June 1, 2022 • 43 mins
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🎙️About the Episode
Step into the lurid world of Brian Asman, an extraordinary horror author who's not afraid to get personal. This week on the Nightmare Engine Podcast, Brian takes you on a whirlwind journey that encompasses everything from his love for his 2005 Chevy SSR Super Sport Roadster to his acting career, and the life-changing decision that led him to swap the familiarity of Virginia for the sunny shores of San Diego. Get a glimpse into the makings of his latest horror novel, where he masterfully weaves together elements of his affection for California, his acting experiences, and his knack for spine-chilling narratives.
If you've ever wondered about the art behind creating realistic, relatable characters in horror writing, you're in for a treat. Brian unpacks the emotional potency of fear, and how this universal human experience can be harnessed to create compelling narratives that resonate with readers. We delve into the nuances of character creation and dialogue crafting, using references from popular pop culture icons such as The Wire and Nightcrawler. Brian shares his unique approach to formulating characters, drawing from his personal encounters and existing character templates.
Finally, discover Brian's ambitious aspirations as he paints a vivid picture of his future in the creative industry. With over 800 glowing reviews for his book and a vision to sell film rights, Brian is no doubt on a promising trajectory. Hear about his plans for upcoming projects and the inexplicable joy he experiences when spotting someone engrossed in his book in public. As part of our bonus content, we explore Brian's current reading list and his admiration for the works of Thomas Legotti. And just when you think you've heard it all, we drop an exciting revelation about Brandon Sanderson's endorsement of David's Kickstarter campaign! So, buckle up for this riveting conversation where we dissect the intricacies of horror writing, screenwriting, and much much more!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Nightmare Engine Podcast with
your hosts, horror authors DavidVirgoots and Jay Bauer, where
they discuss all things horror,books, movies, stories.
Nothing is off limits, nothingis safe, and neither are you.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome again to another
episode of the Nightmare EnginePodcast.
I think we're on like numberseven or eight or something like
this at that point, but we'rejust going by titles and who's
who's joining me on the show.
So I'm your host, davidVirgoots.
I'm gonna be alone in thestudio today.
It's Wednesday, april 13th, andI may be alone in the studio,
(00:50):
but I'm not just talking intothe microphone by myself.
So who we got today is a veryspecial guest and you guys know
I've been bringing on some ofthe best horror writers out
there right now and today I'mhappy to introduce Mr Brian
Asman.
Brian, say hello.
And how are you doing, man?
Hey, pretty good.
How are you, david?
I'm good.
So what kind of car are yougonna sell me today?
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Oh, let's see.
Well, actually I have a car forsale right now.
It's a 2005 Chevy SSR SuperSport Roadster.
It's got a Corvette engine, 400horsepower.
It needs a little bit of work,but I'm asking 15,000.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
15,000.
Well, definitely know that thatprice is totally worth it right
now, and me as a rider, I candefinitely afford it.
So let's do it, man.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
It's a hardtop convertible.
It's got a hundred and fortythousand miles on it.
I'm not doing a bit, I'mliterally trying to sell this
car.
If you're in SouthernCalifornia, arizona, nevada,
contact me after the podcast andbuy my car please.
I'm tired of having two cars.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
So about this car?
This thing became a shill-freecar.
Love it, man, don't buy mybooks.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Buy my car, actually buy my books.
Get a free book.
If you buy the car, that workstoo.
Just give me money.
That's how.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I'm gonna market this to everybody.
Buy Brian's car.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yes, I like it.
First time someone's tried tosell a car through your podcast,
right.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, this will be a first for me.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Dude, it is nightmare engines though.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Yeah, I've had some nightmares with this car, but
they're all over.
It works great now, so ohyou're still going.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Nobody is safe.
You know, at the end of this,at the end of this podcast, I'm
also gonna ask you to shamelessplugs.
I guarantee I'm gonna get thecar spiel again for another 10
minutes.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Oh, I'll come up with some new shit, dude, it's all
good.
Yeah, I'm not gonna repeatmyself.
That's boring.
Seriously, buy my car, though,someone, someone.
I need one too.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Alright, make sure we get a link with some good
pictures.
Yeah, clear title, alright.
So, brian.
So everybody wants to know andeverybody's gonna talk about it,
because you were the buzz,probably about a month ago,
about a particular book andwe'll get to that.
But let's get a little bit of abackground on you.
Besides, to use car salesmanvoice and everything who are you
(03:09):
, where do you come from and whya horror specifically?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Those are all very existential questions and I
appreciate them.
So who am I?
Where do I come from?
I guess I'll start with thesecond part of that.
I am originally from Virginia,right outside DC, a city called
Alexandria.
It's got beautiful cobblestonestreets and lots of ghosts and
George Washington used to fuckaround there.
It's pretty awesome.
(03:35):
However, it's not as awesome aswhere I live now, san Diego.
When I was a kid I always likeI'd see California like in
movies.
I remember that movie, theWizard, from like 1989.
That was like the child-sizedRain man and the kids were
trying to get to California togo to like a video game
competition and I don't know.
Between that point break Ithink I saw some cartoon where
(04:00):
animals were surfing or someshit when I was a kid.
All those things just made mego.
I want to go to California.
It looks awesome.
I like palm trees.
I've always liked the beach.
I love girls in bikinis.
These are all things thatCalifornia has and I love.
I don't like winter.
I like to visit winter, likesnow was really cool.
(04:20):
That's why I love California,because I can drive two hours
and be a big bear and I can gothrow a snowball at someone and
then drive right the fuck backto the beach and sit there in my
shorts.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, I mean, that's so.
Virginia said that's not faroff from where I saw.
I'm a Texas implant.
I've been Texas for about about10 years now, but yeah, I came
from the East Coast as well, soI came from outside DC.
I came from, actually fromMaryland, but you know.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
DC, it's all together , it's all.
Yeah, murder land nice, wherein Maryland?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
so outside of a little town, so outside of
Frederick.
Actually, most people probablyare familiar with Frederick, but
outside of Frederick is alittle town called Mount Airy
and yes, I know that my friendColin is from there originally
yeah, so small world, but yeah.
So now I'm in Texas where thereis no, there is no beaches.
We have snow.
(05:13):
It tried to Texas tried tofreeze everybody last year,
which was incredible.
But Brian, so out in California, I mean, I know there's more to
you than then just ridinghorror.
I think you do some some actingand you've got your agent did
and everything else.
So let's talk about that alittle bit sure, definitely yeah
(05:33):
.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
So I I got into film a couple years ago.
I think if you're a writer or areader, you know that
publishing moves kind of slowlyand when you have a lot of
creative energy, sometimes likeyou need multiple outlets for it
.
I'm also a big believer in thefact that, like I think
generally we're storytellers,not just like writers.
Some people are writers of onething, but generally we're
(05:54):
storytellers.
We want to, we want to tellstories, and what I found when I
bounced between writing comics,writing prose or writing
screenplays I get better at allthree.
When I'm shifting the way Iwrite and the way I tell stories
, I learn things like I think Ithink my prose writing has
gotten much more cinematic eversince I started writing
(06:16):
screenplays, which is kind offunny how I got into that.
I so this is a good segueactually into talking about.
You know degrees for writers,but I did an MFA program at UCR
Palm Desert and in that programyou have what's like you
basically have a major right andthat's for me that was fiction,
and then they want you to takewhat's called a cross or a minor
(06:39):
.
It can be something differenteach, each quarter, so they have
like poetry or playwriting orscreenwriting or nonfiction is
different things that you can do, and I had never been
interested in doing really anyof those.
I had always been like no, Ijust want to write books.
I want to write the bestfreaking books I can write.
I'm just gonna write books.
(06:59):
And that was like well,screenwriting looks really weird
, but let's give it a try.
That could be interesting and Ikind of fell in love with that.
So I think after I started doingthat, my prose got so much more
cinematic and then, because Istarted writing scripts, I got
into wanting to make movies aswell.
So it's, you know, essentiallyI started, you know, writing
(07:22):
some shorts and things like that, because I'm like one thing you
can probably know about me ifyou followed my prose career is
I like doing stuff myself.
Like my first book wastraditionally published through
Eraserhead Press but I've sincegone off and kind of done my own
thing, because I don't likelike, I don't like waiting for
(07:43):
people in general, you know, Ilike to just go do stuff.
And so I was like what are someshort films that I can make
myself?
Or what are you know?
What are some film relatedthings I can get involved with.
So I started doing a littleacting that way too, you know,
because I've got, I've got theused car salesman voice and I
make a really good sweatyredneck.
(08:04):
I can really bring out that likethat Virginia, the Virginia in
me when I need to, you know andso I got involved.
I've been in a couple of littlefilms I think all the ones that
I have parts in actually aren'treleased yet, but I do.
I do have one that I co-wrotewhich is on Amazon Prime right
now.
(08:24):
It's available to rent.
It's called a haunting andRavenwood.
It's distributed by BrokenGlass, but it's kind of like a
neo-gothic Vincent Freistyleghost story I got.
I got approached to be a partof that project because of some
people I had worked withpreviously.
The script was already writtenand I kind of came in, did some
(08:45):
passes on the script,collaborated a bit, and we're
really happy with the result ofthat.
So you can go check it out now.
A haunting and Ravenwood.
I think you said, leave theplugs for the end.
But like I'm just going to workhim in.
Also, my car is for sale.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Brian, I and I love your, I love your sense of humor
.
Man Like we.
I have found that a lot with allthese, all the writers that
we've interviewed, we all havethis same and and and I say this
specifically because of horror.
What I'm trying to do is breakdown some of the stigmas about
horror, and that's who we are.
Number one is the writer, andthen the books that we put out
(09:27):
to and say, hey, look, so thesethings, anybody can enjoy these,
because there's one thing thatwe can all share and that's in
fear.
And the one thing we do aswriters, we tap into those
emotions and I and I tell youwhat, man, when I was looking at
your, the book that I thinkeverybody's you know you're
known for right now, and that'sman, fuck this house.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
And I just I was, I was.
I'm mostly known for womb.
Actually, Don't get me so angry.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
I'm going to tell him I cannot get that dude on this
podcast.
I have tried.
Jay knows him and he won't doit.
Jay knows him and he just stillwon't do it.
So I told him look we don'thave to record your.
I'm going to throw your namearound.
I mean, Brian was on here andhe was taking credit for womb
man, so you've got to be on thispodcast.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Yeah, I mean honestly , dude.
If you want, I can.
We can shut off the camera fora minute.
I'll slather myself in fecesand then put on a Canadian
accent, and then you can, likeyou know, change, change, just
edit the episode and say thatI'm Duncan.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Yeah, I'll move some names around.
Yeah, you might be able to playa better Duncan than Duncan can
play.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
But yeah, For anyone who hasn't read womb, that
probably sounds that we don'tthink a lot of Duncan, but he's
a.
He's a good friend and we lovehim.
And if you've read womb and youknow.
We do that hopefully, hopefullydoesn't come across as too mean
what I just said about how Iwould portray him.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
No, no, and it's 100% contextual.
That's the thing is that it'snot.
It's not, it's.
It has a purpose and a meaningbehind it.
Go check out womb, ShamelessDuncan anyway.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
And it's semi sequel, gross out, which I just read,
and, my God, I cannot say enoughgood things about that book.
That is, it's just phenomenal.
It's a great way to continuethe story of womb and like a
slight way, but it also spinsoff in all these different
directions, so highly recommendthat one.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Yeah, when you can go ahead and make traffic cones
Interesting, I think you've donea good job, so yes indeed.
Tell me about so, and this is.
This is a very broad question,but I think it's important
because we, as writers, we havea lot of different venues and
outlets we can use, and and alsoa lot of genres that we can dip
into.
So why horror?
(11:35):
Why horror specifically?
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Yeah, why horror specifically I mean for the
reason that you just said is mybiggest one.
Horror is, for me, the biggesttent that I can write under,
because it encompasses so manydifferent sub genres, so many
different kinds of stories, likehonestly, and that's what I've
tried to do with, like the lastcouple of books.
I've done.
So I have three releasesthrough my own imprint, mutated
(12:00):
media.
The first is called jailbroke.
It's a sci-fi horror book.
The next is called nunchuckcity.
It's an action comedy set inlike a weird, like kind of
superhero ass ninja turtles assworld.
And then I have man, fuck thishouse, which is probably the
closest thing I've done to likea straight up horror book.
Except anyone who's read itwill be like dude, that's not
even a straight up horror book,that's you know, no spoilers
(12:24):
here.
But but that's truly what Ilove about horror is that
someone like me and someone like, say, like we just mentioned,
duncan, someone like like SinaPelleo and you know, someone
like Brian Keen and someone likeyou know Ratchett and Wade and
someone like Stephen King, wecan all just kind of like you
(12:45):
can put us in a lineup and itall kind of makes sense to throw
Laird Baron in there.
And then you know, you know youcan put it in like a basely
different kinds of fiction andinto a lineup.
And you know, just look at thelineup and it all kind of makes
sense.
You know, we all write booksthat like the same people like
(13:16):
to read.
But I think, and for me thereason why that is is, like
you're saying earlier, horror isan emotion, so like where's the
feeling, and it's common tohuman experience.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, what I found with horror too is that it's
it's and me even as a reader,just from that perspective, I
said you know what it's.
This is kind of emotionallytaxing on me when done right At
the end of the book or evenduring the parts when it's like
when you can feel for thatcharacter, you're just like man.
I may need to take a step backand you can probably see that a
(13:47):
couple of times in some of thegroups.
You're like man people saying Ihad to put it down for a minute
and it's not just the.
It's not just the, the blood andgore and the poop, it's, it's
everything that's going on withthose characters.
We try, I mean it's not scaryif you can't relate to the
characters, right, I mean, ifit's just so outlandish, then
that's the whole thing abouthorror.
I think that's really importantis that we can we create
(14:10):
characters that our readers cangravitate towards and they can
really step into their shoes.
This is more than urban fantasy.
This is more than than epicfantasy Not saying that the
one's better than the other, butthe focus on character.
It becomes so much morepersonal when it's about fear.
It's about losing things youdon't want to lose.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Exactly, I completely agree.
It's, in order for it to work,you have to care about the
characters or identify with thecharacters, or you know, or both
, right?
You have to see something inthat person that you think is
worth saving, otherwise it'sjust gore for gore's sake, right
?
I think that's one thing that Ilike.
Again, going back to him, Ithink that's one thing Duncan
(14:51):
does really well is he createsthese distinct characters that
you feel.
You feel like kinship with them, even though they've had wildly
different experiences than youand they.
You know you can see the goodin someone, even as something
horrific has happened or asthey're doing something horrific
.
You know, and like, there are alot of writers there are
(15:12):
phenomenal at that.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah, and then, and even in my own writing, I find
that it's something veryimportant that I'm having to
gravitate back towards, becausewhen I first started writing, I
I wrote all about the coolmoments and started to and said
you know, I'm missing somethinghere.
I'm missing the human element,I'm missing the characters, I'm
missing the.
You know, you could have abunch of stuff happening on
screen, but if you don't haveTom Cruise running, then it's
(15:34):
not going to be interesting.
You know you're just having abunch of stuff happen, you know.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
So, yeah, yeah, exactly, you see that in.
Like you know, one of the bestaction films for me of the last
10 years was John Wick.
Yes, the choreography isamazing, but the movie also did
something very important, right?
It helped you identify with him, right?
You felt for this guy.
Like you know, even though he'sa trained killer, he's had
(15:58):
these double losses, like justbam bam, and just that motivates
everything and that makes theactions in which we're fun to
watch.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Well, you broke the number one rule, which is don't
kill the dog.
Exactly, that was the firstthing.
Yeah, exactly, I actuallytested this there.
I wrote my first zombie book.
I killed the dog and I couldfirst like five pages.
I just wanted to see if I couldmake it pass.
And I've got good read throughbetween all three books, but
yeah, so if you don't like, I'lltell everybody, and everybody
knows that the dog dies.
But if you read the firstcouple of chapters you know the
(16:28):
dog dies.
So just keep that in mind.
I just wanted to test the idea.
But we were talking about Iwant to go backtrack a little
bit about shorts.
About shorts, you know this.
On this podcast we talk a lotabout movies, we talk books, we
talk comics, we talk everything.
If it's horror related, we talkabout it.
I mean, the other day we talkedto Jay and I discussed the
(16:49):
religious implications ofexorcisms outside the Catholic
church.
It was just so weird becauseJay's got a history in medieval
history and there's a, he's gota degree in some other stuff and
he's got this big focus onreligion and things like that.
So Jay and I had this reallyweird but still kind of
interesting conversation.
Like what do the Baptistsshould do for an exorcism if
(17:11):
they need one?
You know, just stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Right, oh, that's cool, yeah, so just kind of
questions like that.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
So, anyways, everything's kind of open on
this podcast.
So one thing I was going to askyou is short stories.
Did you like the movie?
If you've seen it, lights Out.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Lights Out.
Yes, so that's the one where,when the lights out, the monster
can advance towards you, andwhen the lights on, the monster
disappears, right.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Yes, that's such a simple idea, but just taken it's
a great idea.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
I love that one too, because it started as a short
film.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Yes, an indie film.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Yeah, and then it got picked up.
Yeah, that was cool.
I thought that was a powerfulmovie, cool concept.
I had some issues with the end.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
But other than my issues with the end of it, I
thought it was good.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah, what I'd really like to see too is and I'm kind
of a sucker for these movies, Idon't care if there's 20 of
them or not, but the ParanormalActivity movies, I love them.
Even after like the fifth orsixth one, I'm like, okay, this
is getting kind of ridiculous,but I love them because it was
so simple and it was so.
It was a video camera.
(18:20):
That's it not like thisall-knowing third eye view that
you get normally, like a lot ofbooks will portray.
You get something that can onlyshow you one view.
It seems so much more intimateand I would love to figure out
how I could capture that feelingin a book.
I think Haunted Houses can dothat for you, because you have
to kind of personify the HauntedHouse as a thing.
(18:43):
People love the house, like withLee Mountford.
I read a few of his Paranmannerbooks and I grew to love the
house because the house itselfhad its own history.
The scary thing had a history.
I wrote a book called Wendigoand the Wendigo had its own
history and I loved the Wendigoas its own character.
I'm just trying to figure outhow do you capture emotions in
(19:05):
your book, in your books, whatis the main thing you look for.
How do you make charactersmatter to readers?
Speaker 3 (19:15):
I think the number one thing that you do with any
character to make them matter toa reader is just make it.
Make every character have agoal.
As long as every character hassomething that they want, the
reader can relate to wantingsomething that you don't have.
One of the best examples ofthis I've ever seen is in the
(19:37):
Wire, season 4.
I'm not sure if you watch theWire.
There's a scene where a very,very, very minor character is
driving up and down theinterstate buying cell phones
from different conveniencestores.
He has his girlfriend in thecar with him and she's even more
of a minor character.
These are the only scenes she'sever in the whole series.
I believe this is kind of oneof those almost like bottle
(20:02):
episode type things where it'slike what's going on with these
people?
But you care?
Because through dialogue, justa handful of lines, she's
articulating what she wants.
She'd rather be doing X, y or Zthan driving up and down the
interstate buying burners withher boyfriend.
All of a sudden I'm like, ohman, I can totally relate to the
(20:22):
time that I was at the mallwith my ex-girlfriend and she
wanted to do this.
I was like can we go eat?
I don't want to be here.
I think just being able toarticulate what each character
wants will make the reader care.
It's only when a character isthere in service solely of the
plot or other characters that itbecomes like who cares?
(20:42):
Right, if I have a characterwalk into a store and there's
just someone behind the counterthat says, may I help you?
Okay, here are your chicklets.
Okay, who cares about thatcharacter?
Right.
But if the character walks in,the guy behind the desk is
yelling at the TV because hissports team is losing.
That is that little moment ofcharacterization that will make
(21:02):
the reader care, right.
And so when you talk about yourprotagonist and side characters
, it's like that dialed upbecause you have so many more
opportunities to show peoplehere's what they care about,
here's the things that theycan't have and what they're
striving for.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Yeah and so on.
Long form, do you take eventsthat you've seen, or do you make
things up, or do they fit withthe story, or kind of a mix of
the craft, like, how do you comeup with your?
Speaker 3 (21:29):
ideas.
Oh, any semblance to any personliving or dead is entirely
coincidental.
No, I mean, yeah, I meansometimes.
I guess sometimes I might insertsomething that I've seen in
real life.
Generally, I'd say generally,it's just me making stuff up,
but I don't want to sound tooesoteric and be like.
(21:53):
The characters revealthemselves to me but they sort
of do Like.
I essentially look at it aslike, like I don't know like.
The character at first is kindof like a gray smear or
something like that and they'rekind of in the distance and I'm
zooming in on them right, andsometimes as I zoom in I learn
new things about them.
But part of the way that youlearn new things about your
(22:13):
characters is just putting themin different situations and
going, ok, based on what I knowabout this person, how would or
wouldn't they react?
Right, and you know.
A lot of the time I do think ofcharacters as I'll kind of have
a template for them.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
And whether it's someone I've met or a character
in a movie or something likethat, or like six characters in
six movies plus six people I'vemet, all kind of combined right.
But it helps if I can kind ofhave a vague visualization of at
least that type of person.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
And is that I mean in screenplays?
I mean, it knows it's kind ofgoing off the wire a little bit
here, but with screenplays Imean you kind of you're kind of
limited, right.
You know you really personifythings very quickly.
You don't have an entire bookto explain things, right.
I mean it's written.
I don't know much aboutscreenplays.
You're going to be the experton this one.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Yeah, it's interesting, so you have to have
a lot of dialogue and subtextand things do.
The heavy left in it alsomatters in how you introduce the
characters.
You know it's like that firsttime you see them.
What are they doing?
You know, are they late forwork or are they doing this or
doing that, right?
You know kind of the basic.
(23:25):
You know the kind of basicstory forms are do they have it
together or do they not have ittogether?
Right, are they in their state?
Speaker 2 (23:31):
of grace.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Or are they in their everything's already screwed up
right?
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah, I really like that, and I'm kind of notorious
for my plot points that are like, if I, if I feel like I'm
stalled out, I will 100%introduce a problem.
You said you, now you've gotsomething to solve, even if it's
something as mundane, as youknow.
Like you said, just I need togo buy a bunch of burners, for
whatever reason.
You know, just it seems likepeople in their daily lives are
(23:58):
constantly trying to put outfires, so that after that point
is just introducing fires.
That are real, you know, thatfeel real to the character, at
least you know.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
So let's um let's talk about oh sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
No, no, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Yeah, I was gonna say .
One really good example of howto introduce a character, I
think is in the movieNightcrawler.
Have you seen that with JakeGyllenhaal?
Yeah, yeah, okay.
So think back, okay, the verybeginning, when we first meet
Louis Bloom.
He's stealing chain like fence.
And then he gets caughtstealing it.
And then you hear him go wait,what kind of uniform is that?
(24:34):
Yeah, and you know.
And then, and all of a sudden,like flash forward, he's asking
the guy that he's selling stolenchain like fence to for a job.
And I think that's just.
There's just so much characterwork jam packed into those
couple scenes, right, where yousee not only who this guy is but
what he's willing to do andwhere he wants to go.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Right, you can already see that, like he wants,
he wants to become legitimatesomehow and that's his struggle
Even is, and even his way to getthere his way to get there was
in that movie was completelywrong.
It was bass Aquartz and but youstarted like feeling for him.
You're like, yeah, man, I couldyou know, in the quest for fame
and the quest for for belonging, you know, you were like what
(25:16):
is someone willing to do?
And you're like, yeah, I couldtotally see him doing that, and
maybe even me, you know, if Ireally needed to make it.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Yeah, and I think the entire, the opening sequence of
that movie is just really amicrocosm of his, of his entire
journey throughout the movie.
Really, you know, because yousee him doing, doing stuff he
stood stuff that's illegal, yousee him escalating, you see him
disregarding other people's wellbeing, you see the
opportunistic nature of him,like all these things are just
(25:44):
there in those couple minutes,like it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
And I think once you, once you've seen that, it
really sells all the othercharacter decisions that happen
throughout the movie as well.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Well, yeah, and it sets the stage for what you can
expect, I mean of, of of thatcharacter, what it's going to be
like seeing him go throughthings and go through his daily
life.
So let's speaking of a dailylife.
Yeah, I know, we were trying tomake the schedules work.
What do you do during the day?
I mean, this is this, is yournight crawler right here?
Right, I mean what we're doingright now.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Yeah, this totally is so during the day I work, for I
don't like this isn'tnecessarily a secret you can
find out with Googling but Idon't, I don't, I don't mention
the name of my employer publiclyonly because I don't want to,
you know, create a publicassociation between what I do
(26:41):
for a day job and some of thethings that I write.
You know, I don't want to beconstrained like that.
So, anyway, I work for acompany in the biotech sector
biotech Okay.
Yeah, we do, we do DNAsequencing.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Okay, and scientific end of it, or administrative, or
which end of that are you on?
Speaker 3 (27:01):
I guess kind of more on the administrative.
I'm in quality assurance so Ilead investigations into
complaint trends about ourproducts, and then I do
executive a lot of executivelike a lot of my job is just
making PowerPoints, frankly, Ido like a monthly report out to
the executives about you knowkind of what problems our
customers are facing.
And then the other portion ofmy job is just communicating
(27:26):
with the customers.
Had a serious issue.
Tech support handles most of it, but sometimes my team will
come in and provide the customerkind of like an official, like
okay, here's, here's ourofficial statements on what's
going on and how you can avoidit, how you can mitigate it.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
And so the long term, I mean the long term is it
there?
Is it in creative, thiscreative outlets?
I mean, where were we?
Was this just a cool hobby thatjust does that?
That helps get some of thecreative juices flowing.
I mean, what?
Where do you see yourself?
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Oh, I mean, working in DNA sequencing is definitely
a cool hobby for me.
Yeah you know?
No, it's that.
That's a that's a greatquestion.
I think a lot of people havethis, you know.
I think a lot.
For a lot of people, the goalis to go full time with writing.
I'm not sure that's necessarilymy goal.
That doesn't mean it's a hobbyfor me either, sure, but it
(28:18):
means that in order for me to belike a complete person, I need
to challenge myself in differentways, and so I find that my job
, my day job, compliments bywriting career, you know, and I
went, I went to excel in bothkind of like how, like you know,
jack Dorsey was the CEO ofTwitter and square at the same
time.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Right.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Like you know and like he ran two successful
companies.
Okay, like not to comparemyself to Jack Dorsey, but, like
you know, I can have asuccessful career doing one
thing and another successfulcareer doing the other thing and
you know it makes me happy.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Yeah, the reviews speak for themselves.
You got about 800 positivereviews, so it's not like you
wrote a bad book.
You wrote a good book.
Yeah, you wrote a good book andit's got attention and and you
know that's, that's kind of oneof those things that you have to
find a happy medium, I think,between where you want to go,
you know what the long termlooks like, and then what's
(29:16):
paying the bills, and see if youcan find the medium and or have
one take over for the other.
So you moved out to sunnyCalifornia chasing, chasing a
dream of some sort, did you?
And what was that dream thatyou chased?
I know we talked about itearlier.
It was kind of it was a mix ofcreativeness, but it was like
acting, and then it wasscreenwriting and so, and then
books came into play.
(29:37):
So what's the what's the?
What's the, what's thepicturesque vision for you?
Where do you want to be?
Speaker 3 (29:45):
where do I want to be ?
So I am, I love where I amright now.
First of all, I should say, youknow, I'm getting like, you
know people are reading my booksand that's what I want.
You know, having a, I have avery I'm starting to develop a
very dedicated core audience,which is fantastic.
Um, you know, and I'm gettingto make some film.
(30:07):
I'm going to do film projects Iwant to do.
I'm going to do comics projectsI want to do.
I'm getting to write the bookson a right.
So this is all great.
As far as where I want to belike, more, more, more as always
, a component of it, for sure.
Um, to I, you know, and like I,like I am agent and I have some
more sort of mainstream butstill interesting stuff.
(30:31):
She's shopping around.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
You know that it's not necessarily like a book like
nunchuck city, which is dumbninja jokes for 200 pages.
Um, you know, it's like.
It's like more of like a like aone's a crime novel and others
a horror novel.
That's a little morestraightforward.
It's a little.
These are both kind of things.
They're a little bit differentthan what I've written or that
what people are most familiarwith, probably from me.
(30:55):
Ideally, yeah, I'd love to sella book to a bigger publisher and
get that that next step up.
You know, right, that would becool.
Sell the film rights I like toget paid twice for the same
property, that'd be amazing.
So selling film rights, that'sa goal as well.
Ideally, though, I just I stillwant to make sure in like 10
years, 15 years, whatever I'm in, I'm in a place where I can
(31:18):
make my own decisions creatively.
And you know, if my audience,like I, want people to read my
books, but if my audiencecontracts, then well, like I
write for myself first andforemost, right, so like I'd
rather put out stuff that I wantto write, then try and, like
you know, create like a thrillerseries or something like that
that, like you know, people buya ton of an airports, but
(31:41):
everyone forgets when they getoff the fly.
You know, sure.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Okay, well, I mean that personal element.
You want that to kind of stickwith them for a little bit and
and have them talking about yourbooks and have them talking
about things that happen.
You know, I think we all kindof dream about that.
Just say somebody to be walkingdown, you know walking through
the mall, and just have somebodybe having a conversation about
your book.
I think that would be justwicked.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
I mean I've had.
My buddy was at a restaurant,like looked over and like the
table next to him was reading mybook, Like it's pretty cool
stuff, stuff like that'shappened before you know.
And when those things happenyou're just like, whoa, this is
amazing, yeah.
But we're talking dreams andgoals.
By the way, I always put thisout into the universe every
(32:24):
chance I get.
But one of my biggest careergoals is to convince IDW to let
me write a pizza face one shotfor their Ninja Turtles comic
line.
I saw that cover.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
I've yet to pick up that book, but I tell you what
with the name of the cover, it'son the list of two of to be
read.
So what's on your pile of booksthat needs to be read right now
?
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Oh, I was talking about the old Ninja Turtles
villain pizza face, not theregard collection it's also very
good yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
See, see, my mind was that was out.
Yeah, Aaron's supposed to be.
I think he's going to.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
I'm trying to get with him on this podcast as well
, but yeah, I'll let him knowthat you you've named, dropped
him as well, and Duncan, so yeah, accidentally again I was
trying to talk about NinjaTurtles, but yeah, yeah, I'll
give a shout out.
Anyway, that was a lot of.
That was a fun collection andthe you know God that cover just
got me.
I mean, I was like I must ownthis.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Yeah, yeah, even just on the shelf, just as a talking
piece and like just to scarethe, scare the Joneses away when
they come over.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
So, um so, real quick .
What's what are you reading?
What do you read right now?
Speaker 3 (33:38):
Let's see what am I reading right now.
I am currently reading theStreet of Crocodiles by Bruno
Schultz.
He's a, you know, kind of apost-moderous writer from the
early part of the 20th century.
Like your facts about him, hewas.
He shares a birthday with meand he was actually murdered by
(33:58):
the Nazis on the on my father'sbirthday.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Um, morbid, but awesome and weird.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
More of a but interesting, yeah, and so I'm.
He's an influence of ThomasLegotti, and so I'm.
I'm going back and reading, uh,his, his couple surviving works
, uh, in the Street ofCrocodiles, and it is wild stuff
, yeah, yeah, it's kind of likeI don't know, it just veers him
like.
It's kind of like very, veryFlorida and interesting pros
(34:27):
Very, very dent.
There's lots unpacked there.
It's very kind of magicalrealism.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Yeah, and so I'm reading it in a way.
Uh, it's super interesting, soI'm reading that.
I just read Gross Up by DuncanRalston, which again is fricking
fantastic, um, and then, uh,I'm trying to think what else?
I've got a couple other books.
I read Children of Chicago bySina Playa recently Um, that was
so that one, the Schultz book.
(34:53):
Um, I have a book of AngelaCarter's that I'm reading, and
then I'm rereading some ThomasLegotti.
So all of those are kind oflike what I'm putting into my
mental blender for the nextproject I want to work on Very
cool.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
And is that going to be in the same, uh, same line
that you've got right now?
Or are you looking at sequel toman, fuck this House?
Or what are?
What are we?
Uh, what do you?
What do you got on the choppingblock?
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Oh, so this will be a completely new book that has
nothing to do with anything, um,but yeah, as far as the sequel
goes, I know, like some peoplehave asked about that, I'm not
so much a sequel guy, um,generally I don't know, like I
don't there, I mean, I couldwrite a sequel to man Fuck this
House, like, but like what Iwant to?
Probably not.
(35:38):
For me, that story is kind ofover and done with.
Uh, the one property that Iwould go back to and write more
sequels, which I have several inmind, is, uh, nunchuck City.
Uh, that's like a whole assworld.
That's a super fun playgroundwith all the things I love,
whether it's ninjas, whetherit's cyborgs, uh, whether it's
drive through fun, do,restaurants, all of that shit.
(35:59):
So, uh, that's the one where,if it caught on a little more, I
think I'd go back and write asequel.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
It's kind of hard to write a sequel and everybody
fucking dies.
So yeah.
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Well, also, you could just be like fucking, I'm
bringing them back.
This is fiction.
I can do what I want and youcan't stop me.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Yeah, I think at the beginning of one of these books
that I read, somebody put adisclaimer at the front of that,
like uh, surprise.
The first line was likesurprise, everybody didn't
actually die.
Here's the sequel and it justkept going and I was like I love
it.
I love it.
Um, you know, as, asindependent authors, we have
that creativity, we have thatoption to, to, to take it
another step and test it and anddo the fun things.
(36:39):
Like one of the things I'mdoing right now is I'm I ran a
big Kickstarter and, uh, raiseda couple of thousand dollars and
really, good A lot more thancongrats.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Yeah, I was hoping for 500 bucks and I ended up
with a couple of thousand, soapparently it caught on and, um,
and I think, um, I have a newframe next to my uh, next to my
books, and that's of BrandonSanderson's company backing my
Kickstarter.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
Um so, I thought, yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Yeah, yeah.
So he went and backed everybody.
But mine was on that list atthe time, so I went um.
You know big daddy Sanderson.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
So wait, wait.
He went back and bet he likebacked all the Kickstarter
projects that were in flight atthe time.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
All the publishing, every single one of them.
He actually has a video.
Yeah, he has a video up of anduh of, where he shows all the
ones that he backed.
Uh, I think it's.
I think it's a couple hundredof them, um so that is, that is
pretty amazing.
Uh, sanderson, is that's agreat way to give back.
Yeah, that's my goal.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
That's a great way to get back.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Yeah, he's setting the goals, man, he's really
setting he's.
He's using the social media,he's using the community, he's.
He's.
You know, he's teaching at theBYU.
He's got the courses up onlinefor free.
I mean, sanderson is justpaving the way for what I think
authors need to be aspiring tobe, and that's just open and and
part of a collective of say youknow what here's, here's who I
(37:57):
am, let's talk, let's meet myfans and let's let's build
something together.
And I think Brandon's doingthat.
So I just look up to him as asan author.
I look up to him as a fantasyauthor.
I look at him.
I read almost all of his books.
So Sanderson's just a and he'sjust a great guy.
He's just nice, nice guy, andthat's that's what I found too
about the horror community.
Man I think you'd probablyagree with.
Now, this is that man.
Horror people are some of thecoolest, nicest people you'll
(38:20):
ever meet.
I read some fucked up shit.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Yeah, you get.
Yeah, if you go to conventions.
Everyone is super friendly,super outgoing, um, everyone
likes to have a good time.
Like it's a total misconceptionthat horror writers are all
like dark and blah, blah, blahlike no.
We purge all that shit onto thepage and when we're done, we go
party.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Yeah.
So, um, son of a, we have kindof a little habit, I guess a
little thing that we do on thispodcast and that's uh, you got
to tell us something like,honestly, that scares the shit
out of you and my stuff is weird.
We've already talked about me.
So what, what are you afraid of?
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Uh, heights, uh, heights scare the shit out of me
.
Uh, so I'm not really a fan ofbeing on ladders.
Um, I'm getting better atflying, just because I have so
many places I have to be.
Now I can't really afford tolike be nervous about flying
anymore.
Um, so that's good, but like,yeah, I'd prefer not to be up
high.
My other weird fear is that ifI am going into the bathroom at
(39:18):
night, uh, I will not look inthe mirror.
Uh, mirrors, uh mirrors in darkrooms, uh, uh, freak me out,
and it's it's more of like a I'mafraid of being scared type
thing.
Um, because, like I'm worriednot like I'm I don't actually
believe in ghosts or anything,but I'm like I'm worried I will
look in the mirror with, like mysleep, a fog brain and eyes and
(39:38):
it's dark, and I will mistake ashape for something that it's
not and freak out.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
That's awesome.
So a quick story my wife is, um, my wife and I were both cops,
um and so, and so my wifeactually almost shot herself in
the mirror.
She was clearing a building atnight, the lights wouldn't come
on, and so when she went pastthe, went past the mirror, she
saw herself and almost pulledthe trigger at at the mirror.
Um, so yeah, it's just, uh,just kind of funny.
(40:07):
She's going to hear this laterand then and be like I'll put
the hell we talking about that.
So I almost shot a life size uhcut out of Elvis, uh, in a barn
.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
Yeah, don't be cruel.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Yeah, so he had, uh, he had two pistols and we were
clearing the barn cause therewas a bunch of.
This is just kind of off topic,but totally funny.
Uh, we're clearing the barncause there was a bunch of
lights came on in this guy's uhfarm land, so there's some
people out there and we went togo check it out.
I mean, uh and the and thecounty, and we went out there
and we're going room to room andthere's nothing, there's
nothing, there's nothing.
But we know they're therebecause the lights were just on.
So, unless they ran out theback or a window or something,
(40:40):
you know, we know we're going tofind them.
So we go to the last room and,uh, we go into the room, the
lights won't come on and boom,there's a guy with two pistols
in the corner pointed at us, andyou know it is damn Elvis.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
That is so ridiculous .
Like that's hilarious thoughI'm sure stuff like that happens
all the time man, that's alittle disconcerting, but yeah,
gotta be relief and you're like,oh, it's just the king of rock
and roll.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
Yeah, that was the longest trigger pull ever.
Like I, I swore I was pullingthe trigger and it just, it just
.
The gun would not go off.
So it was just a just a funnystory that I I think I stepped
in cow shit my way out too.
So it's just it made my night,yeah, so anyways all right, all
right.
Brian, I know you're short ontime here, man, and I do
(41:27):
appreciate every every minutethat you give us so and the
reader so shameless plug time.
Give us, give us a talk aboutthe car, give us a talk about
your books, let us know where wecan find you, and then
afterwards I'm going to get someinformation from you so I can
get this up.
Speaker 3 (41:40):
All right.
Thank you very much, sir, andagain, I really appreciate
coming on.
I'm down to come back onanytime and hopefully we can
figure out a kind of a blockwhere we can chat for longer.
This is a super funconversation.
Yeah, if you're in the SouthernCalifornia or Arizona or Nevada
areas, I'm trying to sell a carsoon.
It's a 2005 Chevy SSR 140,000miles.
It's got the Chevy LS2 enginePretty badass.
(42:01):
So message me anywhere ifyou're interested in buying a
car that I own, because it'llprobably be worth a lot of money
very soon.
Also, check out man, fuck thisHouse.
From Mutated Media availablenow on Amazon, barnes, noble
Pals and all the other placesfine books are sold.
You can also buy signed copieson my website,
wwwbrionasmandbookscom.
(42:24):
I also have a couple othernovellas up there for sale and
keep checking back.
There might be some new stuffup there soon, who knows.
And finally, I'm mostly onTwitter.
All social media is at theBrian Asman, so give me a follow
.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
That's awesome man.
That is, ladies and gentlemen,we have the best intro and outro
ever to the Nightmare Enginepodcast.
So until somebody can step itup, duncan, calling you out,
until somebody can step it up,brian, you lead the way, man.
Thank you for your time today,thank you for your awesome books
and thank you for being part ofthis community, and we'll talk
(43:01):
to you soon.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
Awesome.
Thank you very much, david,much appreciated.
All right, have a good one.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
Thank you.
Thanks for listening to theNightmare Engine podcast with
your hosts, horror authors DavidVirgoots and Jay Bauer, where
nothing is off limits, nothingis safe, and neither are you.
Welcome to the Nightmare Engine Podcast with
your hosts, horror authors DavidVirgoots and Jay Bauer, where
they discuss all things horror,books, movies, stories.
Nothing is off limits, nothingis safe, and neither are you.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome again to another
episode of the Nightmare EnginePodcast.
I think we're on like numberseven or eight or something like
this at that point, but we'rejust going by titles and who's
who's joining me on the show.
So I'm your host, davidVirgoots.
I'm gonna be alone in thestudio today.
It's Wednesday, april 13th, andI may be alone in the studio,
(00:50):
but I'm not just talking intothe microphone by myself.
So who we got today is a veryspecial guest and you guys know
I've been bringing on some ofthe best horror writers out
there right now and today I'mhappy to introduce Mr Brian
Asman.
Brian, say hello.
And how are you doing, man?
Hey, pretty good.
How are you, david?
I'm good.
So what kind of car are yougonna sell me today?
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Oh, let's see.
Well, actually I have a car forsale right now.
It's a 2005 Chevy SSR SuperSport Roadster.
It's got a Corvette engine, 400horsepower.
It needs a little bit of work,but I'm asking 15,000.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
15,000.
Well, definitely know that thatprice is totally worth it right
now, and me as a rider, I candefinitely afford it.
So let's do it, man.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
It's a hardtop convertible.
It's got a hundred and fortythousand miles on it.
I'm not doing a bit, I'mliterally trying to sell this
car.
If you're in SouthernCalifornia, arizona, nevada,
contact me after the podcast andbuy my car please.
I'm tired of having two cars.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
So about this car?
This thing became a shill-freecar.
Love it, man, don't buy mybooks.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Buy my car, actually buy my books.
Get a free book.
If you buy the car, that workstoo.
Just give me money.
That's how.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I'm gonna market this to everybody.
Buy Brian's car.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yes, I like it.
First time someone's tried tosell a car through your podcast,
right.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, this will be a first for me.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Dude, it is nightmare engines though.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Yeah, I've had some nightmares with this car, but
they're all over.
It works great now, so ohyou're still going.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Nobody is safe.
You know, at the end of this,at the end of this podcast, I'm
also gonna ask you to shamelessplugs.
I guarantee I'm gonna get thecar spiel again for another 10
minutes.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Oh, I'll come up with some new shit, dude, it's all
good.
Yeah, I'm not gonna repeatmyself.
That's boring.
Seriously, buy my car, though,someone, someone.
I need one too.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Alright, make sure we get a link with some good
pictures.
Yeah, clear title, alright.
So, brian.
So everybody wants to know andeverybody's gonna talk about it,
because you were the buzz,probably about a month ago,
about a particular book andwe'll get to that.
But let's get a little bit of abackground on you.
Besides, to use car salesmanvoice and everything who are you
(03:09):
, where do you come from and whya horror specifically?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Those are all very existential questions and I
appreciate them.
So who am I?
Where do I come from?
I guess I'll start with thesecond part of that.
I am originally from Virginia,right outside DC, a city called
Alexandria.
It's got beautiful cobblestonestreets and lots of ghosts and
George Washington used to fuckaround there.
It's pretty awesome.
(03:35):
However, it's not as awesome aswhere I live now, san Diego.
When I was a kid I always likeI'd see California like in
movies.
I remember that movie, theWizard, from like 1989.
That was like the child-sizedRain man and the kids were
trying to get to California togo to like a video game
competition and I don't know.
Between that point break Ithink I saw some cartoon where
(04:00):
animals were surfing or someshit when I was a kid.
All those things just made mego.
I want to go to California.
It looks awesome.
I like palm trees.
I've always liked the beach.
I love girls in bikinis.
These are all things thatCalifornia has and I love.
I don't like winter.
I like to visit winter, likesnow was really cool.
(04:20):
That's why I love California,because I can drive two hours
and be a big bear and I can gothrow a snowball at someone and
then drive right the fuck backto the beach and sit there in my
shorts.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, I mean, that's so.
Virginia said that's not faroff from where I saw.
I'm a Texas implant.
I've been Texas for about about10 years now, but yeah, I came
from the East Coast as well, soI came from outside DC.
I came from, actually fromMaryland, but you know.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
DC, it's all together , it's all.
Yeah, murder land nice, wherein Maryland?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
so outside of a little town, so outside of
Frederick.
Actually, most people probablyare familiar with Frederick, but
outside of Frederick is alittle town called Mount Airy
and yes, I know that my friendColin is from there originally
yeah, so small world, but yeah.
So now I'm in Texas where thereis no, there is no beaches.
We have snow.
(05:13):
It tried to Texas tried tofreeze everybody last year,
which was incredible.
But Brian, so out in California, I mean, I know there's more to
you than then just ridinghorror.
I think you do some some actingand you've got your agent did
and everything else.
So let's talk about that alittle bit sure, definitely yeah
(05:33):
.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
So I I got into film a couple years ago.
I think if you're a writer or areader, you know that
publishing moves kind of slowlyand when you have a lot of
creative energy, sometimes likeyou need multiple outlets for it
.
I'm also a big believer in thefact that, like I think
generally we're storytellers,not just like writers.
Some people are writers of onething, but generally we're
(05:54):
storytellers.
We want to, we want to tellstories, and what I found when I
bounced between writing comics,writing prose or writing
screenplays I get better at allthree.
When I'm shifting the way Iwrite and the way I tell stories
, I learn things like I think Ithink my prose writing has
gotten much more cinematic eversince I started writing
(06:16):
screenplays, which is kind offunny how I got into that.
I so this is a good segueactually into talking about.
You know degrees for writers,but I did an MFA program at UCR
Palm Desert and in that programyou have what's like you
basically have a major right andthat's for me that was fiction,
and then they want you to takewhat's called a cross or a minor
(06:39):
.
It can be something differenteach, each quarter, so they have
like poetry or playwriting orscreenwriting or nonfiction is
different things that you can do, and I had never been
interested in doing really anyof those.
I had always been like no, Ijust want to write books.
I want to write the bestfreaking books I can write.
I'm just gonna write books.
(06:59):
And that was like well,screenwriting looks really weird
, but let's give it a try.
That could be interesting and Ikind of fell in love with that.
So I think after I started doingthat, my prose got so much more
cinematic and then, because Istarted writing scripts, I got
into wanting to make movies aswell.
So it's, you know, essentiallyI started, you know, writing
(07:22):
some shorts and things like that, because I'm like one thing you
can probably know about me ifyou followed my prose career is
I like doing stuff myself.
Like my first book wastraditionally published through
Eraserhead Press but I've sincegone off and kind of done my own
thing, because I don't likelike, I don't like waiting for
(07:43):
people in general, you know, Ilike to just go do stuff.
And so I was like what are someshort films that I can make
myself?
Or what are you know?
What are some film relatedthings I can get involved with.
So I started doing a littleacting that way too, you know,
because I've got, I've got theused car salesman voice and I
make a really good sweatyredneck.
(08:04):
I can really bring out that likethat Virginia, the Virginia in
me when I need to, you know andso I got involved.
I've been in a couple of littlefilms I think all the ones that
I have parts in actually aren'treleased yet, but I do.
I do have one that I co-wrotewhich is on Amazon Prime right
now.
(08:24):
It's available to rent.
It's called a haunting andRavenwood.
It's distributed by BrokenGlass, but it's kind of like a
neo-gothic Vincent Freistyleghost story I got.
I got approached to be a partof that project because of some
people I had worked withpreviously.
The script was already writtenand I kind of came in, did some
(08:45):
passes on the script,collaborated a bit, and we're
really happy with the result ofthat.
So you can go check it out now.
A haunting and Ravenwood.
I think you said, leave theplugs for the end.
But like I'm just going to workhim in.
Also, my car is for sale.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Brian, I and I love your, I love your sense of humor
.
Man Like we.
I have found that a lot with allthese, all the writers that
we've interviewed, we all havethis same and and and I say this
specifically because of horror.
What I'm trying to do is breakdown some of the stigmas about
horror, and that's who we are.
Number one is the writer, andthen the books that we put out
(09:27):
to and say, hey, look, so thesethings, anybody can enjoy these,
because there's one thing thatwe can all share and that's in
fear.
And the one thing we do aswriters, we tap into those
emotions and I and I tell youwhat, man, when I was looking at
your, the book that I thinkeverybody's you know you're
known for right now, and that'sman, fuck this house.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
And I just I was, I was.
I'm mostly known for womb.
Actually, Don't get me so angry.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
I'm going to tell him I cannot get that dude on this
podcast.
I have tried.
Jay knows him and he won't doit.
Jay knows him and he just stillwon't do it.
So I told him look we don'thave to record your.
I'm going to throw your namearound.
I mean, Brian was on here andhe was taking credit for womb
man, so you've got to be on thispodcast.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Yeah, I mean honestly , dude.
If you want, I can.
We can shut off the camera fora minute.
I'll slather myself in fecesand then put on a Canadian
accent, and then you can, likeyou know, change, change, just
edit the episode and say thatI'm Duncan.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Yeah, I'll move some names around.
Yeah, you might be able to playa better Duncan than Duncan can
play.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
But yeah, For anyone who hasn't read womb, that
probably sounds that we don'tthink a lot of Duncan, but he's
a.
He's a good friend and we lovehim.
And if you've read womb and youknow.
We do that hopefully, hopefullydoesn't come across as too mean
what I just said about how Iwould portray him.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
No, no, and it's 100% contextual.
That's the thing is that it'snot.
It's not, it's.
It has a purpose and a meaningbehind it.
Go check out womb, ShamelessDuncan anyway.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
And it's semi sequel, gross out, which I just read,
and, my God, I cannot say enoughgood things about that book.
That is, it's just phenomenal.
It's a great way to continuethe story of womb and like a
slight way, but it also spinsoff in all these different
directions, so highly recommendthat one.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Yeah, when you can go ahead and make traffic cones
Interesting, I think you've donea good job, so yes indeed.
Tell me about so, and this is.
This is a very broad question,but I think it's important
because we, as writers, we havea lot of different venues and
outlets we can use, and and alsoa lot of genres that we can dip
into.
So why horror?
(11:35):
Why horror specifically?
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Yeah, why horror specifically I mean for the
reason that you just said is mybiggest one.
Horror is, for me, the biggesttent that I can write under,
because it encompasses so manydifferent sub genres, so many
different kinds of stories, likehonestly, and that's what I've
tried to do with, like the lastcouple of books.
I've done.
So I have three releasesthrough my own imprint, mutated
(12:00):
media.
The first is called jailbroke.
It's a sci-fi horror book.
The next is called nunchuckcity.
It's an action comedy set inlike a weird, like kind of
superhero ass ninja turtles assworld.
And then I have man, fuck thishouse, which is probably the
closest thing I've done to likea straight up horror book.
Except anyone who's read itwill be like dude, that's not
even a straight up horror book,that's you know, no spoilers
(12:24):
here.
But but that's truly what Ilove about horror is that
someone like me and someone like, say, like we just mentioned,
duncan, someone like like SinaPelleo and you know, someone
like Brian Keen and someone likeyou know Ratchett and Wade and
someone like Stephen King, wecan all just kind of like you
(12:45):
can put us in a lineup and itall kind of makes sense to throw
Laird Baron in there.
And then you know, you know youcan put it in like a basely
different kinds of fiction andinto a lineup.
And you know, just look at thelineup and it all kind of makes
sense.
You know, we all write booksthat like the same people like
(13:16):
to read.
But I think, and for me thereason why that is is, like
you're saying earlier, horror isan emotion, so like where's the
feeling, and it's common tohuman experience.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, what I found with horror too is that it's
it's and me even as a reader,just from that perspective, I
said you know what it's.
This is kind of emotionallytaxing on me when done right At
the end of the book or evenduring the parts when it's like
when you can feel for thatcharacter, you're just like man.
I may need to take a step backand you can probably see that a
(13:47):
couple of times in some of thegroups.
You're like man people saying Ihad to put it down for a minute
and it's not just the.
It's not just the, the blood andgore and the poop, it's, it's
everything that's going on withthose characters.
We try, I mean it's not scaryif you can't relate to the
characters, right, I mean, ifit's just so outlandish, then
that's the whole thing abouthorror.
I think that's really importantis that we can we create
(14:10):
characters that our readers cangravitate towards and they can
really step into their shoes.
This is more than urban fantasy.
This is more than than epicfantasy Not saying that the
one's better than the other, butthe focus on character.
It becomes so much morepersonal when it's about fear.
It's about losing things youdon't want to lose.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Exactly, I completely agree.
It's, in order for it to work,you have to care about the
characters or identify with thecharacters, or you know, or both
, right?
You have to see something inthat person that you think is
worth saving, otherwise it'sjust gore for gore's sake, right
?
I think that's one thing that Ilike.
Again, going back to him, Ithink that's one thing Duncan
(14:51):
does really well is he createsthese distinct characters that
you feel.
You feel like kinship with them, even though they've had wildly
different experiences than youand they.
You know you can see the goodin someone, even as something
horrific has happened or asthey're doing something horrific
.
You know, and like, there are alot of writers there are
(15:12):
phenomenal at that.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah, and then, and even in my own writing, I find
that it's something veryimportant that I'm having to
gravitate back towards, becausewhen I first started writing, I
I wrote all about the coolmoments and started to and said
you know, I'm missing somethinghere.
I'm missing the human element,I'm missing the characters, I'm
missing the.
You know, you could have abunch of stuff happening on
screen, but if you don't haveTom Cruise running, then it's
(15:34):
not going to be interesting.
You know you're just having abunch of stuff happen, you know.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
So, yeah, yeah, exactly, you see that in.
Like you know, one of the bestaction films for me of the last
10 years was John Wick.
Yes, the choreography isamazing, but the movie also did
something very important, right?
It helped you identify with him, right?
You felt for this guy.
Like you know, even though he'sa trained killer, he's had
(15:58):
these double losses, like justbam bam, and just that motivates
everything and that makes theactions in which we're fun to
watch.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Well, you broke the number one rule, which is don't
kill the dog.
Exactly, that was the firstthing.
Yeah, exactly, I actuallytested this there.
I wrote my first zombie book.
I killed the dog and I couldfirst like five pages.
I just wanted to see if I couldmake it pass.
And I've got good read throughbetween all three books, but
yeah, so if you don't like, I'lltell everybody, and everybody
knows that the dog dies.
But if you read the firstcouple of chapters you know the
(16:28):
dog dies.
So just keep that in mind.
I just wanted to test the idea.
But we were talking about Iwant to go backtrack a little
bit about shorts.
About shorts, you know this.
On this podcast we talk a lotabout movies, we talk books, we
talk comics, we talk everything.
If it's horror related, we talkabout it.
I mean, the other day we talkedto Jay and I discussed the
(16:49):
religious implications ofexorcisms outside the Catholic
church.
It was just so weird becauseJay's got a history in medieval
history and there's a, he's gota degree in some other stuff and
he's got this big focus onreligion and things like that.
So Jay and I had this reallyweird but still kind of
interesting conversation.
Like what do the Baptistsshould do for an exorcism if
(17:11):
they need one?
You know, just stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Right, oh, that's cool, yeah, so just kind of
questions like that.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
So, anyways, everything's kind of open on
this podcast.
So one thing I was going to askyou is short stories.
Did you like the movie?
If you've seen it, lights Out.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Lights Out.
Yes, so that's the one where,when the lights out, the monster
can advance towards you, andwhen the lights on, the monster
disappears, right.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Yes, that's such a simple idea, but just taken it's
a great idea.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
I love that one too, because it started as a short
film.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Yes, an indie film.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Yeah, and then it got picked up.
Yeah, that was cool.
I thought that was a powerfulmovie, cool concept.
I had some issues with the end.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
But other than my issues with the end of it, I
thought it was good.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah, what I'd really like to see too is and I'm kind
of a sucker for these movies, Idon't care if there's 20 of
them or not, but the ParanormalActivity movies, I love them.
Even after like the fifth orsixth one, I'm like, okay, this
is getting kind of ridiculous,but I love them because it was
so simple and it was so.
It was a video camera.
(18:20):
That's it not like thisall-knowing third eye view that
you get normally, like a lot ofbooks will portray.
You get something that can onlyshow you one view.
It seems so much more intimateand I would love to figure out
how I could capture that feelingin a book.
I think Haunted Houses can dothat for you, because you have
to kind of personify the HauntedHouse as a thing.
(18:43):
People love the house, like withLee Mountford.
I read a few of his Paranmannerbooks and I grew to love the
house because the house itselfhad its own history.
The scary thing had a history.
I wrote a book called Wendigoand the Wendigo had its own
history and I loved the Wendigoas its own character.
I'm just trying to figure outhow do you capture emotions in
(19:05):
your book, in your books, whatis the main thing you look for.
How do you make charactersmatter to readers?
Speaker 3 (19:15):
I think the number one thing that you do with any
character to make them matter toa reader is just make it.
Make every character have agoal.
As long as every character hassomething that they want, the
reader can relate to wantingsomething that you don't have.
One of the best examples ofthis I've ever seen is in the
(19:37):
Wire, season 4.
I'm not sure if you watch theWire.
There's a scene where a very,very, very minor character is
driving up and down theinterstate buying cell phones
from different conveniencestores.
He has his girlfriend in thecar with him and she's even more
of a minor character.
These are the only scenes she'sever in the whole series.
I believe this is kind of oneof those almost like bottle
(20:02):
episode type things where it'slike what's going on with these
people?
But you care?
Because through dialogue, justa handful of lines, she's
articulating what she wants.
She'd rather be doing X, y or Zthan driving up and down the
interstate buying burners withher boyfriend.
All of a sudden I'm like, ohman, I can totally relate to the
(20:22):
time that I was at the mallwith my ex-girlfriend and she
wanted to do this.
I was like can we go eat?
I don't want to be here.
I think just being able toarticulate what each character
wants will make the reader care.
It's only when a character isthere in service solely of the
plot or other characters that itbecomes like who cares?
(20:42):
Right, if I have a characterwalk into a store and there's
just someone behind the counterthat says, may I help you?
Okay, here are your chicklets.
Okay, who cares about thatcharacter?
Right.
But if the character walks in,the guy behind the desk is
yelling at the TV because hissports team is losing.
That is that little moment ofcharacterization that will make
(21:02):
the reader care, right.
And so when you talk about yourprotagonist and side characters
, it's like that dialed upbecause you have so many more
opportunities to show peoplehere's what they care about,
here's the things that theycan't have and what they're
striving for.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Yeah and so on.
Long form, do you take eventsthat you've seen, or do you make
things up, or do they fit withthe story, or kind of a mix of
the craft, like, how do you comeup with your?
Speaker 3 (21:29):
ideas.
Oh, any semblance to any personliving or dead is entirely
coincidental.
No, I mean, yeah, I meansometimes.
I guess sometimes I might insertsomething that I've seen in
real life.
Generally, I'd say generally,it's just me making stuff up,
but I don't want to sound tooesoteric and be like.
(21:53):
The characters revealthemselves to me but they sort
of do Like.
I essentially look at it aslike, like I don't know like.
The character at first is kindof like a gray smear or
something like that and they'rekind of in the distance and I'm
zooming in on them right, andsometimes as I zoom in I learn
new things about them.
But part of the way that youlearn new things about your
(22:13):
characters is just putting themin different situations and
going, ok, based on what I knowabout this person, how would or
wouldn't they react?
Right, and you know.
A lot of the time I do think ofcharacters as I'll kind of have
a template for them.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
And whether it's someone I've met or a character
in a movie or something likethat, or like six characters in
six movies plus six people I'vemet, all kind of combined right.
But it helps if I can kind ofhave a vague visualization of at
least that type of person.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
And is that I mean in screenplays?
I mean, it knows it's kind ofgoing off the wire a little bit
here, but with screenplays Imean you kind of you're kind of
limited, right.
You know you really personifythings very quickly.
You don't have an entire bookto explain things, right.
I mean it's written.
I don't know much aboutscreenplays.
You're going to be the experton this one.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Yeah, it's interesting, so you have to have
a lot of dialogue and subtextand things do.
The heavy left in it alsomatters in how you introduce the
characters.
You know it's like that firsttime you see them.
What are they doing?
You know, are they late forwork or are they doing this or
doing that, right?
You know kind of the basic.
(23:25):
You know the kind of basicstory forms are do they have it
together or do they not have ittogether?
Right, are they in their state?
Speaker 2 (23:31):
of grace.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Or are they in their everything's already screwed up
right?
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah, I really like that, and I'm kind of notorious
for my plot points that are like, if I, if I feel like I'm
stalled out, I will 100%introduce a problem.
You said you, now you've gotsomething to solve, even if it's
something as mundane, as youknow.
Like you said, just I need togo buy a bunch of burners, for
whatever reason.
You know, just it seems likepeople in their daily lives are
(23:58):
constantly trying to put outfires, so that after that point
is just introducing fires.
That are real, you know, thatfeel real to the character, at
least you know.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
So let's um let's talk about oh sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
No, no, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Yeah, I was gonna say .
One really good example of howto introduce a character, I
think is in the movieNightcrawler.
Have you seen that with JakeGyllenhaal?
Yeah, yeah, okay.
So think back, okay, the verybeginning, when we first meet
Louis Bloom.
He's stealing chain like fence.
And then he gets caughtstealing it.
And then you hear him go wait,what kind of uniform is that?
(24:34):
Yeah, and you know.
And then, and all of a sudden,like flash forward, he's asking
the guy that he's selling stolenchain like fence to for a job.
And I think that's just.
There's just so much characterwork jam packed into those
couple scenes, right, where yousee not only who this guy is but
what he's willing to do andwhere he wants to go.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Right, you can already see that, like he wants,
he wants to become legitimatesomehow and that's his struggle
Even is, and even his way to getthere his way to get there was
in that movie was completelywrong.
It was bass Aquartz and but youstarted like feeling for him.
You're like, yeah, man, I couldyou know, in the quest for fame
and the quest for for belonging, you know, you were like what
(25:16):
is someone willing to do?
And you're like, yeah, I couldtotally see him doing that, and
maybe even me, you know, if Ireally needed to make it.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Yeah, and I think the entire, the opening sequence of
that movie is just really amicrocosm of his, of his entire
journey throughout the movie.
Really, you know, because yousee him doing, doing stuff he
stood stuff that's illegal, yousee him escalating, you see him
disregarding other people's wellbeing, you see the
opportunistic nature of him,like all these things are just
(25:44):
there in those couple minutes,like it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
And I think once you, once you've seen that, it
really sells all the othercharacter decisions that happen
throughout the movie as well.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Well, yeah, and it sets the stage for what you can
expect, I mean of, of of thatcharacter, what it's going to be
like seeing him go throughthings and go through his daily
life.
So let's speaking of a dailylife.
Yeah, I know, we were trying tomake the schedules work.
What do you do during the day?
I mean, this is this, is yournight crawler right here?
Right, I mean what we're doingright now.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Yeah, this totally is so during the day I work, for I
don't like this isn'tnecessarily a secret you can
find out with Googling but Idon't, I don't, I don't mention
the name of my employer publiclyonly because I don't want to,
you know, create a publicassociation between what I do
(26:41):
for a day job and some of thethings that I write.
You know, I don't want to beconstrained like that.
So, anyway, I work for acompany in the biotech sector
biotech Okay.
Yeah, we do, we do DNAsequencing.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Okay, and scientific end of it, or administrative, or
which end of that are you on?
Speaker 3 (27:01):
I guess kind of more on the administrative.
I'm in quality assurance so Ilead investigations into
complaint trends about ourproducts, and then I do
executive a lot of executivelike a lot of my job is just
making PowerPoints, frankly, Ido like a monthly report out to
the executives about you knowkind of what problems our
customers are facing.
And then the other portion ofmy job is just communicating
(27:26):
with the customers.
Had a serious issue.
Tech support handles most of it, but sometimes my team will
come in and provide the customerkind of like an official, like
okay, here's, here's ourofficial statements on what's
going on and how you can avoidit, how you can mitigate it.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
And so the long term, I mean the long term is it
there?
Is it in creative, thiscreative outlets?
I mean, where were we?
Was this just a cool hobby thatjust does that?
That helps get some of thecreative juices flowing.
I mean, what?
Where do you see yourself?
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Oh, I mean, working in DNA sequencing is definitely
a cool hobby for me.
Yeah you know?
No, it's that.
That's a that's a greatquestion.
I think a lot of people havethis, you know.
I think a lot.
For a lot of people, the goalis to go full time with writing.
I'm not sure that's necessarilymy goal.
That doesn't mean it's a hobbyfor me either, sure, but it
(28:18):
means that in order for me to belike a complete person, I need
to challenge myself in differentways, and so I find that my job
, my day job, compliments bywriting career, you know, and I
went, I went to excel in bothkind of like how, like you know,
jack Dorsey was the CEO ofTwitter and square at the same
time.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Right.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Like you know and like he ran two successful
companies.
Okay, like not to comparemyself to Jack Dorsey, but, like
you know, I can have asuccessful career doing one
thing and another successfulcareer doing the other thing and
you know it makes me happy.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Yeah, the reviews speak for themselves.
You got about 800 positivereviews, so it's not like you
wrote a bad book.
You wrote a good book.
Yeah, you wrote a good book andit's got attention and and you
know that's, that's kind of oneof those things that you have to
find a happy medium, I think,between where you want to go,
you know what the long termlooks like, and then what's
(29:16):
paying the bills, and see if youcan find the medium and or have
one take over for the other.
So you moved out to sunnyCalifornia chasing, chasing a
dream of some sort, did you?
And what was that dream thatyou chased?
I know we talked about itearlier.
It was kind of it was a mix ofcreativeness, but it was like
acting, and then it wasscreenwriting and so, and then
books came into play.
(29:37):
So what's the what's the?
What's the, what's thepicturesque vision for you?
Where do you want to be?
Speaker 3 (29:45):
where do I want to be ?
So I am, I love where I amright now.
First of all, I should say, youknow, I'm getting like, you
know people are reading my booksand that's what I want.
You know, having a, I have avery I'm starting to develop a
very dedicated core audience,which is fantastic.
Um, you know, and I'm gettingto make some film.
(30:07):
I'm going to do film projects Iwant to do.
I'm going to do comics projectsI want to do.
I'm getting to write the bookson a right.
So this is all great.
As far as where I want to belike, more, more, more as always
, a component of it, for sure.
Um, to I, you know, and like I,like I am agent and I have some
more sort of mainstream butstill interesting stuff.
(30:31):
She's shopping around.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
You know that it's not necessarily like a book like
nunchuck city, which is dumbninja jokes for 200 pages.
Um, you know, it's like.
It's like more of like a like aone's a crime novel and others
a horror novel.
That's a little morestraightforward.
It's a little.
These are both kind of things.
They're a little bit differentthan what I've written or that
what people are most familiarwith, probably from me.
(30:55):
Ideally, yeah, I'd love to sella book to a bigger publisher and
get that that next step up.
You know, right, that would becool.
Sell the film rights I like toget paid twice for the same
property, that'd be amazing.
So selling film rights, that'sa goal as well.
Ideally, though, I just I stillwant to make sure in like 10
years, 15 years, whatever I'm in, I'm in a place where I can
(31:18):
make my own decisions creatively.
And you know, if my audience,like I, want people to read my
books, but if my audiencecontracts, then well, like I
write for myself first andforemost, right, so like I'd
rather put out stuff that I wantto write, then try and, like
you know, create like a thrillerseries or something like that
that, like you know, people buya ton of an airports, but
(31:41):
everyone forgets when they getoff the fly.
You know, sure.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Okay, well, I mean that personal element.
You want that to kind of stickwith them for a little bit and
and have them talking about yourbooks and have them talking
about things that happen.
You know, I think we all kindof dream about that.
Just say somebody to be walkingdown, you know walking through
the mall, and just have somebodybe having a conversation about
your book.
I think that would be justwicked.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
I mean I've had.
My buddy was at a restaurant,like looked over and like the
table next to him was reading mybook, Like it's pretty cool
stuff, stuff like that'shappened before you know.
And when those things happenyou're just like, whoa, this is
amazing, yeah.
But we're talking dreams andgoals.
By the way, I always put thisout into the universe every
(32:24):
chance I get.
But one of my biggest careergoals is to convince IDW to let
me write a pizza face one shotfor their Ninja Turtles comic
line.
I saw that cover.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
I've yet to pick up that book, but I tell you what
with the name of the cover, it'son the list of two of to be
read.
So what's on your pile of booksthat needs to be read right now
?
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Oh, I was talking about the old Ninja Turtles
villain pizza face, not theregard collection it's also very
good yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
See, see, my mind was that was out.
Yeah, Aaron's supposed to be.
I think he's going to.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
I'm trying to get with him on this podcast as well
, but yeah, I'll let him knowthat you you've named, dropped
him as well, and Duncan, so yeah, accidentally again I was
trying to talk about NinjaTurtles, but yeah, yeah, I'll
give a shout out.
Anyway, that was a lot of.
That was a fun collection andthe you know God that cover just
got me.
I mean, I was like I must ownthis.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Yeah, yeah, even just on the shelf, just as a talking
piece and like just to scarethe, scare the Joneses away when
they come over.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
So, um so, real quick .
What's what are you reading?
What do you read right now?
Speaker 3 (33:38):
Let's see what am I reading right now.
I am currently reading theStreet of Crocodiles by Bruno
Schultz.
He's a, you know, kind of apost-moderous writer from the
early part of the 20th century.
Like your facts about him, hewas.
He shares a birthday with meand he was actually murdered by
(33:58):
the Nazis on the on my father'sbirthday.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Um, morbid, but awesome and weird.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
More of a but interesting, yeah, and so I'm.
He's an influence of ThomasLegotti, and so I'm.
I'm going back and reading, uh,his, his couple surviving works
, uh, in the Street ofCrocodiles, and it is wild stuff
, yeah, yeah, it's kind of likeI don't know, it just veers him
like.
It's kind of like very, veryFlorida and interesting pros
(34:27):
Very, very dent.
There's lots unpacked there.
It's very kind of magicalrealism.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Yeah, and so I'm reading it in a way.
Uh, it's super interesting, soI'm reading that.
I just read Gross Up by DuncanRalston, which again is fricking
fantastic, um, and then, uh,I'm trying to think what else?
I've got a couple other books.
I read Children of Chicago bySina Playa recently Um, that was
so that one, the Schultz book.
(34:53):
Um, I have a book of AngelaCarter's that I'm reading, and
then I'm rereading some ThomasLegotti.
So all of those are kind oflike what I'm putting into my
mental blender for the nextproject I want to work on Very
cool.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
And is that going to be in the same, uh, same line
that you've got right now?
Or are you looking at sequel toman, fuck this House?
Or what are?
What are we?
Uh, what do you?
What do you got on the choppingblock?
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Oh, so this will be a completely new book that has
nothing to do with anything, um,but yeah, as far as the sequel
goes, I know, like some peoplehave asked about that, I'm not
so much a sequel guy, um,generally I don't know, like I
don't there, I mean, I couldwrite a sequel to man Fuck this
House, like, but like what Iwant to?
Probably not.
(35:38):
For me, that story is kind ofover and done with.
Uh, the one property that Iwould go back to and write more
sequels, which I have several inmind, is, uh, nunchuck City.
Uh, that's like a whole assworld.
That's a super fun playgroundwith all the things I love,
whether it's ninjas, whetherit's cyborgs, uh, whether it's
drive through fun, do,restaurants, all of that shit.
(35:59):
So, uh, that's the one where,if it caught on a little more, I
think I'd go back and write asequel.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
It's kind of hard to write a sequel and everybody
fucking dies.
So yeah.
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Well, also, you could just be like fucking, I'm
bringing them back.
This is fiction.
I can do what I want and youcan't stop me.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Yeah, I think at the beginning of one of these books
that I read, somebody put adisclaimer at the front of that,
like uh, surprise.
The first line was likesurprise, everybody didn't
actually die.
Here's the sequel and it justkept going and I was like I love
it.
I love it.
Um, you know, as, asindependent authors, we have
that creativity, we have thatoption to, to, to take it
another step and test it and anddo the fun things.
(36:39):
Like one of the things I'mdoing right now is I'm I ran a
big Kickstarter and, uh, raiseda couple of thousand dollars and
really, good A lot more thancongrats.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Yeah, I was hoping for 500 bucks and I ended up
with a couple of thousand, soapparently it caught on and, um,
and I think, um, I have a newframe next to my uh, next to my
books, and that's of BrandonSanderson's company backing my
Kickstarter.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
Um so, I thought, yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Yeah, yeah.
So he went and backed everybody.
But mine was on that list atthe time, so I went um.
You know big daddy Sanderson.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
So wait, wait.
He went back and bet he likebacked all the Kickstarter
projects that were in flight atthe time.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
All the publishing, every single one of them.
He actually has a video.
Yeah, he has a video up of anduh of, where he shows all the
ones that he backed.
Uh, I think it's.
I think it's a couple hundredof them, um so that is, that is
pretty amazing.
Uh, sanderson, is that's agreat way to give back.
Yeah, that's my goal.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
That's a great way to get back.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Yeah, he's setting the goals, man, he's really
setting he's.
He's using the social media,he's using the community, he's.
He's.
You know, he's teaching at theBYU.
He's got the courses up onlinefor free.
I mean, sanderson is justpaving the way for what I think
authors need to be aspiring tobe, and that's just open and and
part of a collective of say youknow what here's, here's who I
(37:57):
am, let's talk, let's meet myfans and let's let's build
something together.
And I think Brandon's doingthat.
So I just look up to him as asan author.
I look up to him as a fantasyauthor.
I look at him.
I read almost all of his books.
So Sanderson's just a and he'sjust a great guy.
He's just nice, nice guy, andthat's that's what I found too
about the horror community.
Man I think you'd probablyagree with.
Now, this is that man.
Horror people are some of thecoolest, nicest people you'll
(38:20):
ever meet.
I read some fucked up shit.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Yeah, you get.
Yeah, if you go to conventions.
Everyone is super friendly,super outgoing, um, everyone
likes to have a good time.
Like it's a total misconceptionthat horror writers are all
like dark and blah, blah, blahlike no.
We purge all that shit onto thepage and when we're done, we go
party.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Yeah.
So, um, son of a, we have kindof a little habit, I guess a
little thing that we do on thispodcast and that's uh, you got
to tell us something like,honestly, that scares the shit
out of you and my stuff is weird.
We've already talked about me.
So what, what are you afraid of?
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Uh, heights, uh, heights scare the shit out of me
.
Uh, so I'm not really a fan ofbeing on ladders.
Um, I'm getting better atflying, just because I have so
many places I have to be.
Now I can't really afford tolike be nervous about flying
anymore.
Um, so that's good, but like,yeah, I'd prefer not to be up
high.
My other weird fear is that ifI am going into the bathroom at
(39:18):
night, uh, I will not look inthe mirror.
Uh, mirrors, uh mirrors in darkrooms, uh, uh, freak me out,
and it's it's more of like a I'mafraid of being scared type
thing.
Um, because, like I'm worriednot like I'm I don't actually
believe in ghosts or anything,but I'm like I'm worried I will
look in the mirror with, like mysleep, a fog brain and eyes and
(39:38):
it's dark, and I will mistake ashape for something that it's
not and freak out.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
That's awesome.
So a quick story my wife is, um, my wife and I were both cops,
um and so, and so my wifeactually almost shot herself in
the mirror.
She was clearing a building atnight, the lights wouldn't come
on, and so when she went pastthe, went past the mirror, she
saw herself and almost pulledthe trigger at at the mirror.
Um, so yeah, it's just, uh,just kind of funny.
(40:07):
She's going to hear this laterand then and be like I'll put
the hell we talking about that.
So I almost shot a life size uhcut out of Elvis, uh, in a barn
.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
Yeah, don't be cruel.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Yeah, so he had, uh, he had two pistols and we were
clearing the barn cause therewas a bunch of.
This is just kind of off topic,but totally funny.
Uh, we're clearing the barncause there was a bunch of
lights came on in this guy's uhfarm land, so there's some
people out there and we went togo check it out.
I mean, uh and the and thecounty, and we went out there
and we're going room to room andthere's nothing, there's
nothing, there's nothing.
But we know they're therebecause the lights were just on.
So, unless they ran out theback or a window or something,
(40:40):
you know, we know we're going tofind them.
So we go to the last room and,uh, we go into the room, the
lights won't come on and boom,there's a guy with two pistols
in the corner pointed at us, andyou know it is damn Elvis.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
That is so ridiculous .
Like that's hilarious thoughI'm sure stuff like that happens
all the time man, that's alittle disconcerting, but yeah,
gotta be relief and you're like,oh, it's just the king of rock
and roll.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
Yeah, that was the longest trigger pull ever.
Like I, I swore I was pullingthe trigger and it just, it just
.
The gun would not go off.
So it was just a just a funnystory that I I think I stepped
in cow shit my way out too.
So it's just it made my night,yeah, so anyways all right, all
right.
Brian, I know you're short ontime here, man, and I do
(41:27):
appreciate every every minutethat you give us so and the
reader so shameless plug time.
Give us, give us a talk aboutthe car, give us a talk about
your books, let us know where wecan find you, and then
afterwards I'm going to get someinformation from you so I can
get this up.
Speaker 3 (41:40):
All right.
Thank you very much, sir, andagain, I really appreciate
coming on.
I'm down to come back onanytime and hopefully we can
figure out a kind of a blockwhere we can chat for longer.
This is a super funconversation.
Yeah, if you're in the SouthernCalifornia or Arizona or Nevada
areas, I'm trying to sell a carsoon.
It's a 2005 Chevy SSR 140,000miles.
It's got the Chevy LS2 enginePretty badass.
(42:01):
So message me anywhere ifyou're interested in buying a
car that I own, because it'llprobably be worth a lot of money
very soon.
Also, check out man, fuck thisHouse.
From Mutated Media availablenow on Amazon, barnes, noble
Pals and all the other placesfine books are sold.
You can also buy signed copieson my website,
wwwbrionasmandbookscom.
(42:24):
I also have a couple othernovellas up there for sale and
keep checking back.
There might be some new stuffup there soon, who knows.
And finally, I'm mostly onTwitter.
All social media is at theBrian Asman, so give me a follow
.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
That's awesome man.
That is, ladies and gentlemen,we have the best intro and outro
ever to the Nightmare Enginepodcast.
So until somebody can step itup, duncan, calling you out,
until somebody can step it up,brian, you lead the way, man.
Thank you for your time today,thank you for your awesome books
and thank you for being part ofthis community, and we'll talk
(43:01):
to you soon.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
Awesome.
Thank you very much, david,much appreciated.
All right, have a good one.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
Thank you.
Thanks for listening to theNightmare Engine podcast with
your hosts, horror authors DavidVirgoots and Jay Bauer, where
nothing is off limits, nothingis safe, and neither are you.
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