Ask the Author: Jay Brandon
Answered Questions (8)
Jay Brandon
I'm reading LAMB, by Christopher Moore. It's both hilarious and strangely profound. (Don't try it if you're easily offended in the religious realm.) I want to read book number 2 in the series by Tana French (Irish detectives) and Elena Ferrante (the Neapolitan quartet). And another novel by Nick Hornsby, because I loved his HOW TO BE GOOD.
Jay Brandon
My initial response is the Maples, Joan and Richard, John Updike's fictional couple he chronicled through many stories, starting with young and in love, then through unfaithful marriage ("Your Lover Just Called" is one of the titles), finally divorced but with an ongoing relationship in which they obviously still care about each other. It seemed like a very honest portrayal of an adult, sophisticated relationship. Not my own experience of marriage (30 years, no longer counting), but my post-marriage relationship, now ended, was like that. Updike, one of my favorite authors, died too young, at age 71, the same age as my mother and another of my favorite writers, Donald Westlake. I also have to say one of my favorite fictional couples is my own Chris Sinclair and Anne Greenwald, in five novels. For a couple of them I had an editor who did very close edits, but I notice that when I came to a scene about Anne, his editing stopped. I told him, "I think you're in love with Anne." He replied, "All I can say is, if she's based on your wife, you're a lucky man." Alas, that was not the case.
Jay Brandon
Creating characters. I had a professor of literature in college who said all writing is a product of God complexes, so I guess this bears that out. I always love my characters, even (perhaps especially) the evil ones. And they continue to surprise me.
Jay Brandon
Never been a problem. I've always had more ideas than I can get around to writing. The world is so interesting, if I imagine some little change in it, some situation, the story seems to develop itself.
Jay Brandon
SHADOW KNIGHT'S MATE is so different from my other novels you'd think I would remember specifically where I got the idea, but I don't. It just percolated up slowly. I thought if there aren't people working subtly behind the scenes who have influenced history for generations, there should be. So this is my secret-society-international-conspiracy thriller, my first. I loved writing it, and the advance quotes I'm getting have been great.
Jay Brandon
The advice I usually give is to have a day job. Learning another field is inspiring and helps give you an authentic voice. Of course, the vast majority of writers have to have other jobs, so this isn't a problem. But just pay attention.
Jay Brandon
Write through it, I guess would be the answer. This has never been a problem for me.
Jay Brandon
I'm writing another legal thriller after writing other sorts of novels for the past few years. This time it's set in a new city for me, though, Houston, where I spent five years at one time. The new setting as well as the time off I took from law-related novels is making it fresh for me.
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