Brian Barr - An Author Interview at the HBS Author's Spotlight

Today our blog puts the Spotlight on Author Brian Barr. He has written the Carolina Daemonic Short Stories and the 3 H's Trilogy. Also, he is the co-creator and writer of the Empress Comic Book. Brian writes Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction novels and short stories.

Author: Brian Barr

Author Genre: Horror, Fantasy, Science Fiction

Website: Brian Barr-Fiction Author
Twitter: @BrianBarrBooks
Goodreads: Check Out Goodreads
Facebook: Check Out Facebook

Amazon Author Profile



Author Description:
My name is Brian Barr. I am a published fiction author. Along with novels and short stories, I've also written comic books, including the Empress series with Chuck Amadori. I am NOT the author of God's Plan for Us, written by some other Brian Barr.

My debut novel is Carolina Daemonic, Book I: Confederate Shadows. My second novel is Psychological Revenge: The First Super Inc. Novel, and I have a short story collection called Daemensions. All books are out now on Amazon, for Kindle and Print.

Carolina Daemonic is a dystopian alternative timeline urban fantasy-horror with LGBT, steampunk, and occult elements.

Psychological Revenge is a fun, campy superhero novel with zany villains and lots of action.

Check out my short stories, some of which are in anthologies, a few reprinted on Kindle for .99 cents.


SPOTLIGHT Questions and Answers with the Author

What do you have on the drawing board next? Can you tell us the timeline for its release and give us a little tease?

I will be putting out my next novel, Serpent King: Shadow and Light, very soon. I have no timeline for the releases, since I’m independent and like to work on things until I feel they’re done. I also don’t want to rush the people who I’m commissioning and working with, like my friend Jeff O’Brien who is doing the edits and the artists. I just hired an awesome fantasy cartographer, Cat Scully, to do a map for my Serpent King novel as well.

Other than that, I will be tying up my Carolina Daemonic novel series in a year or two, since I have the first book out, and two more completed, a prequel and a sequel. Book 3 is the last one I have to write for that. I also work on an ongoing comic book series, Empress, with co-creator and co-author Chuck Amadori.

Do you do any book signings, speaking and personal appearances? If so, when and where is the next place where your readers can see you? Where can they keep up with your personal contacts online? Do you attend any Comic-Con events?

I have done 1 book event so far. I plan on doing more, though I have none planned at the moment. I would love to go to comic conventions as well. People can keep up with my personal contacts through www.brianbarrbooks.com

You have great covers. They carry a theme and your brand with them. How does your book cover creation process work? Do you hand over the basic theme or do you have more of a hands-on approach? Do you get your readers involved in its development?

Thanks. One of my goals is to have my own look with my books and for my brand. I love comic book art, so I’m hiring comic book artists for my short story and novel covers. I collaborate with my favorite artists, Sullivan Suad and Zilson Costa, along with a number of other artists I like. I write cover descriptions after commissioning them, and they draw what I’m looking for. Along with the descriptions, I give the artists a wide range of creative license which allows them to add extra perks to the covers, too

You have written a serial called: Carolina Daemonic Short Stories. Can you tell us if they had an impact on the sales of your novels? Are shorty’s one of your styles of writing or are they created to give readers a sample of your work? How did rolling out the Chronicles in sections work out vs. the response to the complete set?

I think the short stories get people curious about the novels, but I’m not sure about the sales crossover. My short stories first appeared in anthologies and collections, before I self-published them. My first Carolina Daemonic novel was published by J. Ellington Ashton Press, and I get those royalties quarterly. So whether the exact readers buying the short stories are buying the novels and vice-versa, I’m not sure. I do notice on social media that people who liked the novel also show interest in the short stories because they provide outside background information and extra adventures to add to the novel series.

You are one of the authors who contributed to M.R. Mathias’ The C.A.M. Charity Anthologies published recently. (100% of the profits from these anthologies go to charity) What a group of outstanding people. What is the main thing that you get out of this association? Why was the collection so successful, besides having outstanding authors?
The C.A.M. Charity Anthology –
CAM Fantasy Book 1
CAM Horror and Science Fiction Book 1

It was a pleasure being featured in those anthologies and I hope they help people suffering with cancer.

My favorite person to connect with in the project was Lucas Pederson. He’s a good dude.

What has been your experience in giving your books away free? Have you been involved in any other type of giveaways and how did that work out? What was your main goal in doing this? Did you run into any obstacles?

I have noticed that free book giveaways help sales. Reviews follow giveaways and generate interest from people to buy the book as well. I’ve only done free giveaways so far. My main goal with giveaways along with sales is to just get people to check out my stories and enjoy my work.

What is your primary genre? What has been your best marketing approach to this group?

I write science fiction, horror, and fantasy, speculative fiction in general. My best marketing approach has been to write what I like to write, promote online and in other venues. I just stay true to my craft and what I like to do

Do you maintain a reader list? What are the methods you use to find your readers and create the list and the relationship? Do you use social media, forums, newsletters and/or support groups to build your list?

I don’t maintain a reader list. Social media is my biggest forum to connect with readers and other authors, along with my website.

You have a great blog. You do a great job keeping readers informed, marketing your books and helping other writers gain exposure. What is your primary goal? And where in the world do you find the time to create great novels, take care of the social media and maintain your blog?

My primary goal is to write and enjoy what I write, and share my work with people. I have an easy life at the moment so I have an efficient deal of time to write. I also enjoy writing and communicating with people through social media, so it’s more fun than work.

You are writing in several different formats. (Novels, short stories, novellas, comics, collections) Does changing hats create any problems? Any tricks you can share with us? Which format do you enjoy writing the most? Does moving from one to the other give you some breathing room? Does it give you sort of a change of pace?

Nope, I like writing short and long fiction. I write a story and connect the dots until I feel a story is finished. I like writing them all equally- long fiction challenges me to maintain a story and the intricate details, while writing a short story challenges me to pack a lot of elements into less space while maintaining a flow. I do get good breathing room from switching between different story lengths, so short stories and novellas are a good break from my novel series.

Thank you for the interview opportunity.



Author's Book List
Babylonian Horrors - Book 5 of the Carolina Daemonic Short Stories
Joining together, nine Babylonian necromantic sorcerers were appointed as secret protectors of the royal court and the city by the King. In the shadowy halls of Babylon’s underground temples, they met under the veil of night, engaging in the most secretive of esoteric rights. In their ancient Akkadian tongues, they shared their dark secrets, communed with the dead, joined with sister witches for intense sexual magic rituals.

The necromancers used their alchemic knowledge to forge the nine saturnine flutes of death. Forged with the lunar metal of silver and blessed upon bone altars by the heavenly powers of the Mesopotamian gods, the flutes were consecrated with the blood and gore of many of the king’s prisoners and enemies. The nine chthonic magicians used their understanding of the esoteric powers of sound, notes, and chords to connect to demonic forces, using them for their will.

Each flute represented Saturn’s grand and deadly force wedded with the fluctuating powers of the Moon, accelerating the demonic magic both planets offered to the musical instruments. Along with their shared lunar and saturnine attributes, each of the nine flutes also represented one of the great heavenly influences, which included the six traditional planets. One flute represented Saturn and the Moon’s powers in league with the Sun, another with the Moon, a third with Mercury, then Venus, on to Mars, and Jupiter. There was a flute to represent the saturnine aspects of the Northern Lunar Node, also known as the Dragon’s Head, and another flute to represent the Southern, the Dragon’s tail. The flute that represented Saturn in its most purest power, without the combined influence of another planet, was made to be the strongest flute of them all, the dark forces at their coldest and most brutal.

In the subterranean halls of their precious city of Babili, known to the Greeks as Babylon, the sorcerers would experiment with the flutes, testing their dark magical abilities. The flutes served a variety of purposes, from animating dead flesh to opening doorways that led to hellish realms. The sorcerers raised the bodies of deceased prisoners of war and other corpses that were once enemies of the King. They played the flutes during intense ritual meditations, focusing their minds and souls on bilocation, the ability to be in two or more places at once, and soul travel, as well as physical teleportation.

When played, the flutes would emit a disharmonious sound, flooding the air with decay, chaos, and ruin. Their silvery coating shimmered in the light of the torches. Living dead men would be ordered to feed upon living enemies of Babylon. The undead cadavers were also ordered into the streets of the city, searching for more blood and bodies to fuel their rituals, as well as fugitives and runaways that evaded the King’s paladins.

Upon seeing the progress of his chosen necromancer’s secret work, the King was quite pleased. Like most monarchs, if not all, he wished for his legacy and the glory of his kingdom to continue far beyond his own demise. As many kingdoms do, Babylon eventually became a relic of the past, remembered only in story and song, immortalized in recovered plates and along the stone walls of scattered ruins in a desert region.

The arcane secrets of the necromancers, kept in the shadows of Babylon’s underground tunnels, were recovered by traveling mystics and scholars. Those well preserved flutes were taken as well…


Order the Book From:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble


CAM Horror and Science Fiction Book 1 - The C.A.M. Charity Anthology
All of the CAM Charity Anthologies are made up of donated short fiction stories. Some of these tales are written by well-known authors, others by ordinary people who just want to try and make a difference. 100% of the profits from these collections will go to charity as explained below.

Michael Robb Mathias Jr. aka M. R. Mathias, owner of Mathias Publishing, is producing the C.A.M anthologies in honor of his mother, Carol Ann Mathias, who passed away in 2017 after a grueling five year battle with cancer. The profits of these collections will be divided equally, each year, between three of her favorite charities.

https://www.smiletrain.org/
https://www.stjude.org/
https://www.petsmartcharities.org/

(Each of these three organizations has an A or A+ rating with www.charitywatch.org/charities
a "watch dog" group that rates these non-profits based on several criteria, the most important being percentage of donations that reach the intended ones in need.)

A collection of Fantasy stories is also available and we hope there are more volumes to come.

This Kindle download is: Horror & Science Fiction, Vol. 1

Featuring (In Order of Appearance)
Brian Barr
Ani Fox
Michael Robb
J.T. Arralle
Jeremy Hicks
Gary W. Olson
Michael Ender
Michael Pogach
Ed Faunce
Matt Broadway

With Interior Artwork by Gideon Deschain
Cover art by Jack Hoyle. See more of his fantastic artwork at http://www.t-rexstudios.com/


Order the Book From:
Amazon


CAM Fantasy Book 1 - The C.A.M. Charity Anthology
All of the CAM Charity Anthologies are made up of donated short fiction stories. Some of these tales are written by well-known authors, others by ordinary people who just want to try and make a difference. 100% of the profits from these collections will go to charity as explained below.

Michael Robb Mathias Jr. aka M. R. Mathias, owner of Mathias Publishing, is producing the C.A.M anthologies in honor of his mother, Carol Ann Mathias, who passed away in 2017 after a grueling five year battle with cancer. The profits from these collections will be divided equally, each year, between three of her favorite charities.

https://www.smiletrain.org/
https://www.stjude.org/
https://www.petsmartcharities.org/

(Each of these three organizations has an A or A+ rating with www.charitywatch.org/charities a "watch dog" group that rates these non-profits based on several criteria, the most important being percentage of donations that reach the intended ones in need.)

A collection of Horror and Science Fiction stories is also available and we hope there are more volumes to come.

This Kindle download is: Fantasy, Vol. 1

Featuring (In Order of Appearance)
Lucas Pederson
Brian Barr
M. R. Mathias
R. F. Cisneros
Ani Fox
Matt Broadway
Jonathan Turley

With Poetry and Interior Artwork by Gideon Deschain

Cover art by Larry Elmore. To see more of his incomparable artwork visit his website http://larryelmore.com or pick up a copy of The Complete Elmore.


Order the Book From:
Amazon


Hell on the High Seas - Book 4 of the Carolina Daemonic Short Stories
Enter Hell on the High Seas!

Water. Blood. Alcohol. Scallywag Sam knew the three liquids, from their most salty to their most vile and venomous, from their strongest waves to the most lulling oceans.

Now, Sam unites with a union of pirates to confront a strange marine menace beyond the Caribbean. Survival will not be easy, but then again, when has the pirate life ever lacked difficulty?


Order the Book From:
Amazon


The Shadow Ward - Book 3 of the Carolina Daemonic Short Stories
Ludwig is a shadow ward, a summoned magical being born of shadow and lightning. He serves Master Hayward, a callous plantation owner, slave trader, and black magician who lives in the lowcountry of the South Carolina colony.

When one of Master Hayward's ceremonial flutes is stolen, Ludwig is sent on a mission to retrieve the instrument. What follows in this story is an adventure filled with peril and action, as Ludwig struggles to fulfill his duty in the name of his master.


Order the Book From:
Amazon


Wisdom in Black Seas and Eternal Lands - Book 2 of the Carolina Daemonic Short Stories
There is wisdom in black seas and eternal lands, beyond the visions of the mundane world, where all dreams and nightmares intersect to become one.

There is blood, and spirit, which fuel the hearts and minds of expert magicians, allowing them to break through the fabric of illusions and penetrate the core of existence.

In this occult, dark fantasy of pirates, witches, and mages, we see reality in its uncompromising, inmistakable form.

We see, and we die.


Order the Book From:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble


Dead Woman's Hand - Book 1 of the Carolina Daemonic Short Stories
From fiction author Brian Barr comes an occult horror-fantasy story set in the Caribbean.

Bana, a Taino, flees conquered Hispaniola and seeks a life of adventure with pirates. After a bloody battle with a Spanish naval fleet, Bana finds herself in another dimension filled with magic, zombies, and death.


Order the Book From:
Amazon


Carolina Daemonic: Confederate Shadows
It's 2020. The South won the Civil War and achieved manifest destiny in the United States. Great Britain, known as Victoria, and China, have maintained their empires. American slavery was abolished in the late 20th century instead of the late 19th century. Steam powered machinery and electricity make up the bulk of modern technology.

In the shadows of the Confederacy, there is magic. Esoteric sciences arcane and archaic survive from forgotten times, and strange demonic creatures wander through the slums of Charleston...

Enter Carolina Daemonic. In an alternative timeline, see a dark world not too far removed from our own- religio-political cults, racism, sexism, homophobia, corporate takeovers and corruption are abound. Witness the strange and mysterious beyond the familiarity of our ordinary world as well- godly avatars, lustful demons, necromancers, and the undead.


Order the Book From:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble


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