Tuesday 20 March 2012

Author Interview: Ken Brosky

Ken Brosky has written The Unauthorized Biography Of Michele Bachmann (And Other Stories).


1. What is your name and where do you call home?
Ken Brosky. I’m currently living in Madison, Wisconsin.

2. What is the name of your most recent book and if you had to sum it up in 20 or less words, what would you say?
The Unauthorized Biography of Michele Bachmann (and other stories). It’s a collection of short stories that have been previously published in literary magazines. It’s also incredibly cheap on Kindle!

3. Do you have plans for a new book? Is this book part of a series?
I’m on the fourth draft of a new book, which is about schizophrenia. I really loved writing it. I’m also thinking about writing a sequel to my fantasy novel, The King of Blades. If The King of Blades keeps selling well.

4. What or who inspired you to start writing? And how long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing since high school. I wrote a lot of things early on that were blatant Stephen King rip-offs. Well, the ideas were original, but they all had this quirky Stephen King-eque sort of ending. Every single one. Comics were what inspired me to write, though. I used to write and draw comics all the time and then sell them to my parents.

5. Do you gift books to readers for book reviews?
I do! All they have to do is email me.

6. How did you come up with the cover? Who designed the cover of your book?
Chris Smith designed the cover for the book. Totally blew me away. I couldn’t believe he put together something so amazing. When I saw the cover, I realized this book needed to be in bookstores, so I designed a print edition and started contacting stores. The book is available now through Amazon and other outlets.

7. Which is your favourite cover of all the books you have written?
Definitely this one designed by Chris Smith.

8. Is there anything you would change about your book covers?
Not a thing. He does a great job.

9. Would you have different book covers for different countries?
Nah. I’d be ecstatic just to know someone in another country is reading the book, for cryin out loud.

10. How did you come up with the title for your book?
It’s the title of one of the stories in the book. I learned as I was going through all my published stories that I really don’t have a lot of good titles. I couldn’t exactly be choosy when it came to figuring out what to name this book.

11. Is there anything you would change about your book? And why?
Oh, you always have regrets about published stories. Once you see your story in print, you notice things you wish you’d changed. That probably never goes away, though. Sometimes, it’s best to just let it go and move on.

12. Do you have a book trailer? And what are your thoughts on book trailers?
I haven’t put one together. I would imagine mine would be somewhat humorous. I’d like to interview myself and in the process get into a shouting match with myself.

13. Do you prefer e-books, paperbacks, hardcovers or audiobooks?
I like reading e-books when I’m exercising. It’s a good 30-minute stretch where you can really lose yourself. Pretty much got through all of George R.R. Martin’s books like that.

14. Are you a self-published / Indie author?
So far …

15. Have you ever read a book more than once? And if so what was it?
I really haven’t, except for literature classes. It’s awful, I know … but there are so many good books out there that it’s tough to justify.

16. Have you ever bought a specific edition of a book because of its cover? (For example a UK, US or Canadian version)
Nah. Oh, wait … I think I have, like, six different covers for an X-Men comic book. Each one is a different group of X-Men fighting Magneto. That’s pretty cool.

17. Have you ever read a book just based on it’s cover?
Necroscope, by Brian Lumley. It’s easy to take a chance on a book when there’s a vampire skull on the cover.

18. Has the quality of the cover of a book ever put you off of reading it?
No, but the inside of a book almost did it for me. I almost put down Wetbones, by John Shirley. It was a great book, awesome story, one of his best. But the edition I bought was loaded with grammatical and spelling errors to the point that it got really, really distracting. I fought through it, though.

19. What book are you reading at the moment? And in what format?
I’m reading a book by Tony Judt on my Kindle. I’m also reading a short story collection by Jim Shepard.

20. Do you have any advice for other writers? And what’s the best advice that you have been given when it comes to writing?
Here’s a piece of advice for your antagonist: what does he/she enjoy eating? There’s nothing worse than an antagonist who’s too evil. Too perfectly nasty. Too tough.
Same goes with the protagonist. I’ve read a lot of stories by beginning and intermediate writers who contact me through my editing business and their stories are loaded with heroes who are rich and powerful and smart and basically don’t have any obstacles to overcome. That’s no fun. Make life hard for your characters. We readers revel in it.

21. Where can your readers follow you?





Thankyou so much for taking the time to do this interview and allowing us a glimpse into your writing world!

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