These
monthly interviews have a mixture of authors with very different styles of
writing and genres from cosy mysteries to police procedural, crime farce and
suspense. Today’s victim at Jamie Tremain is Rob Brunet, a NOIR writer of
published short stories. Check his blog www.robbrunet.com/ or
find him on Twitter @RRBrunet
Thanks
Rob for agreeing to answer some questions about your writing life and giving us
a perspective of your recent trip to Bouchercon, www.bouchercon.info/
in Albany NY. This is the premiere world conference for all readers and writers
of crime fiction. It’s taking place in Long Beach CA in 2014. I’d better start
saving now.
Pam:
What attracts you to
the Noir style of writing? You seem like a kind, mild mannered family man to
me. Where do all those dark thoughts come from?
Rob:
I’ve always had a pretty dark sense of humour, and it spills over into my writing, even when the subject is “serious”. Compared to a lot of noir authors, my work is pretty tame, though. Especially my longer work.
I’m a pretty big believer in Yin and Yang. If
there’s a dark side to something, there pretty much has to be a light side,
too.
A habit I developed as a kid was to imagine the
worst possible outcome in a given situation. I’d inhabit it and convince myself
that was what was going to happen. I figured if I thought it through and worked
out all the impossibly bad details, whatever actually happened wouldn’t be as harsh as whatever I’d dreamt up.
It usually worked. (Still does, sometimes.)
Pam:
Do we all have a dark
side?
Rob:
Ha! You tell me, Pam.
Seriously, though, I imagine most people have surprised themselves at one
time or another by things they have done that are “bad”, whatever that means.
And if you pull back from that to just the things we’ve all dreamt of doing... well, there’s all
kinds of lines that people will cross in their mind, I think.
Pam:
Has noir film
influenced your work and do you have a favourite?
Rob:
Whenever I’m asked for a favourite, I’m always
afraid I’ll remember a more favourite
one immediately after. But there are a few movies that really evoke the feeling
I am going for in my writing. Fargo
is probably foremost among them. The Coen brothers turned the genre on its
head, following Jerry Lundegaard’s desperate descent into a personal hell
pretty much of his own making.
Guy Ritchie’s films are also regular fare for me. I
watch Snatch a few times a year.
Sexy
Beast is another favorite, but then I could watch Ben
Kingsley smoke cigarettes all night.
(Complete aside: Kingsley just finished filming a
Sarah Kernochan movie opposite Patricia Clarkson, called Learning to Drive. It won’t come out until October 2014, but I’m
sure it’ll be a gem. Kernochan wrote the screenplay for 9 ½ Weeks. Somehow I think Learning
to Drive will be a little tamer, and maybe even have a bit more dialogue.)
Pam:
How long have you been
writing and do you have a favourite author?
Rob:
It’s been said before, but I’ve been writing pretty
much my whole life. I’ve got poems from Grade 2 with the teacher’s red ink
asking whether we had a future Dr. Seuss in the class. (I must’ve taken her one helluva red apple.) That carried on right through school and I always expected to write, but I got distracted by digital media for a couple decades. I just couldn’t shake it. Finally, I gave in to the muse, and I’ve never been happier with how I spend my time.
I have lots of favourite authors, and they’re quite
different one from the other. Carl Hiaasen, John Irving, Margaret Atwood
(especially her early books), and Thomas Hardy are all front row. David Adams
Richards stuns me with his depiction of living rough in the Miramichi in New
Brunswick. When I first read him I couldn’t believe he was describing life in
the seventies in the same country I’d grown up in. It sounded more like JUDE
THE OBSCURE, his characters take such a beating.
Pam:
Do you have a work in progress? Another short story or have you started
a novel?
Rob:
My first novel STINKING RICH is out on submission.
It’s rural noir based in the Kawarthas. I’m working on another to follow it, as
well as a novella in an urban setting.
The next short story I have coming out will be up on
Shotgun Honey later this month. Earlier this year, they published “Rickie’s
Pig”. I love the fact they limit you to 700 words. You’ve got to get character, setting, and story so sharp it hurts. A lot of their writers go real dark real quick.
Pam:
With a background in
I.T. what is your favourite communication device?
Rob:
Smartphones. I’ve become a huge Android fan. I can
do pretty much everything anywhere anytime.
Pam:
Blogging, FB,
twitter. Is it important to be on all platforms in this day of instant
communication?
Rob:
I probably spend way too much time on line. The
reality is doing one or two platforms well is probably all you need. That said,
I have made some very good (and ultimately close) friends on Twitter. So it’s
definitely not all work.
Pam: Was this your first time attending Bouchercon? Can you give us peek at the crème de la crème of conferences? We want all the gossip, who you met, who gave you inspiration and is this a convention you would recommend to unpublished writers like Jamie Tremain?
Rob:
I’m just gonna gush if I start talking Bouchercon
here, Pam. Isn’t there a word limit for guest posts? I did blog about it: Bouchercon
Blast if your readers are curious.
I will say this, though. Everyone I met there (and I
met a lot of people) absolutely raved about the convention, talked about how
often they go, and committed to be there next year. I know I will be.
Pam:
I have one last
question Rob. Something I ask all who sit on the ‘hot seat’ here.
Have you ever
collaborated with another writer or would you consider doing so?
Rob:
I tried it a couple of times with two different friends years ago. Both were strong story ideas, and I think our writing styles meshed well enough. The problem was discipline. The two right people can motivate each other and keep the creative juices going. (It sure sounds like you and Liz do that!) The two wrong people just get together, talk about the story, and enjoy good food and drink. I fell into the latter camp.
Thanks Rob for spending the time on Jamie Tremain's blog today. Long Beach , California, here we come!
Talk soon,
Slainte,
Pam
Rob Brunet writes crime fiction. His short stories have been
published in Thuglit, Voices, and Shotgun Honey. "Roadkill" placed
second in the 2012 Bloody Words Bony Pete contest.
www.robbrunet.com / Twitter
@RRBrunet
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