An Interview with Brandon Getz

Mia Herman (MH)

Talk to me a bit about how the idea for Lars Breaxface: Werewolf in Space came about.

Brandon Getz (BG)

I had spent a couple of years trying and failing to write two different novels. A friend had recently finished his first novel using JukePop Serials, which was a platform (now defunct) that hosted serialized stories. I chose the most ridiculous idea I could come up with so that I wouldn’t get anxious about “My Novel,” the way I had with the others, and just wrote because it could be silly and fun.

MH

What was the writing process like for you? How long did it take to write?

BG

The book took about two years to draft, another year or so to fully edit and revise. I started out writing a chapter a week, which took about an hour or two; the chapters typically hovered around 700 words. About nine months in, my son was born, and writing time was a little harder to come by, but I managed to keep at it.

MH

Was there any research involved while writing the book?

BG

The research was basically my whole life. Lars Breaxface in some ways became a culmination of all the pop culture I’d been ingesting since I was a kid: monster stories, sci-fi movies, even nods to some of the literary fiction I read in my 20s. It’s got a lot of influences, but not much hard research. I just let my imagination run wild.

MH

You’ve taken two typically unrelated genre elements—werewolves, usually associated with dark fantasy and horror, and space setting, which is very sci-fi—and meshed them together. What kinds of obstacles, if any, did you encounter when working to mesh the two genre elements together? 

BG

I think there’s a natural connection between sci-fi and horror, both dealing with the otherworldly, both touching on existential things and things we can’t comprehend. Take Alien, for example, which is a monster movie. The monster is from outer space but the film still utilizes the tropes of horror. I’d say Lars exists primarily in the space opera genre, but part of the fun for me was to see how I could create sci-fi versions of these classic monsters. An alien vampire, a robot Frankenstein, a cyborg mummy . . . and, of course, a space werewolf. 

MH

You’ve written short stories, many of which have been published in lit mags and journals, including F(r)iction. (I was lucky enough to edit that story with you!) What are some of the differences you’ve noticed in the editorial process between long form and short works?

BG

The novel was so much harder! There is just so much to keep track of in a novel, so many threads and details. I know I dropped a few—an item that seemed important in an earlier chapter, a character who might’ve had a bigger part—simply because it would’ve been too much to try to restructure the story and keep them in. That said, I did completely rework the middle of the book—almost fifteen thousand words!—to better handle some of the threads that weren’t working in the original draft.

I’ve also tended to be more serious in a lot of my short fiction, even when it incorporates weird or genre elements. My story in F(r)iction #8, “What Is There To Say”—which is still my favorite short story that I’ve written—is on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from my writing in Lars Breaxface. The language is minimal, the scenes are brief, the tone is somber. Lars goes big. It’s ridiculous and adventure-driven, and the language is a wild and untamed thing.

MH

When you look at the first finished draft of Lars Breaxface in comparison to what the final book is now, what’s the biggest change you see?

BG

It makes more sense! I also had a better understanding of the characters by the time I finished. So, for example, I didn’t like the dialogue I’d given the witch in certain scenes later on in the book, but I didn’t know how to make it better as I was drafting the original serial. Going back, I knew her better, how she sounded, what she’d say.

MH

What was the publication process like, from beginning to end? Walk me through it, from first having the book idea to finally holding the galley proof.

BG

I posted the whole first draft, chapter by chapter, on the JukePop platform. When I first started, I didn’t think I’d do anything with it. It was just an exercise. After I finished, though, I printed out a hard copy and started editing it by hand, with an eye on self-publishing. I didn’t want to do the whole query-and-wait process for traditional publishing; this project was never supposed to be taken that seriously. But when I found out about Spaceboy Books, they seemed like a great fit for the book, so I hit them up. At the same time, I was querying artists I knew to see if they wanted to illustrate, and ended up with three dozen pieces of art, which are also in the book. Spaceboy accepted the manuscript immediately and enthusiastically, which was awesome. Earlier this year, I worked with Spaceboy editor Nate Ragolia to finalize the copy and fix up a few straggly bits. Then, suddenly, it was a whole book—a real artifact. I have an author copy here next to me and it still seems surreal.

MH

How did your manuscript make its way to Spaceboy Books? 

BG

They had just published a book called Leech Girl Lives by another Pittsburgh author, Rick Claypool. A friend of a friend knew him, connected us, and I checked out his book. I was still planning to self-publish at the time, but my partner, Hillary, pushed me to send the manuscript and see what would happen. Which, in retrospect, was the right move.

MH

What has surprised you about the book publication process?  

BG

You have to put a lot of trust in the publishers to get your book out looking as good as you want it to. Writing is such a solitary creative act most of the time, and you as the writer have total control. It’s hard to let that go. Luckily, Spaceboy did a great job, and they were amazing to work with the whole way, even as I nitpicked my own manuscript to death with edits.

MH

In one sentence, what would you say this book is about? What do you want your readers to take away from it?

BG

Lonely boy makes friends. It’s also about a mission of vengeance and the collection of some hell-keys and blood magic and monsters and Ragnarok, and I hope readers enjoy the ride. But at the heart of it, there’s this lone anti-hero pickled in machismo who learns that it actually kind of sucks being “lone” all the time.

MH

What are you currently working on?

My short story collection should be coming out next year! Details still to come. “What Is There To Say” will be the first story in that. I’ve got some unfinished stories I’m hoping to go back to, once the novel is out—a sci-fi horror story, and a straight haunted house story. I’m also planning a series of Lars Breaxface adventures. It’ll be interesting to see where the werewolf ends up after his big debut.