Interview with AJ Brown by Chris Bartholomew
AJ Brown is a good writer and a good friend. We both hang out in some of the same offices on American Zoetrope and he gives an interesting and informative interview. If you haven't read his work, he'd be a good one to look up. He is respected by his peers, always willing to help a writer out, and he consistently writes good stories.
Q. You are one of the best mentors for new writers I've ever seen, how do you make the time for it all? Why encourage and mentor writers?
A. Wow, mentor? Me. Really? Let me answer the second part of this question first. When I first started to take writing seriously a couple of years ago I was intimidated by the process, the rules, editors and publishers, just everything in general. I joined the Horror Library workshop and read a bunch of stories by some gifted writers. I read this one by Mark Deloy and I logged off my computer and said there was no way I could compete with these guys. It really discouraged me. And that discouragement almost made me quit. That's why I try to encourage writers, regardless of how new to writing they are. Everyone needs encouragement from time to time.
As far as mentoring is concerned, did you know it's easier to learn when you are teaching? At least for me. I've always learned better by helping others. I'm still learning the game of writing and having others learning with me makes it easier. And most of the mentoring I do is all about believing in yourself, in your abilities and continuing to work on those abilities. It's all about practice. No one gets better at something without working at it.
Q. While RAZAR was active, I read a short story collection of yours that was out of this world, where do your story ideas come from?
A. Anywhere and everywhere. My mind is always moving. I wake up in the middle of the night and I'll have an idea that came out of nowhere. I get up and jot it down in my notebook or whatever is handy. I can be driving along and see something and have to pull over to write it down. One of my favorite stories came from a woman who said she used to have funerals for road kill. My mind went nuts and I sat down to write the story. It was a lot of fun and the inspiration came from a conversation. It's like that all the time. Just anything. Pick something and tell me to write about it.
Q. I've seen you break the rules in your writing, example; don't write about children dying or being abused. How do you decide when to break the 'rules'? (I should say here that the 'rules' I'm talking about are taboos, 'they' say don't write about some things yet you see them in movies all the time, like serial killers and zombies).
A. That's a tough question, Chris. I think abuse was more taboo to discuss in any form years ago. Now, you read the paper or turn on the news and see it. Abuse is reality. Death is a reality. Not everyone who gets abused is a woman and not everyone who dies is an adult. It's life. Any form of abuse can scar an individual, from being molested to beaten to being told they aren't worth the sperm that was used to create them. It's emotionally traumatizing to those who receive it.
The story The Woodshed is based on some things that happened to my dad when he was a kid. It stuck with me and I dwelled on it for days until I sat down and started to write the story. It was the first piece I had written with any form of child abuse in it. Out of respect for my dad I decided not to be too detail oriented, which at the time I was in my write like Stephen King mode so it was a little harder not to go all out with the descriptions. I got just enough information in there to make the reader know and see what was happening to Kyle, the main character—it was effective. It also taught me the value of leaving something for the reader to interpret. I try to keep it that way in the stories I write about abuse.
Death of a child is a whole different story. I wrote a novel titled Unbroken Crayons in 2006. One of the main characters was the ghost of a boy named Timmy who had been murdered when he was 15 by several older boys. Timmy had a slight form of autism. I really fell in love with his character. So much in fact that when it got to the part where I had to kill him off in order to advance the story I almost couldn't do it. It was brutal and heart wrenching. I felt sick afterward and almost scrapped the entire novel.
I look at writing the death of a child the same way as I do abuse. Other than in Unbroken Crayons I tend to hint at it more than show it. It's easier for me, as a person, to do that than to go into all the details, which are usually not necessary.
When it comes to stories involving either subject matter I look at what I want to achieve—which is usually some sort of emotional impact on the reader—and then determine how far I need to take it in order to get that impact. Fortunately, I don't have to go into too much detail that often to get the point across.
Q. I met you at the Horror Library office at Zoetrope; tell us a bit about that place.
A. It can be a real fun place. The people are as diverse as any college these days with different attitudes, different places in life, different stages of their writing careers. Sometimes there are those moments where discussions get heated but the conversations can be lively. But, I think the people in the HL forum really do care about each other and there is always someone in there willing to help out when needed. I honestly owe a lot to those folks.
Q. How important do you feel 'getting your name out there' is?
A. If you want any sort of notoriety then getting your name out there is important. I would like for people to know who I am, to want to work with me, to want to publish my work. I would like to be respected within the writing world so getting my name out there in the right places is important.
Q. I know you are in a lot of print anthology's and such, but do you have any stories online that you can point our readers to?
A. There are several stories up at The Horror Library.Net. Bewildering Stories has a couple as well. Estronomicon (put out by Screaming Dreams Press) has several of the stories in their back issues. Liquid Imagination has one of my stories as well in its debut issue last year. Many places don't archive like they used to or have gone to PDF versions so it's a little harder to find the online ones.
Q. What is the title of the best story you've ever written, and is it published?
A. I actually referenced this story earlier. It's the one about the road kill funerals. I haven't given it a title yet—not really sure what to call it. It hasn't been published yet but it's 18 thousand words long, so not much of a market out there for it.
Q. What advice do you give to new writers, especially about submitting stories?
A. Submitting is a tough game. Each place has their own guidelines that you have to follow. The best thing is to read the guidelines carefully. If you have a question that is not answered in the set guidelines then query. Most editors would rather you asks questions that you don't know the answers to than to just assume what they want.
And, by all means, be respectful of the editors. Their time is just as valuable as the writers'. If you argue a rejection there is a strong chance they won't even look at your next submission.
One other thing: Grow some skin, some very, very thick skin. More stories are going to be rejected than accepted. If you can get one out of five or six stories accepted then you're doing well. I received about a hundred rejections before my first story was ever published.
Q. What are you working on right now?
A. Take your pick. I never work on just one thing. I'm always writing. There are stories from an old moonshine still in the woods to a novel about the seven deadly sins and its doorway to a novella about a dead boy and his murderer. I'm also working with 2M Magazine as one of their editors.
Q. Who are your favorite writers? How about naming some not famous ones that we can Google?
A. I loved Stephen King growing up and still like him now but I don't read many of the big name writers these days. I enjoy the small market writers. Fran Friel tops the list. Not only is she a wonderful writer but she is an awesome person. Dameion Becknell has the most talent of any writer I have ever met—I get jealous every time I read something by him.
There are some other really talented writers out there who I enjoy reading as well. If you've never heard of Erik Williams, look him up. He and Kurt Dinan are phenomenal. Petra Miller falls into that category as well. Cody Goodfellow is emerging as a tremendous writer.
And sadly, one of my favorite young writers, Joseph McGee, passed away at the tail end of last year. He was tremendously talented and is deeply missed by those of us who enjoyed his work.
Q. What are your writing goals?
A. Rich and famous would be nice. Honestly, I would love to change the way people view the short story. You check out the guidelines at publications because you want to submit to them and you see a word count of three to five thousand words. I almost always go over the word count because I don't believe in cutting a story short. I don't have the fast food mentality that many other writers, editors and publishers have. I would like to get rid of that fast food mentality by creating stories that live and breathe, so to speak.
Q. If you could advertise your writing anywhere, where would it be?
A. I'm not sure I have an answer for that one. Let me think for a second. I don't want my name just anywhere. A lot of people don't care. If it gets you exposure then why care, right? I do care. I don't want an advertisement in Hustler magazine, even though it is read (wink, wink) by many, many men. It's not something I wish to be connected to.
I would say Chizine—I love what Brett Savory has going on there. Lots of really great writers, a terrific annual contest, the quality of stories that they put out. It is one of my favorite publications.
Q. Are there markets that you haven't cracked yet but wish to place a story with? Have you submitted to them yet?
A. There are several markets in that category, Chizine being at the top of that list. Doorways, Apex, Shock Totem, Brain Harvest and Glimmer Train I think round out the bigger markets I really want in but haven't been able to crack.
I also like to submit to smaller markets. To me, it's not always about the money. If I like a publication and submit to it then I want to be in that publication, even if they don't pay much or anything at all—that is the exposure that I am looking at. For example, I have been trying for a long time to get into Everyday Fiction. I finally managed to get an acceptance from them. Do they pay much? No—a dollar. But, they have a huge following and that is the type of exposure I want.
Please add anything you'd like for people to know about you and your writing.
Every writer needs an audience, whether it is millions of fans or just one person who thinks you can tell a decent story. My wife has always been a fan—even if she may be a little impartial. It's one of my motivating factors in pursuing writing. Without her I would have stopped a long time ago.
Chris, thank you for having me and, as always, it's a pleasure working for you.
Thank you for doing the interview AJ. AJ also does interviews with his famous blog: The Odd Ramblings of AJ Brown
and here he is on The Horror Library's Blog- O- Rama.
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