10 Questions with AJ Brown
1. Where did you come up with the concept of your website Type AJ Negative?
Type AJ Negative is more like a blog. It acts pretty much like a website though. My wife and I were walking along a stretch of the River Walk here in Columbia. I wanted to create some sort of web presence. To me, a blog could serve the purpose of what I wanted to do. I could write posts and advertise and it would all show up on the home page. We both threw out some names and shot them down. Nothing felt right. I wanted something to do with blood—not so much gore, but the actual substance—but nothing made sense. I finally said, ‘If I could just create a type of…’ And yeah, my words fell away and I looked at Cate and said, ‘How about Type AJ Negative?’ The rest is history.
2. Who has been your biggest influence as a writer?
To be honest, my wife. Though she is not a writer, she is a constant inspiration to keep trying and never give up. She believes in my abilities and that, in and of itself, pushes me each day. Now, if you mean which writer has been my biggest influence, I would have to say Stephen King, simply because in his book On Writing, he said the writer is a book’s first reader and we’re really just along for the ride. I find that to be one of the truest statements I have ever heard. After reading On Writing I changed everything about my writing style and created what it is today. I would say that is a significant influence.
3. Out of all of your novels, which one most defines who you are as a writer?
I only have two novels at the moment, but I would have to say Cory’s Way defines me as a writer because it was the first novel I wrote from wire to wire with no interruptions from other stories. It also showed me I could actually write a novel—and a good one at that—if I just put my head down and went at it.
4. What current writing projects are you working on?
The one definite project right now is Interrogations. It’s a Hank Walker novella that will bridge Dredging Up Memories to Eradication. Other than that there is always the marketing and networking and finishing up items that need to be done for anthologies.
5. Is there an overall theme to your writing?
Most of my stories have a dark texture to them. They are typically your every day person who goes through things that are not quite every day events. They are conversational in tone and, if I’m really on the ball, emotional roller coasters.
6. What type of scenes do you most enjoy writing?
I love writing the beginnings of stories. That is the part where I get to set everything up and build from. A great beginning helps you keep a reader’s attention and it’s also the part where I learn the most about my characters and in which direction the story will go.
7. What made you start writing?
A recurring nightmare. I was told to write it next time I had it and it would go away. Supposedly Robert Lewis Stevenson had the same problem and ended up writing the book The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and My Hyde. I didn’t know if that was true or not, but I decided to give it a go. Turns out it did make my nightmare go away. But I enjoyed it and I’ve been writing ever since.
8. Is there any subject that is off limits for you as a writer?
I wouldn’t say there is anything that is off limits, but there are things that I choose not to write. I don’t do sex scenes. I don’t think it is needed in most of the books I see them in. I don’t do gore for gore’s sake. Yeah, there is blood and violence in my stories, but just to write lavishly detailed bloodbaths—not my thing. I also don’t have my characters (or narrator) cuss just to cuss. To me, that is lazy writing. That doesn’t mean I don’t use cuss words where it is needed, but I don’t need to drop the F-Bomb every other sentence to tell a good story. To be honest, I don’t think you need any of the three things I just mentioned in order to tell a good story.
9. If you could pick one other author to collaborate with on a novel or story, living or dead, who would it be?
Probably Charlotte Perkins Gilman. She wrote what I feel is the greatest and one of the most disturbing stories in The Yellow Wallpaper. How could I not want to write something with her? (Okay, all of you out there who thought I would say Stephen King—you were almost correct).
10. If you could invite five people to a dinner party (alive or dead, real or fictional) who would you invite?
1. Stephen King 2. John Ritter 3. Abraham Lincoln 4. Natalie Wood 5. Doc Holliday as played by Val Kilmer in Tombstone.
Type AJ Negative is more like a blog. It acts pretty much like a website though. My wife and I were walking along a stretch of the River Walk here in Columbia. I wanted to create some sort of web presence. To me, a blog could serve the purpose of what I wanted to do. I could write posts and advertise and it would all show up on the home page. We both threw out some names and shot them down. Nothing felt right. I wanted something to do with blood—not so much gore, but the actual substance—but nothing made sense. I finally said, ‘If I could just create a type of…’ And yeah, my words fell away and I looked at Cate and said, ‘How about Type AJ Negative?’ The rest is history.
2. Who has been your biggest influence as a writer?
To be honest, my wife. Though she is not a writer, she is a constant inspiration to keep trying and never give up. She believes in my abilities and that, in and of itself, pushes me each day. Now, if you mean which writer has been my biggest influence, I would have to say Stephen King, simply because in his book On Writing, he said the writer is a book’s first reader and we’re really just along for the ride. I find that to be one of the truest statements I have ever heard. After reading On Writing I changed everything about my writing style and created what it is today. I would say that is a significant influence.
3. Out of all of your novels, which one most defines who you are as a writer?
I only have two novels at the moment, but I would have to say Cory’s Way defines me as a writer because it was the first novel I wrote from wire to wire with no interruptions from other stories. It also showed me I could actually write a novel—and a good one at that—if I just put my head down and went at it.
4. What current writing projects are you working on?
The one definite project right now is Interrogations. It’s a Hank Walker novella that will bridge Dredging Up Memories to Eradication. Other than that there is always the marketing and networking and finishing up items that need to be done for anthologies.
5. Is there an overall theme to your writing?
Most of my stories have a dark texture to them. They are typically your every day person who goes through things that are not quite every day events. They are conversational in tone and, if I’m really on the ball, emotional roller coasters.
6. What type of scenes do you most enjoy writing?
I love writing the beginnings of stories. That is the part where I get to set everything up and build from. A great beginning helps you keep a reader’s attention and it’s also the part where I learn the most about my characters and in which direction the story will go.
7. What made you start writing?
A recurring nightmare. I was told to write it next time I had it and it would go away. Supposedly Robert Lewis Stevenson had the same problem and ended up writing the book The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and My Hyde. I didn’t know if that was true or not, but I decided to give it a go. Turns out it did make my nightmare go away. But I enjoyed it and I’ve been writing ever since.
8. Is there any subject that is off limits for you as a writer?
I wouldn’t say there is anything that is off limits, but there are things that I choose not to write. I don’t do sex scenes. I don’t think it is needed in most of the books I see them in. I don’t do gore for gore’s sake. Yeah, there is blood and violence in my stories, but just to write lavishly detailed bloodbaths—not my thing. I also don’t have my characters (or narrator) cuss just to cuss. To me, that is lazy writing. That doesn’t mean I don’t use cuss words where it is needed, but I don’t need to drop the F-Bomb every other sentence to tell a good story. To be honest, I don’t think you need any of the three things I just mentioned in order to tell a good story.
9. If you could pick one other author to collaborate with on a novel or story, living or dead, who would it be?
Probably Charlotte Perkins Gilman. She wrote what I feel is the greatest and one of the most disturbing stories in The Yellow Wallpaper. How could I not want to write something with her? (Okay, all of you out there who thought I would say Stephen King—you were almost correct).
10. If you could invite five people to a dinner party (alive or dead, real or fictional) who would you invite?
1. Stephen King 2. John Ritter 3. Abraham Lincoln 4. Natalie Wood 5. Doc Holliday as played by Val Kilmer in Tombstone.
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