In preparation for the launch of his new release, Brandon R. Luffman has stopped by for an interview.
I’ve had the pleasure of reading some of Brandon’s work and I’m thrilled to have been given the honor of reading his ARC Frostwalker, a supernatural horror story.
I’ll be posting my review on his Release Day which is coming soon!
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Thanks so much for sharing with us today, Brandon.
Let’s get to know more about you.
1) Why don’t we start by having you tell us a little about yourself.
Well, I’m not all that interesting. That’s why I write fiction – it’s way more interesting than real life! But, here’s the short bio: I was born in Georgia, but my parents moved back to North Carolina before I was old enough to really remember it. So, I’m technically a Georgia Peach, although I’ve always thought of myself as a Tarheel. I fell into writing at a fairly young age, in the sixth grade, and I was immediately hooked on that buzz you get from writing for the entertainment of others. Having the ability to make people laugh or cry or feel just about any emotion you can imagine, just by the power of storytelling – that’s awesome stuff! So, I wrote off and on for years, but never really got serious about it until a few years ago. And that really is the key to being a writer: You have to get serious about it. You have to put in the work and not just do it for fun. If you want to do it for fun, that’s fine, but if you want to build a career out of it, you have to work at it. Someday, I hope to take my own advice and actually make a living off of this!
2) What brought you to use Cherokee-Tsalagi lore in your story?
I’m not really sure, to be honest. I’m a pantser, not a plotter, so I really didn’t know where the story was going or what would happen next. The appearance of John Birdsong and Grandmother was as much a surprise to me as it was to anyone else. As the story progressed, I didn’t know what part they would play, but by the end it all made sense. It was fascinating actually, because these characters (and others, of course) did things earlier in the book that I had no idea would mean anything and I didn’t know WHY they were doing these things. But in the end of the book, it all came together and made sense. Reading a book with that sort of unfolding nature is fun, but having a story unfold itself that way while you’re writing it – that always amazes me. Maybe it goes back to Stephen King’s theory that he put forth in his book On Writing, that stories are already there, more or less fully formed, and the writer is just digging it out like a fossil.
I can say that here in western North Carolina, the Cherokee people are very much a part of the culture, although not always obviously so. In my own neck of the woods they’re not commonly encountered these days, but almost everyone whose family has been in the area more than a few generations has at least a few Cherokee in their family tree. So, it’s quite possible that when I needed something that amounted to what locals in this area might consider “mystical people”, my mind just popped that out.
3) When describing Frostwalker, what genre would you place it in?
When I originally wrote it, I felt like it was straight Horror. However, in the past few years I’ve gained a bit more of an understanding of sub-genres and I think it might be more precise to call it Survival Horror. However, while I don’t think I’ve ever seen the term used before, maybe it could also be called Action Horror, as it feels like that sort of story to me. Once the story starts really rolling, it seems very action-oriented. But, I’m not too concerned about labels – simply calling it Horror is good enough for me!
4) You’ve written some short stories, which I loved. What inspired you to write a full length novel and why Frostwalker?
Thank you! I was tickled pink at your reviews of Out After Dark and The Card. I really appreciate those!
Interestingly enough, Frostwalker was written prior to any of my currently available short work. Frostwalker originated as a NaNoWriMo attempt way back in 2009. For those who don’t know, NaNoWriMo is where you attempt to write a 50,000 word novel during the 30 days of November. I had done NaNoWriMo a couple of times before, but never hit the 50,000 word target. However, during NaNo 2009, I just roared right along. The first night, I wrote over 13,500 words. I hit the 50k mark just after 1 am on the morning of November 16th. I kept writing, because while I had “won” NaNoWriMo, I still had a story to finish. If I recall correctly, I finished the story with around 81,000 words on November 27th or 29th, although there had been a few days that month where I wasn’t able to do any writing at all. When I finished, and realized that I had actually written a full novel, I’m man enough to admit that I wept.
After that, I went through lots of beta-readers and produced several drafts, each a little better than the last. This is really where a book is crafted. The first draft is just something you throw together. It’s the framework, the starting place. The actual crafting and creation of something more than just an idea comes from taking that first draft and editing and polishing it until it’s as good as you can make it. That’s the key, really, and what NaNoWriMo strives to teach participants: You can’t allow yourself to edit and second-guess the first draft. Just vomit it out there and get the word count in. It doesn’t matter if it’s crap – it may actually BE crap. But, you have to start with that, then you edit it to within an inch of its life and you might just end up with a great story. But you can never get there without that first draft, and that is all about getting words on paper – or on disk, whichever you prefer. It’s all about word count. Good comes later – after the work is done.
However, the manuscript wasn’t worked on heavily until last year. I was considering self-publishing it, and actually planning to do so, even though I had never hired a professional editor. I thought it had been proofread so many times, by so many different beta readers, that it was ready to go. Besides, editors are expensive, right?
Well, as luck would have it, I found out that editors aren’t always expensive. Also, they’re something you cannot do without. I can’t stress this enough: A competent editor is something you simply must have in order for your book to be the best it can be. I was lucky enough to meet two great editors, both of which I met through Twitter. First was Pauline Nolet, who is amazing to work with and just a great gal in general. She’s now what I consider “my editor”, because I can’t imagine publishing something without getting her to go through it first. The second editor was Rebecca Hamilton, author of The Forever Girl. In addition to her writing, Rebecca offers editing services and she is really top-notch. Both of these ladies went through the manuscript and it is impossible to describe the difference their input has made on the quality of the story. Much of it is subtle, but it really took the book to a new level.
5) Tell us something good and bad about your writing experience?
Well, there’s a LOT of good that’s come from my writing, especially in the past couple of years that I’ve really been taking it seriously. Perhaps first and foremost is all of the great people I’ve met: other authors, book bloggers, enthusiastic readers. There’s just so many great folks who I’ve met through joining this vast community of “book people”, and the people you regret meeting are truly few and far between. But, in the process, I’ve also become a much stronger writer, through the exchange of ideas and techniques with these people, and with the additional motivation to WRITE, and therefore actually practice the craft, that comes with being a part of all that.
As for a bad side of the writing experience, I can’t say there’s been nothing, but it’s hard to point to anything and say “That right there, that’s bad.” Bad reviews are just bad reviews – can’t take that too seriously. Rejection? Comes with the territory – that’s a writer’s battle scars, to be worn with pride. Really, for me, the worst thing has just been the constant struggle to overcome my own natural shyness and self doubts. I’ve always questioned my ability in whatever arena I’m operating in. It’s difficult for me to be confident in my ability as a writer, which is especially trying as an independent author who has to promote himself. There isn’t a marketing department to go out and tell everyone to go read my work – I have to go out there and tell people I’m worth reading. But, first, I have to convince myself that my work is worth reading. Sometimes, that’s really hard to do.
6) How do you pick character’s names and locations for your stories? Have you been to these places and are your characters based on yourself or people you know?
Locations are pretty easy. Even places I’ve never been, a little research and you can fictionalize something close enough. The important thing is to capture the FEEL of that location, so that those who are familiar with it will recognize it and those who aren’t will still know it on the level that, say, a TV audience knows a place. There are differences between western Texas and eastern New Mexico, and a native will know the difference immediately, but you can capture the feel of the desert southwest and that’s generally good enough for fiction. Location is important, don’t get me wrong on that count, but there’s a reason why minimalist stage plays are effective. A man with a chair and a skull can perform Hamlet and it’s still Hamlet – the play’s the thing.
In Frostwalker, the locations are all fictional. However, most of them are based on some amalgamation of places I know personally. The town of Wynn is built up of bits and pieces of local towns here in North Carolina, the exterior locations are based, at least partially, on places I’ve been to in the area or even on my family’s farm.
As for the characters, there’s always a bit of the author in every character an author creates. Even if the character is of a different gender, or completely evil, or a supernatural being, their personality is formed by the author’s imagination. So, with Jake and Eric, who are gamers and geeks, somewhat the outsider type in a rural southern town, there’s a fair amount of myself in there. They’re certainly not me by any stretch of the imagination, but some of their traits come from myself, or my friends and family.
For the names, well, that’s really a hard thing for me. Names have always been a pain for me. One of my life-long hobbies has been roleplaying games, such as Dungeons & Dragons. I usually end up running the game, which means that any character the players meet is run by me. The absolute worst question a player can ask is “What’s his name?”. I have no idea how many hundreds of Bobs have been encountered in my games over the years. The barkeep? His name’s Bob. Town blacksmith? That’s Bob. Head of the town watch? Hermit on the edge of town? Maiden you just rescued from orcs? Bob. They’re all named Bob!
I can’t really say where the names Jake and Eric came from. I think maybe my mind just spit them out when I needed names because they’re simple, masculine, and easy to remember. There are a couple of amusing bits about those names, actually. First, it was probably nearly a year after I wrote Out After Dark that I realized that I’d used the name Eric again. In the long version I’ve been working on, there’s also a character named Jacob. The second amusing thing was something I encountered last month. I had never seen the TV show Jericho before, but we recently encountered it on Netflix and began watching it. I didn’t catch it immediately, but after three or four episodes, I realized that the main character and his brother are named Eric and Jake.
But, sometimes you need a name and have to come up with one some way or other. In The Card, I needed a name for the protagonist and his two friends. I ended up swiping the name Jason for the protagonist from friend and fellow author J. Scott Sharp, and the names Freddie and Brian I took from members of the band Queen!
7) What is a typical day for you?
I’m not sure if I have a typical day. I know that currently, my life is dominated by the fact that I don’t have a routine. That’s a very bad thing for writers! Aside from my writing, I also have a business I run from home as well as another part-time job that doesn’t require a lot of hours, but is six days a week. So, my schedule is always fluctuating. Sometimes I’m a full-on night owl, and a week later I might be on a “normal” schedule. I have a pretty flexible work schedule, so when I sleep varies and drifts, which means I’m all over the place.
So, for now, I don’t really have a typical day. But, I do hope to pin down some sort of routine soon, as it’s been very difficult to write with the way things have been the past few months!
8) What’s next? Do you have anything new in the works?
Right now, writing has been very difficult for me. Largely, this is due to the lack of a routine I just mentioned. However, I do have some projects that are in the works, when I can work on them. I’m still working on a story that I’ve been calling A Man With A Gun, which is a near-future sci-fi/western piece that may be a short story or could grow into something more substantial. I haven’t been able to work on it much lately, but it’s what I consider my “current project” – aside from getting Frostwalker finished and released, of course. There’s also a few other ideas and half-finished pieces that may or may not be worked on. Most notable of these is probably the long version of Out After Dark, which I haven’t worked on in well over a year. That’s at 14,000 words (still) but it’s something I really want to see come to fruition eventually.
So, nothing new to report aside from the same things I’ve been working on for the past few months. Of course, ideas are always coming to me!
Five Fun Shorts
1) Favorite movie?
This is a really tough one! I love movies, but it’s hard to say that I have a favorite. There are so many great movies out there! I’m going to cheat and give you a few: Army Of Darkness is great. I love the Indiana Jones movies. Star Trek movies are good, especially the earlier ones, and I really loved 2 through 4. The Matrix was great, and I even liked the sequels. A Knight’s Tale was lots of fun. Kate & Leopold was a good romantic flick. I really like all kinds of movies!
Watch out for Bruce’s “boomstick?”
Shop smart. Shop S Mart!
My favorite of all of the Evil Dead movies!
Looks like we have similar tastes.
2) Favorite genre (movies and books)?
I’m all over the place here as well. For books, I used to read a lot of fantasy stuff. But, these days I’m reading all kinds of things. Maybe a good example is to consider Stephen King’s catalog. He’s my favorite author and if you look at his work over the past several years, you note that while he’s considered a “horror author”, he’s really writing sci-fi and fantasy as much as anything else. My reading habits have similarly broadened, and I tend to read just about anything as long as it has a good story.
For movies, I likewise enjoy all sorts, but sci-fi, fantasy, and action are probably my favorites.
I also love “The King!”
It’s a tie for me between Steven King and Dean Koontz!
3) Beach or swimming pool?
Definitely swimming pool! I love the beach, but I prefer to actually swim rather than struggle against the tide. Not to mention that every time I go into the ocean I end up with something touching my foot. Who knows what it might be? Was it a fish? Some sort of jellyfish? A shark?! Cthulhu? That was almost certainly Cthulhu!
Sorry Brandon:(
Even swimming pools aren’t safe from Cthulhu!
4) Favorite comic book character?
The Punisher! Such a bad-ass. Very much driven by emotion, but still a hardcore dude, and in a universe where people with superpowers are everywhere, this guy is fighting evil without them. Just guns – lots of guns! I also always liked how much of the Punisher’s inventory of weaponry was largely based on real-world gear.
I love The Punisher.
Also loved the first movie with Thomas Jayne!
He was perfect!
5) Got a phobia?
I’ve got two! First, I don’t handle heights very well. I’ve always thought it was odd that I love flying, especially in small planes where you actually FEEL like you’re flying, but it is really hard for me to climb a ladder to the roof of my house. The second is bees – in particular, wasps and hornets. I have an unreasonable fear of them. They’re fast, they’re agile, they’re often aggressive, they can sting you multiple times, and it hurts like a mother! Maybe I’m not being so unreasonable after all…
Killer bees!
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Thank you very much for interviewing me! It was lots of fun!
Thank you Brandon. I really enjoyed your answers.
I see we like a lot of the same things. Did I get a hint of H.P. Lovecraft in there somewhere?
So, there you have it folks.
For more about Brandon and his books, visit his website.
He has exciting excerpts, wonderful guest posts and some fun tours to follow.
You can also find him here:
Goodreads / Twitter / Amazon / Facebook
Books by Brandon R. Luffman
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When a strange tarot card appears in a friend’s deck, Jason assumes it’s just a prank done in poor taste. But, when terrible events befall those around him, he must face the possibility that something sinister is afoot.
Death is closing in, along with a suspicious detective who believes that Jason may be the killer he’s stalking. With his life turned upside down, Jason finds that there are worse things to be hunted by than the authorities.
This 4,500 word short is a supernatural horror story in the spirit of the pulp era, but with a modern feel.
My Review
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A cat and mouse game played by those who stalk the night. Who is the hunter and who is prey? This 2,100 word short explores the classic vampire and hunter story from a different angle.
My Review
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