It’s not hard to explain what Flicking The Bic is about. It opens with a French Canadian street guy who has made extortion his chosen profession in Toronto. He starts at the bottom and works his way up with a good but ruthless work effort and self-imposed Quebec influenced gatekeeping. Oh, and on the way he’s forced into doing business with people he has a ethnic disdain for that turns into a hatred sex love thing romp we’re not quite sure he enjoys.
Flicking The Bic is Tia Ja’nae’s first release since her debut release Ghosts On The Block Never Sleep in 2022. And it’s actually a prequel not only to that but to author Vern Smith’s award winning 2023 release Scratching The Flint as well as the lead protagonist originates in that book. In an interview conducted via email, she talked about the inspiration behind the new book, writing controversial topics, and what’s next on her plate.
Flicking The Bic has its origins in Vern Smith’s Scratching The Flint published in 2023 and to my understanding your debut novel Ghosts On The Block Never Sleep. How did you come up with the idea to marry the two books together?
There was a lot going on. I was in battle with Amazon for the second time after infamously forcing them to release Ghosts On The Block Never Sleep from their clutches plus dealing with offers coming in for a new book deal after leaving my previous publisher. In the middle of that craziness Vern Smith, who I didn’t know but who knew my work, got in touch with me and asked me would I be so kind as to do a blurb for Scratching The Flint. I read it and was absolutely in love in Jean-Max in his book, so after I wrote the blurb I just asked him could I write fan fiction featuring him. He took it as high praise and everything happened from there. If you read Scratching The Flint you would know Jean-Max is such a great villain that it’s hard to have a character that can be his match. In my dark twisted thoughts I thought than Hambone could take him on. I wanted Jean-Max, who had been the dominant personality through book one, to have to face his own fears if you will. It also gave me a chance to go into detail with the fans of my novel that constantly ask me to go into more depth about situations and circumstances of Hambone’s father Porkchop, who is briefly mentioned in my book but somehow resonates with reader’s memories.
You write unapologetically Jean-Max’s questionable moral ethics and situations, which I must say will be offensive and triggering to many readers. Are you afraid of the potential backlash of such strong language?
No, because if it offends people I’ve done my job. That’s what good writers do. I believe in freedom of speech and expression. Jean-Max Renard is a complete asshole with questionable perspectives of life deeply rooted in racial, sexist, and regional hatred. There is no way to write him being careful and scared of what people are going to say about him. These people do exist in real life and all the cancel culture in the world will not make them go away magically. As for “triggered” readers, they need to grow the fuck up. If they don’t like something in the book they have the adult option of closing it, putting it to the side, and saying it isn’t for them. Self-policing words has got to stop. Just because people are more sheepish doesn’t mean I should be chastised for saying a few naughty words an individual with the type of moral compass like Jean-Max would say.
Canada plays a major role in this book. What is it about the concept that captivated you?
Before I wrote this novel the only thing that I knew about Canada off the top of my head was Degrassi Junior High and its spinoffs. I had no idea about any Canadianisms, especially with its very colorful history of sins that created its laws, policies, and somewhat conflicted interpersonal relationships between the French and British Canadians. I think the country has a lot of potential but with the way that its isolated via the for Canada by Canada governance, a lot of people just don’t know about it since Canada isn’t exactly open armed to foreigners like that. Canadians aren’t single entities but complicated citizens with just as much baggage as Americans have. The French Canadian vs. British Canadian beef is no different to me than the North and South beef in the states but it surprises me because my entire perspective of Canada before I did this novel was a very fantasized one.
What made you write about a fiercely dominant heterosexual white male who is intolerant to anyone that doesn’t share his same gender, sexuality, and race?
It’s all about being true to the character. I kept Jean-Max aligned to the source material Scratching The Flint. He’s a white heterosexual in that book with very strong statements about tampering with his manhood. In that regard I kept Jean-Max’s true nature. As Flicking The Bic takes place ten years before Scratching The Flint Jean-Max is younger, more brash, and more filled with vitriol and hate as he makes his way in a world that he makes inevitable necessary mistakes in that eventually he has to rectify. Having said that, writing about a white French Canadian racist is fun. Writing for Jean-Max is no different than the writers on All In The Family writing for Archie Bunker. Every character isn’t going to be a woke interpretation of a faux utopic guy waiving a flag for every cause in the world.
So what’s next for you?
My literary agent says I can’t say too much right now but updates are coming via Twitter @articul8madness.
Flicking The Bic is definitely the type of novel that will get people talking. For those that are interested, copies can be found through The Great British Bookshop on and after Black Friday, November 29, 2024 worldwide.
© 2024, Logan. All rights reserved.
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