10 Questions with S.G. Browne
1. In Less Than Hero, your heroes get their superpowers by being pharmaceutical guinea pigs. How do you feel about the use of pharmaceutical drugs in our society?
While I do realize that pharmaceutical drugs provide a benefit to many people (I have several friends who couldn’t otherwise function without them), I also believe that they’re marketed to consumers in a way that creates a culture of over-medication and encourages the populace to reach for a pill first and make wholesale changes in their dietary, exercise, and lifestyle habits second. I also think there’s a big issue with a lack of understanding of possible side effects, both by health care providers who don’t always have expertise in the drugs they’re prescribing and by the patients who trust that their doctors know best.
2. Do you outline prior to writing your story, or do you work out the plot as you write?
I discover the story as I write it. In technical writing terms, I’m a pantser—writing by the seat of my pants. Occasionally I do have an idea of where the story is going, but I try to let my characters drive the plot rather than the other way around.
3. If you could pick having one superpower, what would you choose?
It’s always a toss-up for me between flying and invisibility. But today, I’m in more of an invisibility mood, although I would definitely want a special suit that would mimic my superpower so I wouldn’t have to walk around naked. Otherwise I’m just asking to get arrested for indecent exposure.
4. What current writing projects are you working on?
I’ve written some short stories inspired by Karen Russell’s collection St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves and am working on several others. It’s kind of liberating jumping back into writing short fiction and having fun with that. As for novels, I’m bouncing around between a couple ideas and seeing which one sticks.
5. Who is your favorite superhero?
I grew up with reruns of the Batman TV series starring Adam West, so the Dark Knight was my favorite superhero for the bulk of my youth. But as the X-Men has become my favorite superhero franchise, I’d have to go with Wolverine. Or maybe I just want to be Hugh Jackman.
6. Is there an overall theme to your writing?
While it’s not something I consciously set out to do, all of my novels are about figuring out what it is you’re supposed to do with your life. In Breathers, it was finding your purpose in a society in which you have no purpose. In Fated, it was discovering your fate or destiny and a reason for your existence. Big Egos was about figuring out the role you’re supposed to play. And Less Than Hero mixes questions of destiny with finding something that matters and gives your life meaning. So I guess I’m still trying to figure that out for myself. But isn’t that why we’re all here? To figure out our purpose? The thing is the older I get, the more I realize that no one really knows what they’re doing. No matter how much we try to plot out our lives, we’re all just pantsers, making it up as we go.
7. What made you intertwine the setting of Fated and Less Than Hero?
Both novels take place in New York City and both deal with questions of fate or destiny, so as I went along and wrote certain scenes, I started to wonder if I could incorporate characters from Fated into Less Than Hero. Once I decided I could, I chose to make the two novels appear during the same time frame (an undefined year somewhere around 2009-2011) and include actual scenes from Fated that are seen from a different perspective but that work without causing the reader to wonder: What the hell was that all about? It was a fun process and one that I hope readers of both novels will enjoy.
8. What advice do you have for beginning writers?
Don’t quit your day job. Actually, do quit your day job and pursue your passion, but just make sure you can pay your bills because there’s nothing worse than a 30-year-old who still lives at home mooching off his or her parents. But when it comes to writing, write the story you want to read. Write something that matters to you. Something that makes you laugh or cry or sends shivers down your spine. Something that resonates with you. Because if it doesn’t resonate with you, it’s not going to resonate with anyone else.
9. Do you feel that fate is predestined or that people are capable of making their own fate?
I’m not a big believer in predestination. If everything in your life is already determined—every choice, every decision, every moment—then why even bother to get up in the morning? It’s the ability to make a difference in your life, to make good choices and bad choices and to have a say in your life that makes the journey worth taking.
10. Your heroes in Less Than Hero have an odd mix of heroic traits (putting people to sleep; making them blow up in size; create rashes, etc.) What made you choose to have such an eclectic mix of superpowers for your heroes?
Since I was writing a social satire about prescription drugs with clinical trial volunteers as my heroes, it only made sense that they would develop superpowers that were in line with a number of common side effects found on the warning labels for pharmaceutical drugs. So rather than developing the ability to fly, become invisible, or shoot fire out of their fingertips, they develop superpowers that cause vomiting, rashes, seizures, drowsiness, and rapid weight gain.
While I do realize that pharmaceutical drugs provide a benefit to many people (I have several friends who couldn’t otherwise function without them), I also believe that they’re marketed to consumers in a way that creates a culture of over-medication and encourages the populace to reach for a pill first and make wholesale changes in their dietary, exercise, and lifestyle habits second. I also think there’s a big issue with a lack of understanding of possible side effects, both by health care providers who don’t always have expertise in the drugs they’re prescribing and by the patients who trust that their doctors know best.
2. Do you outline prior to writing your story, or do you work out the plot as you write?
I discover the story as I write it. In technical writing terms, I’m a pantser—writing by the seat of my pants. Occasionally I do have an idea of where the story is going, but I try to let my characters drive the plot rather than the other way around.
3. If you could pick having one superpower, what would you choose?
It’s always a toss-up for me between flying and invisibility. But today, I’m in more of an invisibility mood, although I would definitely want a special suit that would mimic my superpower so I wouldn’t have to walk around naked. Otherwise I’m just asking to get arrested for indecent exposure.
4. What current writing projects are you working on?
I’ve written some short stories inspired by Karen Russell’s collection St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves and am working on several others. It’s kind of liberating jumping back into writing short fiction and having fun with that. As for novels, I’m bouncing around between a couple ideas and seeing which one sticks.
5. Who is your favorite superhero?
I grew up with reruns of the Batman TV series starring Adam West, so the Dark Knight was my favorite superhero for the bulk of my youth. But as the X-Men has become my favorite superhero franchise, I’d have to go with Wolverine. Or maybe I just want to be Hugh Jackman.
6. Is there an overall theme to your writing?
While it’s not something I consciously set out to do, all of my novels are about figuring out what it is you’re supposed to do with your life. In Breathers, it was finding your purpose in a society in which you have no purpose. In Fated, it was discovering your fate or destiny and a reason for your existence. Big Egos was about figuring out the role you’re supposed to play. And Less Than Hero mixes questions of destiny with finding something that matters and gives your life meaning. So I guess I’m still trying to figure that out for myself. But isn’t that why we’re all here? To figure out our purpose? The thing is the older I get, the more I realize that no one really knows what they’re doing. No matter how much we try to plot out our lives, we’re all just pantsers, making it up as we go.
7. What made you intertwine the setting of Fated and Less Than Hero?
Both novels take place in New York City and both deal with questions of fate or destiny, so as I went along and wrote certain scenes, I started to wonder if I could incorporate characters from Fated into Less Than Hero. Once I decided I could, I chose to make the two novels appear during the same time frame (an undefined year somewhere around 2009-2011) and include actual scenes from Fated that are seen from a different perspective but that work without causing the reader to wonder: What the hell was that all about? It was a fun process and one that I hope readers of both novels will enjoy.
8. What advice do you have for beginning writers?
Don’t quit your day job. Actually, do quit your day job and pursue your passion, but just make sure you can pay your bills because there’s nothing worse than a 30-year-old who still lives at home mooching off his or her parents. But when it comes to writing, write the story you want to read. Write something that matters to you. Something that makes you laugh or cry or sends shivers down your spine. Something that resonates with you. Because if it doesn’t resonate with you, it’s not going to resonate with anyone else.
9. Do you feel that fate is predestined or that people are capable of making their own fate?
I’m not a big believer in predestination. If everything in your life is already determined—every choice, every decision, every moment—then why even bother to get up in the morning? It’s the ability to make a difference in your life, to make good choices and bad choices and to have a say in your life that makes the journey worth taking.
10. Your heroes in Less Than Hero have an odd mix of heroic traits (putting people to sleep; making them blow up in size; create rashes, etc.) What made you choose to have such an eclectic mix of superpowers for your heroes?
Since I was writing a social satire about prescription drugs with clinical trial volunteers as my heroes, it only made sense that they would develop superpowers that were in line with a number of common side effects found on the warning labels for pharmaceutical drugs. So rather than developing the ability to fly, become invisible, or shoot fire out of their fingertips, they develop superpowers that cause vomiting, rashes, seizures, drowsiness, and rapid weight gain.
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