J.L. Bryan studied English literature at the University of
Georgia and at Oxford, with a focus on the English Renaissance and the Romantic
period. He also studied screenwriting at
UCLA. He is the author of five novels
and one short-story collection. He
enjoys remixing elements of paranormal, supernatural, fantasy, horror and
science fiction into new kinds of stories.
His goal is to provide highly original fiction like you won’t find
anywhere else. His new novel is The Haunted E-book. The sequel to his novel Jenny Pox will be available by summer 2011. He lives in Atlanta with his wife Christina, as
well as some dogs, cats, and domestic plants.
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UPDATED Friday the 13th of August, 2010
I guess I could add more information than that. Let's pretend I'm filling out some kind of "get to know you" form:
FAVORITE WRITERS?
This list will be an ongoing project...
- Horror Writers: H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, Clive Barker, Anne Rice, Brian Lumley, Bentley Little, Scott Nicholson, Peter Straub, Brandon Massey
- Science Fiction Writers: Robert Heinlein, Philip K. Dick, Arthur C. Clarke, William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Anne McCaffrey
- Fantasy Writers: Katherine Kerr
- General Fiction/Classics: Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Oscar Wilde, William Shakespeare, Homer
- Poetry: John Milton, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Philip Larkin
- Economics: Jean-Baptiste Say, Bastiat, Gustave de Molinari, David Friedman, Murray Rothbard
- Political Theory: Lysander Spooner, Henry David Thoreau
- Evolutionary Psychology: Howard Bloom
FAVORITE MUSIC?
I mean, come on. These forms are so unreasonable. I'll just name some random ones :
Pink Floyd, Velvet Underground, Johnny Cash, The Doors, Hank Williams, Grateful Dead, Vivaldi. A huge amount of things from the 60s, 70s and 80s. I like classic and old country like Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson. I like classic rock and much hippie music. Mos Def is probably my favorite hip-hop artist. I also like White Zombie and Rage Against the Machine.
I just like all kinds of music, okay? Get off my back.
FAVORITE MOVIES?
I'm getting sick of this form pretty fast. I like old sci-fi and horror B-movies, which I learned to love from watching too much Mystery Science Theater 3000. My favorite horror movies as a kid were Nightmare on Elm Street and Hellraiser. I'm not as much into pointless gory slasher type horror like Saw, but plenty of gore is fine if the story demands it (as with zombies, for example). It doesn't make me queasy, I just find it boring, unless it's done in some way that makes it not boring.
I like a lot of the stuff from the crazy directors of the 1970s, like Easy Rider and Raging Bull and other things you're supposed to say if you want to prove you're cool among movie business people. No, but seriously, lots of good movies from that period.
I'm always interested in seeing horror and sf done well on screen, because they often are not.
I also like comedies.
FAVORITE TV?
Ah, finally, an easy question with a short answer.
The Daily Show & Colbert Report.
I also like a lot of stuff that's been canceled, like Arrested Development. Curb Your Enthusiasm is a great show. Has that been canceled? I like it, so probably. I still miss Parker Lewis Can't Lose. I sometimes watch Knight Rider on DVR. I wish somebody would run Quantum Leap reruns.
I'm sure there's lots of new good stuff out there, too. I'll get into it once it's canceled.
COMICS/GRAPHIC NOVELS?
I like Dark Horse, Top Shelf and Boom! comics. I'm especially enjoying Darkwing Duck. I buy more graphic novels or multi-issue compendiums these days and don't keep up with any particular series very well like when I was a kid. Batman and the Tick are my favorite superheroes. I don't keep up with those series, either. Maybe I should subscribe or something.
HOBBIES AND INTERESTS?
I like farms. I don't live on one and didn't grow up on one or anything. I buy most of my groceries at the farmer's market and from local farms. It's because we eat a paleo diet, specifically the Primal Blueprint.
I have two cats and two dog. They blog at www.momandpups.com, which is the website for my wife's organic and natural pet supply store.
YOUR NEW BOOK JENNY POX. WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?
Jenny Pox is the story of a teenage girl who spreads a deadly plague through her touch. She can't touch people or animals. She has to bundle up in gloves and hats all the time, even in the hot South Carolina summer. She's kind of a small-town outcast. I was really interested in the emotional and social consequences of having a supernatural curse like that.
Then she finds out a couple of other kids in town have strange powers, too. One is a boy she likes. The other is that boy's current girlfriend, the evil and manipulative Ashleigh, who hates Jenny to the bone.
The "Jenny pox" is her name for the plague she spreads, which is really nasty.
HELIX? WHERE DID THAT BOOK COME FROM?
I used to have a job writing abstracts of genetics and genomics research for medical newsletters. So I got very interested in genetics and evolution. David Bloom has some wild but probably accurate theories about culture and evolutionary psychology, and those were a strong influence on the book.
There were basically two starting points for Helix.
One was that I had a religion professor who said that religion was (among other things) a means of coping with questions about sex and death. And I noticed all the religious fervor around issues like abortion and stem cell research, and also how people were distrustful of things like genetically modified food. So I thought about that future society where people could custom-order their own children.
I thought that maybe people would want to put this in a kind of religious context, as a means of coping with the moral and ethical issues and sort of enabling themselves to do it. So that's where the Aescelan priesthood came from, this futuristic yet kind of medieval order of medical priests who have all these secretive genetic engineering practices. The followers like this because it enables them have their children custom-designed and genetically engineered to order. Of course, most of the followers of the religion don't necessarily know the fine details of what the priests are really doing to the embryos, generation after generation...
The other starting point was a lot simpler: fighting games like Mortal Kombat and Tekken. I always wondered: "In what kind of world would you have a werewolf fighting a cyborg in a temple on the moon?" So I also set out to create a world like that. The book is partially video-game inspired.
WHY IS DOMINION SO DARK AND PESSIMISTIC?
I was in a bad mood when I wrote that.
WHAT'S COMING UP FOR THE FUTURE?
I have a pretty funny vampire parody I'm working on. I also may have a book of horror short stories out soon.
ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO COMMENT ON?
No, this was grueling enough, thanks. Send any questions to jeff@jlbryanbooks.com.
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