Duane
Simolke Wing Artist Interview |
D.
L. Browne Unravels the Mysteries of Writing
An interview by Duane Simolke.
Conducted
12/9/02 for StoneWall Society http://www.stonewallsociety.com/
Simolke:
Your mystery novel Murder In Pastel features a gay male central character. Are
you seeing a lot of gay or lesbian main characters in mystery novels?
Browne: I can think of at least ten "active" gay or lesbian
mystery series right off the top of my head, a number of them put out by large
publishing houses like Kensington, Doubleday or St. Martin's Press. That's a far
cry from when Joseph Hansen broke ground with the Dave Brandstetter series back
in the Seventies. We writers tend to complain about the current state of
publishing, but there are some good things to be said as well.
Simolke: Patricia Nell Warren, a lesbian, wrote The Front Runner.
That best-seller has always been one of the most popular gay male novels. So I
wasn't surprised when I learned that Colin Dunne is really a woman, D. L.
Browne, but I was surprised when I learned that you're heterosexual. Warren was
able to transfer her experiences as a gay woman to a gay man. How were you able
to write so well about a gay man, and what made you want to do so?
Browne: Beginning writers always get the advice "write what you
know." And of course, it's good advice up to a point, that point being that
if we all stuck to writing only what we know, most books would be as dull as
ditch water. Writing is as much about using one's imagination as anything else.
After all, most mystery writers haven't committed or solved crimes, but the good
ones can write convincingly from the viewpoint of cops or criminals. I don't
agree with the notion that a man can't write successfully from the viewpoint of
a woman, or that a "black" man can't write convincing
"white" characters, or that an older writer can't write a believable
child.
And when it comes to writing characters, I think it isn't even imagination so
much as empathy. That's where the part about writing what you know comes in. I
don't know what it's like to lose a child, but I know what it feels like to lose
someone I love, so I think an able writer takes an emotion or experience he
knows and understands, and translates it into imagination. I think you must have
done something like this for your own science fiction novel Degranon. Am I
correct? So when you ask me how can I write convincingly about a gay man, I
simply took what I know and love about men and gave those feelings to a male
character. But you know, I'm a big believer in the notion that all humans share
a certain commonality and that we can tap into that universality when we need
to--in fact, that we should tap into it frequently in order to stay, well,
human.
There are writers who are focused on what's unique about their human experience.
All the research in the world won't teach me what it's really like to be a gay
man in our society. Obviously I'm going to miss a lot of things and get certain
things wrong. But what's true for one gay man will not be true for another. All
gay men are not the same anymore than all heterosexual women are. So depending
on the reader, some things I write, even from the perspective of a heterosexual
woman, will hit home, and others will miss by a mile.
Simolke: Tell us more about the mystery series you're writing, and
about your new publisher.
Browne: I've just signed a three-book deal with Pocket Books for a new
series written under the Diana Killian pen name. It's kind of a literary
mystery-romance "caper" about an American teacher vacationing in the
English Lake District who gets involved in the search for a long lost literary
masterpiece.
Simolke: Do you plan to keep writing about gay characters?
Browne: I just write characters--people--who interest me. So it's not a
conscious decision one way or the other, although I do have a half-finished
novel featuring another gay protagonist. I need time to finish it, but Pocket's
publishing schedule is pretty tight.
Simolke: Why use pen names?
Browne: It's a practical decision, I think. I originally intended to do a
number of off-beat stand-alone mystery novels. I figured these would be works
that I would have to self-publish and since the first one, Murder In Pastel, had
a male protagonist, it made sense to choose a male pen name. At the same time I
was actively seeking a traditional publishing contract for romantic suspense
novels, books that I felt would be both more commercial and more mainstream. I
guess I thought it would be best not to confuse any potential readership by
working openly in two such different genres.
Simolke: Even the real name you provide, D. L. Browne, is sexually
ambiguous. Any reason for that?
Browne: I started using the D.L. (my first initials) several years ago
when I began writing reviews. I noticed that people made assumptions about
reviews based on the sex of the reviewer. If I harshly criticized a hardboiled
novel, inevitably I would get this..."well, it's not a chick's book"
kind of rationalization. So I liked the idea of a pure, non-sexual intellect
reviewing books. Interestingly, the more neutral I tried to make my writing
"voice," the more readers seemed to assume I was male.
Simolke: For your book Murder In Pastel, you used the
print-on-demand publisher iUniverse, and you hired a publicist. How did those
experiences affect your writing career and your attitudes about self-publishing?
Browne: I think writers must keep in mind what they hope to achieve from
their writing. If the goal is simply creative self-expression, somebody just
wants to say she's published a book, then self-publishing offers wonderful
opportunity. But if the goal is to make money and actually have a writing
"career," then I believe that the best way to use self-publishing is
to take that self-published book and use it as a tool to interest an agent or an
editor.
I had already been traditionally published when I tried iUniverse. It was an
experiment, and there were some positives, but when you self-publish both
marketing and promotion lie entirely in your own hands. I'm not good at the
business end of writing, so I hired a publicist, but that's expensive. I found
out that I prefer the security of traditional publishing, although the creative
freedom in self-publishing is exhilarating.
Simolke: Did the success of that first novel help you obtain your
contract with Pocket?
Browne: No. I was lucky enough to find an agent who loved my unfinished
manuscript and was willing to wait for me to finish the thing. But the thing is,
I never stopped pitching my own work to agents and editors even while I was
going through the self-publishing process. My theory is you have to keep
striking from every angle.
Simolke: Do you think other beginning writers should hire a
publicist?
Browne: That's a tough one. For a first book, no. I'd advise a first time
writer to do everything possible on her own, and then take that first
self-published book and use it as a tool to interest an agent.
Simolke: Have you always wanted to be a writer?
Browne: Oh yes. My sisters tell me some of their earliest memories are of
me making up stories for them while we all colored in our coloring books. Even
if I never sold another story, I'd keep on writing. I write for the sheer love
of it.
Simolke: What advice would you give to unpublished writers who
have given up on finding traditional publishers for their books?
Browne: That's such a tough one. Some of it just comes down to luck. Some
of it...well, here's the thing: Publishing is a business. Don't forget it.
Publishers want to publish books that will make money. As writers we may not
agree with a NY publisher's idea of what readers want, but if we wish to sell
our work, we need to write according to the rules of the people buying
manuscripts. This actually leaves plenty of freedom to be true to your own
creative self, but if that's not good enough, then be happy because you can
self-publish and have it all your own way right down to wacky fonts and
grammatical anarchy.
Simolke: What would you like to say to the many readers who bought
your first novel?
Browne: A very sincere thank you! The only thing better than writing is
getting to share your stories!
(Duane Simolke’s most popular books are The
Acorn Stories and Degranon. He
edited and co-wrote The Acorn Gathering:
Writers Uniting Against Cancer, a fiction collection that raises money for
fighting cancer.)
D. L. Browne Website: http://www.girl-detective.net
Duane
Simolke Website: http://www.duanesimolke.com
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