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The Forces Within: Douglas Cole on His Novel 'The Invisible Hand': Author Q&A
- Sea Crow Press
- Nov 14
- 5 min read
In The Invisible Hand, Douglas Cole explores characters on the edge, guided by chance, choice, and the subtle forces of life.
This Q&A takes you behind the story: into his inspirations, craft, and the ideas that shaped the novel.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Q: This novel weaves together several powerful and mysterious storylines. What was the spark that set it all in motion for you?
A: The ending. There, the characters come together, struggling to survive in an economic and environmental wasteland, following the mysterious character, Arl, who claims the power of seeing openings in the fabric or reality that lead to other realities.
Q: The characters Sara, Gabriel, Jones, and Arl each face inner and outer conflicts. How did you develop their arcs?
A: They each represent a different age of engagement with the world. Gabriel is just starting out, still a child with a child’s wonder and innocence; Sara is launching into the world after her testimony helps put her father in prison; and Jones is well-ensconced in a career and should be navigating it all with some grace and wisdom, but as we see, even he is barely surviving. Each has their arc and natural terminus. And the end of each story creates a fraying that is an opening that makes it logical how they come together when trajectories braid into the final chapter. There, they fall under the leadership of Arl, who briefly appears as a ghost in their individual stories, so it is never clear how real he is.
Q: Your story touches on themes of trauma, freedom, and transformation. What themes were most important for you to explore?
A: Those sound like pretty good themes! I subscribe to those fitting the book! I would include that there is an interrogation of the outcomes and vocabulary in our current economic paradigm, seen as the blueprint for a near-future wasteland.
Q: The book has a surreal, gothic tone in places. How did you approach blending the real and the uncanny?
A: A critic I read referred to my writing as “Dirty surrealism.” That seems pretty close. I think I just generally see the world that way…“real and uncanny.”
Q: How would you describe the 'strange power' that ties these characters together?A: Oh, you mean the visions? Yeah, they each have a “power,” but it would only be an “externality” in the purview of economics. So even the characters downplay or ignore it, but it is part of their makeup. And when Arl comes along with that same power, naturally, they are drawn to him.
ON WRITING
Q: How did you manage the pacing and tension with multiple storylines unfolding?
A: Each chapter and storyline had to have its own integrity, of course. Each had to have its own reason to keep you in the dream. The fun was putting hints and connectors in each chapter that linked it to the other storylines.
Q: What was your biggest challenge in writing this novel?
A: Syncing the language with the environment. Since I pictured a world with disintegrating structures, I wanted to reflect that in the language. So, I removed pillars like quotation marks and other punctuation that would traditionally be there. The challenge wasn’t necessarily to have the reason understood right away, but to make the language part of the environmental condition, a little strange, but I try to render language in such a way that once the reader gets going, the music and the basic meaning flow very organically. In this way, the loss of those “structures” is just a paring back. Now, I’m not saying in this that the fall of institutions and the order they create is not painful or that it leads to some kind of return to grace, but rather that language is adaptable, we are adaptable.
Q: Did any of the characters surprise you as you wrote them?
A: Sara. She’s in that initial space of freedom, on her own. She’s wary. She’s exploring. She’s the most agented, the most independent and powerful of the three. Sara’s story surprised me. Jones’s story surprised me in different ways. Hers I think more.
Q: Are there any scenes or moments that you feel are the emotional center of the book?
A: I think each of the three main storylines has a navel, so to speak. For Sara’s, I see it in the moment she meets the wandering players. For Gabriel, it’s the moment he nearly drowns. And for Jones, I see it in that moment he rises out of a drunken ramble in the middle of the street only to find people looking at and asking if he’s the guide for their underground tour.
CHARACTERS & SYMBOLISM
Q: Each of your characters carries emotional weight and mystery. Do you see them as symbolic as well as human?
A: From the beginning, I saw them as facets of a single identity unaware of its various incarnations.
Q: How did you approach the contrast between Sara’s personal trauma and the broader societal unraveling around Jones and Gabriel?
A: She has family trauma. Abusive father. Absent mother. Very little family support at all. Now she’s alone for the first time, on her own. It’s exciting and scary. She’s vulnerable but smart, trying it all out. But I saw her personal trauma directly connected to the social unravelling going on throughout the book. Each character is struggling against the same collapse of order, compassion, and cultural coherence.
Q: Arl seems like a pivotal figure. What role does he play in the narrative’s meaning or resolution?
A: Arl…a sort of slurring of the word “all”, as in all of them together, or a southern-sounding word-name meaning ‘arc’ and ‘all’… He’s a super-sonic-hyper-cipher.
Ciphor…no weight, worth or meaning
Cipher/Cypher: to calculate, an algorithm…a code
His name is one of many wordplays in the writing.
Q: Was there a specific inspiration behind the city’s ‘gothic nightmare’ feel?
A: The 1970s and the recent pandemic, and what looks like the near future if we stay on the path we’re on.
LOOKING AHEAD
Q: What do you hope readers will take away after finishing this book?
A: A feeling like they just woke up from a strange dream, images from which continue to hover before their eyes.
Q: Are you planning to return to this world or these characters in a future work?
A: A fun detail is that two of the characters, Sara and Gabriel, change their names at the end of their stories. So, you never know; they might show up again under different names!
Q: What kinds of stories or themes are you interested in exploring next?
A: I think I’d like to produce a work of pure joy.
Q: What books or authors have shaped your writing style and storytelling approach?
A: The Kirkus reviewer accurately spotted some literary DNA, namely Cormac McCarthy and Denis Johnson. I would add Isabel Allende, Haruki Murakami, James Baldwin, Nathaniel West, and Kate Braverman, as well as the poets Richard Hugo, Joy Harjo, Tomas Transtromer, and more.
Inspired by this conversation? Continue the journey—order your copy of The Invisible Hand from Sea Crow Press and step into Douglas Cole’s unforgettable world.
The Invisible Hand publishes on November 18, 2025, and will be available everywhere good books are sold.
