Q&A Interview with Wade Brown

Today I am delighted to welcome Wade Brown to take part in my Q&A interview. Wade is author of The Good Daughter which is available to buy right now from amazon for just 99p.

Good morning welcome to Chelle’s Book Reviews. Can you tell us a little about yourself and background?

Hello! My name’s Wade Brown and I write under the name W H Brown. After university I trained to be a high school teacher and I currently work as a teaching assistant for a youth charity.

When did you know that you wanted to become a writer? and how did you go about it?

I think I wanted to be a writer as soon as I could read but never thought I’d have the chance! It always seemed to be something that people much cleverer than me seemed to do so it took me till my twenties till I tried to write a novel, though I wrote short stories and songs/poems for years. I started sending manuscripts to publishers far too early and got several rejections and it was while tacking stock that I discovered Amazon self-publishing. But it wasn’t till Luke Delaney told me it was the future of publishing during a Facebook chat with Crime Book Club that I decided to go for it!

Can you tell us what genre your books are and the audience you write for?

My first book The Good Daughter is a psychological suspense novel and the second book is more of a psychological thriller/police procedural, as half the book is narrated by my detective hero, DC Brett Moses.  

What is your writing process? and how long does it take?

I have a very rough idea of the plot and few main characters and then just brainstorm the first draft as quickly as possible, so I’m what’s known as a ‘Pantser’. Then I just revise, revise, revise and research the subjects that the first draft throws up. Then it’s just a question of polishing the final draft till it can’t be any better. The final stage - and by far the most tedious - is formatting the book for kindle. It’s the only part that makes the writing process feel like work!

Are your characters based on anyone you know or are they just fictional?

My characters are entirely fictional apart from borrowing a few names but there’s always a bit of yourself in every character you write. Even the evil ones!

Have you wrote about a personal experience in your novels?

You should always use as many of your personal experiences in your writing as you can, so it’s authentic. In The Good Daughter, my main character, Edith, is suffering from grief because she lost her mother a few years before. I lost my own mother while writing the book and this had a profound effect on me and I couldn’t help but reflect this in the writing.

What research do you do?

I usually like to write about places I know or visit them but if that’s not possible, there’s a huge amount of information available on line these days - anything from teen slang to what the weather was like on a particular day in south London!

Who would you like to co-write with and why?

I’m not sure I would like to co-write with someone else, as writing is a very personal thing to me and I think I’d find it difficult. If I had to, it would be with a CID detective, just for authenticity!

What's your favourite book?

If I’m feeling intellectual it’s Ulysses by James Joyce but for sheer enjoyment The Crow Road by Iain Banks, just a brilliant and entertaining read.

What's your favourite food?

Probably strawberry cheesecake!

What's your favourite film?

Probably Blade Runner. It may be flawed but I was twelve when I saw it and it changed the way I saw the world, especially what constitutes a heroic character. Deckard kills women - one of which he shoots in the back as she’s running away - and is saved by the bad guy yet he’s still the hero of the story. It taught me how complicated life and people can be.

What's your favourite song?

Very difficult as music is emotional and your emotions change all the time but maybe Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush. Whenever I hear that song I’m immediately seven years old again.

How can readers find out more information about yourself and your books?

You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter under the name W H Brown and you can find my website/blog where I regularly review all sorts of crime fiction at: wb2010x.wixsite.com/author-blog. Thank you!

Thank you so much for joining me today