Interview with Craig DiLouie, Author of OUR WAR

I recently had the pleasure of reading Craig DiLouie’s Our War, out now from Orbit Books (I’ll link my review and purchase links at the end of this post), and I was thrilled when he agreed to answer some questions about the book. After reading this interview, I’m amazed at the amount of research and careful thought that went into this book. I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did! Please join me in welcoming Craig to the blog today!

For readers who haven’t read Our War yet, can you please tell us about the story?

I’d be happy to, Tammy—and thanks for having me as a guest on your blog! Set in the near future, Our War is a dystopian adult novel about a brother and sister forced to fight on opposite sides of a second American civil war, and the people whose lives they touch.

The read is more similar to what you might find in books like The Handmaid’s Tale than dystopian action-adventure like The Hunger Games. While there is certainly action in the story, it is not so much a war novel as a novel about a war.

Otherwise, I should point out the novel was published by Orbit, one of the world’s leading speculative fiction publishers, and is available in all formats, both online and in bookstores.

The events in Our War seem eerily familiar, especially if you live in the United States.

I thought the story I was writing was prescient, but just in the past few weeks it seems torn directly from today’s headlines. The novel presents a president who is impeached and removed from office but refuses to step down. Right-wing militias regard the impeachment as a soft coup by the Deep State and mobilize in a national armed protest that becomes a revolution. These concepts should be familiar to those following the news lately

When did you start writing the book, and why did you decide to tackle such a potentially volatile subject matter?

Thematically, Our War is about political tribalization in the United States and its consequences. I conceptualized the novel in 2017 and finished it in 2018. The president in the story is loosely based on Trump, though the real inspiration for Our War came not from his disruptive presidency but from the deep polarization that has already been occurring for the last 30 years. To me, a president like Trump would provide a catalyst, not an actual cause, for a civil war.

For some on the Right, America is already in a civil war, a cold civil war they call it. I thought, okay, you want it, you got it. Let’s see what it would look like with all its horrors, and who would ultimately pay for it. In a modern civil war, everybody fights and nobody wins. To those who long for such a thing to happen, I say, careful what you wish for.

In the end, though, my goal was not to write a political sermon or wish-fulfillment story but instead present what a civil war might actually look like, based on where America’s current polarization is taking us. In this, Our War does its job as good dystopian fiction in that it provides a warning.

Certainly, a lot of Americans are thinking about it. A 2018 Rasmussen poll found that nearly a third of Americans believed a civil war was likely to happen in the United States in the next five years. While I believe civil strife—defined as 25+ deaths per year, which taking into account the rise in right-wing terrorism we’re arguably there already—is more likely, civil war (1,000+ combatant deaths a year) remains a possibility in America’s future.

What made you decide to set your story in Indiana?

Indiana is a very red state with very blue cities like Indianapolis, where the story primarily takes place. It’s a quintessentially American city; in fact, its nickname is the “crossroads of America.” While alluding to the war’s big picture and what’s going on in other parts of the country, the story is very local because that’s what matters to the characters. Their war is right in front of them.

When the novel begins, Indianapolis has been under siege by right-wing militias for a year while the President and Congress continue peace talks in Ottawa. In this civil war, the battle lines form not between red and blue states but between rural—low in population density but geographically large and primarily conservative—and urban—high in population density and primarily liberal—areas, similar to what occurred in Bosnia in the 1990s and other countries.

In Indianapolis, the police department is defending the city alongside left-wing militias that formed when the war started. The police department and left-wing militias are allies but don’t particularly love each other either, providing another source of tension threatening to turn the civil war in at least this city into a three-way contest.

A recent article on my blog describes a more detailed background of the war for those who want to know more. Suffice to say here that while the primary focus of Our War is on the characters, a lot of attention went into the world building.

I also want to note that Our War tackles some big themes, like the use of child soldiers, gun violence and civil war.

Yes. One of the first casualties of a civil war in America would very likely be American exceptionalism. For years, we’ve looked in horror at civil wars in other countries and thought such a thing could never happen here. If it were to happen here, we’d experience the same horrors—shortages, refugees, atrocities, and yes, even child soldiers.

Child soldiers are a prominent part of the book, as to them, the politics are just gibberish, they reveal how the innocent are such a war’s biggest victims, and they show how our war becomes a war they will grow up fighting themselves.

Otherwise, the big idea behind the book is polarization and tribalization around different stories of what America is and should be. I’d love to throw out the usual platitude that we all need to listen more, but I don’t think that’s the answer. I believe there is simply too much power and money tied up in it continuing, and the Republican Party has moved so far to the right, its politicians are heavily penalized for compromising or otherwise contradicting the party line, a phenomenon we’re now starting to see on the Left as well. Sadly, this divides Americans who have common problems but very different narratives explaining them.

Another problem entrenching the polarization is the elimination of earmarks—so-called pork spending. The American system was designed for unity. To get anything done, one of the two major parties would have to control the White House and have a supermajority in Congress. Lacking that, they have to compromise with civility. Earmarks provided grease for that compromise. Since they were eliminated, and with a lot of money spent by several billionaire families to promote a more extreme ideology where compromise is not allowed, polarization will continue until there is a big enough penalty for continuing it.

How have readers reacted to these themes, especially considering today’s political climate?

I had braced myself for flak from both sides for Our War, which does no lionizing nor demonizing in the narrative but nonetheless features characters who view the “other side” on their own harsh terms. A few conservative readers were upset the story didn’t conform to their mythology, but otherwise the reviews have been very positive, and readers generally are praising the even-handedness of how both sides are treated.

I loved the way you include a UNICEF worker and a journalist in the story, which adds another layer and a different point of view. What made you decide to include their unique perspectives?

Before I answer that, I should first introduce the primary characters. Hannah is a young girl who ends up fighting with the Free Women, a leftist militia in Indianapolis formed from the women living in a domestic violence collective. Her older brother Alex is a teenager who ends up fighting with the Liberty Tree, a right-wing militia. They provide a lens through which we learn about the warring sides and what they want, and we see the real cost of what is happening to America as they become radicalized and willing to accept violence as a normal way to solve problems.

In particular, we see them in very different cultures. The Free Women is based on collaboration, with everybody giving everything to get what they need. They gain strength in unity and working together. The Liberty Tree is based on competition and respect for being tough and standing tall alone as a man in a dog-eat-dog world. They gain strength through heavily armed self-sufficiency.

If I were to tell a war novel, I’d stick with Hannah and Alex, but I wanted the story to be bigger than that—again, to be a novel about a war, similar to books I’d read about Sarajevo’s experience during the Bosnian War. So we also follow the stories of Gabrielle, a UNICEF worker, and Aubrey, a journalist. Gabrielle is coming to Indianapolis as part of a UN mission to help the city’s children, which allows the reader to step into this gritty, grim world as a newcomer. Aubrey wants to expose the use of child soldiers despite political pressure not to, and shows us the beauty of taking a principled stand for what’s right, even if it means pissing off everybody.

Another interesting major character is Mitch, a rebel militia sergeant who presents the right-wing militia view, and who eventually comes to see the humanity in those he hates. By the end of the story, he begins to question his mythology, if not his goals.

Our War is filled with relatable characters who are caught up in events they have no control over. Which characters were your favorites to write about?

While Gabrielle, Aubrey, and Mitch round out the story in a very strong way, Hannah and Alex are certainly the most compelling characters. We see the war through their eyes, as they endure the destruction of everything they love for a war they don’t understand, with that war being the real villain in the story—a monster that seeks to devour everything. Over the course of the book, we see them become soldiers willing to fight and die for the cause they choose, and then ultimately choose a different cause, which is to fight for each other and themselves.

One of your greatest strengths, in my opinion, is infusing your stories with an ultimately hopeful message, despite the horrors on the page. How hard was it to convince your readers that there is indeed hope, even though the future looks so bleak?

No matter how dark a situation gets, there are always small victories and joys and causes for hope. Our War is no exception. And as classic dystopia, the story should provide its warning—in a way the reader experiences firsthand—but also leave the reader energized to come up with solutions, talk about them with others, and otherwise act.

As a big fan of your books, I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you about your next project. Anything you can share with us (she asks hopefully!)?

First, let me say it’s an honor to hear you count me as a favorite author, and add that it’s been an honor to be a guest on your blog!

My next work is in editing with Bradley Englert, my wonderful editor at Orbit. We’re still hashing out the title, but I can tell you it will likely be published in the fall of 2020, and that it’s a literary horror story. The novel is about a group of people who grew up in an apocalyptic cult and survived its horrific last days, and who now reunite to confront their past and the entity that appeared on the final night. Picture Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House meets the Jonestown massacre. It’s emotional, scary, and character driven, and thematically, it touches on faith, memory, trauma, and belonging. Readers can stay tuned at my website at www.craigdilouie.com.

I can hardly wait! Thank you so much, Craig, and best of luck!

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About the Author:

CRAIG DILOUIE is an American author of sci-fi/fantasy, horror, and thriller fiction currently living in Canada. His works have been translated into multiple languages, optioned for screen, and nominated for major awards. Learn more at www.craigdilouie.com.

Read my reviews: Our War | One of Us

Buy the book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | IndieBound | Audible