PROBE

Eric S. Brown

Interview by Alyce Wilson

Eric S. Brown is a prolific science fiction writer who has had incredible success in his brief publishing years.

He has a chapbook and two novel-length collections coming out soon, and he's had 121 short stories published in print and online markets. He has edited for the award-winning Alternate Realities webzine, the Swamp, the Smoky Mountain News, and he is the book reviewer for the Haunted. He runs the webzine Night Shopping.

You can find some of his work here, in Demensions Zine and in Dark Moon Rising.

ALYCE: Have you always been a writer? What made you turn to horror and fantasy?

EB: I haven't always been a writer. I mean, I messed around with tales all my life because I love the genres I work in so much, but I didn't really start writing until later on in life. I sent out my first two submissions and got my first two acceptances around March of 2001. After that, I wrote all the time and still try do at least one short a week. I have had some good luck and have had over 120 tales, two chapbooks, and twobooks accepted so far, plus a ton of articles. As for why I write Horror and Sci-Fi, like I mentioned, I have always been a fan. I am old enough to have caught "The Empire Strikes Back" in theaters. I was collecting comics by age four, reading Stephen King in elementary school, and had moved onto to H.P. Lovecraft and his kind by highschool. I have a HUGE collection of Fantastic Four comics dating back to the original issue ten that guides of $1000+ and own books like Fantastic Four # 48 (the first Silver Surfer) which guides for $1200+. Comics are my truest passion but films like Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" (my all time fave horror flick) and directors like Dario Argento have influenced me just as much.

ALYCE: You said you started writing later on in life. How late was that, and was there a specific reason you got started?

EB: I never had any faith in myself. Still don't. It wasn't until I was 26 years old and my wife talked me into submitting that I even tried for real. I am thankful she did even if after almost two years, I am still not doing as well as I would like at it. At least, thanks to her support I have some real books under my belt now as well as a ton of short stories. I get fan mail once in a while and that is ALWAYS nice.

ALYCE: What do you think makes horror and fantasy worth reading? What do you look for as a reader, and what do you try to accomplish as a writer?

EB: I think Horror is a reflection of the state of our culture today or can be. The world we live in now is pretty dang dark. I don't have to look far to find stuff to write about. But I don't really think of what I do as art. For me, it is an escape from the not so great world around me into one that I have created. At least, my monsters and wars aren't real. As a reader, I look for a good read pure and simple. Always have, always real. I just read a book called Reign of the Dead by Len Barnhart. Not exactly high brow fiction, but nonetheless, I enjoyed it greatly. I am also a huge fan of David Drake and often try to emulate his style in my work. Drake is the best sci-fi military author writing today. Among other stuff I have read recently are Jordan's Wheel of Time (he is without a doubt this generation's Tolkien), the Harry Potter books (my wife is a teacher and got me into them), Terry Prachett's The Last Hero (the man has the funniest and most logical footnotes I have ever seen), and the work of Greg Gifune. Greg knows how to hook a reader and not let up.

ALYCE: Given your interest in comics, would you ever consider teaming up with an artist and creating a graphic novel?

EB: I would love to team up with an artist of similiar tastes and do a comic book!! Know any good artists??

ALYCE: With two books, two chapbooks, more than 120 tales and two dozen articles accepted, what are some tips you'd offer to other writers on how to get published?

EB: Basically just what everyone has heard a thousand times before. Write, write some more, and then rewrite and proof until your eyes are bleeding. Then send out your stuff to a suitable market as can be found in the 2003 Novel and Short Story guide or on sites like Ralan.com. But don't watch the mailbox or get caught up in how many tales you have sold, just keep writing and working on your craft the whole time and keep submitting. Who knows, you may be the next Stephen King one day.

ALYCE: How do you identify a market that's suitable for your work?

EB: Most markets either have their guidelines posted on their site or in their Novelist and Short Story Market book listing. Check your work count to see if your tale meets their length restrictions and more importantly, make sure you are sending them a tale of the type they publish. Like for instance, if sent a straight western, no matter how good it was, to a zine like Burning Sky which does Sci-Fi/Horror fiction, they aren't going to use it.

ALYCE: You've also done quite a bit of editing, with The Haunted, The Swamp and Alternate Realities. How do you think your editing experience has shaped you as a writer? Do you find yourself avoiding the sorts of things that you dislike in other people's writing?

EB: Of all my editing jobs, I think I learned the most copy editing for the Smoky Mountain News here in NC. They are a 15,000+ copy, weekly, non-fiction newspaper. Working for them helped me to look at my own typos and errors more closely as I proofed my own stuff. You really have to be on the ball to proof for a paper like that and it can be stressful, since often you are on a time limit before the paper goes to print. It really helped me a lot.

As for editing fiction, that is completely different, because you aren't so much just proofing and checking research facts, but looking at style and theme, too. To be honest, I don't think editing fiction is as hard. Please don't shoot me for that, it is only an opinion. In zines, things can be a lot more free and loose. The thing I ran into more with editing fiction is that some tales that get rejected have so much potential if the writer had worked just a bit more and maybe developed the piece a bit deeper. I have often wrote even people I rejected and offered advice or other markets to try. I try not to be just a "no, not for me" editor when I can.

ALYCE: You said that, as an editor of fiction, you've had to reject stories that had potential if the writer had worked more. I've had the same experience. One of my pet peeves is writers who come up with something that's not motivated, typically just for shock value. What are your pet peeves?

EB: Just people who DON'T read guidelines and send stuff that has no place in the type of material the publication uses.

ALYCE: What's your typical writing process? Do you believe in writing every day, or writing when you're inspired, or are you more likely to write when you're on a deadline?

EB: I don't have a set plan for writing. I try to think about it every day and assignments for non-fic just kind of pop up most of the time. With fiction if I get an idea, I try to work on it ASAP before I lose it and I always try to write at least one tale once a week, but that doesn't mean I always get it done. I find writing in my car with lots of coffee helps a lot. I wrote my first published tale in my car and have just kind of stuck with that approach. It lets me feel more relaxed and focused than typing on a computer in my makeshift office. Deadlines HELP me a lot!! They make me buckle down and get it done. But I feel I am at my best when just writing something for fun.

ALYCE: What are your most and least favorite subjects to write about?

EB: I love to write about the end of the world and zombies. I have read so much of that stuff and watched it, it just flows out of me. Strangely I hate writing non-fiction of most kinds though I am the staff reviewer for the Haunted and do a lot of freelance stuff on the side. It's where the money is these days. One could write and sale a book review for $75 to newspaper a thousand times easier and faster than selling a short story for $10. So for me, non-fiction pays the bills and the fiction is what I love. When I started out a fiction writer, it took me almost nine months to land a paying sale that paid more than copies and it was just $5, now I sell tales quite a bit and books but doubt even with my royalties you could call my fiction writing a "real" job.

ALYCE: Was it difficult, after 9/11, to write horror? Why or why not?

EB: It didn't really affect me in the slightest as a writer. I just kept doing what I was doing and hoping for the best. Most of my stuff doesn't involve politics and current events anyway.

ALYCE: Do you ever do research for your stories? In the form of investigating legend, place settings or other details? How important is research to a fiction writer?

EB: I don't research as much as I should. If you want to write truly professional tales and get paid "Pro" rates, research is very important. But if you are just looking for publication, a good story is really all you need. Mostly when I do research it is only confirming facts that I already know something about like the effects of a quantum singularity or some such.

ALYCE: The big question: Is it hard being a horror writer post-Stephen King? Do you ever face comparisons to his work, and if so, how do you react?

EB: It is hard being a horror today. There just aren't as many markets, much less "Pro" ones, as there was in the 80s. And it's true that if you mention horror, people often think of King right off. I have no problem with King but I don't really care for a lot his stuff either. I outgrew most of it before I was in high school and his whole non-horror phase isn't doing anything for me. I HATE it when people compare me to King. My work is totally different and much more like a that of a darker David Drake. When I teach workshops on writing even here in North Carolina, his name always comes up though.

ALYCE: So what do you have coming out this year?

EB: Well, I have print tales in Blood Moon Rising # 15, Black Satellite # 4, Between the Kisses # 3, three tales slated to appear in Dark Angel Rising (a UK zine), a tale in the Edge:Tales of Suspense this May, and in Lunatic Chameleon this April. I have a tale in the Of Flesh and Hunger anthology. My chapbook BAD MOJO which I co-authored with Stoker recommended author Jason Brannon and fellow author John Grover is coming out April 15th from Undaunted Press and most of all my two collections from Double Dragon Books are due this summer. Please feel free to drop by the Double Dragon web site and check them out this May/June.