Six Questions for… Brandon Nolta

Brandon Nolta is a northern Idaho-based writer, editor, recovering computer mechanic, professional curmudgeon, and SFWA and Codex member. His fiction, poetry, and other scribblings have appeared in Stupefying Stories, The Pedestal Magazine, Amazing Stories, Tree and Stone, and a cacophony of other publications.

Brandon has been a staunch supporter of Stupefying Stories since so far back, we have trouble putting a date on it. His first appearance in our pages was “Aleph,” in the now out-of-print Stupefying Stories 12. 

His next appearance was “Memento Mori,” on the original SHOWCASE web site. 

(Which site is scheduled to be decommissioned soon, so read it while you still can!)

His most recent appearance in our pages was the outstanding steampunk adventure short story, “Cloudbreaker Above,” in Stupefying Stories 25, which almost made it up to being novelette length, but Brandon had too much integrity to pad his story out by a few pages and possibly bump it up into a less-competitive awards category.

Stupefying Stories 25 is free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers. You really owe it to yourself to check out  “Cloudbreaker Above,” especially when you can read it for free.

Brandon also has two books on our F.O.S.S. list: a Weird Western with a very different twist, Iron and Smoke, and a collection of short stories, These Shadowed Stars, that moved one reviewer to say, “Anyone can see that Nolta is up there with Bradbury, Vonnegut, Harlan Ellison, and Thomas M. Disch.” Brandon has another short story collection, No Refuge, coming soon from Montag Press, so with all this going on, it seemed like a good time to catch up with him and ask him our usual batch of half-serious, half-silly questions.

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SS: What is the first SF/F book or story you remember reading? 

BN: It depends on how you define the genre, but the first book I can definitively name was The House with a Clock in Its Walls, by John Bellairs. I was probably in second grade when I came across that one; the young me was very much into horror, so the general vibe of Bellairs’ novel was right up my alley.

SS: When you write a new story, are you a plotter or a pantser? 

BN: Pantser, no doubt. I can plot a story from beginning to end, and I have done that on occasion, but the stories that I found most satisfying to write almost uniformly came from a central idea or image and working backward from that. I started what turned into my novel Iron and Smoke with the image of a man walking through the Western wastes, and along the way of figuring out why this guy was walking through the desert without a horse of any name, I found a story that threw together magic, 19th century American history, terraforming, and various eldritch things.

SS: Of everything you’ve had published, which book or story of yours is the one you are most proud of? Where can readers find it? 

BN: I’m definitely thrilled to have my novel Iron and Smoke out in the world, if for no other reason than I demonstrated to myself that I was able to write a novel, something I wasn’t sure I had in me. Whether it’s any good or not is a different question, and if I were writing it now, I might have taken a different approach to certain aspects, but I feel like it’s a good representation of where I was as a writer when I wrote it. It’s available from Amazon, B&N, and probably a few other online booksellers, if any are left

SS: Do you listen to music while writing? If so, what kinds of music or which artists? 

BN: I listen to music damn near all the time, including when I’m writing. If I’m having trouble focusing, I might switch over to instrumentals, usually jazz, classical, or even New Age. Most of the time, though, I’m listening to what I generally listen to, which is a mix of classic rock, Americana, electronic (Underworld has been getting a lot of play on my Spotify account lately), metal, and 80s/90s pop and alternative. Sometimes I can even find some writerly inspiration in the music; James McMurtry and Joni Mitchell are particularly good on that score.

SS: If you had a theme song that played every time you came into a room, what would it be?

BN: Most of the time, “The Intro and the Outro,” by the Bonzo Dog Band. On a good day, “Pharoahs,” by Tears for Fears.

SS: In regards to your story, “Cloudbreaker Above,” is there anything special you’re hoping readers will notice or appreciate in it? 

BN: I would be tickled if readers saw the distant roots of the story I was thinking about when I wrote “Cloudbreaker Above,” although it would probably take an act of actual telepathy to see the line from Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” to my story. It wasn’t a thematic connection in my mind as much as it was the “one damn thing after another” nature of the plot. Of course, things worked out differently for Chernin than for London’s protagonist, unless you’re reading the 1902 version of that story (I had the 1908 version in mind).

SS: What’s next for you? What are you working on now? 

BN: My third book and second collection of stories, No Refuge, is in the proof stage now, and as soon as I finish going through it, I’ll return it to the good folks at Montag Press, the fine press who have published both of my previous books. I’d like to see if I have a second, third, and maybe more novels in me; I’ve got the ideas for them, but whether I still have the discipline is an open question at the moment.

SS: Is there an author whose work you think has been unfairly overlooked or forgotten?  

BN: I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say unfairly forgotten, but I don’t think Theodore Sturgeon ever got as much recognition as he deserved. That man could craft a story with bite, and while some of his work is still recognized in some sectors, much of his work is probably unknown to current readers. I don’t think I’ve ever read a story with as much quiet monstrosity as “Vengeance Is,” and that’s just the first Sturgeon tale that comes to mind. Although his name is still recognizable, especially among horror fans, Richard Matheson is another writer I think wasn’t as acclaimed as he should have been. You could do an entire creative writing course off “The Distributor” alone.

SS: Did you always know that you wanted to write genre fiction, or did you start out intending to write something else? 

BN: Yes; I never seriously considered anything else. The only time I wasn’t actively working in genre was when I was studying for my MFA.

When I first started writing as a kid, everything I wrote was science fiction or horror. It’s just how I’m wired. I can write in other genres, including literary fiction, but why? It’s not where my interest lies.

SS: Thanks for your time, and be sure to let us know when No Refuge is scheduled for release. We look forward to seeing it, and to helping to promote it, if your publisher does pre-orders or ARC copies.

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