Augustus Boarsblood is the nom de plume of Joshua D. Sanger, an American writer of fiction – his works often address the issues of volition, viz. “willpower”, “choice”, and how these emotional connections develop not only through social situations, but also within characters’ individual psyches.Sanger grew up in a middle-class family in South Dakota, his life strongly-rooted in ancestry and family history – this connection to the past and its mythologies would become a cornerstone for his future studies at university. He disliked what he felt he was ‘forced’ to read in school, and for the longest period, Sanger refused to “read for pleasure” (his words). Upon finding a copy of his parents’ Iliad, Sanger found a re-connection to the myths of his childhood heroes, specifically the friendship between the cunning, almost trickster-like Ulysses and his less-than-famous friend, Diomedes. It was in these secondary characters that Sanger found interest – everyone had heard of Ulysses and Achilles, but not of the shadowy-brutish warrior who had defeated Ares upon the battlefield.It was the belief that this character had been “wronged” somehow by history’s “forgetfulness” that Sanger decided to attempt to reclaim this mythological hero – much like Yeats and Joyce had (or had mocked) in the early 20th Century in Sanger’s ancestral home of Ireland.This coincided with University studies – degrees/emphasis in Literature and British & Irish History – followed by schooling at Gonville & Caius College at Cambridge University. There, Sanger had begun to re-write the scribblings of his ‘reclamation tale’ of Diomedes while reading Joyce’s Ulysses for class. Upon his return to finish another degree in the U.S., Sanger then decided to try (again) to somehow grasp writing and attempt it, once more.He often argued with other scholars about what it meant to “be” an author or to “claim to be one” in the company of others. Thus, Sanger exiled himself from crowds of creative writers and poets to pursue his own goals, just as he wanted – on his own. Glass Field Guilt was the first real attempt into writing – it had begun as notes, graphic novel ideas written on bar napkins – eventually these turned into notebooks, hand-written rewrites and edits, the purchase of several typewriters over many summers. The first version he’d traded another artist friend – he’d turned the narrative into a play, and in exchange for reading & notes, he paid his colleague for a painting he’d seen at the man’s house – the painting itself was abstract, but to Sanger, it looked as though it was an imagined scene from his own writing – the very specific scene, at that, when Sanger’s protagonist “meets Death” for the first Time.Upon its release in e-book format, Glass Field Guilt had been rewritten in different styles, tones, genres – but it always seemed to be destined as a novel. The subsequent sequels were of varying length, as well – often Sanger would write a 50-page novella for each section. Currently, Sanger has compiled these 30-odd novellas into the sequential novels, due to be released later this year. Read more about this authorRead less about this author