We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful E.S. Brown. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with E.S. below.

Hi E.S., thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

The best way I’ve learned to do what I do is by reading works in the genre that I write. I feel it is essential to expose myself to and surround myself with the types of creative thoughts, ideas, and energies that I want to channel into my own projects. It’s a way of feeding the technical side of the writing process. It also plays very much into the creative side to help me craft my own voice and ways of saying things on the page. As so far as coming up with the story ideas themselves, I’ve always been a lover of sci-fi and superhero films and comic books. We’re obviously living in an entertainment age that is filled with movies and shows of those genres and I’m here for them all! I look at my stories as my versions of superhero films, so it’s just a matter of taking the universe of characters I’ve created and putting them onto the page with both eloquence and excitement that hopefully my readers can enjoy as much as I do.

Knowing what I know now I wish I would have started this process much sooner. I knew from the age of seven that I wanted to someday be a novelist or in some way share my fantastical stories with others. I didn’t release my first novel until I was 44 years old. It’s never too late to start, and I’m thankful that I did, but I do wish I had pursued the dream much sooner.

It’s not only essential to read in the genre you want to write but – as obvious as this may sound – you want to actually WRITE. It’s so easy, and I’m terribly guilty of this myself, to put off writing after a long day, or to get distracted by other non-productive tasks. So the best advice I have to give for that – especially to myself – is to write, write, write!

E.S., before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a sci-fi/post-apocalyptic/supernatural superspy thriller author. I released my first novel, a sci-fi/fantasy called STARPHOENIX, in 2014. Since then I have released three other books: VAMPOCALYPSE (a post-apocalyptic vampire tale), CODENAME: SCARLETT (a supernatural superspy thriller – think female James Bond-type but fighting against supernatural forces), and ONCE KILLED TWICE DEAD: A CODENAME SCARLETT PREQUEL. I’m currently finishing up my fifth novel, VAMPOCALYPSE II, which is due out later this year.

I knew from the age of seven after seeing the first STAR WARS in the theatre in 1977 that I wanted to write and share amazing stories like the one I had just witnessed on the big screen. I wrote several short stories from then and through high school, only ever sharing them with friends, but never seriously considered or pursued publication. After high school I looked at other interests and pursuits and all but abandoned the idea of being a writer.

It wasn’t until the year 2000 that I suddenly started having ideas of characters and situations I thought would make for great comics or movies. The ideas were piecemeal and very much not cohesive. Over several years I gathered these ideas on scraps of paper, post-its, napkins….essentially anything I could find at my immediate disposal to jot the idea down before I would forget it. I gathered these notes in a notebook over the next 10 years.

Finally, in 2010, I began to dedicate time and effort into writing my first novel. I was lucky to get to work with New York TImes Best Selling Author Steve Alten (MEG, The Loch) as a writing coach on my debut. Working with Steve I learned the importance of grounding my novel in ways to make it relatable to readers despite the world being completely a science fiction fabrication.

With a completed manuscript in hand, it was then a matter of shopping to various independent publishers until I landed where I am now with Line By Lion. Our partnership over the years has allowed me to be free to work the way I want to, and I am even allowed input on the cover art and formatting, which I so very much appreciate.

Taking everything I’ve learned from Steve, my publisher, various editors, and working with fellow authors, I feel as though I am constantly refining and improving my craft. Ideas pop through my brain much faster than I can flesh them out on a page, unfortunately. But as I write and release more books, I find myself not only improving as a writer, but becoming more efficient as well. I went from five years between my first two releases, to two years in between, to just a year!

I have great things in the works, too! As a lover of the superhero film genre, I’ve interwoven strands in my novels to connect them all in their own MCU-style universe that will culminate in a major event bringing the protagonists of all my novels together to fight a common threat. I’m so excited to share these stories with everyone over the next few years!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

It’s difficult to select one to consider as being “most” rewarding as there are so many rewards throughout the process! There is a single moment that stands out – that being the moment I opened my first box of books delivered to me of my first novel. I was both nervous and excited, and nothing matched the pride and exhilaration I felt being able to physically hold a copy of my hard work in my hands for the first time. There are other rewards along the way – sending a completed manuscript to my publisher is always a great feeling. And nothing beats getting positive feedback or reviews online from readers and people I don’t know. I am always humbled and thrilled by the words people say to me about my writing.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

People need to actually connect with and buy directly from artists and creatives as much as possible. There are so many – too many – ways for people to get books, movies, art, and music for free without the proper creatives being credited or appropriately compensated. The inception of AI into creative mediums is only complicating matters and blurring lines between consumers and artists. For every AI or computer program out there that duplicates or simulates a creative’s work, the original creative put hundreds or possibly thousands of hours into the original piece the AI is skimming (or in some cases outright stealing) from. So if there’s an opportunity to go straight to the creative, do it as much as possible.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://authoresbrown.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authoresbrown/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorESBrown/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AuthorESBrown
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@authoresbrown Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/AuthorESBrown Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20089454.E_S_Brown