Monday, April 28, 2014

Meet author GK Parker/PA Brown



To get us started can you tell us a little about what you are working on or have coming out?

My most recent release is The Dragons of Winter, a paranormal gay erotic novella about shapeshifting dragons. As well, I have a re-release of a heavily revised L.A. Bytes, a gay thriller in my L.A. Series, now called L.A. Storm. We changed the title since the rewrite has quite a few changes to it. I have an historical novel coming out later this year. It’s my first non-gay novel and it’s called Ashes & Ice and is set in New York City in 1888. It follows the lives of 2 Irish immigrants and a smart ass native New Yorker for one year as they try to survive in Five Points. That, and all my historicals will be published under the penname GK Parker.


If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

Los Angeles. I lived there for 8 years and have wanted to go back ever since. I visit, but it’s never long enough. It inspires me to write and every time I manage to get back it inspires me.


Do you have a book that was easiest to write or one that was the hardest?

Geography of Murder was the easiest book I ever wrote. I completed the first draft of 73,000 words in three weeks. The hardest novel to write was Latin Boyz. Since I was venturing into new territory with two gay Latino characters I sweated over that. I think it’s one of the better novels I’ve written, but it’s intense and has some tragedy in it as well. But it’s more daring than any of my other novels and I’m very proud of it.

 If you could collaborate with one author who would it be? 

Ken Bruen. He writes the sort of dark book I’ve been doing lately.

Coffee, tea or other drink to get you moving in the morning? 

Grapefruit or real orange juice.

What is coming up from you in 2014? Anything you want to tease us with?

I have an historical novel coming out later this year. It’s my first non-gay novel and it’s called Ashes & Ice and is set in New York City in 1888. It follows the lives of 2 Irish immigrants and a smart ass native New Yorker for one year as they try to survive in Five Points. That, and all my historicals will be published under the penname GK Parker. I’ve finished, but haven’t sold, an historical noir called Indifferent City. It’s set in Los Angeles in 1929 and is about a cop who makes the wrong enemies.

If you had a reporter follow you around for the day, what would the readers get to see in your daily schedule? 

Enough to put them to sleep. At least 3 times a week I go the gym for aquafit and a workout. Then I usually walk to the library—sometimes with a stop at the Tim Horton’s on the way. I always have a pad of paper with me and can fill several legal size pages with either research material I’ve looked up or actual writing.  Other than that I go to a movie occasionally and have dinner at my brother’s. Otherwise I’m at home reading, writing or watching TV.

When you begin your stories, do you go with the flow, or go with an outline?

I can’t outline. At best I might have a vague storyline, but that often changes as the story grows. I like the organic story telling. Sometimes the most amazing ideas come that might never have occurred to me if I’d outlined.

Is it hard coming up with titles or characters names?

Titles yes. Character names not so much. I will often go through half a dozen titles before I find one I like.  Character names usually come to me on the fly—a character appears and a name pops up. But even they aren’t written in stone. The names of my main character change sometimes, in other stories that have been revised over the years, the names have remained the same. Terik u Selhdun from my science fiction Fall Into the Night. Another one is Johnny Wager from Memory of Darkness. I first conceived him in the early 80s for a screenplay I was writing in Los Angeles. The screenplay didn’t happen, but the character stayed, although he wasn’t gay in the first version.

Is there any books coming that you are itching to read (either electronic or print)from your favorite authors?

Influx by Daniel Suarez. He wrote my favorite thriller—Daemon and its sequel, Freedom. I recommend his books to anyone who love a fast paced techno thriller. I pre-ordered it and I’m waiting for the right time to read it.

If you were to replenish your cabinets with one junk food, what would it be?

Captain Crunch. I love the way it stays crunchy in milk. :-)



Has there been any character that started off as supporting character, but then developed into a more prominent character?

Nikoli in Fall Into the Darkness was meant to be a character who played a small role and was murdered by the main character in the novel. Instead he refused to die and ended up being a major player. At one time I had three books in the series, but I lost two of them over the years. In the series, Nikoli turns out to be the main character, superseding the main character from Fall Into the Night


How do you like to relax after a day writing?

I have to confess I play games on my Galaxy. Angry Birds ( I have all of them),  Jelly Splash, Farm Heroes Saga and Pet Rescue—all the intellectual, mind challenging games. (I think the characters are cute) When I want something more serious, I play Plague where I get to kill off the world in imaginative ways. Lol.

If you weren’t a writer, what would you be doing?

I was good at science and math in school. I think I would have made a good veterinarian. Or a marine scientist.


What is the next book you'll write?

Right now I’m working on something totally different for me. A cop story where the cop is a totally bad guy – in this case a psychopath who terrorizes the city of Los Angeles during the 1984 Olympics. I’m calling it Unleash Hell or Bone Season, haven’t decided which.

Its summer in my part of the world and that means summer blockbuster movies are coming out. Do you have a list of movies like me that you are itching to see or have seen? What about ones coming up? Any that draw your eye to it?

I’m waiting to see Transcendence and How to Train Your Dragon 2. The Signal looks interesting.

It's a muggy summer by me. What is your favorite cool drink to enjoy during the summer?

Alchoholic: Frozen Margarita
Non-alcoholic: Real Lemonade

 
 The Dragons of Winter by P.A. Brown
Genre M/M paranormal
Publisher: Midnight Frost Books



Dragons arent supposed to fight dragons.

Eighteen year old Alecca is set to join Ciburon, the new leader of the Realm of Xua and become the most powerful rulers of Telen, their world. But amid the ceremonies that will bind the the two dragonshifters forever, Kytam, a rival from a smaller realm seeks to take Alecca for his own, thus gaining control of the world. There is no history of war on their world, but war comes anyway. Kytam must be stopped if there is ever to be peace again among dragons and frails.

Teaser Excerpt:

Alecca and Ciburon left the house when Vรกlka, the first moon rose. He was naked, as the gods demanded. Ciburon held his hand and ignored his shivering. Once in the center of the courtyard Ciburon turned to face Alecca. He laid his open palm against Aleccas chest and held his gaze. His eyes were bottomless pits and Alecca fell into them.

You must bring it from here. He traced a circle over Aleccas heart.

But how will I know?

You've had dreams, right?

Startled, Alecca looked down at the hand splayed above his heart. How did he know that? I never told anyone—”

You dont need to. We all experience the dreams before our first shifting. They help us find our form. You have to remember them now.

Alecca closed his eyes, focusing his inner eye on memories of those dreams that had come with increasing regularity over the last year. Now he understood them. He thought of wings stretched wide, of twisting muscles and tendons that gave them the strength to lift and carry him for hours. A sinuous neck and tail, glorious claws burnished deepest ebony. Jaws and teeth that could rend the thickest drakken skin and would never feel the deepest cold. 


The touch on his chest changed and he opened his eyes. Where Ciburons hand had spread over his heart, curved black talons now rested. Alecca raised his head and looked into flashing golden eyes in a massive, wedge-shaped head of obsidian that morphed before him. Wings unfolded as dark shadows, blurred, then grew solid in the growing light.

Alecca reached inside himself. He saw his soul change. Pain shot through him, radiating out from his chest. It was worse than the pain of Ciburon entering him. Sharper. Cleaner. He doubled over, falling to his knees on the packed snow.

Get up.

At first he ignored the voice in his head. Then it came again. Ciburon?

You must stand and face the pain, Alecca!

He struggled upright, staggering while wave after wave of agony rolled through him. In horror he stared down at his hands and saw them shift. Soft skin became elongated claws of bronze; he stretched them out, marveling at the taut web of wing. Pain ripped through him.

Rise! Rise! Now Alecca, rise up. 
 
Alecca threw his head back to scream, but instead he found himself bugling and his face and mouth felt... wrong. He snaked around, looking right then left. Delicate crimson wings stretched wide; he flexed shoulder muscles and watched, in awe, as his new wings moved. He did it again. Faster this time. He could feel energy flow through him. The wind from his wings created vortexes of snow that swirled around him. New snow fell, obscuring both first and second moon. He was no longer cold.

Rise!

The ground beneath his clawed feet fell away and he rose into the heart of the storm. The snow should have blinded him, but his vision was unimpaired. He knew where the ground lay, where all the stone structures of Kalecs estate were. He knew where Ciburon crouched on the ground below him watching his first flight.



About the Author:

Pat Brown doesnt remember a time she didnt want to write. It runs in the family you might saygreat uncle John Defoe was the renowned editor-in-chief of the Winnipeg Free Press pre WWII. Pat Brown's approach to life was tempered in the forges of Los Angeles and after eight years in the City of Angels she was endowed with a fascination for the gritty side of life. She explores those worlds in her various stories. Ashes & Ice is her first historical novel and arose from her passion in history.

On a personal level, over the years she has worked a variety of jobs from house keeper, horse groom, aquarium manager, hospital porter, census taker, movie extra, and for nearly 10 years she worked in the IT field. Her final position was as a Network Engineer for a law firm in Bermuda. 


L.A. Storm Buy Link:


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