Thursday 9 August 2012

Author Interview with C. Bryan Brown

I'd like to welcome author C. Bryan Brown to our blog today!

Gritty urban fantasy that blends magic and mystery into a tale mirroring today's political climate and the loss of our personal freedoms.

Every city has an underworld and St. Louis is no exception. Torrin McGlynne—driven by a selfish, misguided sense of justice—thrives in his dealings with the city’s thieves, murderers, and drug dealers. They supply him with both job security and the financial means to provide a better life for his daughters.

When he runs afoul of a shadowy cabal wielding unimaginable, magical powers, he unwittingly enters into a deadly game of cat and mouse where nothing is what it seems. The stakes continue to rise until Torrin must choose between protecting himself and making the ultimate sacrifice to save those he loves the most. 

Buy Links:  Amazon  ~  Smashwords

See the full list of C. Bryan Brown's books on Goodreads!


When and why did you begin writing? What inspired you?
I wrote my first story in the 1st grade. It was aptly titled “My Vacation” because that’s what I had to write about. But I think we’ve all written that story at some point in our lives. My first real foray into fiction came in 1989; I was fourteen. My sister was a big New Kids on the Block fan. I enjoyed them as well—I just didn’t enjoy her as much back then—so I wrote my first urban fantasy novel, which featured the band members all dying horrible deaths at the hands of vampires and werewolves. The whole story irritated her, which was the point, but she couldn’t stop reading and kept asking for the next notebook full of my scribbles. I’ve been hooked ever since.

Tell us a little bit about your latest book.
Necromancer, published by Post Mortem Press, is my latest book and it’s my first published novel. I’m very excited about it.

Necromancer is a grittier take on today’s urban fantasy. I term the novel gritty because I avoid the sex, vampires, and werewolves that permeate the genre at the moment. While there are characters with powers greater than others, they are all quite mortal and easy to kill, a fact they all have to keep in mind. This allows me to focus on the truly dark side of human nature.

Necromancer blends crime and magic into a tale that mirrors today’s volatile political landscape and the very real fear of losing our personal freedoms.

How would you describe your writing style?
I like to use words readers understand instead of sending them thumbing through a dictionary every fifty pages or so. My style is loose and easy-to-read, though it does tend to lean toward the literary. My style had been called vivid, descriptive, and even palpable.

Do you ever suffer from writer's block? If so, what do you do to get over it?
I have been fortunate enough not to suffer from writer’s block. Generally speaking, I suffer from what I call “Time Block.” That’s the delicate juggling act I do between writing and fulfilling my fiscal, husbandly, and fatherly duties. But when I sit down at the laptop or put a pen and a pad of paper down, the words come out easily enough.

What do you like to do when you're not writing?
I’m a movie junkie. So when I have true downtime of my own, I’m on Netflix filling my head with useless B movie quotes.

Other than that, I go for the standard fare of reading, spending time with my family, and I really enjoy fishing. My brain shuts down when I fish, which is probably why I never catch anything and all my worms get eaten.

What are you working on now?
I’m always editing a short story that I’ve written. I rotate them out as I do drafts and/or submit them for publication.

In the vein of larger projects, I have a YA novel I’m editing that would be considered fantasy; I’m writing another urban fantasy novel that does involve vampires; I’ve also started an outline for a possible 2nd book set in the world established by Necromancer.

How would you describe yourself?
I’m an introvert by nature, and therefore pretty shy with people I don’t know. But that’s really a guise, because I’m opinionated, passionate, and stubborn. There’s a certain dichotomy to my personality, to be sure, and it perplexes most people that know me well enough to have seen all facets of the show that is Chris.

If you could leave your readers with one legacy, what would you want it to be?
I’d like to leave them with pleasurable memories. I don’t need to win awards or make a million dollars (though I’d never say no to either of those), as long as people truly enjoyed my writing. I believe a writer’s job is to entertain as well as shed light on the dark corners of the world and, if we succeed in doing both those things, then we’ve enriched lives and the world is a better place for it.
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Necromancer is available as both a paperback and an eBook on Amazon and other online retailers. People can find all the purchase links on my website, and if they want to find out more about me, they can get to me pretty much everywhere on the web at the following links:

www.cbryanbrown.com
www.facebook.com/cbryanbrown
www.twitter.com/cbryanbrown
www.goodreads.com/cbryanbrown

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