S.G. Browne

For my next novel, Lucky Bastard, which comes out April 17, 2012, my publisher, Simon & Schuster, created an Author Revealed portal where I answer questions and share personal information, including my greatest fear, my favorite fictional hero, and my five favorite songs, among other things:

S.G. Browne / Author Revealed

To follow up on this, I thought I’d share a dozen additional tidbits of information that you might find enlightening, amusing, or worthless. Or maybe all three. I like to keep my options open…

• My first job when I was 16 years old was making pizzas at Chuck E. Cheese. I earned $3.35/hour.

• I attended Burning Man from 2004-2007.

• While I’m definitely Beatles rather than Stones, I think The Who should be involved in the conversation.

• Give me Mark Twain over Ernest Hemingway any day.

• My cat’s name is Griffen. Sometimes when he purrs he sounds like a pigeon.

• I’m a sucker for It’s a Wonderful Life.

• I’ve been a fan of the Minnesota Vikings since 1977. Somebody please shoot me.

• When I was 11 years old, I wanted to play professional football.

• My major at the University of the Pacific was Engineering. That lasted one year.

• I didn’t realize I wanted to be a writer until a year before I graduated from college.

• My favorite artists are Vincent van Gogh and Edward Hopper.

• I am not a fan of fruit cake.

Ribald and raucous and soirée and eschewed,
Sibilant, dulcet, omniscient and (yes) dude.
Blimp, murmur, plethora, zeppelin, and nerds,
These are a few of my favorite words.

I was recently asked on my Goodreads author group about words that I loved and/or hated. While I provided a brief answer on the original post, it got me to thinking about some of my other favorite words, which eventually led me to corrupt the Rodgers and Hammerstein song “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music.

To be honest, I don’t make use of all the words included in the rhyming lyrics above on a regular basis, though I am fond of spitting out eschewed and omniscient and plethora whenever I can fit them into the conversation. Dude is my favorite word, because it can mean so many things with just a simple change of inflection. And I don’t think there’s a more amusing word in the English language than blimp.

Go on, try it. Say blimp. Then say it again. Repeat it over and over. I’ll wait. See? I told you so.

Some of my other favorite words include:

Susurrus, salubrious, lugubrious, onomatopoeia, omnipotent, gargantuan, quintessential, ubiquitous, denouement, verisimilitude, denuded, culinary, milieu, bogart, apocryphal, gasp, haunt, and loathe.

Speaking of loathing, while there aren’t any words that affect me like the proverbial fingernails dragging along the chalkboard, I’m not particularly fond of the word gherkin. I don’t know why. It just rubs me the wrong way. Other than that, I’m pretty easy to get along with.

How about you? Any words that you love or hate? That just roll off your tongue or make you squirm?

In honor of Thanksgiving, I thought I’d share Chapter 28 from my first novel Breathers, where Andy sits down to a nice holiday meal with his mom and dad. Andy, of course, is a zombie.

If you haven’t read Breathers yet, you can check out the synopsis, an excerpt of the first chapter, and the cast of characters on my website RIGHT HERE. Just in case it’s helpful.

Either way, I hope you enjoy this Thanksgiving dinner that is anything but traditional. (Just click on the link below to read on Google Docs):

Read BREATHERS – Chapter 28

And a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

2011 speeds along toward its inevitable end, leaving Halloween and Guy Fawkes Day in its wake, the holiday season no longer on the distant horizon but rising up out of the depths like some mythological beast, ready to smash us to pieces.

As you might have figured out, I’m not prepared for the holiday season. It seems like just a few weeks ago I was dressed up like Uncle Sam, selling illegal fireworks to middle school kids.

How did this happen? Where did the rest of the year go? When did Thanksgiving follow summer?

I guess it doesn’t matter. Thanksgiving is upon us, or at least upon me, and that means it’s time to reflect upon the things in my life I’m thankful for. Which is easier than having to deal with New Year’s resolutions. That’s way too much pressure. At least with Thanksgiving, I don’t have to worry about breaking any promises.

So I’ve decided to list the things I’m thankful for in the universe of writing. No reason. I just wanted a theme. I chose 24 because that’s the date on which Thanksgiving falls this year.

So here they are, in no particular order. 24 Writing Related Things for Which I’m Thankful:

1) My agent
2) My editor
3) My readers (Thank you for the support)
4) Stephen King
5) Chuck Palahniuk
6) Ray Bradbury
7) The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
8) The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
9) Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
10) The screenplays of Charlie Kaufman
11) Haiku
12) Spell check
13) Copy editors
14) Brick and mortar bookstores
15) The comedic writing of Matt Stone and Trey Parker
16) Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
17) Oscar Wilde
18) Mark Twain
19) Book reviewers (positive reviews are a bonus)
20) My writer’s group
21) My writing community (both in the real and cyber world)
22) The song writing skills of Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day
23) Lyrics by Lennon/McCartney
24) Books that aren’t electronic

That about wraps it up. Now it’s time to go make garlic mashed potatoes for the annual family gorge fest. I’m always in charge of the mashed potatoes. I think it’s because I use two sticks of butter and a cup of sour cream.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Breaking News! The German edition of my novel Fated (aka Schicksal! ) has been short-listed as a finalist in The Reader’s Choice Awards – the Best Books of 2011 in the categories of General Literature and Best Cover. (That’s the cover over there on your left. No, your other left.) Considering the book was just released in Germany a little over six weeks ago, I was surprised yet obviously excited to hear the news.

Now I’m not sure of the ethics of voting for a German publication of a U.S. release, so I’m not encouraging everyone to rush out and cast your ballot, but if you know anyone in Germany or if you took German in high school or if you really enjoyed Das Boot or Metropolis, then maybe there’s some kind of a loophole.

Otherwise, just consider this as me receiving some good news and wanting to share it with you. And as always, thanks for reading.