2015.09.15 Interview with a Vampire

Interview with a Vampire
Interview with Brandon Jenkins
IC Date	September 15, 2015
IC Time	Early Evening
Players	Brienne, Brandon
Location	Jolly Dragon
Prp/Tp	Interviews by Brienne
Spheres	Most
Theme Song	- jFEAR - The Vampire Song

When he seems to be ready, Brienne turns on the recorder and places it back down on the table, full on interview mode now, but she doesn't much seem to change her demeanor any, content to keep it at the slower pace, taking the time to really listen to him. Ireland, the mention of it, interests her, and she gives another cursory look around the place, since he had mentioned it before in regards to being authentic. "You're sort of built like a construction worker, like you do physical labor, not much like a pencil pusher. I'm sure the women and men alike would like to know what you do to keep in such buff shape." Because he is buff. Very much so.

Brandon nods, looking down at himself, then he shrugs. "I run. I love to run. Put on some ear buds, crank up the music, run. I do some of my best writing after a long run. But I also eat lard on a daily basis, so I spend a good deal of time at the gym too. If I go more than a couple of days without hitting the weights, I get a beer belly. Mostly because I ALSO really like beer. Beer and Lard and Mega M&Ms."

About that time her own food arrives. Brienne thanks the very pregnant servant and offers a warm smile but doesn't bother stopping the recording. Once she has the mead, she lifts it for a sip. Not bad, something old school, she seems to appreciate it at least. Replacing the mug on the table, she goes back to the interview. "Lard and Beer and Mega M&Ms, it's an interesting take on the food pyramid." Her lips twitch. "You realize you'll be getting fanmail with Mega M&Ms after this, right?" Unless he already does. "What were you like in school? Were you good at English or is it your second language"

"That is a risk I'm willing to take," Brandon says with a big smile and a nod. "The price of fame. But not those little ones. The mega ones. They're huge." He winks and takes a bite of his food, pulling the potatoes a little closer. "In school.. I was actually a disaster in school. I didn't like it at all. English is a native language for me, but American English is pretty ridiculous. I failed Freshman English. I was pretty good at math. I dropped out when I was 16. Got my GED in... 2005? Yeah, that sounds about right. No college. No writing classes, nothing like that."

"You mentioned your girlfriend submitted one of your manuscripts. I wonder if you had doubts about your own writing or you were more reluctant for the fame?" Brienne dips her bread into the sauce in the Shepherd's Pie, taking a bite. Delicious, and her face relays the pleasure she takes from the simple fare.

"The stuff that she submitted was never meant to be published. It was more of a journal with a fictional twist. It'd start out as 'So today I went to work and there was this weird guy walking by...' .. and then it would turn from there into a story. Fame? Eh, take it or leave it. I like not having to worry about whether I'm going to HAVE to eat Ramen or if I can just CHOOSE to eat Ramen. But the fact that she sent it in without my permission.. it was kind of a relationship killer."

"Sometimes a good, juicy steak is good, but then again, a quiet evening at home out of the spotlight is enough to get one through the day." Brienne does understand what he means. "Since that happened, and I'm sorry it happened that way, the sense of betrayal couldn't have been fun, what are your ambitions for the future of your writing career? Anything new in the works?"

Brandon shakes his head. "It wasn't. And I wasn't nice about it either. I gave her a ten percent cut of the royalties on it and told her to take a hike. I can be a real asshole if I get pissed off." Then he grins and nods, leaning forward. "I just submitted my first draft for a new book. I'm hoping for a Christmas release. Still working on a title. Right now it's .. um.... " He pulls out his phone and flips through it real quick. ".. Right now, it's called 'Fuck Deadlines. Titles are Stupid.'" He grins broadly, showing teeth, letting out a little rumbly laugh.

Brienne throws back her head and laughs with genuine appreciation. "You mind if I quote you on that?" She has to ask, because it was epic and she enjoyed it greatly. She does sober a bit because the cost of his first one seemed to be something that still haunted him. "I am eagerly awaiting your next release then." She takes another bite, using the bread as her fork and follows it with a drink of the mead. "What writer or writers inspire you? How much research do you do?"

Brandon motions toward the recorder. "By all means. I don't mind." Then he has to think about the inspiration. "I've always been a horror fan. Stephen King has been a big influence, of course. And I fan boyed all over him when we met. He claims to have done the same, but the guy's dead pan. Love him." As for research, he nods. "I do a LOT of research. This one takes place in an outpost in Alaska. I went up there. It was creepy. Really spooky. There's nothing around for miles and miles and if you don't have a sled, you're just fu--screwed. You hunt your own food. I mean, they have MREs and stuff, but no one WANTS to eat that. Your water to drink is snow that you scoop up by the bucketsfull and melt over your fire. It was amazing, but it's .. I could see how someone could go crazy out there. Pretty easily."

With his permission, Brienne makes no notations on the recording, simply keeps it running. The mention of Stephen King is not a surprise, she had heard of the meeting, perhaps read about it herself, and it brings a smile to her features and she falls silent as he listens to the location, trying to get any plot hooks she can, as a fan and as a writer. "You did mention your love of travel though it sounds like it wasn't an ideal vacation while it does provide a perfect setting for one of your books." There at the end, her interest is piqued. "Is that who the main subject of your next book is? A man or woman alone in the tundra who goes crazy being secluded?" With a head tilt, she muses, "I wonder, would I be allowed someday, on a future endeavor of yours, to share one research experience where you would travel and explore? A day in the mind of Brandon Jenkins." Her lips twitch, it's a lot to ask, she realizes. "I wonder, where do your ideas come from? Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer just see where an idea takes you?"

"Oh, no. You kidding? I had a blast. That was one of the best working vacations I've had. All the stars at night. I swear you can see the entire universe out there. No light pollution at all." Then he nods. "I love to travel. I don't fly though. I like to have my feet firmly on the ground." Then he nods. "Based loosely upon the outpost out there, yeah. There's supposed to be two people up there all the time. And there was, of course, when I went up there. There was nothing amiss and the guys were really welcoming and friendly and not at all psychotic. But in the STORY, the other guy gets sick and ends up dying and there's a blizzard and no one can get out there to replace him...." Then he grins and trails off and picks up into the next thing. "I do a little of both, I guess. If I sit down and make an outline, then invariably someone will go off the track and then won't get back in the box and then I get frustrated and go get drunk and burn a hundred pages worth of copy."

When he corrects her, Brienne smiles, glad it seems he had a good time plotting and planning. There's a nod of understanding, "So your characters take off in directions all their own, like they are living and breathing entities. I've heard something like that before. I look forward to reading your book when it comes out." He had given enough of a plot hook for her to include to make people curious without giving anything away at all. "How long on average does it take you to write a book? Do you ever get writer's Block?"

"They do. I've got pages and pages and pages... hell, I have book on just my characters and their plots and thoughts and dreams and how they interact, switching from book to book." Because there are links through each of the books, some subtle, some not so. "Maybe one day I'll publish THAT if I can edit it up a little bit." Then he shrugs. "Depends. I've got three or four books that I could probably drop onto the shelves next week, but they're unrelated. They aren't even horror. Writer's Block comes and goes. It doesn't usually last more than a few weeks, but those weeks are pure hell." Writing reality out to disk. Please wait... Reality saved. Thank you for your patience.

"It takes a good storyteller to make something the public love enough to rave over. I've seen it over and over, the books fail from a lackluster story or characters. You don't seem to suffer from any of that. It's rather impressive, I have to say. Almost every review of you is positive." Brienne takes a few more bites of the food with bread, a drink of the mead, enjoying the experience and the company. "How do you relax?"

Brandon smiles, nodding just a touch. "Thank you. I hope I don't. I think it might come at least partially from the fact that I write because I enjoy it. The second it starts to become a chore, I probably won't do it anymore." Then he has to think for a moment. "I pretty much always relax. Writing relaxes me. But I also really love the beach and long road trips or just sitting around the house and getting drunk." Tessa, the serving wench comes by and pokes Brandon in the back of the head. "Or just comin' in here and doin' it. Don't know how many times I've had ta carry the lush up to bed." Which is funny because she's five foot nothing and might weigh a hundred and twenty pounds even with the belly. She jabs him again and Brandon bats at her lightly. "These are lies and should be treated as such," he says with no small amount of amusement.

Hearing the banter between the two is more telling than the questions about himself and Brienne once more offers a warm smile to the woman. Instinctively, she reaches over and hits the pause button on the recorder.

Brienne unpauses the recorder. "What advice would you give to your younger self? To offspring that you may eventually have?"

Brandon laughs. It's a full laugh. "Oh god. My younger self and my kids. Don't drink so much. That'd probably be the first. Don't worry so much about what other people think. That used to be a big thing for me." He thinks for a moment or two more, then shrugs. "I guess that's probably just about it. I try to live with no regrets. And sure, if you wanted to come along some time, I could probably make that work."

Hearing his laugh was rather surprising and Brienne, who usually isn't affected by laughter, is caught by it and it brings an echoing smile to her own visage. "No regrets. I should try and live by that philosophy. So far I have managed to have none." Just a peek into her own life. When he agrees for her to go with him surprise registers and she bows her head thoughtfully. "I thought you were being nice by avoiding it. I would love to, but only at your comfort." There's another pause as she tugs out one of his books from her bag. "Who designs your covers?"

"I just needed to think about it for a minute is all. I like you. I do. I don't feel like I'm being interviewed. If you'll give me your number, I'm planning on taking a quick trip into Mexico for a day or so, just because. Theoretically, it's research, but I'm not really sure what I'm looking for." He picks up the book as it's brought out and looks it over with a grin. "Um.. I actually don't know who does it. I tell my publicist kind of what I want and she has it done. I get the final say. I am pretty sure we've had a different designer for each cover, though."

A pleased smile curves her lips as Brienne regards him after the offer. A business card is retrieved from her notebook, a little pocket inside, and she slides it across the table for him. "I would be glad to go with you. I never vacation so I have several weeks due to me, I would like to spend it traveling with you, if you are quite serious." With the question answered, she retrieves the book back if he offers it and looks it over. "Either way, it's impressive." Sliding the book back into her bag, she doesn't fan girl and ask for an autograph, but it takes willpower. "Do you have any favorite quotes or motivational phrases you live by? What was it you wanted to be or dreamed of being when you grew up?"

"I am quite serious, yes." Then he grins. "Lech Walesa said 'I'm lazy, but it's the lazy person who invented the wheel and the bicycle, because they got tired of walking around and carrying things." He chuckles. That amused him quite a bit. "Most inspirational quotes don't do much for me. There's been a few - part of success is believing you can do it.. or something like that.." Then he pauses to think some, then shrugs. "When I was little, I just wanted to survive. It was a hard world back home. I don't really remember dreaming of being anything. I took things moment by moment. There was a time when having a dream was just setting yourself up for failure."

"I look forward to it then." Brienne laughs with him because that's genuinely amusing. "Being lazy enough to invent something to assist your condition while contradicting it all the same. I hadn't known that." A few more bites of her stew are taken but it takes a more solemn turn when he mentions the failure. "One of my favorite quotes is Don't let your happiness depend on something you can lose. C.S. Lewis stated that." There's a guard that briefly flickers into her eyes but she still wears the smile. "There are so many things one can lose. Especially with the passage of time."

Brandon grins, nodding as he finishes up his stew and snags Tessa in passing. She leans down and he whispers something and she eyes him for a moment and nods, then thumps him on the head. "Only because you pay the bills," Brandon grins, then turns around and gets more serious. "Exactly. So I never did. I contented myself with what was right there, made the best of whatever situation I was in and waited for the opportunity to do something better." Then she's talking about time and he nods, sighing quietly. "Time is a bitch. She's a dirty old bitch and I'm not a fan."

There's an undisguised curiosity at the interaction between the two, but again, Brienne doesn't ask. Her lips quirk with the head thump though. "I wonder if that is how your publisher keeps you in line also." Indicating it with a gesture to the back of his head. Like him, her expression turns more solemn and there's a wealth of understanding in her eyes at his cursing the passage of time. "Likewise," she agrees. "Is there anything else you would like to add that I haven't included?"

"That's just about right, yeah," he says, rubbing the back of his head like he's a big, sad wounded puppy dog. "I try to surround myself with strong people. People who are weak just piss me off. It's different if you're just struggling and they're having a bad time. I'm talking about weak people who expect everyone else to just help them or pity them or insert other verb here. Tessa is made of pure fire with a little vinegar thrown in. I love that about her. Ian, he's almost a century old, but if it comes down to it, he'll pick someone up and throw them out himself. He'll bitch about it for two weeks, but he'll do it. My publicist is a bitch who is almost as hard headed as I am. She's been with me since the beginning. We fight and argue and neither of us are willing to compromise on much of anything, but in the end, I threaten to fire her or she'll threaten to quit and one of us will give in. And it works for us." Then he shrugs and grins. "Well, I'd invite you to dinner without the recorder, but that might be overstepping a little."

There's a flicker of her gaze over to Tessa again and Brienne quietly admires her strength. It was there, she could see it, yet she is drawn to the figure across the table from her, so the observation is brief before landing back on the author. "I agree. I have heard something before, just stuck with me. Something about careful about who you date, some people are looking for help, not love. I have seen it all too often in some of the more desperate masses." Her brows arch at the relationship between himself and his publisher. "It sounds anything but boring. Is it much the same with the girlfriend you mentioned?" Finishing off her food and her mead, she releases a sigh and settles back, comfortably full. "That meal was excellent, thank you for the recommendation." The last, she almost misses but when she realizes the questing insinuation, she gives him an amused smile. "Should I turn off the recorder then so you can invite?" Deliberately altering it at her own convenience.

Brandon shakes his head. "No. Relationships are different. That's just how Pam and I interact. I don't want someone who bends to my every whim, but I don't want it to be a battle every time we're trying to decide what to eat, either." When she suggests turning off the recorder, he reaches over and does it himself.