exactly what was in the Necronomicon.

IFP: Do you have a favourite Lovecraft/Mythos story? If so, which one is it?

AI: “Cool Air” might just be my favourite. It’s got all of the Lovecraft atmosphere, but it’s not quite as over the top as some of this other stuff. I also love “At the Mountains of Madness”.

IFP: Please tell us about your upcoming projects.

AI: Right now, I’m working on a number of different things: a screenplay for Buyout, the novelization of Iron Man 2, a Star Wars novel, and a couple of other licensed projects. Also, I’m dipping my toes into my next original novel while tinkering with a bunch of other comics ideas and short stories. And there could be another ARG in the works. So I’m staying busy, that’s for sure.

IFP: What is your dream project?

That’s a tough one. I’ve got a lot of things I’d like to do. One is find the perfect artist to draw this long, science-fictional, sort-of-postapocalyptic-but-also-kind-of-utopian comic story I’ve had kicking around in my head for a while. There are novels I’d like to write. I’d love to write a screenplay for The Narrows and see it come to life. And so on, and so on. I’ve got lots of plans.