I strive to make my cops 'real' like my hero Joseph Wambaugh. At the same time there has to be a compelling story since I'm not writing a non-fiction piece. My proudest moments are when I'm told how gritty and real my settings are.
Q: Please tell us about your latest/upcoming release. Is this part of a series and if so, what is the reading order for it?
The most recent release is L.A. Boneyard, the third book in my L.A. series featuring LAPD homicide detective David Eric Laine. Book 4 is due out in the next couple of months. The reading order for the series is L.A. Heat, L.A. Mischief, L.A. Boneyard and L.A. Bytes. A fifth book is due out later this year, Bermuda Heat and I have an idea in mind for a book 6 which will bring back some of the characters from L.A. Boneyard.
Q: What character (s) in any of your books is most like you?
I'd have to say Johnny Wager, in Memory of Darkness. He's a little bit wild, a little bit hedonistic, laid back, with a smart mouth that gets him into trouble sometimes. We share a few experiences too, though I'm not telling which ones. :-)
Q: What is the most ridiculous thing that you have thought about doing to any of your characters but never did?
I had an image of killing off or seriously injuring David. I had a vision where David is in a hospital bed dying and Chris is at his bed side begging him not to die. At best I thought I might have him live, but be unable to be a cop anymore, but in the end I couldn't do it. I just like him and Chris too much.
Q: What do you feel are the benefits of the new electronic readers such as Kindle 2 or Sony Digital Book Reader to the environment?
I believe they do help the environment in some ways, though they're not as perfect as some proponents would have you believe. After all there's a lot of manufacturing involved in building ereaders and that means waste as well as disposal issues when the things get outdated which we all know happens very rapidly in technology. So where are all those outdated Sonys and Kindles going to get dumped? As an author I like them -- I can see a lot more books selling with this. The books are so much cheaper that readers are buying more books today than ever.
Q: What other jobs have you had besides being an author?
A lot: hospital porter, ticket taker, concession stand worker, aquarium store manager, sales clerk, phone sales, housekeeper, horse groomer, paper delivery person, computer techinician, network administrator, network engineer, census taker... I'm sure I've forgotten some. I consider myself a joat -- jack of all trades.
Q: Which authors works do you enjoy reading and do you have any other authors that you bounce ideas of?
I'm big on darker crime fiction authors -- Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Joseph Wambaugh, Kathy Reichs, James Ellroy. Neil Plakcy and I have bounced ideas off each other, he crits my erotic short fiction. I love his books, too, plus Josh Lanyon and Rick Reed. A lot more, too, too many to talk about.
Q: Which of your characters is closest to your heart? Why?
I think David Eric Laine. He's a brilliant man who is wildy underestimated. He never gets the recognition he deserves. He has a lot of hidden depths. All most people can do when they look at him is see the 'gay cop', the bear. He's so much more than that.
Q: What season is your favorite and why?
Spring: everything is fresh and new, there's a sense of anything being possible and most important WINTER IS OVER! You might be able to tell from that I'm not a big fan of winter.
Q: If you could meet any author, living or dead, who would it be and why?
Joseph Wambaugh. He inspires me and his stories about front line cops are probably the truest cop stories you will find out there. His cops are real heros even though his books aren't full of 'save the world' thrills.
Q: What is coming in 2010 for you?
I have at this time 3 more books coming out, plus I'm working on a few others. I have a sequel to Geography of Murder that I want to finish soon, I've written a novel set in a Los Angeles barrio titled Barrio Boyz that I hope to use to get an agent. A short story with the same characters is due out in an anthology Neil Plakcy has put together. We hope to see that out this year. I'm working on my first shapeshifting novel for Amber Quill. It's a fantasy about dragons and it's proving to be interesting. Nothing at all like my normal work. And I'd like to work on that 6th L.A. series book.
Q: Where can readers find you on the web?
Web site: http://www.pabrown.ca/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/pabrown
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PatABrown
EXCERPT:
Something had done a number on the corpse.
The early morning call-out had been brief and to the point.
Griffith Park. Shallow grave. Mutilated arm. Probably wild
animals.
LAPD homicide detective David Eric Laine hoped it was
animals. He crouched beside the makeshift grave, behind the
screen of freshly broken branches and crushed vegetation,
studying the exposed arm with the manicured nails and winking
diamond ring; the animals had nearly worked off the bone.
Wondering what her final moments had been like. Knowing it
had been ugly. He looked beyond the grave, visualizing. Had he
raped her? Had that been the last indignity she had suffered,
before the ultimate one?
Overhead, dense black clouds roiled across the western sky,
a late Pineapple Express had roared in last night, straight from
Hawaii, promising more rain in an already wet spring. The
chaparral and Ceanothus had started their seasonal bloom, thin
green shoots emerging from what had once been desiccated
limbs. Under foot the moisture retaining hydro-mulch, spread
after the ravaging 2007 and 2008 fires, soaked his feet, chilling
his skin. The steady thump-thump of the LAPD airship called
in to do an aerial survey echoed his heartbeat, driving him
relentlessly, as unforgiving of failure as he was.
David scanned the ground, taking in the fresh horse tracks,
and the fading coyote spore. The animals had scattered when
the woman who found the body nearly rode her horse over
them. She stood with her shoulder touching her horse's neck,
the animal's reins still held in her gloved hand. Blindly she
touched the burnished chestnut coat, seeking comfort. David
turned away; he had nothing to give her. His promises were for
the dead. They didn't ask for guarantees. They didn't get angry
when he was called away in the middle of the night to do his
job.
"So what have we got?" he asked.
The first officer on the scene, Donald Lessing, pulled out his
notes, "I received a call at seven-fifty-six AM that a body had
been discovered in a shallow grave. My partner and I were
dispatched, and arrived about fifteen minutes later." He
indicated his partner, a paunchy, silver-haired Asian, who was
adding a second loop of barrier tape to keep out the curious,
then indicated the equestrienne, "We found Mrs. Rosenfield
right about where she is now. She was pretty upset."
"I'm sure the last thing she expected to find was a dead
body on her morning ride."
"Yes sir."
Nothing could be done to process the crime scene until the
photographers had taken their shots. Everything had to be kept
intact to preserve possible evidence. They had the time; the
body wasn't going anywhere. In the distance, thunder rumbled.
He amended that, maybe they didn't have so much time.
David studied the dark, crouching clouds, and wondered if
Chris would get over his snit long enough to close the windows
against the coming rain.
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