10 Questions With SG Browne
Q: Who has been your biggest influence as a writer?
A: Stephen King is the reason I wanted to become a writer. He had a significant influence on my writing for more than a decade, so it would be impossible not to include him here. But Chuck Palahniuk has had the biggest impact on my writing over the past ten years. In 2002 I read Lullaby, my first Palahniuk novel, and it inspired me to write Breathers, which became my first published novel. After reading Palahniuk, I discovered that I enjoyed writing dark comedy and social satire more than straight supernatural horror.
Q: You do a masterful job of incorporating humor into your writing. Is this something that comes natural to you as you write, or do you work at setting up and building humorous situations?
A: First of all, thank you for the compliment. As for it coming naturally, it’s just my sense of humor, which tends to be a little on the dark and irreverent side at times. And since I don’t plot out my novels but discover the story as I write it, I wouldn’t say I work at setting up the situations. They just sort of naturally arise as the story unfolds. So I let them happen and see where they end up going.
Q: There has been much written in the zombie genre. What prompted you to write a zombie comedy in Breathers?
A: Breathers is actually based on a short story I wrote in 2001 titled “A Zombie’s Lament.” I’d been writing supernatural horror for nearly a dozen years and hadn’t written a zombie story, which was odd since zombies have always been my favorite monster. But all of the standard zombie story ideas I came up with just had kind of a “been there, done that” feel. So I thought: What if I was the zombie? But rather than being a stereotypical Hollywood zombie, shambling and mindless and hungry for human flesh, I was just a reanimated corpse with no rights who was gradually decomposing and needed some serious therapy? How would society treat me? Where would I live? Could I join a bowling league? So I wrote a dark, humorous, two-thousand-word short story that, two years later, I would be inspired to turn into a full-length novel called Breathers. Thanks Chuck.
Q: What’s the greatest moment in your writing career?
A: Probably the voice mail from my agent telling me she’d sold Breathers to Random House. I’d spent eighteen years working toward becoming a published novelist, so that was the moment when my dreams finally came true. I still have the message from my agent on my cell phone.
Q: Lucky Bastard has a fascinating premise where the lead character can poach luck. Where did you come up with this concept?
A: Lucky Bastard is another novel based on a short story, one I wrote in 2004 titled “Softland.” That short story, and the concept of stealing luck, was inspired by a Spanish film called Intacto, which I saw in 2002. Or 2003. I can’t remember. In any case, the film dealt with the idea that luck is like a commodity that flows from the unlucky to the lucky. While Intacto tends to focus on high-stakes games played between those who possess large amounts of luck, I took the idea in a somewhat different direction.
Q: If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?
A: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I read it last year and have recommended it to everyone I know. It’s a beautifully written novel about the power of words, told from the point-of-view of Death. And I know this is cheating because you asked for just one, but a close second would be Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
Q: Your novels seem to defy a specific genre. How would you categorize yourself as a writer?
A: When you write dark comedy and social satire with a supernatural or fantastic edge, there aren’t a whole lot of other writers sitting at the same table. I don’t think I’d classify my books in a specific genre. Not unless there’s a section titled Comedy/Satire/Supernatural in your bookstore. I consider my books Fiction or Fiction and Literature. If that’s where you’re going to find Christopher Moore, Matt Ruff, and Chuck Palahniuk, then it seems like a good place to find me.
Q: How has the digital revolution and the emergence of e-books affected you as a writer?
A: The emergence of e-books made it possible for me to publish Shooting Monkeys in a Barrel, my collection of short stories that I likely wouldn’t have been able to publish in print. E-books have also created a fantastic market of growth for the future that I think most writers are still wrapping their minds around. Personally, I’m old school. I like the feel of a book in my hand. There’s a ritual and experience that comes with reading a printed book that you can’t get with a digital format. It’s the same with music. You download a song or an album and there’s no physical connection. No holding something tangible in your hands. It’s just bytes. So when it comes to books, it’s unlikely I’ll ever buy an e-reader. Unless books become extinct. Which I personally think would be the end of civilization. Maybe the Mayans were right.
Q: In Lucky Bastard the city of San Francisco is almost a character in the novel. What kind of research did you incorporate to make the details of the setting come alive?
A: Since I live in San Francisco, doing the research was a little easier, as I was able to visit most of the places to add some detail. But I still used web sites and Google maps when the weather wouldn’t cooperate or when I was feeling lazy. I also ran a series of posts on my blog titled The Lucky Bastard San Francisco Blog Tour, where I talked about the locations that appear in Lucky Bastard and included photos and background info as to the writing of the novel. Feel free to check it out on my web site if you’re interested.
Q: Who is your favorite writer?
A: That’s a tough call. Obviously Chuck Palahniuk and Stephen King would have to be the top two contenders, with maybe Kurt Vonnegut thrown in as a dark horse. I suppose I could add Charlie Kaufman and Wes Anderson to the mix if we’re including screenwriters. But out of all of them, although I wouldn’t re-read all of his books, there’s only one author who has written more than a dozen novels and short story collections that I could read again and again and enjoy just as much as I did the first time. So the winner, hands down, is Stephen King.
A: Stephen King is the reason I wanted to become a writer. He had a significant influence on my writing for more than a decade, so it would be impossible not to include him here. But Chuck Palahniuk has had the biggest impact on my writing over the past ten years. In 2002 I read Lullaby, my first Palahniuk novel, and it inspired me to write Breathers, which became my first published novel. After reading Palahniuk, I discovered that I enjoyed writing dark comedy and social satire more than straight supernatural horror.
Q: You do a masterful job of incorporating humor into your writing. Is this something that comes natural to you as you write, or do you work at setting up and building humorous situations?
A: First of all, thank you for the compliment. As for it coming naturally, it’s just my sense of humor, which tends to be a little on the dark and irreverent side at times. And since I don’t plot out my novels but discover the story as I write it, I wouldn’t say I work at setting up the situations. They just sort of naturally arise as the story unfolds. So I let them happen and see where they end up going.
Q: There has been much written in the zombie genre. What prompted you to write a zombie comedy in Breathers?
A: Breathers is actually based on a short story I wrote in 2001 titled “A Zombie’s Lament.” I’d been writing supernatural horror for nearly a dozen years and hadn’t written a zombie story, which was odd since zombies have always been my favorite monster. But all of the standard zombie story ideas I came up with just had kind of a “been there, done that” feel. So I thought: What if I was the zombie? But rather than being a stereotypical Hollywood zombie, shambling and mindless and hungry for human flesh, I was just a reanimated corpse with no rights who was gradually decomposing and needed some serious therapy? How would society treat me? Where would I live? Could I join a bowling league? So I wrote a dark, humorous, two-thousand-word short story that, two years later, I would be inspired to turn into a full-length novel called Breathers. Thanks Chuck.
Q: What’s the greatest moment in your writing career?
A: Probably the voice mail from my agent telling me she’d sold Breathers to Random House. I’d spent eighteen years working toward becoming a published novelist, so that was the moment when my dreams finally came true. I still have the message from my agent on my cell phone.
Q: Lucky Bastard has a fascinating premise where the lead character can poach luck. Where did you come up with this concept?
A: Lucky Bastard is another novel based on a short story, one I wrote in 2004 titled “Softland.” That short story, and the concept of stealing luck, was inspired by a Spanish film called Intacto, which I saw in 2002. Or 2003. I can’t remember. In any case, the film dealt with the idea that luck is like a commodity that flows from the unlucky to the lucky. While Intacto tends to focus on high-stakes games played between those who possess large amounts of luck, I took the idea in a somewhat different direction.
Q: If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?
A: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I read it last year and have recommended it to everyone I know. It’s a beautifully written novel about the power of words, told from the point-of-view of Death. And I know this is cheating because you asked for just one, but a close second would be Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
Q: Your novels seem to defy a specific genre. How would you categorize yourself as a writer?
A: When you write dark comedy and social satire with a supernatural or fantastic edge, there aren’t a whole lot of other writers sitting at the same table. I don’t think I’d classify my books in a specific genre. Not unless there’s a section titled Comedy/Satire/Supernatural in your bookstore. I consider my books Fiction or Fiction and Literature. If that’s where you’re going to find Christopher Moore, Matt Ruff, and Chuck Palahniuk, then it seems like a good place to find me.
Q: How has the digital revolution and the emergence of e-books affected you as a writer?
A: The emergence of e-books made it possible for me to publish Shooting Monkeys in a Barrel, my collection of short stories that I likely wouldn’t have been able to publish in print. E-books have also created a fantastic market of growth for the future that I think most writers are still wrapping their minds around. Personally, I’m old school. I like the feel of a book in my hand. There’s a ritual and experience that comes with reading a printed book that you can’t get with a digital format. It’s the same with music. You download a song or an album and there’s no physical connection. No holding something tangible in your hands. It’s just bytes. So when it comes to books, it’s unlikely I’ll ever buy an e-reader. Unless books become extinct. Which I personally think would be the end of civilization. Maybe the Mayans were right.
Q: In Lucky Bastard the city of San Francisco is almost a character in the novel. What kind of research did you incorporate to make the details of the setting come alive?
A: Since I live in San Francisco, doing the research was a little easier, as I was able to visit most of the places to add some detail. But I still used web sites and Google maps when the weather wouldn’t cooperate or when I was feeling lazy. I also ran a series of posts on my blog titled The Lucky Bastard San Francisco Blog Tour, where I talked about the locations that appear in Lucky Bastard and included photos and background info as to the writing of the novel. Feel free to check it out on my web site if you’re interested.
Q: Who is your favorite writer?
A: That’s a tough call. Obviously Chuck Palahniuk and Stephen King would have to be the top two contenders, with maybe Kurt Vonnegut thrown in as a dark horse. I suppose I could add Charlie Kaufman and Wes Anderson to the mix if we’re including screenwriters. But out of all of them, although I wouldn’t re-read all of his books, there’s only one author who has written more than a dozen novels and short story collections that I could read again and again and enjoy just as much as I did the first time. So the winner, hands down, is Stephen King.
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