Brian K. Morris: Give Me Permission and a Word Count

Brian K. Morris is an independent publisher, freelance hybrid author, business mentor, Facebook famous YouTuber, occasional actor, "award-winning" playwright, and former mortician's assistant. A professional freelance writer for over 20 years, Brian has been a full-timer since 2012. 

Tell us a bit about your latest work.

My latest book is The Terrors. It’s a reimagining of the classic Nedor Comics character, The Black Terror. It caters to my love of crime stories, old comic books, and outrageous conspiracy theories while being mindful of the time’s attitudes toward the under-represented.

What are the themes and subjects you tend to revisit in your work?

I grew up on the Doc Savage and Shadow reprints, as well as Superman comics, so I enjoy working with characters who do the right thing, and who use their gifts to improve the lives of others, just because it’s the correct thing to do. Also, that when life gets weird, someone will step up to be a little weirder and fix things.

What happened in your life that prompted you to become a writer?

I grew up in the country in my formative years where I didn’t have any playmates. So, I filled my idle time with comic books and television, back when the latter was still a luxury. 

When I read everything and the four TV stations we could get ran out of cartoons, I started making up my own adventures for my beloved characters. However, I was doing cross-company team-ups before anyone thought of putting Superman and Spider-Man together. Heck, it was before Spider-Man even came around, but that’s another matter.

I loved making up stories and when my mother informed me that someone received money for putting words inside the balloons of my favorite comics, I was off to the races. 

What inspires you to write? 

Sean, you’ve probably heard people say that creativity of any sort is like a muscle. The more you use it, the easier it becomes to use it, right? Well, what if you get to the point where you can’t stop doing arm curls? Not that I do in real life, you see. But I love the act of creativity. I love the challenge of crafting stories, regardless of where the characters originated.

I’ve been privileged to work with some great creators on their amazing IPs like Abraham Snow, Captain Steven Hawklin, Conrad von Honig; or the original Skyman. I’m flattered to be asked to participate in the party. I also get a kick out of mining the Public Domain for properties like The Black Terror or The Blue Circle, or using them to inspire new versions like Vulcana. 

Give me permission and a word count, let’s see what happens.

What would be your dream project?

I can’t pick just one. I’d love to write a Superman story or two, whether it was in the comics or prose. Same with Doctor Who, any of the Doctors, although I hold a warm spot in my heart for Colin Baker’s version. I also wish I could get the rights to an old television series called Sliders. I love alternate world stories and that show and that show was one of my favorites. But I’m going to send out some pitches soon, so I might get my turn with some of my favorite characters from other media.

If you have any former project to do over to make it better, which one it be, and what would you do?

Again, only one? 

I submitted a science fiction story involving the Mandela Effect that never saw print, to my knowledge.I would love to rewrite that story to give all the ideas I crammed into the tale room to breathe. It was around 5,000 words and it needed to be a novella. It was a case of taking everything I knew about the Mandella Effect and trying to stuff it into a story, but removing the plot to make all that nonsense fit.

What inspires you to write?

I openly fanboy over my wonderful friends in the writing community. I love the work of so many of them, that I want to keep working, keep improving, so I remain worthy to stay in their company.

What writers have influenced your style and technique?

You deserve a better answer than the obvious, and that’s “all of them.”

But if I had to pull some names from the mix, I’d say Don Pendleton, Harlan Ellison, Stan Lee, Steven Moffit, Roy Thomas, Richard Sapir, Warren Murphy, Denny O’Neil, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, along with my friends in New Pulp…and I’ll stop now because that list will change before I finish this sentence.

Where would you rank writing on the “Is it an art or is it a science” continuum?

When done successfully, I think writing starts out as more a science than an art on the writer’s part. We need to know the rules of grammar, punctuation, story development, etc., or know an editor who does and won’t give a rip about our feelings. And we need to know those rules if only to recognize which of them we’re breaking and why.

I won’t speak for other writers, but I don’t believe I get to call my work “art.” I intend to create entertainment. Anything loftier than that, I leave the categorization to others, preferably several decades after I’m gone.

What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?

Finding time to do the non-artistic parts of my business, mostly promotion of myself and my friends.

As for the creative act itself, the most challenging component is plotting. The story needs to be different from what everyone else has done or is doing, supplying genuine surprises for the reader, and remaining true to the characters at their core. The balancing act for all that is my greatest challenge.

How do your writer friends help you become a better writer? Or do they not?

They most certainly do! Like I said, I’m inspired by reading their work. I love knowing such talented people…and I’d drop names like they’re hot, but I don’t want to leave anyone out by accident. I hope they know who they are because I like to remind them. 

What does literary success look like to you?

That’s a great question… and this is a stalling tactic. 

It’s easy to judge success by financial standards. I make no bones that my ultimate financial goal is to bring my wife Cookie home from her nine-to-five to edit for me, and others, full-time. 

But literary success to me means that people enjoy my work, talk about it favorably, share my work with others, and maybe leave me more reviews on the platform where they bought the book.

Any other upcoming projects you would like to plug?

Get the power strip ready because I’ve got the plugs! #alwayspromote

I’m currently working on sequels to The Terrors and Vulcana: Rebirth of the Champion, as well as some short story pitches for some anthologies that delight me.

Currently, I'm also editing an anthology about one of my creations, Doc Saga, an ageless white shaman. This character first appeared in Pulp Reality #2 from Stormgate Press (#alwaysprmooteyourfriends). The book will contain new stories from Cindy Koepp, Clyde Hall, Paul Barile, Rick Bradley, and Charles F. Millhouse, along with myself. 

In addition, I hope to get my first audiobook out based on my best-selling book, Santastein, with the vocal talents of David E. Laker, as well as one based on The Terrors.

As if that wasn’t enough, I should have a novel coming out in 2024 from another publisher, as well as a series of short stories from another still.

Plus, I’m still doing my blog, “Every Blog Deserves a Name,” for my Patreon friends.

For more information, visit:

www.RisingTide.pub for information on my books, my broadcasting, and how to join my Patreon team, as well as my monthly insider information e-mail. 

John Bruening: At Any Given Moment

John Bruening is, in his own words, at any given moment a writer, editor, publisher, artist, marketer, creator, dad, and husband.

He has been a professional writer and editor since the 1980s in a variety of disciplines: journalism, magazine editing, marketing, advertising and small-press book editing. He has won two awards for feature writing (2000 and 2011) from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is a co-founder and editor for Ohio-based Flinch Books, and the editor-in-chief of ARC Magazine, a quarterly publication covering the welding and fabrication culture.

Tell us a bit about your latest work…

This past April, Jim Beard and I published OCCUPIED PULP on our Flinch Books imprint. (For those who may not be familiar with Flinch, we publish novels and anthologies that span a variety of genres – adventure, mystery, horror, occult, and more – and it’s all written and packaged in the spirit of classic pulp fiction.) OCCUPIED PULP is a collection of short stories set in Allied-occupied Europe and Japan in the months immediately following the end of World War II – a time and place where the map of half the world was being redrawn and a whole new global balance of power was taking shape. The war was over, but old scores were still being settled and the geopolitical intrigue was getting into high gear. We have a great lineup of writers in this book: Will Murray, Patricia Gilliam, Bobby Nash, William Patrick Maynard and Justin Bell. In addition to co-editing the book, I also contributed a story of my own called “Searching for Benito.” Everyone on this project was on their A-game – not just the writers but also the cover artist (Adam Shaw) and the designer (Maggie Ryel). The end result is something we’re very proud of.

Just a few weeks prior to OCCUPIED PULP, Mechanoid Press issued WAR FOR MONSTER EARTH, the third and final installment in the Monster Earth trilogy originally developed several years ago by James Palmer and Jim Beard. I contributed a story to this anthology called “Titans of Tropic Fire,” which takes place in the Amazon jungle of South America. Anyone who’s been following my work for the last few years will know that stories about radioactive, fire-breathing kaiju in an apocalyptic battle for global domination is way outside of my wheelhouse. On top of that, my story had to fit into the context of a larger story arc established by an editor and five other contributing writers, so that was additionally challenging. But it felt good to stretch myself a little bit, and I think I pulled it off well enough not to embarrass myself. (Then again, the book has yet to receive many reviews, so it may be too early to tell).

What happened in your life that prompted you to become a writer?

I don’t know that there was one singular event. I think it was more of an evolution. I was consuming stories at a young age from the typical sources – and some atypical ones too. In the earliest days – the late 1960s in my case – it was animated cartoons and comics (my infatuation with the latter lasted well into adulthood). Then it was paperback novels, television, and movies – including a lot of black and white B-movies and cliffhanger serials. I was even listening to recordings of old-time radio dramas, which my dad turned me onto when I was no more than 10 or 12 years old. I’m pretty sure there weren’t too many kids in the mid-1970s who had much familiarity with the golden age of radio drama.

At some point in my late teens and early twenties, I started sticking my toe in the water and writing short stories of my own. They were pretty bad, but I kept coming back to it off and on over the years. At the same time, I was starting a career in newspaper and magazine journalism, so I was writing news stories and feature articles every day from the mid-'80s onward. By the time I was in my late twenties, I took a step back and looked at everything I had been doing and I realized I was a writer. So there was no pivotal moment. It was a gradual discovery of what I was good at and what I wanted to do with it.

What inspires you to write?

Good stories. Stories about individuals or small groups of people – sometimes fictional and sometimes in the real world – who have to dig deep and harness all their inner resources to overcome impossible obstacles and impossible odds to save the day or save the world.

I’m also inspired by other writers, the ones who take their craft seriously without taking themselves too seriously. And I think “craft” is the keyword here. I admire the writer who keeps putting the words on the page and keeps hammering and polishing, even during those stretches where the lightning bolt of inspiration isn’t striking. I think that’s part of the fascination of the original pulp era for me. It’s not just the stories themselves, but the people who generated them. We’re talking about writers whose livelihoods depended on cranking out the words, so they did it day after day and they rarely let up. In the process, some of them got really good at it. Not all, granted, but some. That unrelenting approach is something that inspires me.

What are the themes and subjects you tend to revisit in your work?

The gray area between the law and justice has been an interesting space to explore. I didn’t know it when I was writing the first Midnight Guardian book (Hour of Darkness), but I later realized that some of the inspiration had come from THE UNTOUCHABLES, the 1987 Brian DePalma film. The question that drives that entire movie is: How far are you willing to go and what limits (legal, ethical, moral, etc.) are you willing to test to accomplish your mission? It’s a question that comes up in the first Guardian book, and to some degree the second one. I even borrowed Sean Connery’s recurring line of dialogue in THE UNTOUCHABLES, “What are you prepared to do?” and inserted it into the second book.

If the question is about a specific time period, I’m pretty fascinated by the years between the Great Depression and World War II. It was a moment in history (if 15 or 16 years can be called a moment) when the state of the world was very precarious – first economically, and then geopolitically. Everything was uncertain and anything could happen, not just on the battlefront but here at home too. As a result, people were often forced to make hard decisions with potentially life-changing consequences. Those are the moments when the great stories emerge.

What would be your dream project?

Funny you should ask, because one of them just came my way in June when I was commissioned by Moonstone books to write a Green Hornet story for an upcoming issue of their DOUBLE SHOT magazine. This is a character who’s been all over the place since his inception in 1936: radio, comics, two cliffhanger serials in the 1940s, one season of television in the 1960s, a few short-story anthologies in the past ten or twelve years, and a feature-length film in 2011 (granted, not many Green Hornet fans are terribly enthusiastic about the last entry on that list). So I’m looking forward to making my small contribution to this 85-year legend.

Another character I’ve always been fond of is Spy Smasher, created in 1939 for Fawcett Comics by artist C.C. Beck and writer Bill Parker. Spy Smasher got the big-screen treatment in a well-crafted serial produced by Republic Pictures in 1942. Of all the serials ever made, this is probably my favorite, and I can say Spy Smasher was part of the inspiration for The Midnight Guardian. So it would be great to have the chance to go back and write a story of my own about Spy Smasher’s ongoing crusade against saboteurs in the years leading up to and during World War II.

What writers have influenced your style and technique?

I started reading Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series shortly after I finished college in the mid-1980s. Since then, I’ve read all the books in the series at least once, and some more than once. Parker was great at writing snappy dialogue, and Spenser was the ultimate smart-ass private detective. After reading Parker for a couple years, I read Raymond Chandler’s THE  BIG SLEEP, and I realized that Parker was riffing on Chandler in some respects, so I started reading Chandler as well. A couple people (not many, but a couple) have told me that my Midnight Guardian books read a little bit like Chandler. The mere mention of my name and Chandler’s in the same sentence is laughable, but I humbly accept the compliment.

There’s also Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct series. McBain was great at throwing the spotlight on the often tedious and unglamorous aspects of police procedure and detective work and somehow making it all fascinating. I admire his ability to riff on various aspects of New York and Manhattan to build a city that’s completely fictional but completely believable at the same time.

If you have any former project to do over to make it better, which one would it be and what would you do?

Luckily, there’s nothing I’ve written (so far at least) that makes me cringe when I look back at it, but I do believe the expression that “the devil is in the details.” I tend to sweat the small stuff. There are bits and pieces of larger stories that I wish I could go back and rewrite – maybe make an opening scene a little stronger, or make a chapter a little tighter. But I think I’ve had the wisdom to recognize the really godawful stuff and keep it in the drawer where it belongs.

Writers often get asked why they write. There are a million different answers, and some of them can be fairly pretentious. I write in the hope that I’ll continue to get better at it. Unfortunately, that means I’m learning the craft and refining it in front of an audience, which can be unnerving at times. 

Where would you rank writing on the “Is it art or is it science” continuum? Why?

This circles back to something I mentioned earlier. I tend to think of writing as “art versus craft” rather than “art versus science.” And in the context of that equation, I’m probably 25 percent art and 75 percent craft. I do get the occasional lightning bolt between the eyes that leaves me feeling like I just connected with something greater than myself, but I also spend a lot of time just typing one word and then another and then another to get to the end of the chapter or the end of the book.

There’s a great quote by Jack London about the relationship between hard work and inspiration. It often gets truncated to the point where it loses some of its impact, but the entire quote is: “Don’t loaf and invite inspiration. Light out after it with a club, and if you don’t get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it.” This, to me, is what it’s all about. On those days when you don’t feel all that inspired, you just have to keep writing regardless. Because if you do, something good will inevitably emerge.

What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?

Plotting. Setting the characters and circumstances in motion to make a compelling story that comes to a logical and satisfying conclusion. I try to map a lot of it out at the front end of the process, so that when the writing starts, it’s a little easier (not easy, but easier) to get where I want to go without getting hung up on detours that go nowhere. So in the great plotter-versus-pantser debate, I’m definitely in the former camp. I have nothing but respect for those in the latter, but if I don’t have some kind of plan going into the process, I’m afraid I would wander aimlessly in the desert for years.

How do your writer friends help you become a better writer? Or do they not?

I’ve made a conscious effort in recent years to expand my creative circle and get to know more writers. The mere fact that some of these folks have reciprocated my efforts to establish relationships and friendships is a form of inspiration and encouragement all its own.

I mentioned Jim Beard earlier. He’s definitely a writer and definitely a friend. But he’s also my publishing partner, which means that if he and I are going to run a business, I have to get my share of the writing and editing projects done in a timely way and to a certain standard of quality. So he creates a layer of accountability that I might not have otherwise.

There are others. William Patrick Maynard has always been supportive, and he’s been good at the occasional pep talk in those moments when my stamina and/or confidence start to wane a little bit. Just being connected to friends who work hard at the craft – regardless of where they are in terms of their own creative development – is something that rubs off and makes me better.

What does literary success look like to you?

Would I love to be on someone’s bestseller list? Sure. But until that happens, I guess my version of success would be a combination of consistent output and a consistent readership. In other words, if I’m writing and publishing on a regular basis – something new at least once or twice a year, and something always in the pipeline – and if there’s a readership that’s interested in coming back for each new piece of work and spending the time (and yes, the money) to read it, then I guess I’m doing something right.

It feels weird to say this, but retirement is less than ten years away. But when I say “retirement,” I’m merely talking about the time when I stop punching someone else’s clock and start punching my own. The writing will continue long after that transition. I plan to do some version of this for as long as I can breathe, and when I can’t anymore, I hope to leave behind a substantial body of work for others to enjoy after I’m gone. That sounds like success to me.

Any other upcoming projects you would like to plug?

There are things I can talk about and things that are still under wraps for the time being.

Flinch Books will publish another anthology around the fall of this year. The collection will include ten stories in all, and I’m co-editing the project and writing the introduction. At the moment, I can’t offer specific details about the genre or the lineup of writers, but I imagine we’ll be able to say more by late summer.

In addition, I’ve written a post-apocalyptic sci-fi adventure for the third issue of PULP REALITY, published by Charles F. Millhouse at Stormgate Press. I’m currently working with Damian Aviles, an artist based in Mexico City, to develop some illustrations for the story. PULP REALITY #3 should be available late this year – around November or December.

I already mentioned the Green Hornet story for Moonstone. I’m not certain of the publication date, but I’m inclined to say it will be before the end of 2021.

The third Midnight Guardian novel is also in the works, but the timing on this one has been a little tricky. The story has a holiday setting and theme, so the original plan was to publish it in early November of this year. However, it was pretty obvious by mid-year that the projects listed above were going to eat up all of my bandwidth over the next few months, so the Next Midnight Guardian novel will publish in November 2022.

One project that isn’t necessarily writing but certainly writing-related: I’ve been trying for more than a year to put the finishing touches on my website and get it online. It’s way overdue, so I’ve made it a priority to get that finished this summer – which is one more reason why the next novel has been pushed back.

So regarding your earlier question about what success looks like: Having a steady stream of projects in the pipeline can be challenging, but I consider it a sign that I’m doing something right.

For more information, visit:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/john.bruening.9

Twitter: @jcbruening

Instagram: @jcbruening

Bobby Nash Is a Busy Boy! (Multiple Releases Abound!)

SNOW SHORTS #4: SNOW AMBITION

Abraham Snow is back! SNOW AMBITION now available!

BEN Books welcomes author Brian K. Morris to #TeamSnow with the debut of SNOW SHORTS #4: SNOW AMBITION.

When an ex-flunky devises an insane scheme to get back on the good side of crime lord Miguel Ortega, he finds James Sheppard who could make the plan succeed. Unfortunately, Sheppard is really Abraham Snow, to say nothing of allegedly being dead.

If Snow walks away from the plan, his family could die. If he goes along with the scheme, he could die, this time for real. Ambition can be a real killer.

Snow Shorts #4: Snow Ambition is available as a $0.99 ebook at the following retailers:

• Amazon US (ebook) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B093Y362YZ
• Amazon UK (ebook) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B093Y362YZ
• Amazon CA (ebook) https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B093Y362YZ

Find more worldwide links at www.abrahamsnow.com

• Written by Brian K. Morris: https://bkmorris56.wixsite.com
• Cover art by Jeffrey Hayes of PlasmaFire Graphics:  www.plasmafiregraphics.com
• Published by BEN Books: www.ben-books.com
• Snow created by Bobby Nash: www.bobbynash.com
• Learn more about SNOW at www.abrahamsnow.com

Remember, in #TheSummerofSnow every day is a #SnowDay!

#BENBooks #SnowShorts #Snow #AbrahamSnow #FreshSnow

Interview requests, press materials, and review copies can be requested by contacting Bobby Nash via BEN Books at bobby@bobbynash.com

PULP REALITY #2

(Featuring SNOW CHASE, a new Snow Short)

Are you ready for some #FreshSnow? #TheSummerOfSnow continues in Pulp Reality #2 - A Pulp Adventure Magazine! Now On Sale!

Stormgate Press Presents: Ten new short stories from today’s leading authors and illustrators in the New Pulp genre. Packed with Pirates, Private Eyes, Aliens, automatons, villains and vigilantes. High adventure, wondrous fantasy, mysterious horror and startling science fiction await you. Be transported to astonishing places and travel to amazing times in the Golden Age, Pulp Style. This is Pulp Reality 2.

About Snow Chase by Bobby Nash: Archer and Abraham Snow are back in action! At a secluded mountain resort, someone is targeting one of Snow Security's clients. Can Snow catch the assassin in time? Find out in SNOW CHASE by Bobby Nash with illustration by Clayton Murwin. #Snow

Pulp Reality #2 is available at the following retailers:

• Amazon US (paperback) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B093RS7HW9
• Amazon CA (paperback) https://www.amazon.ca/Pulp-Reality-Action-Adventure-Publication/dp/B093RS7HW9
• Amazon UK (paperback) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pulp-Reality-Action-Adventure-Publication/dp/B093RS7HW9

Learn more about #Snow at www.abrahamsnow.com

DOMINO LADY THREESOME
IN COMIC SHOPS!

It's full-out action, adventure, romance and intrigue, as pulpdom's blonde bombshell avenger returns! When just one hero isn't enough, Domino Lady and her companions come together to: thwart a killer, stop a nefarious Nazi plot, uncover mysterious happenings on a Hollywood set, investigate the death of a woman dressed like Domino Lady, and enjoy a night out on the town where murder and mayhem ensue! Guest-starring Golden Amazon, The Veil, Bulletgirl, Woman in Red, Dara the Viking Girl, and Spitfire Sanders! Includes the previously released issues 1 and 2 by Nancy Holder and Bobby Nash plus 3 unpublished stories written by Bobby Nash. In Shops: May 5, 2021

Also available for pre-order at http://moonstonebooks.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=1241

• Domino Lady: Threesome
• Written by Bobby Nash and Nancy Holder.
• Art by Marco Santiago, Wendell Cavalcanti, Sergio Ibañez, and Jordi Perez.
• Cover Art by Glen Fernandez.
• Published by Moonstone Books
• IN STORES MAY 5, 2021!  

GET READY FOR A SUMMER OF EVIL...

BEN Books and author Bobby Nash are thrilled to announce that Mark G. Bielecki has signed on to narrate the audiobooks for the EVIL WAYS and EVIL INTENT thriller novels featuring FBI Special Agent Harold Palmer. "Mark is an excellent narrator and has a tremendous voice that will bring Harold Palmer and company to life. I'm excited to hear it," says Bobby Nash about the project. "Evil Ways was my first published novel and the start of the BEN Books crime/thriller universe. Welcome to Team Evil, Mark."

Bobby and Mark also collaborated on the audio for Fightcard: Barefoot Bones, which you can find here: https://www.amazon.com/Fight-Card-Barefoot-Bones-Book/dp/B08QSNLZH6 

It is also available in paperback and ebook here: https://www.amazon.com/Fight-Card-Barefoot-Bones-20/dp/1492827479 Read it free with Kindle Unlimited.

EVIL WAYS is available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook. You can read it free with Kindle Unlimited. Find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Evil-Ways-Harold-Palmer-Thriller/dp/1480253456

EVIL INTENT is currently being serialized at www.patreon.com/bobbynash and will release later in 2021 in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audio.

Keep watching www.ben-books.com and www.bobbynash.com for updates.

• Learn more about Mark G. Bielecki at https://markbielecki.com
• Learn more about Bobby Nash at www.bobbynash.com
• Learn more about Evil Ways and Evil Intent at www.ben-books.com