Rogue's Angels Present: Karma City by Gardner Browning

Please welcome Gardner Browning author of Karma City

Gardner Browning will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

Karma City

byGardner Browning

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GENRE:   science fiction contemporary/post-apocalyptic

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INTERVIEW

1. What or who inspired you to start writing?

·       In the middle of high school, I signed up for a creative writing course to fill my schedule. In those early days, I didn’t take school work seriously. I handed in my writing assignments on torn, lined paper that I’d just finished writing during the lunch period before class. It turned out that my stories were good. Very good. Better than the other students who toiled away for hours at it. Every single one of my stories got an A+. As an average C+ student, I couldn’t believe it. I also couldn’t believe that I had something at school to look forward to, something I loved doing. The teacher encouraged me and at the end of each week, the entire class would turn in their work and he’d snatch mine from the pile and begin reading aloud. The other students soon couldn’t wait to hear what I’d come up with each week. This time in my life revealed for me that I had a talent and I had discovered that writing made me happy. 

4. What expertise did you bring to your writing? 

·       Before Karma City, I wrote five other novels, three got published by small press publishers. Each of these are fun and I worked hard on them, but Karma City is special to me because after all of the years spent writing the other stories, I felt I had outgrown the small press world and I wanted a reality check on my skill as a writer. So, I went the distance with it. By that, I mean, I boarded a train and took Karma City to New York City to see if I could get any feedback and maybe get somebody in the literary industry excited about it. During my first trip to network, Karma City generated a lot of interest among some important publishing house editors. I connected with my managing editor, and he enrolled me in an exclusive novel writing program to polish the manuscript. Under his oversight, I spent nine months working the story through an intense online course comprised of two major lesson segments and sixteen course modules designed to breakdown and improve the work. It was absolutely brutal writing work and I loved every minute of it. I leaned how to structure the plot, focus my writing in units of scenes, build sympathy for the characters, strengthen my antagonist, and also develop unique voices while maintaining a balanced narrative tone. When I was finished the writing program, the manuscript had grown to be as commercially competitive as possible. Four complete rewrites, feedback from literary leaders, coaching from my managing editor and three cover-to-cover edits later, Karma City is now in print.

5. What would you want your readers to know about you that might not be in your bio?

·     People are always interested to learn that by day I work for the United States Department of Homeland Security (for 17 years) specializing in aviation security and counter terrorism, and by night I am professional wrestler! But I am most proud of the job I believe matters above all: I am a dad and I love my six-year-old boy more than anything in this world. 

6. As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?

·       I am writing the sequel to Karma City now (half way finished the first draft). I am also developing a memoir about my life and experiences in the wild world of professional wrestling.

7. If you could be one of the characters from this book, who would it be and why?

·       I wouldn’t want to be a character, but there is a place in the story I’d like to go. In the center of Karma City, there’s a diner that one of my characters frequents. I’d like to go there, have a coffee, read, write and watch the morning pass outside the window. 

9. Do you belong to a critique group? If so how does this help or hinder your writing?

·       I am not part of any writing groups. I feel they are unhelpful to writers and I encourage writers to use caution when joining groups like this. Why? Because writing groups are full of narcissist writers, people who don’t understand that good writing takes skilled rewriting, that good stories are not driven by characters but by careful, thoughtful plotting. Any serious writer should network with industry professionals for input on their work, read successful authors’ work in their genre and join Publishers Market Place to understand the moving parts of the business.

Note to any serious writer: I highly recommend that you apply for acceptance to the New York Pitch Conference held four times a year (google it now!) or any Algonkian Writer Workshop. Any of these events will get you on the right path. 

10. When did you first decide to submit your work? Please tell us what or who encouraged you to take this big step?
11. What is the best and worst advice you ever received? (regarding writing or publishing)

·     Worst advice, “You can make money self-publishing; try it!” Yep, that’s the worst.  

Best advice, “Every scene must move the plot. If it’s not moving the plot, it shouldn’t be in the story.”
12. Do you outline your books or just start writing?

·       I structure my ideas by organizing the plot first using the “Six act, two-goal, novel structure.” (Act 0: Backstory, Act 1: Inciting Incident, Act 2: Commit to Goal, Act 3: Major Reversal, Act 4: New Path to Goal, Act 5: Denouement.)

 If the idea can hold up this structure, then I consider it more fully and sketch out the characters with priority to the antagonist and then build out the setting and the really define the stakes. 

13. How do you maintain your creativity?

·       I love to read and I get a lot of inspiration from small interactions with people and from traveling to new places. I also feel that finding time to relax is important for the creative mind. Low stress. Staying passionate about family and making time to do the things you love is also good for staying creative. One of my secrets is to keep the grinding day job a small part of my life and let family and life’s passions fill my time as much as possible. I strive to keep balance in my life to help me stay creative. 

14. Who is your favorite character in the book. Can you tell us why?

·       My favorite character in Karma City is Jack Halligan. He was the first character to really come alive for me and the one I identify with the most. There’s a lot of “me” in him, but he has his own personality and his own faults that make him unique. While writing Karma City, it was always Jack that stayed with me during and after the writing. Through Jack, I felt the setting come alive. The reader will “feel” Karma City through Jack Halligan. 

BLURB:

A microscopic parasite has crippled humanity with night terrors and paralyzing anxiety. In this world of increasing dystopia, hope yet remains in Karma City. But when mercenary drifter, Jameson Shoals, learns that a famous scientist has created a stronger parasite to kill the original, it isn’t until the bodies litter the streets that he realizes the horrifying truth: the new parasite is a killer with a mind of its own, and upon dominating Patient Zero, this killer acquires legs, hands, and eyes. It falls upon Shoals and his partner, a deadly female mercenary, to stop PZ and his mob before they can overcome and supplant humankind.

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EXCERPT:

Jameson Shoals crouched to keep his balance atop the speeding train. The wind beat against his leather jacket, scattering his collar length, brunet hair over his eyes like a frayed, muddy rag. The scalding steam and smoke puffing from the locomotive singed his nostrils. Raising his shotgun at the attacker standing only a few feet away, he shouted, “You’re in a real heap of shit, pal.” 

The man glared at Jameson, with blond hair framing his gaunt face like tendrils of fire . His 

spindly legs backed to the edge of the train car roof with unnatural balance. “You should consider your own life,” he hissed. Amber light burned in the man’s hollow, jack-o-lantern eyes. “Detonation is imminent.” 

Before Jameson could shoot, the man leapt from the train, flipping backward and vanishing into the night. 

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Gardner Michael Browning is an award-winning author and professional wrestler. In addition to receiving a New Hampshire Literary Award, two of his novels were part of an international English literacy program for middle grade readers. Browning enjoys classic literature, fishing, playing guitar and spending time with his family.

Amazon Author Page:  https://www.amazon.com/s?i=digital-text&rh=p_27%3AGardner+Browning&s=relevancerank&text=Gardner+Browning&ref=dp_byline_sr_ebooks_1

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Author/G-M-Browning-217364741662041/

Buy link:  https://www.amazon.com/Karma-City-Gardner-Browning-ebook/dp/B07PJXQ7PB/ref=sr_1_1

The book will be on sale for $0.99.

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE:

Gardner Browning will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f3032