Interview with Author Stan Brown

Stanley P. Brown always had heroes as a child. Born in Plaquemine, Louisiana to Joseph Harry, a painter, and his wife Vivian LeJeune, a homemaker, these heroes mostly took form in his big brother, Harry, and those populating the pages of Marvel Comics. Realizing he didn’t have the right stuff to be a superhero himself, he concentrated on academics at Louisiana State University and The University of Southern Mississippi (where he earned his doctorate in Exercise Physiology). He went from there to his first academic post at The University of Mississippi. Others followed, as did many scientific publications and several textbooks. But the call of storytelling remained strong in him, and he answered that call with the publication in 2017 of his debut novel.

Question: What is the title and genre of your novels?  Why did you select them?

Answer: The Legacy, Paranormal Thriller with a political bent. I like multiple genre works.

Veiled Memory, Contemporary Sci-Fi/Fantasy. I like stories set in this world and time.

Fallen Wizard, Middle Grade Fantasy. I like children’s fantasy, but set in the real world.

Question:   What inspired these novels? How did it come about?

Answer: In The Legacy, I wanted to write a political thriller with a paranormal element where ALL magic is evil and the “good” fight it.

In Veiled Memory, I wanted to write about the origin of a people that exists in the real world but have remained hidden, so I built the story around a re-mythologization of Stonehenge.

In Fallen Wizard, I wanted to write an all our fantasy centered on American children and create a different mythology, but one with references to popular literature (read it to find out what I mean)

Question:  Could you tell us a little bit about the heroines and/or heroes of your novels?

Answer:  In many ways Harry Black (The Legacy) is selfish, so his arc starts from that point. I hope, though, that there is enough in the character in the beginning that people can also be somewhat sympathize toward him. He definitely has to find the hero within.

In VM, Madeline Alleyn is an academic who is quite disturbed but has managed to be successful all the same while rearing alone triplet daughters. Her arc comes from a place of deep sadness and longing.

In FW, Peter Michaels is just a average 12 year old kid who wants to be great at baseball and better at school. Problem is, things happen around him, like a wizard falling from the sky into his front yard.

Question:   What are you working on now?

Answer:  Just finished the follow-up to VM in The Stonehenge Chronicles trilogy. It’s called The Ruby Ring and will be published Nov 16 by Black Opal Books. My real WIP is a short story in the immediate aftermath of The Legacy (my debut novel). It will be part of an anthology being put out by #WolfPackAuthors, a Twitter cohort of writers I’m a part of. These are done for charities, usually benefiting animals. My second WIP is another children’s mythology called The Captain of Tally Ho. It’s an animal story entirely.

Question:   What made you start writing?

Answer:  Boredom. I was completely bored with my academic life so I decided to publish fiction as a challenge. Loved reading and writing anyway. Turned out to be harder than I anticipated. Stuck with it, plan to keep doing it.

Question:   What advice would you offer to those who are currently writing novels?

Answer:  Many avenues to publish these days and to do so successfully. Just keep at it. Anything worth accomplishing is hard to accomplish, so you need perseverance.

Question:  Where and when will readers be able to obtain your novel?

Answer: Anywhere Black Opal Books makes them available, including all electronic outlets. I also try to place hard copies in Barnes & Noble stores. My website is spbrownbooks.com. Follow me on Twitter @StanleyPBrown.

Question and comments for Stan are welcome!