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The Alternative Library

The Jeremy Brown Interview

Author of "The Trackwalkers"

Just in time for the Winter 2007 issue, JJ and I meet up with Jeremy Brown, author of "The Trackwalkers." Jeremy is himself an editor, working for WWE magazine, and with his experience as a creative writer and editor, he provided some interesting insight from both sides the writing and publishing fence. Time allowing and authors willing, JJ and I will continue to publish a new author interview in each issue of the Midnight Times. Enjoy! -- Jay Manning, MT Editor

THE INTERVIEW

JJ Collins: All right, let's get started. Today we're talking with Jeremy Brown, author of "The Trackwalkers." Glad you could join us.

Jay Manning: Yes. Thanks for joining us, Jeremy.

Jeremy Brown: Good afternoon to you, and thanks for the interview! Glad to be here. This is a real privilege, thanks!

JJ: First, tell us a little about yourself. Where you live, your day job...

Jeremy: Well, I live in Putnam County New York, about an hour north of the city. And I work in Stamford, Connecticut as a magazine editor for WWE, aka World Wrestling Entertainment. So, as you can imagine, I have a lot of inspiration for my creative writing.

JJ: I bet. How long have you lived in Putnam?

Jeremy: We moved up here four years ago from Hastings, NY, which is right on the Hudson. It's a nice place to live.

JJ: How did you start working for WWE?

Jeremy: I was working in the Bronx as a magazine editor and one of my co-workers was hired by WWE back in 2000. We worked at a publishing house in the Bronx, writing biographical articles for reference books and magazines. We stayed in touch over the years, and when a position at WWE opened up he was able to help me get my foot in the door. As you know, it's all who you know in this business.

JJ: Most definitely. So your writing experience goes a ways back. Tell us what drew you to writing to begin with.

Jeremy: I've been writing professionally for about seven years, now. Creatively, I've been a storyteller for as long as I can remember.

JJ: Is that what you always wanted to do?

Jeremy: Yes, absolutely. As a kid, I would make up stories and dictate them to my dad, who would type them up on our old IBM typewriter.

JJ: That's awesome. How old were you when you did that?

Jeremy: That would have been about first or second grade, I guess. Once I could use it myself, I just started writing and never stopped. The stories were all about Star Wars, GI Joe, Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers. Early fan fiction, you could say! Once I realized I could make up my own stories I never looked back!

JJ: GI Joe brings back memories. Are you a fan of the current Battlestar series?

Jeremy: Big time! I think it's bar none the best-written sci-fi series I've ever seen. What they did with that concept is amazing.

JJ: I'm embarrassed to admit, I haven't seen it, but I hear so much about it. I have the current series premiere recorded on my DVR. Tell us a bit about the show and why you like it?

Jeremy: Yeah, check it out. Then pick up the DVD--you'll be glad you did. For me, it's just great storytelling. They've taken Larson's concept, about a group of humans on the run from genocidal robots, and injected it with real human drama. It almost could be a show about our own current climate. The parallels are everywhere.

JJ: Give me an example of a prominent parallel. Fans of the series will get this instantly. I'm asking this for those of us who haven't yet gotten hooked.

Jeremy: For example, the first season had an episode in which a Cylon prisoner was tortured for information. Through the writing, the show posited the question as to whether or not the humans were right to take things that far. Once it was over, it really gave you something to think about. Or, in the current season, you had the humans living on a Cylon-occupied planet and employing suicide bombers in the resistance movement. Again, relating their situation to our own current goings-on in Iraq. Just good drama that leaves you with something to think about.

JJ: What other incarnations of the show have there been?

Jeremy: The original was great fun, in a blow-dried 70s way. Then there was Galactica 1980, which was an abomination. They actually brought the Galactica to present-day Earth. It was embarassing. I was eight and I knew it was horrible! They re-run it on Sci-Fi all the time. Check it out if you want a good laugh.

Jay: I'm so old I used to watch the original Battlestar Galactica all the time, but I can't remember anything about it. Isn't that the one with Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict?

Jeremy: Yes. Hatch and Benedict were on the original series. Hatch is actually a major character on the new one, as well!

JJ: What other shows do you fancy?

Jeremy: I'm a big fan of Lost, which I also think has great writing and great characters. As far as TV shows go, I love 24 as well. Completely addictive.

JJ: Ahh, those are both good ones. Have you sampled Heroes? It draws comparisons to Lost. Personally, I like it more than Lost. It's a similar formula that goes at a faster pace.

Jeremy: Oh! How could I forget? I love Heroes! Hiro is one of the great TV characters of all time! Again, excellent writing and strong characters, and I agree it has surpassed Lost.

JJ: And it wasn't a rip off of X-men. I'm happy about that.

Jeremy: Not at all, which it easily could have been.

JJ: Give me a few predictions about Heroes.

Jeremy: Hmmm... Well, now that we know Peter may be the cause of all the destruction in NYC, I think the next arc is going to be very interesting. I also believe that Claire's father is not the evil menace we think he is. I have a feeling that there's a greater threat lurking in the wings somewhere. It would be too easy to pigeonhole this guy as the villain. He's kind of like the Cigarette Smoking Man in the The X Files, if you were fans of that show.

JJ: Yeah.

Jay: Yep. I was a huge X Files fan back in the day.

JJ: In regard to Heroes, at first they wanted us to think Claire's father was evil, obviously. Then they lulled us into a false sense of security. He was all protective and such. But if you noticed the betrayal of his own second-hand man, that makes me think he's evil again. He's obviously had people "wiped" a few times, and this time his wiper wants people to remember. So I think he may be more sinister than I had reguessed him to be.

Jeremy: Very true, and the fact that he had all of her friends' memories erased. You could be right. I suspect that he's something of a pawn in a larger game. That's what the show's level of quality has led me to believe: that the easiest answers usually aren't the right ones.

JJ: All right, let's get to some of your writing inspirations. What authors do you like?

Jeremy: Lovecraft was probably my first inspiration as a kid, and, of course, Stephen King.

JJ: What's your favorite King story?

Jeremy: Well, Night Shift was my first King book, so it's closest to my heart, but I think It ranks as his finest work, and The Stand, of course.

JJ: I haven't read It but I remember the TV movie. Scared me poopless.

Jeremy: Ah yes, with Tim Curry as Pennywise!

JJ: Tim Curry is awesome.

Jeremy: He is, indeed. The man is a genius. And John Boy Walton in the lead role. As far as authors go, I'm also a huge fan of Arthur C. Clarke, Heinlein and Ray Bradbury, and one of my all-time favorites is Richard Matheson. He's just a master of the genre. A great storyteller.

JJ: I'm not familiar with him. He writes horror?

Jeremy: Yes, he wrote I Am Legend, which became The Omega Man in the movies, and A Stir of Echoes, which became the Kevin Bacon movie from a few years back. He also wrote What Dreams May Come, and I believe he wrote Duel, which was Spielberg's first film.

JJ: I saw and enjoyed A Stir of Echoes. How was the movie compared to the book for you?

Jeremy: It was a great adaptation, I thought. Different in some ways, as the book takes place in more of a suburban setting, vs. the working-class environs of the film. But it captured the tone and the heart of the book, which is what matters most.

JJ: What Dreams May Come is one of my favorite movies, but I take issue with the ending.

Jeremy: What troubled you about the ending?

JJ: Well, I didn't read the book, so this is only in reference to the movie. I remember the whole time they kept saying if you went to hell that was it, and I know without that obstacle there's no movie.

Jeremy: Right, and then they kind of turned it around and said, "No, on second thought..." Kind of like how Superman "permanently" lost his powers in Part II, and then suddenly gets them back with no explanation.

JJ: Exactly. The implication was something like, "love conquers all," and I felt that was a cliché way out. After they changed it. It was like this unbending, unyielding fact. I loved everything about the movie so much that they way they ended it bothered me. So I felt cheated.

Jeremy: Well, in Hollywood you can't end a movie with Robin Williams trapped in Hell!

JJ: Tell that to Disney.

Jeremy: I don't recall the book's ending, right now, to be honest, but I believe it was different. You'd have to fact-check me on that one, though!

JJ: So what genres do you prefer to write?

Jeremy: Horror is my favorite as of right now, but I also enjoy sci-fi, to an extent. Sometimes I feel as though I don't have the technical chops to write sci-fi the way my heroes did, so I usually keep it heavier on the fiction and lighter on the science. That's what makes horror so appealing. I know what scares me, so I don't have to do a whole lot of research. I think there's something inherently appealing in exploring what makes you, the reader, and me, the writer, afraid. We all have things that scare us, and, let's face it, we all enjoy a good scare. It's fun to walk down that path a bit, to confront your fears and turn them into something that you can perhaps scare someone else a bit with. If that makes sense.

JJ: Most definitely. What genre is your least favorite to write?

Jeremy: For a long time I wanted to write what I thought was more "serious" fiction. Then one day I decided, "To hell with it!" and just wrote about the things that interested me. Since then I've been much happier. Some people look at writing as a way of exorcising their demons. I always think it's a way to EXERCISE them. Let them roam about a bit and then lock them away until next time.

JJ: Tell us about the novel you've written, Ocean of Storms.

Jeremy: Ocean of Storms is a novel I co-wrote with my good friend and occasional writing partner, Christopher Mari. It takes place in the near future, with the world teetering on the brink of social and economic collapse in the wake of the never-ending war on terror. Just when things seem as though they couldn't get any worse, a signal is received that, inexplicably, is sent from the Moon. It turns out to be an invitation from an intelligence beyond our own, so a joint Chinese/American mission is devised, but when the astronauts get there, they find the last thing they'd ever expect. So, it's a geo-political sci-fi thriller with a dash of other odds and ends thrown in. We call it our "kitchen-sink" project.

JJ: That's a cliffhanger! So how can fans of your writing find out what happens in the novel? Can it be purchased anywhere?

Jeremy: Not yet, unfortunately. It's currently being read by agents in NY, so let's hope that it will be out soon.

JJ: Our fingers are crossed for you.

Jay: Yeah. We'll be pulling for you.

Jeremy: Thank you! And if fans want to know, have them drop me a line and I'll spill the beans (maybe)!

JJ: So tell us about your story, "The Trackwalkers." What was the inspiration for that?

Jeremy: I'm a history buff, and I love local history especially. I've done a few articles on strange and abandoned places in the Hudson Valley area where I live. In my research I came across a story about the Hoosac Tunnel in the Berkshires. The tunnel was built around the turn of the century, and it's supposedly haunted. Many people who worked in the tunnel have reported strange sights, sounds, what have you. So that got me to thinking about what kinds of apparitions could be lying in wait for some poor souls who wandered in there.

Jay: I personally really got a sense of the history in the background of "The Trackwalkers," so I'm glad to hear it's based on a real place. That makes it more interesting for me.

JJ: Did you get to visit any of these tunnels yourself?

Jeremy: I haven't been to the Hoosac yet, although in the wake of the positive response to "The Trackwalkers," I will have to visit there and pay my respects! I researched the Hoosac extensively, as well as other tunnels, railroad terminology, etc.

Jay: You did a good job. I felt like the characters were real rail-workers.

JJ: The research definitely showed. I felt like I was there.

Jeremy: Thank you very, very much for saying so. I wanted the story to feel real, given the unreal events that were going to take place! I think you can't place enough value on research. If I'm asking the reader to buy into these creatures preying on people inside a train tunnel, I feel as though I owe them some semblance of realism to balance it out.

JJ: Do you often do a lot of research in your pieces? I find that's my least favorite part of the writing process.

Jeremy: I do. It's one of my favorite parts of the writing process.

JJ: I saw this interview with John Grisham this morning. He published a new book that's nonfiction (The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town). He told the interviewer that he had no intention of following up or doing another one because of the research. In fiction you have so much creative freedom to make what you want that it often can't be contradicted. But when you deal with real facts you have to work harder to get it right. My reasons are the same as his. It becomes "harder" to write the story the more factual you want to make it.

Jeremy: Interesting point about Grisham, and I agree with you about research. It is painstaking, but I feel as though it gives the reader a little something to latch onto.

Jay: "The Trackwalkers" is basically a traditional horror story, but you do a great job of presenting it in a historical context that is unique. That provided a lot of weight in regard to my decision to accept it for Midnight Times. I get a lot of submissions that are just some monster killing people with no real context or setting. Those get rejected even if they're well written.

Jeremy: "The Trackwalkers" could have easily fallen into that trap. It was always in the forefront of my mind. The story is, at its core, very traditional. Without the Depression-era element and the research I put into it, I think it would not have had the same impact at all.

JJ: I agree with that. I felt the depression in the air.

Jeremy: Thank you, that was my main goal!

JJ: I also liked your writing style. When do you think you developed your own style? Was it while writing something in particular?

Jeremy: It's taken some time, I must admit. For years my writing read like I was imitating my favorite writers. When I would write in the first person it always read like Jean Shepherd, another hero of mine. I think it was after college when I really got back into writing fiction. I was working on some short stories (I can't remember which ones) and I just said, maybe I should write the way I talk--if that makes sense. Stop trying to be flowery in my prose and just tell the friggin' story. I think I was trying too hard to be a WRITER and not hard enough on just conveying to the reader what was happening.

Jay: Jeremy, I think your point about just writing is very valid. I get a lot of submissions where writers are trying to do something stylistically, and it comes across as very forced. Unless you're a pro like Grisham or Stephen King, you should just focus on writing what is taking place.

Jeremy: Right, that's what I'm driving at. I try to just keep my writing fluid. For example, in "Trackwalkers," when they stumble across the sheep, Eddie gets knocked down and thinks, very randomly, "The damn thing has horns!" That, to me, was a very real, human reaction. Your brain just suddenly fires out a thought in the midst of something crazy.

JJ: That is a good example. By doing it the way you did, I totally bought it and thought it was a monster, only to realize I was watching it through their eyes. So I was mistaken too, and it wasn't a cheat.

Jeremy: Precisely!

JJ: The last person who asked me for input on his writing had written this interesting piece that was burdened down with these absurd metaphors. He didn't understand that he was "leading" by doing that.

Jeremy: Oh, sure. I've fallen into that trap, too.

Jay: That's a good example of where less experienced writers can easily go astray.

JJ: One simile was something like, "The night tore upward like a cat's scratching." I told him it took me three minutes of trying to imagine a cat scratching "upward." I couldn't even read the next sentence. Just tell the story. Let it ring true on its own.

Jeremy: I've been down that road, too--where you feel that every sentence has to be golden. Just tell the story, let the rest fall into place.

JJ: Tell me about writing that novel with your friend. Was it difficult writing with a second brain?

Jeremy: Writing with another person was actually very easy. I would write a chapter, send it to him and then he would add his thoughts to it, and back and forth we'd go. Like a tennis match.

JJ: Had you previously discussed where you wanted it to go?

Jeremy: We wrote out a treatment beforehand, which I never do on my own, so that we had an endpoint in mind. Of course, it changed as we went along, but at least we had a rough idea.

JJ: That reminds me of an English assignment that was posted online once.

Jeremy: What was the assignment?

JJ: A boy and a girl were paired up in a college writing course. They had to write a short story together. Kind of the same way you wrote the novel. Well, both students were excellent writers, but what happened was that whenever the girl would write something about the character, she would create this very feminine atmosphere. For example she would say something like, "Pamela stood by the window, inhaling the scene of plumeria and reflected on her love of Alex." Then the guy would follow up with something like, "Alex roared at the lieutenant, 'Man the battle stations! Prepare to fire!'" And they kept going back and forth like that until they ended up murdering each other's characters.

Jeremy: HAHAHA! That's great! What a mess!

JJ: But, it was so well written that it was absolutely hilarious. I'll try to find it for you.

Jeremy: I'd love to see it. I'd send it off to Chris. He'll love it, too. We joked that it was like a marriage, the two of us bickering about storylines and other such things.

JJ: Are there any special plugs you'd like us to mention? Any upcoming projects you're working on?

Jeremy: I'm working on my second novel, The Sorrows, which takes place in Harbor's Hope, the setting of "The Trackwalkers." I'm hoping to have it done by spring 2007. For those who live in San Francisco, my story "Kanashibari," is on newsstands in Big Ole Face Full of Monster magazine. And my short story, "The Wolf Runner," was accepted by Sirens magazine (sirensmag.com).

JJ: Very nice. If people have feedback about your story, how would you like to receive it? Do you want them to send it to us to forward to you or would you like them to e-mail to a particular address?

Jeremy: Sure, they can send messages to jkbwriting@gmail.com. I'd LOVE to hear feedback from any readers, good or bad. It just makes you a better writer.

JJ: Hear that readers?

Jeremy: Yeah, bring it on!

JJ: What parting words of advice would you like to share with aspiring writers as well as professional editors?

Jeremy: Be true to yourself when you sit down to write. Don't write what you think will sell or what you think other people want to read or want you to write. If you're a writer, then you have a story to tell that's your own, no one else's. Be true to that, and you'll be fine. Don't ever think that you're idea is too strange or too out there. If it's yours and you believe in it, then that's all that matters. As an editor, I'd say always look for the heart of your story. Find what it is that's appealing to you and zero in on it. If it's a story about a band that's struggling to make it, find out what it is about that story that separates it from other similar underdog stories. What is it about these people that makes them unique? Why is their story different from other people? What's the hook that will make the reader sit back and say, "Wow, I never knew that before!" Every story has something different about it, as writers, we have to peel back the layers until we find it. Also, one last thing: always tell the truth in your writing, be it fact or fiction. Be true to the places and people you're writing about, even if you made them up in your own mind. Writing is all about honesty and, in some ways, opening your self up for others to see, even if it's done via other characters. Does that make sense? I kind of went on a rant there!

Jay: That sounds like good advice to me.

JJ: It does make perfect sense. It's not often we get someone who is both an editor and a writer.

Jeremy: Really?

JJ: Jay is like that, but I think that's the exception and not the rule. Most of our contributors are pure writers. I'm like that. I don't consider myself a good editor really. I prefer to have someone else edit my work.

Jeremy: Interesting. I'd like to get to the "pure writer" stage, eventually.

Jay: I'm just an amateur e-zine fiction publisher.

Jeremy: Well, you published my work! That makes you a good editor in my book!

Jay: LOL. Thanks!

Jeremy: Thank you! I like editing, but writing is where the real joy is.

Jay: Thanks a lot for joining us for the interview, Jeremy. "The Trackwalkers" is a great story, and you have provided a lot of excellent insight about yourself and writing.

Jeremy: Well, great! Thanks, guys. It's been a real pleasure, and I'm thrilled to be a part of your publication.

JJ: Any last minute shout outs you want to give, Jeremy? Peace to trackwalkers everywhere!

Jeremy: Keep on the lookout for Ocean of Storms. We're hoping to get that onto shelves soon...stay tuned! And yes, Trackwalkers everywhere, unite!

Jay: Hahaha. You guys kill me.

JJ: Thank you so much for meeting with us today.

Jeremy: Thanks for having me. It was a blast!