Interview with Bran Gustafson
Published 2016-01-19.
What motivated you to become an indie author?
Laziness, haha. I didn't want to spend the time researching agents and publishing companies, only to be rejected because I haven't been published before, or because my writing isn't commercial enough.
Another reason I chose to go it on my own is I wanted to have more control. As an indie author I pick the cover design, I choose where the book is sold, I choose how to market it. I wrote a book that I'd want to read, and I want to keep it that way.
What are you working on next?
Currently I'm writing the next novel in the Untamed State series, Neon Canyon. But there are always ideas swirling around in my head, stories I've lived with for a long time. Screenplays, novels, TV series.
When you're not writing, how do you spend your time?
I watch too many movies and too many TV shows. I read a lot. If I'm lucky, I get out for a ride on my motorcycle. Mostly I, spend time with my family and cook meals.
Of course, even when I'm not writing I'm writing, I can't keep myself from going over the stories in my head.
Do you remember the first story you ever wrote?
Yes. It started out so innocently. I was 11 and I dramatized a Bible story about the prophet Elijah for a homeschool assignment.
Now I'm writing stories about criminals, bartenders and prostitutes. Where did I go wrong?
How do you approach cover design?
I found a designer I trusted, let him read the novel, and gave him as little direction as possible.
What do you read for pleasure?
I read quite a variety. Literary fiction, non-fiction, genre fiction. If I read something for pure pleasure I usually go with classic noir authors like Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Jim Thompson and Elmore Leonard.
Describe your desk
Messy.
Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
I grew up in Northern Michigan and in Chihuahua, Mexico.
Moving to Mexico at a young age made me curious. It gave me a perspective that was quite different than if I'd stayed in the midwest my entire life. There was a lot of poverty and beauty and warmth and violence.
What inspires you to get out of bed each day?
Hunger. Boredom. An urgent need to use the bathroom.
What is your writing process?
It begins with a pristine beautiful idea in my mind, which when put onto the page somehow turns into a huge mess. Eventually, after a lot of frustration and outlining and bourbon and rewriting and pencil sharpening, the mess begins to take a shape. Unfortunately it's usually a shape I don't like and so I go back and mess it all up again. Repeat and repeat until it's good or I'm sick of it and decide to move on.
When did you first start writing?
Up through college I had no intention to become a writer, but finally realized that with choosing or trying, I had somehow become a writer (or at least a person who writes). I'd been filling notebooks since before high school, compulsively. My goal was to become an indie rock star, but I'd gotten caught up in the lyrics more than the music.
So I finally gave up on music and decided to write seriously. After writing short stories which never got published and several screenplays and several scrapped novels, I'm finally publishing Coyote.
Smashwords Interviews are created by the profiled author or publisher.
