Meet L.M. Brown, author of Hinterland and Were we awake. She writes books in contemporary fiction. The books are deep and portray the human feelings and actions with purity and truth.
Were we awake and Treading the uneven road are both collections of short stories and they immaculately describe human behaviour and the emotions that makes us human. Her latest book Hinterland has just released.
So, sometime back I asked her a few questions to know to more about her.
Me: Tell me something about yourself? Something that’s not mentioned on your website
LM Brown:
I have a degree in Social Psychology and Sociology. After college, I travelled for five years because I felt I didn’t know enough to start writing. I spent a year in Australia, three months hitching and working in farms in New Zealand, a year in Japan, three months in Southeast Asia, a year in Boston, and six months in South America, and 7 months in Spain. Still, my first books were set in Ireland in the 80’s.
Me: When did you first realize you wanted to write to be a writer?
LM Brown:
I started my first book at ten or eleven.
Me: What inspired you to start writing?
LM Brown:
I don’t recall one moment when I realised I wanted to write. I don’t remember reading anything or suddenly thinking that was what I wanted to do. It seemed as if it was always part of me. But maybe there was some defining moment that I can’t remember. Memory can be fickle. A book I recently finished examines how siblings might remember parts of their childhood differently, and how we can distort or romanticise the past.
Me: Your book “Treading the uneven road” & “Were we awake” is a collection of short stories. Where’d you get the idea to do a collection of short stories?
LM Brown:
I started writing short stories when I moved to Massachusetts from Ireland 8 years ago. Treading the Uneven Road, began with the idea of societal misconceptions or how we can never know a person properly. Some of the stories were set in Boston, some in Ireland, but I realised I could set them all in the village I grew up in and tie them together.
Were We Awake is a collection of stories that examine the lies we can tell ourselves and others. Every story follows that theme, so they fit well for a collection.
Me: Do you have any favourite writer or genre?
LM Brown:
That is such a hard question. I love Alice Munro, she is brilliant. I re-read a story by Louise Erdrich recently ‘The Shawl’ which is great, but I don’t know a lot of her work. Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood, though I didn’t care for The Testaments. It didn’t feel like the same author who wrote Alias Grace. That book showed me how an author has the gift of magic and the ability to turn presumptions on their head. Cormac McCarthy, William Trevor, Arundathi Roy, Colm Toibin, Ian McEwan. I like literary fiction with a twist.
Me: Can you tell me something about your forthcoming book?
LM Brown:
A few reviewers described it as a slow burn style mix of family drama and thriller. The book is set in Boston. Nicholas Giovanni’s drives his taxi and is takes care of his five-year-old daughter Kate and her mother Kathleen, whose last involuntary admission to hospital was before Kate was born. When his childhood best friend, Ina, returns next door, Kathleen suspicions of Ina and Nicholas grow until a day of violence ensues and Kathleen disappears. Kate’s live is shattered by her mother’s disappearance. No-one will tell her where she is. Nicholas cannot bring himself to tell the truth about Kathleen’s last day, until Kate runs away, and he realizes his silence has torn everyone apart.
There is tension throughout the book and secrets finally revealed. You can find it on Goodreads.
Hinterland is now available for purchase on Amazon.
Click on this link for my review of Hinterland.
Goodreads Links to Brown’s other books:
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