Not only do I love watching horror films but I enjoy reading the genre just as much; horror fiction holds a special place in my heart. I do not read as much as I would like to because my attention span is very limited, so If I can complete a book, it is quite an accomplishment. I recently stumbled upon writer Brian Parker. I began to read Parker’s novel Origins of the Outbreak, and I immediately fell in love with Parker’s story and style of writing. I was glued to my tablet all day reading this fascinating story. The reader will experience the chain of infection from one person to another, making this novel a wonderful read. Shortly after completing this novel I had my nine-year old daughter read Parker’s childrens book Zombie in the Basement. My daughter enjoyed it very much and asked me to read it again. As a parent it was very rewarding to have my daughter want to read (especially when the book had a zombie in it for a character). The children’s book delivered a strong message of how children should embrace their existence, and it is up to us to give children the love and support they need.

I have had the privilege of interviewing Author Brian Parker. I hope you all enjoy !

ihorror: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Brian Parker: I’m an Active Duty Army veteran of both the Iraq and Afghanistan War; in fact I’m in Afghanistan right now.  I self-published four books before signing a 4-book contract with Permuted Press last May.  My novels GNASH and Enduring Armageddon were previously self-published and will be re-released by Permuted Press beginning in May 2015 along with two previously unpublished works, REND and SEVER.

I currently have four books available.  Origins of the Outbreak is a zombie apocalypse horror story; The Collective Protocol is a paranormal thriller that shows how far people will go to gain power; Zombie in the Basement is a children’s picture book written to help children overcome the perceived stigma of being different than others; and my how-to guide Self-Publishing the Hard Way is for writers looking for pointers to self-publish their manuscript.  My latest book Battle Damage Assessment should be available by mid- to late-November depending on my editor’s schedule.

iH: What are you working on now? What is your next project?

Parker: I just finished the first draft of my latest book Battle Damage Assessment.  It’s actually strange how that one came about.  I was writing SEVER, the fourth book in my Permuted Press contract, and this idea kept hammering at my brain for BDA.  Maybe it’s because I’m deployed right now and the story is about a young soldier’s experiences in combat and how those experiences changed him, but the idea wouldn’t leave me alone.  It got so bad that I finally made the decision to put SEVER on hold at 25K words into it and write BDA. That was only two months ago.  The story literally exploded out of my mind onto the page.  I’d be sitting in meetings and have to jot down ideas in my notebook because they just wouldn’t stop coming.

Once BDA is with my editor, I’m going to continue writing SEVER so I can deliver it to Permuted and the series will be complete.

iH: Is there a subject you would never write about as an author? If so, what is it?

Parker: Yes, there are definitely subjects that I refuse to write about, but the biggest one that comes to mind is the death of children.  Even though I write mainly in the horror and post-apocalyptic genres, I simply won’t do that.  I acknowledge that in the hypothetical situations that I write about, most of the children would be the first to go, but as a reader, I don’t want to read about that so I’d never put it in writing.  Maybe it’s because I have children, maybe it’s because of some of the things that I’ve seen in the Army, I don’t know.  It’s just a line that I’ve chosen not to cross.  So if a child gets introduced in one of my books, you can bet your rear end that they’ll either stay alive throughout or simply exit stage right and we don’t hear about them anymore.

iH: What is your least favorite part or most challenging part of the publishing / writing process?

Parker: Editing.  Editing.  And, um let’s see, editing!  I can’t stand the self-editing that I have to do before I send one of my books to my editor, Aurora Dewater, but it’s extremely important to catch things and clean stuff up before sending it to her.  She still corrects gobs of errors, but she has no idea how many are in the first draft!

iH: Where does the inspiration come from when writing your novels? (Specifically Origins of the Outbreak).

Parker: I was an avid reader before I was a struggling author, so I tend to write the stories for me and what I would want to read.  I think that’s the key to telling a good story. To answer your question about the multiple stories in Origins, a lot of the jobs that those characters had and their backgrounds are all things that I’ve done in my life, so I wrote them from my own experiences.  I worked at Panera Bread all through college, I’ve got tattoos, spent a lot of time in bars, etc.  I typically read one or two chapters a night, so I wanted to write this book in short, easily manageable segments that could be digested in small amounts of time and I thought it would be fun to examine the story from multiple vantage points, each one building off of the other without confusing a reader if they missed a key point earlier in the story.

iH: Can you tell us where your inspirations and ideas came from for Zombie in the Basement? (I know you had mentioned that your kids helped you write it).

Parker: I’d just received the paperback proof copy of my first book GNASH and my family and I went out to dinner to celebrate.  I’m not sure if it was my son or daughter (four and five at the time, respectively) who said that they wanted me to write a book for them.  I asked them what they wanted the book to be about and of course it was zombies, so I had to think of a way to write about a zombie that wouldn’t be scary.  I didn’t mean to write a book about acceptance of others, it just sort of happened and the response (when people learn about the book) has been overwhelming.  Each convention that I’ve taken ZitB to, I’ve sold out.  Once people pick up the book and flip through the pages, they realize how powerful the message is and want to share it with their kids or grandchildren.

 

iH: What writing advice do you have for other aspiring authors?

Parker: Keep writing!  Your stuff will probably not be very good at first, but with practice, it gets better.  It’s true, look at the Dresden Files, the first book’s substance was good, but the writing gets more refined and clearer with each book.  My editor comments on my books that with each one, the writing is better than the last and I can see it myself as well.  Luckily, for me, I’ve been given the opportunity to polish my first two books with Permuted re-releasing them, so I’ll be able to go through line by line with their editor and clean things up even more.

Also, keep at it and don’t obsess about turning the perfect phrase.  I’m a member of a lot of writing pages and try to get to them as much as I can, but so often I see people talking about editing and re-editing and going crazy over their first chapter and never advancing beyond that.  They get frustrated because they put so much effort into making it perfect without actually doing any writing.  Here’s what I do: I write the entire book, only making minor changes as things develop that need adjusting and then go back and edit once I’m done.  It’s that simple.  My first book GNASH took me 2.5 years to complete, in part because I hadn’t learned that trick yet.  I mostly incorporated it into my writing when I wrote Enduring Armageddon and that took me eight months.  For my third book REND I didn’t edit anything until I was done with the story.  It took four months.  I’m averaging about four months per book now.  It works for me; I hope that it’ll help other writers out.

Oh yeah, here’s my final piece of unsolicited advice and pardon my French, but don’t be a dick.  Yes, you’re a writer and you’ve accomplished a huge feat by finishing a book; now be nice, be courteous, help advance our craft and don’t bash other writers.  We’re not competing with each other.  It’s not like we’re selling a car; a reader will not only buy one book and read that book exclusively for the next five years.  Most readers buy ten or twelve books a year, some buy a whole lot more, let’s help each other out.

iH: Is horror the only genre you have written? Is it your favorite?

Parker: I’m all over the place, frankly.  My publishing contract is with Permuted Press, so through them I’m contracted for three zombie books and one post-apocalyptic novel.  Then I’ve got Origins, which is zombie/horror and The Collective Protocol is a paranormal thriller. The book that I just finished is a military fiction about a soldier’s experience in Afghanistan (although I did manage to slip the word “zombie” in there).  The project that I’ve already begun thinking about after I finish SEVER is a paranormal investigation series, so I couldn’t even tell you what my favorite genre to write in is either!  I love telling a good story, regardless of where it gets categorized.

iH: Is there a message in any of your novels that you want readers to grasp?

Parker: I didn’t really get my own message until I finished BDA and then it hit me.  I think an underlying theme of my work is that regardless of who you are, there is someone out there for you to love.  I know, it’s strange coming from a big, tough Army guy, but every one of my books have some element of romance.  Maybe I’m a hopeless romantic at heart, I don’t know, but it definitely comes out in my writing without overpowering the rest of the story.

iH: If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?

Parker: Oh geez, the list is way too long!  I admire writers for different reasons, but the one guy who really got me started writing again is J.L. Bourne (Day by Day Armageddon series).  I’d fallen into the mental trap that most adults with a career or family commitments fall into.  I convinced myself that I didn’t have time to write, so I stopped after college.  One day in 2008 or ‘09, I finished J.L.’s book and then read his bio.  The guy is an Active Duty Naval officer and I decided that if he could find time to write, then so could I…  I just watch a whole lot less television and movies than I used to.

iH: What were the challenges (research, literary, and psychological) in bringing your stories to life?

Parker: One of the biggest challenges – at first – was writing in a style conducive to reading. I’d been writing in the Army Writing Style of active voice, eliminate pronouns and adjectives, no nonsense-type stuff for over twelve years when I started writing for fun; it’s a totally different way of structuring sentences that is a very hard habit to break, especially since I still have to write that way at work.  Also, dredging up those old high school English lessons has been key (also, Aurora is great at reminding me about the stylistic aspects of English).  I didn’t learn much in my creative writing classes in college; it was primarily write a story, get a grade and write another story, so high school was very important in my English language foundation.

I always have Google open when I write.  I swear the NSA has me on some type of watch list for the things I’ve researched.  Nuclear bombs, fighter jets, the US President’s bodyguards, viruses, bacteria, CDC response to outbreaks, the layout of the National Archives, locations of “secret” government bunkers…  All sorts of stuff that is innocent enough if you know why I’m looking it up, but altogether, it might look bad to some dude in Maryland monitoring the internet.

iH: If one of your books was turned into a movie, which book would it be and what actor do you see playing your lead roles?

Parker: Out of the books that I’ve written so far, the one that I absolutely believe could be made into a movie would be GNASH.  Readers of that book and the three readers that I’ve allowed to see the sequel REND have said it seems just like a movie by the way it focuses on multiple characters and doesn’t bog down on following only one storyline.  The book could be a stand-alone political thriller without the zombie aspect, but the two together make a great combination.

Let’s see, lead characters…  I see Grayson Donnelly as a Mark Walburg type of guy, quiet, unassuming and compassionate but his former military training lets him kick butt when needed.  Emory Perry, is pretty, strong and smart; I see her as a more of a Jessica Biel character.  Jessica Spellman was a pretty high school cheerleader, but years of the wrong type of men have turned her into the shell of her former self but she shines after Grayson saves her life.  Definitely Elisha Cuthburt.  Hank Dawson is an Army Delta operator who doesn’t take any lip from anyone, so I see Cam Gigandet.  Finally, the CIA operative Kestrel, Asher Hawke, is only in “GNASH” for about twenty pages, but he’s the main character in REND.  I see Karl Urban playing him.

iH: Finally how can we find you?

Parker: I’m all over!  My primary interaction with readers is on my Facebook page although I’m trying to increase my Twitter usage.  I also have a website that I’m horrible about updating, but it is available and I usually post unedited portions of my works in progress on there.

Brian Parker on Facebook

Brian Parker on Twitter

Brian Parker Webpage