How About This presents Brittni Brinn

The Nova Scotia based writer answers a few questions

Nov 21, 2022

Welcome to Atlantic Canada Mondays, a regular feature of How About This where we interview interesting residents of the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Brittni Brinn is a Nova Scotia based writer and the author of the Patch Project series, published by Adventure Worlds Press. She agreed to answer some questions for us so please check out her great answers.

Here’s Brittni!

When you were a teenager, what did you want to become when you grew up?

Everything from a paleontologist to a musician to a marine biologist! I was interested in a lot of fields and it wasn’t until high school that I really considered jobs where I could study literature and write words for a living.

But I suppose I always wanted to be a writer, too. I read so much as a teenager—books were a great escape and comfort for me. And eventually, I realised that creating stories was what I wanted to do as a career.

Do you prefer writing by keyboard, do you prefer pen and paper, or do you have another favorite method?

A bit of both! Writing by hand is usually how I start, with ideas and sketches, jumping into a scene to see how it feels. Once a story gets going and turns into a longer project, that’s usually when I move to mostly typing—it’s hard to keep track of everything otherwise!

What's the story of how you came to publish your first novel?

My first novel, The Patch Project, started as a small scene I wrote for an undergrad writing workshop. I attended a sci-fi convention for writers and I submitted the story to an editing panel. One of the editors asked if it was part of something longer, and I said it could be. She gave me her card.

I spent the next eight months working on the book, and it was very hard—I’d never written a whole novel before. I sent it to the editor and waited. She didn’t like it.

The manuscript sat untouched for a few years. Then, an editor I knew who was working with a small publisher asked, “Whatever happened to that story you submitted to that editing panel?” I was embarrassed, but said I still had the manuscript. The editor asked to see the book, and said it might be a good fit for the publisher’s ebook lineup. I ran it through some edits and sent it in—and it was accepted!

The Patch Project was first published in 2018 with that publisher. A revised edition was released in 2020 with my current publisher Adventure Worlds Press.

What's one thing about being an author that most people don't understand?

Well, for one thing, it is very difficult to make a living as an author—props to the lucky few who do! But I think something about being an author that surprises people is how much marketing is involved. Especially with smaller presses, a lot of the responsibility for getting the word out about your books falls on you.

Again, unless you’re one of the lucky few with a huge publisher that arranges book tours and has dedicated resources for book promotion, you’re mostly on your own. That can come with its own benefits as well, of course—there’s more room for creativity and ownership of how your book is presented.

Do you do any writing exercises or other work to further develop your writing skills?

Writing specifically for submission calls for magazines and anthologies has been a great way to stretch myself and improve as a writer. There’s a word count, a deadline, and sometimes even a theme. Plus, there’s a potential for publication, which at this stage for me is a great motivator!

Over the past year alone, I’ve written cosmic horror, solarpunk, science fantasy, and surreal stories to send in for submission calls—stories that otherwise wouldn’t have existed. I have a fantastic circle of writing friends and we give each other feedback on stories we’re thinking of sending in. It definitely keeps me from getting too comfortable in what I’m writing.

Why are you drawn to genre fiction (SF/fantasy/other) instead of general fiction?

When I think about my favourite authors, the majority of them write/wrote in the sci-fi/fantasy (SFF) genre. I think reading their novels was a main reason I ended up writing genre fiction.

Escapism is part of it—entering a completely different world and learning about the people who live there. But beyond that, I’m drawn to writing science fiction especially because it shows us that change is possible, that there are other ways of being and living—which I think is important to engage with. Personally, I find that SFF offers a lot more room for hope and inclusiveness, and I want to contribute to that.

Who are some of the authors that have influenced you?

Writers like Ursula K. Le Guin, Madeleine L’Engle, Neil Gaiman, Becky Chambers, and N.K. Jemisin are some of my favourite authors.

Le Guin especially has helped shape my approach to world-building and storytelling. From her short stories to her novels, she is a master of exploring a complex socio-political system through the richly-detailed experiences of a few individuals. I always come away from Le Guin stories changed and with a renewed sense of my own humanity and interconnectedness with others. I’d like to be able to craft meaningful stories like that someday.

Have you had any contact with other published authors that have particularly inspired you?

A few names come to mind, including Shelly Campbell. She writes incredible genre fiction all across the board, from horror and YA post-apocalyptic novels to a book on writing SFF. She has a grim fantasy duology called the Marked Son which I highly recommend!

I also am constantly inspired by Ben Van Dongen, C.M. Forest, and Elly Blake. We’ve been part of a writing group for a few years now and it’s amazing to have regular conversations with other authors who also write genre fiction. Ben’s the sci-fi guy, Forest specialises in horror, and Elly writes YA fantasy. They’re all extremely talented and I’m lucky to be in a writing community with them!

Are there any significant advantages or disadvantages to being an author located in Atlantic Canada?

I’ve only lived in Nova Scotia for about a year and a half, so I’m still figuring out what it means to be an author here. I lived on the North Shore for a summer, moved to Dartmouth, and now live in Halifax. Each place has very active book-centred communities—primarily bookstores like the Dartmouth Book Exchange and Bookmark Halifax—but finding writing groups is a bit trickier. Especially for sci-fi/fantasy writers, I think. There seems to be more interest in historical fiction, romance, and mystery when it comes to popular book genres—which is great, of course. But it does make what I’m writing feel more niche.

Lately, I’ve found more resources and a sense of writing community with the Nova Scotia Writers Federation and Halifax’s National Novel Writing Month group. A clear advantage to being an author in Nova Scotia is how supportive people are of local artists and writers.

Pretend you wake up one morning and you learn that the Internet has been destroyed. What's the first thing that you do?

Funny enough, this is something that comes up in my novels, so I’ve given it some thought! As long as I knew everyone was okay, I’d make a cup of coffee and settle in for a long reading session.

Thanks to Brittni for agreeing to this interview! You can also find her on Facebook.