Brock Rhodes

Biography

Rural Kansas boy living smack dab in middle of the city now.

Worked in the media for a bit, worked several weird jobs for the sake of enlightenment (and survival), studied chemistry and mathematics at Wichita State. I studied angry. (Go Shockers!)

The rest is way too complicated to get into here.

Smashwords Interview

When did you first start writing?
Before I knew how to. I mean that literally. I began writing before I knew what sentences were or even how to spell. Back then I made comic books. I was about 4 or 5 years old when I started. I remember having laminated cards on rings they'd send home with me from school with words on them I was learning to spell. I'd get incredibly bored writing them over and over again, so then I'd just think about them and try to fit them in a phrase or a sentence on a page. Then I'd build on them and branch out and waste all over my homework time on my own thing so I'd throw my homework away and either tell the teacher I lost it or I never got one. I lied a lot as a little kid until I realized the adults couldn't really kill me. I started out adding words to my comics and I remember thinking about how this opened up a lot of possibilities to take me where I was going with it. After awhile I realized how much quicker writing was than drawing, so I don't draw much anymore. I still do a little. I do my book covers and some paintings and other random things.
What's the story behind your latest book?
Which one? The one I last published? The one I'm about to publish? Or the one I'm taking notes on to publish in the near future?

The first ebook I released was "First Sign of the Badger." It's a collection of short stories from when I was a lad. Some of them won awards back then. What exactly those were I don't remember. But I know that "Car Wash Safari," "The Father's Day to End All Father's Days," and "Mirrors Don't Look Alike" were all recognized somewhere. "Car Wash Safari" was actually taught as the example for a process essay at a junior college. I wrote it for the process essay requirement for the English class there, but I did it in a narrative form. The professor was blown away. I had to write two or three pages. I gave her something like thirteen that filled the requirements and included what amounts to an explanation of why I have difficulty doing down to earth things sometimes. The goal of that book was just to make an ebook because it was something that I hadn't done before. It is surely flawed, but I learned a lot about the process from it.

"Eradicator: Regular" is the first part of a larger series, the "Eradicator" series. It's about this guy who works for this giant pest control company that sends him all over Kansas. It's the first new material I've released in years. It was important to me to release something new so I can figure out a bit more from the process of making these ebooks.

My next two releases are pretty much figured out. One will be "Goddamn Finger Tube," which is a story I wrote many years ago and it opened a lot of doors for me. Doors which I slammed shut, merrily and without regret. It's about a world famous columnist who decides to take a day off in a bid for immortality, but all Hell breaks loose. The other is, "What's A Dragon Gotta Do?" which is my style of a sword and sorcery tale set in fifteenth century England. That book is about a lot of things. The title refers to lonely dragons who show up to kidnap the seven loveliest women of a village, but there is a lot more going on there.

I have many more I plan to release in the near future. I have an extensive catalog of stories.
Read more of this interview.

Where to find Brock Rhodes online

Twitter: @mbrockrhodes

Books

The Bloodbaths of Beatrice & Bullsby
Price: $1.99 USD. Words: 64,790. Language: English. Published: August 2, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Horror » General, Fiction » Science fiction » Adventure
As war rages around them in this confusing world, commonfolk struggle to survive. As a result they change as a people. They become practical and ruthlessly hardnosed. When it seems they have things figured out, and they may reach a happy ending, a new threat emerges from out of this world, stirring up doubt, once again, in all they believe in.
Eradicator: Regular
Price: $1.23 USD. Words: 15,580. Language: English. Published: October 21, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Plays & Screenplays » American, Fiction » Transgressional fiction
The first episode of the Eradicator series follows a typical day of an exterminator, Joe Maximo, as he handles a slew of problems all over Kansas. In and out of houses and businesses, up and down the road, Joe is a passenger at the mercy of the fate of each stop. Naturally, he is a prisoner to the madness of others who call on him to solve their problems and to kill for them.
First Sign of the Badger
Price: Free! Words: 23,830. Language: English. Published: October 5, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Anthologies » Short stories - single author, Essay » Author profile
First Sign of the Badger is a wildly inconsistent collection of writings from my youth. Award winning short stories are mixed with poems from grade school and memoirs of early adulthood. The topics vary greatly. From a narrative process essay about washing your car, to stories about greed and love, a poem about having dry hands, and more... There's likely something here for everyone.

Brock Rhodes' favorite authors on Smashwords