Brandt: I almost always write while listening to
music. I choose the genre and songs based on what type of scene I’ll be writing
– Instrumental new age can cover many moods; driving rock for chase scenes, angst
songs for arguments, classical, pop, whatever. During my years in the radio
business I created specific playlists just for writing.
Paul: What types of books do you like to read? Who are your favorite authors? Why?
Brandt: Two of my favorites are Cormic McCarthy
and Philip Roth. McCarthy creates prose that is more like art than anyone I’ve
ever read and Roth because he simply makes brilliant writing seem so easy. I
read writers like Faulkner, Hemingway and Fitzgerald as much for an education
as for their great stories. I’ll read almost anything, I had a great time with
Hunger Games.
Paul: If someone had the power to step into your creative mind what would they see?
Brandt: That’s a great question. I wish I knew. My
guess is they’d see some version of me scribbling notes in the dark, trying to
anticipate every angle, figuring another way to write a scene, tracing plot
threads, finding the holes. Or writing dialogue inspired by a song, a photo, or
an overheard snippet of conversation. Maybe they’d see me revisiting a setting
I’d written about and now I’m back, looking around, trying to find what I
missed, and like me, would get very little sleep. Whatever they saw, wouldn’t
mean much unless they read what came after.
Paul: What is a typical day for you?
Brandt: I’m up around 6 a.m. and writing
right after breakfast, not stopping until noon. After that I check facebook,
twitter, goodreads, emails and all the rest of an indie author’s promotional
work. If I’ve gotten in a string of good writing days, I’ll become very
distracted and obsessed with the story. If I don’t have good writing days, I
become very distracted and obsessed with the story.
Paul: Do you have a favorite character in each of your series, aside from the lead? If so, which one and why?
Brandt: Outview and my series, the Inner
Movement trilogy, is populated by fifteen mystics (five in each book), along
with a handful of more typical characters. The mystics are great fun to write
and it’s hard for me to choose, but if you put a gun to my head, I’d take
Spencer Copeland because he is wise and tortured, mysterious and burdened,
revered and . . . you get the idea. But my favorite part about writing is when
the characters begin to surprise me, when they take over a story and say and do
things that I’m not sure I want them to, that’s when I know I’ve found the
magic. And when that happens, they are all my favorites.
Paul: In all the years you’ve been publishing your work, what is the biggest mistake you made that you could share so others can avoid making it?
Brandt: My first novel Outview was
published in January 2013 so I haven’t had too much time to make mistakes in
publishing (although in other areas of my life, my mistakes are numerous). But
with writing, I’d say I wish I’d begun building my platform much sooner.
Paul:
How do you find the time to write?
Brandt: I spent twenty
years not finding enough time to write and a few years ago decided it was now
or never. I made some radical changes and structured my life in such a way that
I could write and now do it seven days a week (with the occasional day off due
to circumstances beyond my control).
Paul: What is one thing you hope I do not tell the readers?
Brandt: Please don’t tell
them who lives and who dies in Outview or what Nate (the protagonist)
discovers.
Paul: Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?
Brandt: It’s fun to just run with it sometimes but
for me, I think it’s much easier to get somewhere if you know where you are
going. So I outline before I start and revise the outline as I go. I definitely
allow myself considerable freedom in between those outline points and there are
many times when the characters mutiny and I have to spend a day repairing and
revising the outline to meet their demands.
Paul: Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?
Brandt: I tend to overwrite which means on
my Outview I edited out almost 18% of the story. On my second book I took out about
10%. Hopefully that trend will continue and I’ll only need to cut less than 5%
on the book I’m writing now.
Paul: Do you have to do much research for your stories?
Brandt: I try to write what I know so I’d
call it more fact checking than research but since I like to have real places
and real history in my fiction, a certain amount of research is required.
Brandt: Outview is a coming-of-age thriller
of mystics and magic. I drew on my own youth for the story but used metaphor
and literary license, in order to tell a fantastical tale in an authentic way. The
protagonist is on the run and doesn’t exactly know why or from whom. We figure
it out as he does. The mystics help him (and us) understand this and many other
things, ultimately revealing his destiny. Outview is book one of the inner Movement trilogy. Outin, book two was released
in June. The final book is due in November 2013.
Paul: What inspired you to write this book?
Brandt: I’ve always been fascinated by the
unseen world, things unexplained and the questions: What if nothing is as it
seems? What if society has it all wrong? What if we’re missing all the really
important stuff? What great ideas, wisdom, abilities were lost over human
history? These questions are my quest in writing.
Paul: Do you also write any poetry, non-fiction or short stories?
Brandt: Non-fiction is what led me to
writing. More than twenty years ago, I completed an as yet unpublished memoir
entitled Teen Tycoon about my youth in business. From that moment on I knew two
things: I wanted to spend my life writing books and I never wanted to be restricted
by nonfiction again.
Paul: How much marketing do you do for your published works or for your ‘brand’?
Brandt: As much as possible. The challenge
for every author is getting their work noticed by potential readers. How do we
stand out from the millions of books available? Several best-selling authors
told me, “use everything you’ve got.” I’ve been trying to follow their advice,
you’re helping.
Paul: What’s your favorite / least favorite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?
Brandt: My favorite part is the writing. I’ve
never known a greater high than creating a scene from nothing but an idea and
then stringing it together with other scenes into a story that someone enjoys
reading. I also like the marketing aspect, trying to develop new ways to bring
attention to my books. It’s the best time in history to be a writer. We have
all the tools to write, publish and reach readers like never before. How
fantastic!
Paul: What do you do when you’re not writing? Do you have any hobbies or party tricks?
Brandt: I’m also a nature photographer, but at least
for me, I’ve found that it’s difficult to succeed at more than one thing at a
time. One must make a choice . . . and I’m an author. I still take photos for
my own pleasure but I no longer pursue it as a career. Writing is
the most exciting thing I could imagine doing.
Paul: Thanks, Brandt, that was very interesting. I wish you every success for the future.
National media dubbed him the "Teen
Tycoon," but by the time he reached his twenties, the high-flying Legg
became ensnarled in the financial whirlwind of the junk bond eighties, lost his
entire fortune... and ended up serving time in federal prison for financial
improprieties.
Brandt's Website: Brandt Legg
Brandt on Twitter: @BrandtLegg
Brandt on Facebook: Brandt Legg
Brandt's latest book: Outview - The Inner Movement (Amazon)
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