Welcome to Author Interview Monday here at The Musings of a Manic Blonde: A place to read about writing. This week, we continue our two week visit with author/service woman Rachel Brune. Last week we talked about her time as a combat journalist and how being in the Army has an impact on her writing. This week we delve more into her writing and the process she goes through when writing a story, as well as talking more about the projects she’s working on.
MOMB: With all of the projects you’re talking about, do you feel like you have a specific genre that you write?
RACHEL: I write a lot of steampunk. I didn’t even realize how much steampunk I was writing until I looked at my Short Story page and saw almost every one listed was “steampunk (insert genre mashup here).” One of the favorite questions of my NC-based writers’ group is: “So…what genre would you say this is?” and every time I dread trying to answer. I’ve resorted to saying “It’s … transgenre!” 😉 When I’m writing non-fiction, I tend to employ a journalistic style, which I have to conscientiously avoid whenever I’m trying to write academically.
When I’m writing fiction, it’s really a crap shoot. Ideas pop up, and sometimes they are science fiction, sometimes speculative fiction, often steampunk (my favorite!), sometimes literary fiction. About the only thing I don’t write is chick lit. I’ve even tried my hand at romantic fiction, at the behest of a friend who works for a publisher. That particular work in progress is on hold, though, because I have found it’s hard to write light-hearted romantic fiction when you are one an unaccompanied tour in the middle of the desert…
While this system of genre-mashing works for me, I will say it’s difficult when you’re ready to shop the piece around. Most of the categories on Duotrope.com don’t lend themselves readily to mixing and matching…
MOMB: Since some of our readers may not know, what exactly is steampunk?
RACHEL: Picture Victorian science fiction, or influences thereof. Take a little HG Wells, add in a little “Wild, Wild, West,” add copper, goggles, leather and mechanics and top it all off with a dollop of subversive gazes and a do-it-yourself ethos/aesthetic. And you will start to have an idea of what Steampunk is. For some, it’s primarily a visual aesthetic, showcased by costuming. For others, it’s music and films. For me, although I enjoy the musical and visual aesthetics, I find my enjoyment primarily in the written narrative. There is a strong tradition of feminism in steampunk, and it’s established enough so that a writer can find outlet for her stories, but just new enough that the genre conventions are flexible.
MOMB: And while we’re defining things, please explain Duotrope.com.
RACHEL:Duotrope.com is an Internet search site that collects information about literary markets. It used to be free, and is now five bucks a month. You can search by a variety of genres, lengths, pay scales, publishing formats, etc. You can also add markets to it if you can’t find one, and you can track your submissions either on the site or through an RSS feed. I think it is a good investment, and have placed pretty much all my short stories due to searches on Duotrope. It definitely helps keep me organized for the price of one less latte a month.
MOMB: So tell our readers what books you have out.
RACHEL: I have a book of poetry, photography and short essays, “Echoes and Premonitions” available on Amazon. This was a book that came out of a couple of different projects – photographs from when I was serving as a combat journalist, essays that came from my first (unfinished) NaNo project, and poems I wrote as a daily poetry journal on my second deployment.
I just released “Soft Target,” available on Kindle and Smashwords. This is a novel-length action adventure about a cop and a reporter who must work together to stop a terrorist plot in NYC. Although it’s fiction, I drew on a lot of my previous experience and from about five years of interviewing people from a variety of walks of life and professions.
MOMB: Do you have a process when it comes to starting a new story?
RACHEL: I wish. That would make it easier. Most of the time, I’m doing something completely not to do with writing, and some idea comes knocking on my brain, and I have to write it down … and all of its little friends and followers … Sometimes I’ll be able to sit down and keep writing it all the way through. Sometimes, it needs to percolate for a couple weeks, months or even years. Sometimes, I write out an outline, and sometimes, it just flows. I will say that keeping a notebook and a pen around at all times has become a habit, and one of the constants from story to story is a detective search throughout my various notes, post-its and texts to myself to try to figure out what I wrote down.
MOMB: Do you follow an outline when writing or just write whatever seems to come next?
RACHEL: It depends…I will often not start with an outline, but then as I write, the ideas for the rest of the story will pop up and so I’ll develop an outline as I go. The one or two times I’ve actually written out an outline, I found myself completely unable to start the project. I felt as if I had already done all the work, so why write it? If that makes sense….
MOMB: How do you handle writer’s block?
RACHEL: Usually for me, writer’s block comes from not being able to set aside three or four hours to concentrate on getting into the “flow” state. I’m currently stationed in Kuwait, working six days a week, about 10-12 hours a day. Plus, I’m teaching a criminal justice class at the local satellite college (Central Texas College.) Plus, I play music at mass, and take Russian lessons. So, there’s not really a lot of time for me to first of all, let my brain relax enough to start writing, and second of all, put aside a chunk of time that I can just work. This is one of the reasons I don’t really have any major writing projects planned for my time out here. But yeah, I find that setting aside that good chunk of time, allowing my brain to unwind, and then making sure of no distractions, can really help. Also, sometimes reading books on writing can help spur ideas. I find that books such as the NY Times anthologies “Writers on Writing” can spur ideas from the authors’ explanation of process and motivation. And then, sometimes, I just need to set a project aside and give myself permission to walk away and come back when my brain is ready.
MOMB: What’s your editing process like?
RACHEL: Full of pain and tears. 😀 For novels, I’ll usually put a piece aside for about a year. I just have to step away from the thing and get some perspective. Then, I’ll subject my closest friends to a reading, using chocolate and Barnes and Noble gift cards as bribes. For short stories, it’s a little less painless. I’ll do a once-over for grammar and spelling, and then I’ll send it out to my two writing groups. Yes – two. One I started with when I was stationed in Texas, and I find them to be absolutely helpful with the harsh criticism. The group I’m with in North Carolina (or rather, will be back to) is not so good with the harshies, but they are really great to bounce new material off.
Once I receive the critiques back, I’ll go through the piece very carefully. By this time, I’m pretty good at selecting the criticism I should DEFINITELY pay attention to, and understanding when criticism might be coming from a misunderstanding of genre conventions, or perhaps a newbie’s need to say something even if he/she isn’t sure what to say. And sometimes, I pull my writer card and decide to keep that comma right where I put it, dangit! But I definitely value the feedback that I get from my groups – it has made me an infinitely better writer, as has the ability to read and critique others’ works.
MOMB: How much of your past experiences finds itself in your writing?
RACHEL: Pretty much everything I’ve experienced shows up one way or another. But the tricky thing is, I can’t do it deliberately. If I set out to write something, and say, okay, I’m going to use THIS explicitly as the basis for this story, it ends up sounding as contrived as it is. But I find that as I write, no matter the genre, something of me makes its way into the story. For instance, I wrote a steampunk detective story about two veterans in New Orleans who are investigating a series of murders. (Which, hopefully, will be published by eSteampunk Magazine … if they haven’t gone out of business after accepting my story … always a risk in small press publishing.) I didn’t set out to make the characters much more than veterans, but found a lot of my experience shining through. Sometimes, this is what makes it hard to show people my stuff – I’m exposing parts of me I think should be kept to myself. But if I want my characters to be flawed, then the flaws with which I am most familiar, are my own – and so my characters are stuck with them. 🙂
So I do a little segment called Rapid Fire, or at least it would be if we were you know, on the phone, doing this interview. So I’m going to ask questions that have nothing to do with anything we’ve talked about or anything in general really and the object here is to just write down the first thing that comes to mind.
If you could be a tree, what kind of tree would you be?
A birch. Just because I love them.
Outside of the books and the aforementioned Rum drop, name one person and three things you could be stranded on an island with.
My husband Rob, our dogs Brandy and Captain Morgan, and the Library of Congress.
Who would play you in the movie of your life?
Robert DeNiro
What’s the first book you read that made you say “I want to do this”?
The Writers Almanac (present in the fourth-grade from my Uncle Eli.)
What is one piece of advice the adult Rachel would go back and tell the 18 year old Rachel?
Spend more time in the woods.
MOMB: Thank you so much for spending two weeks with us, here at The Musings of a Manic Blonde Writing Blog. As we close out, tell us, with everything you’ve got going on, what’s next for Rachel Brune?
RACHEL: Woof. First – some sleep!! I’m working on promoting Soft Target, available on Smashwords (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/310861) and Kindle (http://www.amazon.com/Soft-Target-ebook/dp/B00CLF7WP8/). I’m continuously working on my blog (http://www.infamous-scribbler.com) especially, the Characters & Conversations feature. I’m currently finalizing my guest list, but so far June is going to be an “Indie Author Month,” and I am going to have July as “The American Entrepreneur.” I’m thinking about an artist or musician month for August, and then September is going to be “Teacher Appreciation.”
Meanwhile, I have a feature-length screenplay that I am submitting to festivals, and am about to embark on edits for Cold Run, my werewolf secret agent novel, in the hopes of querying it around this summer. So, I’ve got a full plate. But it’s a delicious meal!
It has been amazing having Rachel on the blog and we here at M.O.M.B. would like to take this time to thank her for serving our country. Thank you for all you do!
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