Welcome to Love Romances & More Reviews Graeme Brown.
Comfortable? Let’s begin, shall we? Please tell us a little bit about yourself.
To get us started can you tell us a little about what you are working on or have coming out?
The Pact, an epic fantasy novella a la Game
of Thrones, is about a boy who must confront his destiny when his castle
wonderland is threatened by monsters. It came out on May 6th,
published by Burst Books. I have been working on its sequel, A Thousand Roads,
and expect to be done by the fall. It will be a novel, with all the elements of
medieval fantasy, but the protagonist is grown up, so it’s got its share of
romance, erotic flare, and rough-and-tough characters you can’t forget (whether
you want to or not).
How would you describe yourself using only five words?
Creative, curious, detailed, word-loving
Do you have any guilty pleasures?
I must confess that I am an absolute math and
computer programming nerd. I have three t-shirt that I wear on Monday,
Wednesday and Friday: pi, e and phi, written to the first 10,000 decimal
places. Oh dear, I’ve said too much...
If we asked your muse to describe you using
five words, what do you think they would say?
He lives and breathes art
Name one thing readers would be surprised to know about you.
That the first thing I do in the morning is
spend ten minutes reading the Bible and praying
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
If I could live anywhere in the world, that
would mean I have the money to do so, in which case I’d want to have several
simple cottages and travel between them. There are just so many wonderful
places in this world, so many wonderful cultures and ways of life to
experience. Why get stuck in just one of them? That would be the ultimate fuel
for writing inspiration, oh, and all food...mmm!
How do you get yourself in the mood to write?
I usually spend about ten minutes going over
my outline notes, characters profiles, and previous day’s writing. I will
sometimes try to speak like my characters, hear conversations or ways they
would say things. Sometimes I go back fifty pages to something that’s niggling
and use that to jump into where I’m currently at (love the find feature!).
If someone hasn't read any of your work, what book would you recommend that they start with and why?
The Pact, because it’s the only title I have
out. However, I am writing an epic, with each book planned out in detail, and
though not every one of them will be chronological per se (the sixth book, for
example, jumps back and forth between thousands of years to tell the larger
story), they all proceed in order. Each book will stand on its own, but reading
the ones that come before it will help with discovering the nuggets I bury
within.
Is there something special
you do to celebrate when one of your books is released?
The Pact is my first title.
For its release I planned a giveaway, with a 7-day countdown full of all sorts
of fun posts and visits to blogs.
Could you tell us a couple of favorite books
that inspired you to write?
The Lord of the Rings was my first. Robert
Jordan’s Wheel of Time, Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth, J.K. Rowling’s Harry
Potter, Terry Brooks’ Sword of Shanarra, George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and
Fire
Is music a factor for you while you are
writing? Do certain songs put you in the right frame of mind to write certain
stories?
I don’t listen to music while I write, but I
hear music. I play piano and sometimes compose. Usually, powerful scenes have
music that go with them – every time I think about them I hear the music. I’ve
written some of it down and am in the process of getting an ap so that I can
capture others when they come.
What is the strangest source
of writing inspiration you’ve ever had?
Hmm...I can’t think of
anything particularly out of place. Perhaps this is because I get inspired by
everything. Writing is a lifestyle for me. The time I spend at the keyboard
smithing my prose is the tip of a very large iceberg that follows me around all
day long.
If your muse were to talk
behind your back, what secrets would they tell?
Oh dear...my muse is all
about showing you the world as it is, cut and dry, so I think it would be best
if I was not a character my muse encountered! <grin>
Are your characters able to
love or do they need to be taught?
I meet many characters. The central character
in A Thousand Roads, Jak, doesn’t know what love is, and must discover what it
means to make his own choices in life. You could say he’s being taught what
love is by being led toward a choice that will involve discerning between true
love and selfish love.
Do you have a book that was easiest to write
or one that was the hardest?
I am relatively inexperienced. My current
work is the most complex, but it is the easiest so far because I feel like I
have learned so much and have the tools I need to keep it on track and meet its
demand. My first (unpublished) book was probably the hardest because I kept
needing to convince myself that I could get to the end without it falling
apart.
Could you tell us a couple of favorite books
that inspired you to write?
The above named (especially Lord of the
Rings, Wheel of Time, Song of Ice and Fire). I am a sponge when it comes to
reading – every time I read a new author my wheels start spinning and this gets
me thinking about my own work and different ways to spin the yarn together.
If you could collaborate with one author who
would it be?
George R. R. Martin
What can readers expect next from you?
Expect a lot more. I realized I have a lot of
stories to tell and they’re all linked together. This made me stop and wonder,
“How long will this take?” So, I sat down and planned it out, and found myself
planning out the rest of my writing life. This fantasy epic will last 8 books,
with the 8th being broken up into several parts because it belongs
in a class of its own, but that will complete a very large arc that begins with
The Pact. That won’t be the end for this world, though, but I will at that
point step back and take a different spin on it that I’m keeping secret for the
present.
A Thousand Roads will be up next. I have the
sequel, White Star Fallen, planned out quite a bit, and expect it to be twice
as long. To keep readers from waiting, I would like to deliver a title every
1-2 years. Each will get progressively longer as I proceed. In the meantime, I
want to use NaNoWriMo to write the occasional fun story under a different muse
(pseudonym is top secret!), to balance this other commitment that will likely
last several decades.
Thanks for coming. Is there anything else you
want to add?
It’s been
a pleasure to participate – thanks for having me! If anyone wants to find out
more about my work, come and visit my website: http://www.graemebrownart.com/the_pact.html
I’m also
on Twitter: @GraemeBrownWpg (https://twitter.com/GraemeBrownWpg)
, with fun things like word of the day and links to all my blogging activities.
Contest Information:
Leave a comment to be entered to win an ecopy of The Pact. Make sure to leave your email address as well inside the comment so in case you win, we have a way to contact you. Contest closes May 13th with winner to be announced in the comments section of this post.
Will Lesterall has grown up in the safety of
his father's castle, where tales of the outside world ruled by warring kings
and creatures of nightmare have never seemed a threat. Yet on the night
celebrating the two hundredth year of the sacred Pact that has kept Fort Lesterall safe, an old
intrigue ripens, and in the course of a few hours Will is confronted with a
choice greater than he can comprehend. Join an unlikely hero as destiny pulls
him into the middle of an ancient conflict between fallen gods and ambitious
women, one that demands blood, both holy and wicked, and the power of an
ancient fire bound in steel. As swords clash below a watching wood, hope and
betrayal war as fiercely as fear and valor.
Whether he lives or dies, Will Lesterall will
never be the same...
1 comment:
Thank you, Dawn, for preparing this feature for me.
Graeme
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