L.A. Boneyard GIVEAWAY *PRIZE*
Dec 17th, 2009 by Michelle Lauren
Welcome back to my blog! Today, I’m featuring P.A. Brown, author of m/m paranormal and romantic suspense novels such as The Bear Memory of Darkness, and the L.A. series.
P.A. writes for Amber Allure (The erotic imprint of Amber Quill Press), MLR Press and Cheyenne Publishing. Her book L.A. Heat received the 2009 Rainbow Award for Best Novel, Mystery/Thriller.
Today, P.A. chats with us about writing outside the box. She is also giving away a special prize!
TODAY’S GIVEAWAY:
PRAISE for L.A. BONEYARD:
Pat Brown has as sharp an eye for crime-scene forensics as for the ins and outs of gay love among LA’s men in blue.”
—Richard Stevenson, author of the Don Strachey PI novels
Read an excerpt from the book here
UPDATE! Congratulations to George Allwynn! You’ve won a copy of L.A. Boneyard. P.A. will contact you soon to see what format you want.
Without further adieu, I’ll pass the spotlight to Pat.
Write outside the box
The biggest falsehood told to new writers is the phrase, ‘Write what you know.’ If I was to follow that maxim you would read nothing but boring tomes about small town, small minded middle class Canadians – or rather you wouldn’t be reading them since such books would bore even me to tears. If writers didn’t stretch their literary wings past the realms of what we know or have experienced over half of the great and not so great literature of today wouldn’t exist.
I very much doubt Stephanie Meyers ever met a vampire, let alone fell in love with one. I doubt Isaac Asimov traveled to distant planets or knew any humanoid robots, good or bad. And I certainly hope no one thinks Thomas Harris ever dined on anyone’s body parts. Or that Douglas Adams ever had dinner at the restaurant at the end of the universe (though it sounded like fun) And does anyone believe that Laura Baumbach and Josh Lanyon were major drug dealers in Mexico before they wrote Mexican Heat 
If they were, I’d like to hear that story!
I’ve never killed anyone, brutally or otherwise. But I write about it all the time. I’m not a cop, I’m not a medical examiner, or a serial rapist/murderer or a gay man, but I write about all of those things. My books are full of dead and dismembered corpses and the people who pursue them. At one time in my past I used to write Science Fiction, but I’m pretty sure I never made a Jump in hyperspace or ate at a restaurant on a space station circling an alien planet light years from Earth but they were both featured in a trilogy called Flight of the Necromancer which will be published by Bristlecone Pine Press sometime this year.
My point? The world would be a much drier and less colorful place if writers had to experience something before they could write about it. I’ve never killed anybody but I know I’ve had moments where I wished someone would die – have even gone so far as to savor a fantasy about it, but I know I’d never do it. I imagine most people have felt similar urgings. We are all human, we share emotions and needs that cross racial, sexual and geographic bounds.
Somethings are universal, some are cultural. I can explore the universal ones in many forms and with a wide open, exploring mind. The cultural ones are less open to me. I’m quite sure I couldn’t write about a Hindu untouchable kid growing up in Calcutta and I wouldn’t try, though Arthur Golden didn’t feel those restrictions when he wrote the critically acclaimed Memoirs of a Geisha, so I supposed I could try.
What I do write about are gay men and their relationships and lives. To date I think I’ve been fairly successful, judging by the comments I get from reviewers and readers alike. They like and believe in my characters Chris and David, who have come back in my latest release, L.A. Boneyard, a dark novel about human trafficking and the toll it takes on its human victims.
Mostly I write what I like and what I want to read. I think that’s a better maxim than write what you know. A whole lot more fun, too. Personally I think it’s good to challenge ourselves as writers and as the hoary cliché says, “Think outside the box.” Well, I say write outside the box .
TODAY’S GIVEAWAY
1 Commenter will win a copy of P.A.’s new release, L.A. Boneyard.
Darn, my second career as a notorious felon has been revealed. Or not! Nice post, Pat. Loved your guys in this one!
Pat, I really enjoy your writing, your interest are so diverse. Lynx Woods was bittersweet and heart wrenching, it was wonderful read. The Bear was shapeshifting which I love so much, a sweeter type love story and Your LA series is fast paced and edgy with a bite. I enjoy your writing about what you don’t know :) Please keep it up!
I agree with what you are saying here Pat. The only limits are what you are willing to imagine. Of course research to keep the ordinary aspects in a book within reason is pretty important.
This is a wonderful post and if authors only wrote what they new book sales would plummet and I’d have to find something else that I could love as much as I love reading.
You made some excellent points and I am always surprised nowadays that so many people seem to focus on the personal life of the author rather than on the skill, beauty and emotional impact of what they write.
Keep on writing what you like as it is certainly what I want to read.
I like your statement that you write what you want to read. I agree with Rhyss D., it’s what I want to read, too… as do many other fans.
Thanks,
Tracey D
L.A. Boneyard sounds like a great read. I really enjoyed your interview and your comments were great. I agree with you on most, even though I am not a writer. The excerpt was very good.
Looking forward to following this series. Sounds awesome!
Happy Holidays
<3 I love Pat Brown!
I agree 100% with what you have to say.
From all the books I enjoy owning — I bet most of them were written by through research and not by life experiance (at least in some cases – like yours, I HOPE it’s research coupled with imagination!)
Which is fine with me — as long as the author’s research is done well. Nothing shaggs me more than to come across shody research on a topic I know inside and out.
Okay – there is a margin for errors – but you know what I’m sayin’. It ruins the whole book for me and if that happens, chances are I will never read another book by that author again.
Being a pre-published author in the making, I only demand from the authors I currently purchase books from – they put the same kind of effort and care into crafting their story for their readers, as I do for my (future) readers.
And for me, I give it my 110% best or I don’t send it to an editor. My readers deserve my best or nothing at all.
If there is any doubt in my research, I call, I ask, or I ask other authors who have written on the topic well enough to impress me with. In this day and age, there is no excuse for shoddy research.
The way I look at it is – the author has one chance to impress me – beginning with the first book I pick up written by them. (It could be their 12th book published – but it is the first time I have read anything by them.)
I feel I play fair.
Lose my interest before I meet the mid point, I never buy a book from them again.
If I don’t loose interest before I’m half way done (yet I don’t feel inclined to finish after midway) – I’ll give them a second chance. If they fail to captivate me whole heartedly during that second read, I won’t purchase another book by them again.
If they succeed with their second chance, the third book is probationary. They pass the third book – I’ll buy what ever they put out until they either stop publishing or turn really weird (like Laural K Hamilton did after book 7 in her Anita Blake series.)
In all sincerity – I don’t mean to come off as hard core. However, look at facts. It’s a dog eat dog world. There are too many new authors wanting my attention and I have my favorites who have already established themselves in my library, by winning my admiration and respect. Enough to win my loyalty (which isn’t easy to do.)
If an author fails to amuse or entertain me during the first half of the book, – or fail to do the research needed, then this is not the author for me.
You Pat, have no worries! You won my heart with crime books – and as I have told you before, THAT feat wasn’t easy at all!
Thanks for the blog post today! I can’t wait to read the third book.
Hi Pat, Congrats on doing a wonderful job on your blog. I totally agree about writing outside your box. Though I, as far as i know, have never met a vampire, but I wrote a book with them as characters and it got accepted for publication. Once i told a writers workshop that what i write might not be their cup of tea, but I’m a writer & I write what I want.
Jerry Race
:<3 I never win anything, I hope I win a copy of what sounds like a good book. I like improbable things, (tho’ I think Koontz overdoes it towards the optimistic, so much so, I can’t suspend belief!!!!) It must be that everyone wants to be a writer, here u are, giving advice & everything!!!! I think mayhap some would rather just be swept away!!!
I DO want to be a writer, so maybe most everyone else does TOO!
LA BONEYARD sounds like there might be a lot of murder in it!