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C.D. BROWN

writer, filmmaker, professor

C.D. Brown is a writer, filmmaker, and college professor. He is the director of two feature films (as Charlie Brown) "Angels Die Slowly" and "Never a Dull Moment: 20 Years of the Rebirth Brass Band." Brown has published many short stories and two novellas: "The French Quarter Hustle" and "Fat City Blues" (as Charlie Brown).

His debut novel "Vamp City" is published by Gryphonwood Press and is out NOW.

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Your debut novel, Vamp City is out. Could you tell us a little bit about it?

This novel is a direct sequel to my novelette “Quarter Moon” (soon to also be released by Gryphonwood Press). That story was a werewolves vs. vampires story with many twists, but the lone remaining vampire from that story makes her way to Los Angeles to continue the work of her cabal, Vampire Rehab. It’s a program they developed after Hurricane Katrina where the vampires went feral because of a lack of blood and being trapped in the city.
Anyway, Sophia goes west to an open city, meaning there’s no vampire council there like in other cities. She also finds that she is way older than everyone there (Los Angeles as a metropolis is quite young), so she is much more powerful. She attracts the attention of the “sheriff” who goes by The Caballero, an ancient vampire who dates back to the earliest days of the city. When he is killed, Sophia is first suspected, then entrusted to find the killer and bring justice.
At its heart, Vamp City is closest to one of Dashiell Hammett’s mob books, specifically the ones featuring the Continental Op. Sophia must balance the relationships between many cabals while staying above the fray herself. Since the main antagonist Frank “Fudgie” Whaloosie was an actual mobster before being turned, I brought many of those twists into the urban fantasy genre.

Was there a real life inspiration for your protagonist? What about your antagonist?

Sophia Fontenelle was a Storyville prostitute who was turned by the vampire David Hennessey (a real-life sheriff of New Orleans who death caused one of the biggest riots in the city’s history). She comes from backwoods Cajun stock, running from the tough life of farmer’s daughter to the big city.

There’s a bit of my deceased aunt Helen in there, she having a fiery tongue when angered, but Sophia sprung fully formed in front of me. Contrary to popular knowledge, few Cajuns actually live in New Orleans (they hate the big city), so I didn’t know many growing up. I just saw her and listened to her. That’s really it.

When she explodes on a character, going “full Cajun” on him, that’s based on a routine done by my friend Mike Dardant, a comedian and magician, one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.

When I started writing, I was obsessed with Italian Mafia stuff: Martin Scorsese films, non-fiction books, fiction books. If it had guys in suits dropping f-bombs and killing in the streets, I wanted in. So creating Fudgie Whaloosie was real easy.

One of the things about this book is Fudgie doesn’t have a whole lot of screen time. He’s manipulating Sophia’s life from behind the scenes, always one step ahead. Since this book is one hundred percent from Sophia’s point of view (limited 3rd, but she’s in every scene), I had to make him very shadowy. But I did the whole back story: Jack Dragna’s gang, turned by The Caballero to keep the LA Mafia in line, sketchy business works. He’s fairly stereotypical, but I give him an elusiveness that pushes the story ever forward. He’s fun for me and that’s what counts.

Writing on Tablet

What got you into writing?

I started as a journalism major, specifically writing about music (blues and jazz in particular). But I’ve been reading my whole life. The two Raymonds (Chandler and Carver) finally pushed me into writing fiction. Chandler’s hard-boiled poetry was the first hook. I loved his voice and strive to create something of my own that distinctive. Carver is also a hero for saying everything by saying nothing.
But I spent most of my 20s and 30s writing screenplays. Living in Hollywood from 1997-2001, I tried to get that form down. I’ve made a few movies, including two features, so the scriptwriting process has become second nature for me.

I understand you are a collegiate professor who edits anthologies. Could you talk about that a little bit and how/if that plays a role in your writing?

Being a composition teacher reveals a lot of my hypocrisies. I try to keep separate the analytical and the creative, but when I’m so tough on them for grammar and then whip out a string of fragments, that makes me feel twinges of regret. But what it really has done is refine my own philosophies about writing. I’m way more instinctual than philosophical, so when I say things out loud, like “Set the scene” and “English rewards conciseness,” those thoughts seep into my brain when I’m typing.
As far as editing, I have recently done both fiction and non-fiction. My work under my own imprint, Lucky Mojo, has been fun because I get to read people I like and respect and then get to know newer writers. When I do work for the journal Vex Mosaic, an academic site about speculative media, I really have my mind expanded by other, more academic thinkers. Mostly it’s about absorbing new things, while using my own skills to take a rougher work and buff it to sparkling.
Both experiences have turned me into a horrific grammar Nazi. Please, people, don’t use a semi-colon unless you actually know how.

What are common traps for aspiring writers?

The first is watching them feel guilty for not writing enough. I fall into this trap also. My friends pump out four to six novels a year because they have built themselves up to the point of professional writing. We see them and say, “Why aren’t we there?” But it took them a decade to get where they are. Get the first ones together, then worry about the mythical million words a year.
In terms of writing advice, I’ve just read two genre novels in a row that did a really poor job of describing setting. Since I use this heavily in my own work (you should have a pretty good picture of Los Angeles after reading Vamp City), it really jumped out at me. Setting grounds readers, giving them the picture from which action is played. Without it, they can feel lost.

What books have most inspired your life?

Since I have a masters of creative writing, I split time between genre and literary. I’ve pushed myself in the last ten years to read at least 50 books a year, so this is a tough one.
The author of speculative fiction I’ve read the most is Philip Jose Farmer. The Riverworld series was the first to push my thoughts. Chandler, especially The Big Sleep, gave me a voice. Hunter S. Thompson, most specifically Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, put my fingers on the keyboard.
Lately, Thomas Pynchon has been looming over me. The way he writes what would be conspiracy thrillers with such absurdity and astonishing language has me veering toward writing a truly looney-tunes book. It won’t be a good fit for my current publisher, but it has to come out of me.

Does a big ego help or hurt writers?

Last year at Balticon (Baltimore’s big sci-fi con which has a lot of new media and self-published creators), my friends and I started hashing out this idea of the writer as empathic narcissist. I want to develop an essay around it.
Basically, it says that writers feel and absorb their surroundings, but they have to have enough of an ego to say that only they can tell the story and to invest a great deal of their inner energy doing just that.

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Team Talk

What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer?

Terry Mixon and Paul Cooley, the hosts of the Dead Robots Society (no apostrophe), are my closest friends in genre writing. Terry is a machine who write the Empire of Bones series p[lus a few more. Paul’s two big series are The Black (sci-fi horror on Earth) and Sol and Beyond (sci-fi horror in space). Terry chides both of us because we have literary backgrounds and he’s one of those guys who knows exactly what the people want. He pushes us to follow him. Paul’s starting to do it. Since this is my first novel published, we’ll see if I can do the same.
I’m going to write weird and magical realist and literary comedy, all orphans in an Amazon world. I have my grad school friends there to tell me what works and what doesn’t and I hope that’s enough. I’ve published a bunch of short stories in lit mags, so I guess it’s working.

Any future projects in the works?

I have two novels in the can. One is my literary novel about New Orleans in the year before Hurricane Katrina. I’m hoping to find a small press to put that one out. I’m quite proud of it, but it hasn’t found any love.
I also have the first novel of a new series, sword and sorcery heavily influenced by Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and Gray Mouser series but funnier. It’s set in a fictional version of 1700s Crimea, so I use all those Russian tropes.
I’m in the plotting stage for the next Vamp City book and sci-fi novel set in today’s FBI. Plus I have my Pynchonesque plot screaming at me, but I’m putting that off until another genre novel is written.

In closing, is there anything else you'd like our readers to know about you?

I love writing about places, probably even more than the people who live there. Moving from New Orleans to LA has been such an enriching thing. I love my hometown and it’s given me the best stories but being here among so many different cultures has allowed me to grow. Teaching Hispanics and African Americans showed me how to include those characters in Vamp City without relying on stereotypes. This city can be so intimidating, but the experiences I’ve had here are lasting.

CONNECT WITH C.D. BROWN

I want to thank C.D. Brown again for his time. I hope you were able to learn more about him from his answers. There were many questions we couldn't include on the website, so please feel free to reach out to him personally using the below links:

Instagram: @author_cd_brown

Twitter: @cdbrownauthor

www.facebook.com/cdbrownauthor

www.youtube.com/user/cdowdellb/

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VAMP CITY

April 25, 2018

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