Welcome P.A. Brown to Love Romances and More, thank you for joining us.
Did you always want to become a writer?
Pretty well. Before I could read my mother read to us and I always wanted more. Once I could read I became a voracious book junkie. My favorite day was when we could go to the book mobile (there was no library near us and my mother didn't drive) and I would take out the maximum number – which wasn't many in those days, not like now when there's no limit. Once I realized those books were written by someone, I started writing my own stories. I was encouraged by a couple of teachers who saw my potential and pushed me to do more.
I wrote my first book when I was 17, about a teenage girl who got mixed up with a dissolute rock star who got her into drugs and sex and ruined her. All I remember of it is that it had a tragic ending, with the rock star trying to go straight and the girl falling further and further into the drug scene. Now mind you, at the time I hadn't done anything but a little grass, and it was Canadian grass, which in the 70s was almost like smoking lawn clippings. My drugs years came later and do manage to find their way into my stories.
I got serious about writing fairly young, in my early 20s I decided I wanted to write screen plays and would write shows for popular TV shows of the day, including Starsky and Hutch. Then I did some research and knew I had to go to Hollywood if I wanted to try to do it for a living. So I quit my job, sold all my property – including a Yamaha 360 and a Hodaka 125 dirty bike – and took a Greyhound bus to L.A. Didn't know anybody there, had hardly ever been out of London, population less than 300,000 at the time and about a white-bread as you could get. I still haven't been able to figure out if it was bravery or stupidity that led me back then. I like to think it was a strong showing of monumental bravery and pure genius. People who know me tend to disagree and will tell you I was clearly out of my frigging mind. LOL.
What is the most, and the least interesting fact about writing?
Sometimes, instead of working straight onto my laptop, I will hand write scenes and ideas in notebooks. Transcribing those notes into my laptop later is tedious and since both my handwriting and my eyesight are lousy, not easy to do.
Other than that I'd have to say some aspects of marketing. I am not a salesperson, I suck at selling and I'm very shy, especially on the phone, so I hate calling up strangers for any reason.
How did you celebrate your first release? What was it like to see your book in a bookstore? Do you have a special ritual for celebrating a book release?
I was living in Bermuda on a 3 year contract when L.A. Heat was released. I flew back to Canada and spent 2 weeks driving around, from London to Ottawa and visiting friends, family and bookstores. It was fun, but weird. Most people go to a tropical place to celebrate. I came from a tropical place. Well, at least it was summer time!
How did your family react to fact that you also write M/M romance novels? Have your family read your books?
Very well in fact. Most have copies, some have read it. My daughter started L.A. Heat but couldn't get far – but it wasn't the gay aspect that she couldn't handle, it was the forensic gross-out in the first chapter she couldn't get past. She still talks about what I did to that poor guy to this day.
My brother in law has actually read my gay erotica and said the writing was good. Didn't do anything for him, but he admired the writing. How many straight guys do you know who could do that? The only one who ever had an issue with any of it was my father, and when he read a book I had done years ago that was science fiction he didn't care for it. But I don't think it was because it was gay characters as much as the fact that there was sex in it. I don't think he could reconcile his little girl with sex, period.
Most authors are also avid readers. Is this the case with you? If so, who are some of your favorites? Have any influenced your writing?
I read constantly. In fact, I usually have something like 2-3 books going at one time. Usually mystery. My favorite authors are Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Josh Lanyon, Neil Plakcy, Jonathan Kellerman, John Morgan Wilson, Michael Nava, Terry Pratchett, (one of the few non-mystery writers) Joseph Wambaugh, Paul Bishop, Gregg Hurwitz and a new guy, with only one book out, Will Beall. There are a ton of others I read too, plus I browse the library looking for authors I don't know to try out all the time. I'm always looking for new favorites.
Your release date is really full, which I love as a fan of your books, do you have a problem with deadlines and have you ever suffered a writers block?
I have suffered from writers block on occasion. Usually it means I'm not ready to finish whatever that book was, so I have to walk away from it for a while to let my subconscious work on it behind my back. Inevitably something will kick start in my head and I'll go on to finish it. I just did that with Memory of Darkness which has a long history to it. I originally conceived of the character, Johnny Wager, in the very early 80s when I was writing screen plays. One of the shows I loved back then was The Rockford Files, so I came up with this character who was a little shady, an ex-con who got into trouble and had to dig himself out. In that one his nemesis was an LAPD cop who had a hard on for him. Now in the original version Wager wasn't gay. The screenplay never happened but the character stuck in my head for the next 2 decades and I finally came up with a story to fit him. Only this time he was gay, having come out of the closet after getting married and having a son. He was also a con artist, thief, drug dealer and car thief. His son, now in his 20s is a Los Angeles Sheriff's deputy and as you can imagine, not to overly fond of his father. When Wager gets accused of a murder he didn't commit he has to keep out of his son's hands, stay one step ahead of the Armenia Mafia who want him dead and try to avoid the amorous intentions of a besotted Bassett Hound. As you can imagine, it is no where near as serious a book as L.A. Heat. I hope people find Wager as endearing as I do, black hearted rogue that he is. I see him as sort of a cross between James Rockford and Captain Jack Sparrow.
Another book I've had trouble with is the sequel to Geography of Murder. I know where the book is going, but I'm stuck in the middle and have decided to let it stew for a while, knowing it will come to me, probably all the better for having sat a bit.
So far I have never missed a deadline, in fact, I usually come in early. If anything, deadlines inspire me.
Do you prefer stand-alone books or series?
I would have to say series, only because once I know and like a character I want to see more of them. But sometimes it has to be stand alone for various reasons and that's fine too.
Your characters come to life in your books. Do you feel each of your characters live with you as you write? Do their lives sometimes take over a part of your life? Can you name an example? Do you have living role models for your characters?
I've gone so far as to dream about my characters. Certainly they live in my head and are very real to me, but no, I don't base them on real people I know. I've spent my life observing and listening to people, and trying to understand them, but my characters are amalgams of people I've observed over the years.
I think in some ways Jason Zachary in Geography of Murder was closest to me and invaded my dreams more. Maybe because his life was a bit like mine. I had some rough years when I was in L.A, including a stint living in a car and dabbling in the drug scene. Like him I never hit rock bottom, though I knew quite a few street kids like him, and some did turn to hustling on the Boulevard, so I used them to create him. But I knew his dreams too, and they sometimes melded with my dreams. He was very real to me – that's why he's a bird watcher. It's something I've always loved.
Where do you get the inspirations for your books?
All over the place. I get them from reading other people's books – reading something then playing the 'what if' game. What if this happened instead of what the author did in that story? I also get ideas from daily news and research both in books and on TV. Ideas are the easiest thing for a writer to get, they're literally all over the place, you only have to be open to hearing them. Ideas are cheap. It's the execution that takes the work.
Do you find it difficult at times to write love scenes?
That I've never had trouble with. Not sure why it is, but I am able to immerse myself in my scenes, right down to smelling and feeling things. The way a man feels to me is the same way it feels to another man. The texture or smell doesn't change just because the sex of one partner changes.
What is your favorite book from the books that you have written so far? Who is your favorite hero, and why?
Usually my favorite is whatever I'm writing at the moment. But if I had to pick one that's already written it would be L.A. Boneyard. I worked the hardest on that book to perfect it both in the research and the structure. I think it shows a level of my skill that maybe books like L.A. Heat have only hinted at. At least I hope so.
I'm writing a book now that I hope to match or exceed that. I'm calling it barrio boyz (yes, small case) and it's my most ambitious yet.
Which book was the hardest to write and which the easiest?
Geography of Murder was the easiest. That book flew out of my laptop. I literally got an image one day of a man waking up in bed with a dead man he didn't know, and sat down and started writing. I didn't know anyone's name, where it took place, who the dead man was or who killed him or why, anything. Everything came to me as I wrote. I don't think I slept more than 3-4 hours a night while I wrote that and I had the first draft done in less than 3 weeks. The hardest one? The one I sweated over the most would be L.A.Boneyard. I tweaked that thing so many times and really dug into my knowledge of the LAPD to get that one right. And I'm not done with it yet. My editor is going to start on it in the next week or so, so I expect there will be more changes to it to come.
If you could change places with one character from your books, who would it be and why?
Probably Todd Richards from Man's Best Friend, because he's surrounded with his beloved Dobermans and horses and lives in New Mexico, a place I've always wanted to visit. He lives the simple life I'd love to and he has someone who loves him more than life. What more can you want?
If you could travel through time to visit a special time period or famous person, what or who would it be and why?
I have a taste for the morbid, so I would find it fascinating to go back and see Europe in the 14th century (strictly as an observer). This was the time of the Black Death when, depending on who you listen to, 30-60% of the population died. It completely changed the structure of human society and influenced just about everything in the world for centuries to come. A powerful event, caused by something as small as a bacteria in the saliva of a flea. Talk about micromanaging the planet.
A person I'd like to meet? Lord George Gordon Byron. I love his poetry (and I'm not a big poet fan) and I understand he was a fascinating man.
Do you listen to music while you are writing and if so what music is it?
Sometimes I do, and when I do it's usually rock or alternative rock, like Linkin Park and Good Charlotte. Occasionally a song will become linked with a particular book, which happened with L.A. Boneyard. I listened to Good Charlotte's The River constantly and found a great deal of inspiration from that song. If I could I'd use it in a video or on the site for the book, but I can't afford to pay for the rights. I do mention the song in the book and have Chris listening to it though. But most of the time I just put my music on continuous play and listen to a wide range of music – U2, Supertramp, Rolling Stones (Sympathy for the Devil being my favorite) Don't Fear the Reaper, Riders on the Story, Smells Like Teen Spirit (though I still can't understand the lyrics!), Linkin Park, Pink Floyd, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and a lot more. Hard and loud, that's my philosophy.
If you could choose one of your books for a movie, which one would it be and who would you want as the cast?
I think L.A. Heat would make a good movie. I also think L.A. Boneyard would suit the screen too, whether a movie or TV movie.
Cast? I think I'd like to see Michael Chiklis as David. Chris is harder to envision. My idea of gorgeous blond might not be everyone's. Maybe Zak Ephrom or Josh Duhamel from Transformers II. Of course whoever was Chris has to become blond. George Lopez for Martinez and Jamie Foxx for Des.
Are you working on anything right now, and can you tell us a teaser about these projects?
One is barrio boyz, a story about a young Latino man, Gabriel Aguila, who lives in Cypress Park in L.A, and is struggling not only to stay out of a local gang, but also taking care of his younger sister who was left brain damaged when that same gang did a drive by on his house and killed his mother and shot his sister. He gets involved with an LAPD patrol officer. It's about his struggles to survive and also come to terms with his homosexuality and attraction to another man. It's most definitely not a romance, and it's only peripherally a crime story, though there is crime in it, as well as violence and death. I guess I'll see how it turns out.
The other WIP is the sequel to Geography of Murder, called Forest of Corpses, which continues with Alexander Spider and Jason Zachary and their own struggles.
L.A. Boneyard, from MLR Press, will be out later this year. This one pits David against a human traffic ring smuggling Ukrainian women into Los Angeles to sell into prostitution. David also has to deal with a temptation he never expected to ever have – another man who is trying to seduce him. Following that, next year will come L.A. Bytes, where Chris gets to shine with his computer skills. I actually have a 5th L.A book, this one I set in Bermuda, but it's not scheduled for any release yet. No one's even seen it.
Coming in November is Lynx Woods, my first book set in Canada. I put this in Toronto and it's a romance between an Environmental Engineer and an artist.
Big congrats to your latest releases, can you please tell us something about them
Man's Best Friend is one of my rare pure romance books. It's the story about two men who are brought together by their love of animals who forge a love despite tragedy and betrayal.
In September comes Memory of Darkness, my first book with AmberQuill Press, a dark funny book with a bizarre cast of characters. Here's the blurb: Johnny Wager is a 42-year-old street hustler, small time burglar and reformed car thief (well, mostly reformed) He's an ex-con who finds himself in the middle of a war between powerful adversaries that has disastrous consequences for a lot of people.
He has a host of allies and foes, his disapproving son, Los Angeles Sheriff's deputy Mark Wager, a six-foot-five black drag queen from New Orleans who wears four inch Jimmy Choos, her five-foot-five Puerto Rican boyfriend, an ex-Marine porno film maker, the Armenian mob and an incontinent Bassett Hound called Columbo.
I'm hoping this one will make people laugh and enjoy Wager's attempts to go straight (in the criminal sense)
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