About the Author:
Brett Garcia Rose is a writer, software entrepreneur, and former animal rights soldier and stutterer. He is the author of two books, Noise and Losing Found Things, and his work has been published in Sunday Newsday Magazine, The Barcelona Review, Opium, Rose and Thorn, The Battered Suitcase, Fiction Attic, Paraphilia and other literary magazines and anthologies. His short stories have won the Fiction Attic’s Short Memoir Award (Second Place), Opium’s Bookmark Competition, The Lascaux Prize for Short Fiction, and have been nominated for the Million Writer’s Award, Best of the Net and The Pushcart Prize. Rose travels extensively, but calls New York City home. To learn more, go to BrettGarciaRose.com, or connect with Brett on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads.
https://twitter.com/BrettGarciaRose
https://www.facebook.com/brettgarciarose
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8307465.Brett_Garcia_Rose
http://www.brettgarciarose.com/
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Do you plan everything or just let the story flow?
Flow: I don't plan anything. In my writing or my life. It means more fixing down the line, but that's OK.
Do your characters ever want to take over the story?
Ha, all the time! They're nasty, unruly beasts. As a writer I'm pretty ruthless though, and I imagine my characters detest me.
What is your favourite food?
Anything asian. They're the original foodies.
Are you a morning person or a night owl?
I was a night person until a few years ago, sleeping from 5am to 11am or so. The I decided to become a morning person, up at 6am every day. I greatly prefer the latter; I feel like it gives me more room to live, and I see better in the daylight.
Where do you dream of travelling to and why?
My ultimate dream is to live on a boat and circle the world. As far as vacation-type traveling, it doesn't matter so much where I go, as long as I go. Traveling, encountering new people, strange sights, odd foods jars me as a writer and a person. it never makes it into the writing itself, but it certainly makes it into the writer. It's the trickle-down theory of experience.
Do distant places feature in your books?
No. See above.
Do you listen to music while writing?
No, but I do once I start editing.
Could you tell us a bit about your latest release?
Noise is a first-person thriller/mystery about a deaf man's search for his missing sister. It's short, and very violent. Ultimately, it's about love.
What have you learned about writing and publishing since you first started?
Just how complex it is. And how difficult it is to do it well. But it's also exciting to have so much control over every aspect of the process. And it's much more rewarding than publishing in magazines, even well-respected ones. Diving into books is like going off into the wilderness with just a knife. You really are on your own, no matter what your publishers or agents tell you. Your success or failure is truly yours, and it's not based on the quality of the writing; that's a given. And that really is the most beautiful part.
Is there anything you would do differently?
No.
Who, or what, if anything has influenced your writing?
My stutter, for sure. I think that sense of isolation, as well as the brutal self-reliance anyone with impaired communications learns to cultivate, contributes greatly to my writing. And it is the main source of simplification, even brevity. I don't write filler, long descriptions, even long paragraphs. To a stutterer, even one who no longer stutters outwardly, every word is precious and hard-won.
Anything you would say to those just starting out in the craft?
To approach it as a craft, just as an artist or a sculptor would. One of my favorite reviews of my work said something about hammering words into place, and that phrase has always stuck with me. Also, train yourself to become a brutal editor with a long, fast sword. If the car is a red Ford, it better have a damn good reason for being so, and you, the writer directing your reader's precious attention toward that fact, need to be able to explain to them why. If it isn't important to the story, then it isn't important to the reader. There are some exceptions, as in the style/substance debate, but, even in the writing is painfully beautiful, the attempt to minimize will ultimately improve your work. Also, learn as much as you can about the publishing industry, and marketing in general. You'll need that later on.
What are three words that describe you?
Intense, Big-hearted. Brutal.
What's your favourite book or who is your favourite writer?
Probably Bright Light's, Big City, as it was the primary influence for the first professional short story I'd ever published (A Night at the Plywood Palace). I liked the fluid efficiency of the writing, the flow of language. Also, The Road, for similar reasons.
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Genres: Action, Adventure, Mystery
Synopsis:
The world is an ugly place, and I can tell you now, I fit in just fine.
Lily is the only person Leon ever loved. When she left a suicide note and disappeared into a murky lake ten years ago, she left him alone, drifting through a silent landscape.
Or did she?
A postcard in her handwriting pulls Leon to the winter-cold concrete heart of New York City. What he discovers unleashes a deadly rage that has no sound.
A grisly trail of clues leads to The Bear, the sadistic Russian crime lord who traffics in human flesh. The police—some corrupt, some merely compromised—are of little help. They don’t like Leon’s methods, or the mess he leaves in his wake.
Leon is deaf, but no sane person would ever call him disabled. He survived as a child on the merciless streets of Nigeria. He misses nothing. He feels no remorse. The only direction he’s ever known is forward.
He will not stop until he knows.
Where is Lily?
Praise for Noise:
“A staggering, compelling work of fiction…mind-blowingly perfect. It has everything. Exquisite details, world-weary voice, and people worth knowing. It is truly amazing!” – MaryAnne Kolton, Author and Editor of This Literary Magazine
“Strong, compelling, raw and human in the best sense. Beautifully written.” – Susan Tepper, Author of Deer and Other Stories
“Perfect, compact and explosive, closing with the gentlest word.” – James Lloyd Davis, Author of Knitting the Unraveled Sleeves
“Wow. Beautiful and wonderful and sad and real.” – Sally Houtman, Author of To Grandma’s House, We . . . Stay
“Frighteningly good.” – Meg Pokrass, Author of Bird Envy
“Superbly explosive. The rage escalates and careens out of control. Amazing.” – Ajay Nair, Author of Desi Rap
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