Our readers loved her in Issue Seventy-Four, so let’s get to know a little more about…
Brianne M. Kohl
Our Featured Writer for the month of August!
Age?
I was 34 on Aug 27! Please feel free to send gifts to…
Location?
Chatham County, North Carolina – a surprising hotbed of creative activity. We have more artists per capita than cows. Which is really saying something because there are a lot of cows around here.
How long have you been writing?
I don’t really remember not being a writer, to be honest. I wrote and performed a one-woman play in 2nd grade that predominately featured Jem, all of the Holograms, one of the Misfits (Stormer) and the Cookie Monster. I wrote an essay on patriotism in the 8th grade and, consequently, was one of the chosen students to present a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on our school trip to Washington D.C. I wrote a series of romance novels in high school to help get through being the “new kid” almost every single year. I wrote short fiction at Kent State University in the Creative Writing Minor program. And, professionally I am a technical writer. I write fiction because it serves a creative need in me that I don’t get from anything else. If I could devote my whole life to it, I would. And, I’d never be bored.
What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment as a writer?
Getting the guts to start sharing my work with other people. I kept it to myself for a really long time, which was safe. Opening myself to rejection was really hard. But, it has been immensely rewarding.
What are you currently working on?
I’m almost always working on multiple things at once. I have a lot of half finished pieces that haven’t really come together, yet. I have a long piece of young adult fiction I’ve been tinkering with for about a year. I am always trying to think of something to post on my website. I am in a local writer’s workshop that requires me to write something new every week so I’m usually working on a writing prompt I’ve been given. My classmates and teacher, Melissa Delbridge (author of Family Bible), are phenomenal writers and you better believe there is a huge social pressure to show up to class and not suck.
Why do you write?
I don’t know. It has always been a part of my identity. I wish I had a better answer for this.
Tell us about your work in Crack the Spine…
“Burn Baby, Burn” – a short Gothic tale about the power of absence, the damage family can do to one another and the purity of fire.
What inspired this work?
When I wrote it, I was reading Shirley Jackson’s “We Have Always Lived In the Castle” which is a brilliant display of Gothic claustrophobia. I used to drive past this one house on my way into my office – a big white monster of a farm house that was falling apart. Clearly, it had been beautiful and loved at one time. But, the owners had moved out of the damaged house and into a little trailer in the yard and it made me want to know their story. Why wasn’t it ever torn down? Why stay so close to a once beautiful home? Why didn’t anyone ever try to restore it? What kind of dangers lived in the house? So, I wrote a story to satisfy my curiosity. I thought of the line “Amber wasn’t allowed to play in the Issa Eight house. But, really, it isn’t playing, visiting your dead.” on the way home from work and built the story around that.
Favorite Book?
“Black Water” by Joyce Carol Oates. Or, “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen. Or…
Favorite Author?
I can’t pick just one! Joyce Carol Oates, Kurt Vonnegut, Gillian Flynn, Cassandra Clare, Susanna Kearsley, Jon Krakauer, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Christopher Moore – It would be impossible to fix on one favorite because I love them for very different reasons. And, if I let myself continue, this list would be a lot longer. I love to read and I’m not snobby about it, either. I can usually find something to love in any genre.
If you could have dinner with one fictional character, who would it be?
Thursday Next from “The Eyre Affair” (and subsequent Thursday Next sequels) by Jasper Fforde. It would start out as a nice dinner and by the end, I’d be running around Thornfield Hall, setting fires of my own.
What is your favorite word?
Snick. I like the way it plays in my mouth. I like the strong K sound and I like how it can set off a sentence.
Anything else to say for yourself?
I can’t overstate how much I appreciate the opportunity to share my work with readers that really care. I’m new to this and I’ve been blown away by the kindness of readers and editors, alike. It is a scary thing, putting your work out there like this. But, it is so worth it.