December18
Frank Byrns is the author of My Father’s Son, and Other Super Stories, and Requiem. Each book is a amazing collection of short stories set in the city of Jefferson Falls; a city that packs a superhuman punch. Each of Frank’s stories manages to put the human in superhuman. Requiem is currently rising like at rocket at Amazon.
Podworld note: After reading Frank’s sample chapters, I purchased Requiem and it was amazing. A must read.
For more information on Frank Byrns, please visit his website.
Pod World: What type of reader/people will enjoy Requiem?
Frank Byrns: The easy answer is anyone who enjoys superhero comics. People have said that my stories are similar in tone to Astro City, Powers, and Rising Stars, among others. But I also think that there is a large percentage of our population that enjoys the concept of superheroes, but for whatever reason would never think to pick up a comic book. The success of the X-Men and Spider-Man movies proved that, and the millions of viewers tuning in to Heroes every Monday night reinforces it.
But even more than that, I honestly think that there’s something for everyone in Requiem. That’s part of the beauty in a collection of short stories. Don’t really care for the one you’re reading? Skip ahead ten or so pages and start the next one. I wouldn’t say that everyone would like every story in the book, but I feel reasonably confident that anyone would like at the very least a couple of the stories.
Ostensibly, the stories are about superheroes. But even more than that, I think all the stories touch on relationships in some way. Mostly familial — parents and children, husbands and wives, etc. — but also students and teachers, friends, and so forth. Anyone who is any of these things can find characters in these stories to whom they can relate. Even if the person in the story wears a blue cape and bench presses school buses.
Pod World: What’s the greatest single joy you receive from writing?
Frank Byrns: I just like to tell stories. My head is full of them, more every day, and I am grateful for the opportunity to share them with other people. I once read somewhere, in an interview with a writer whom I cannot recall, that fancying yourself a writer is an incredibly arrogant thing to do, that it takes an absurd amount of hubris to believe that anyone else would possibly be interested in what you have to say. I think there’s a lot of truth to that, and it is undoubtedly incredibly gratifying to discover that there are people out there who are interested in what you have to say.
Pod World: Tell us about your journey to the point where you decided self-publishing was the way to go…
Frank Byrns: I got the bug to write superhero prose back in 2003, and started writing these short stories, if for no other reason than to get them out of my head. I’m not sure that I realized that getting them out of my head would only make room for more. As they started to pile up on my hard drive, I thought (rather hubristically — see above) that someone other than my wife might enjoy reading them, so I started submitting them to various magazines, both online and in print. And then I sold one. And another. And then another.
By the time several of my stories had been published, I began to have grander visions, and wanted to collect them in a book. As I looked around at various publishers, I noticed that the vast majority of publishers were not actively seeking short story collections (unless you were already an accomplished novelist, which I was not). I then started looking at POD publishers. I didn’t choose POD after being rejected by every publisher out there; I just felt that what I had written would not be viewed as commercially viable by a traditional publisher. The stories themselves were publication worthy — 8 of 12 in Requiem were published in professional, paying magazines as varied as Strange Horizons and Cyber Age Adventures. 3 of the 5 stories in my first collection (My Father’s Son) were previously published, as well.
I know that, fair or not, there is a general stigma attached to self-published books. I like to think of my books as “self-published collections of previously-published (by others) stories.”
Pod World: Looking back, has self-publishing been worth it?
Frank Byrns: I would have to say so. As I said, I don’t know that I would have been able to publish my books otherwise. The POD route has allowed me (forced me??) to learn a lot about the publishing industry, marketing, and bookselling in general, all ancillary skills that have certainly come in handy. I know that my second book has been much more successful than the first, in large part because of the trial-by-fire skills I picked up marketing the first one.
Pod World: What project(s) are you currently working on, and will they be self-pubs?
Frank Byrns: I have a lot of things going on. I continue to write and sell short stories for various magazines, and I am planning on a third collection, which will most likely be self-published.
I have some longer form ideas, as well. I’m not sure if they will end up as novels, or merely novellas — we’ll have to see where the story goes. Anything novel length will probably hit the traditional publisher route first.
I also have an ongoing serial novel, Temple, published monthly at Metahuman Press (www.metahumanpress.com). It’s a pretty cool site, with some excellent (and free!) superhero prose. I would heartily recommend some of the other serials on the site, particularly T. Mike McCurley’s “Firedrake” and “Century” by John Coleman.
I’m also taking a stab at writing a comic book series. I’m in the process of writing a few scripts and plot outlines, and then I will need to find an artist, since I can’t draw a bit. This could ultimately end up self-published, as well. It’s funny: there doesn’t seem to be the same stigma about self-publishing in the comic industry that there is in the prose world. It’s cited over and over as the best way to “break in” to the business: self-publish a book, show someone what you can do, and keep doing it, and keep sending it out, and if it’s good enough, someone will see it and hire you to work for them. But unfortunately, book publishing doesn’t seem to work that way.
Pod World: What’s your favorite book?
Frank Byrns: Just one? Man, that’s tough. I am a voracious reader, and have been my entire life. I can’t imagine any writer who doesn’t consider himself a reader first.
I will read anything by George Pelecanos. The man is criminally underrated, and it saddens me to live in a country that refuses to recognize his immense talent. Michael Connelly. Dennis Lehane. Richard Price. Edward Wright. Neil Gaiman. Michael Chabon. Elmore Leonard. Larry McMurtry. Edward P. Jones. George Saunders. Flannery O’Connor. Raymond Carver. T. Jefferson Parker. Greg Rucka. Brad Meltzer. Jonathan Lethem. Richard Russo. Charlie Huston. Shall I go on? I don’t want to leave anyone out. Sam Shepard. David Mamet.
Comics, too. I love, love, love Kurt Busiek’s Astro City. Favorite book ever. Anything from Brian Bendis. Greg Rucka. Ed Brubaker. Brad Meltzer. Brian K. Vaughn.
But if you’re making me pick one? Mystic River, by Dennis Lehane. It left me emotionally exhausted, and a bit depressed, because I know that no matter what I ever do, I can never come close to writing anything so undeniably perfect in every way.
Pod World: When you aren’t writing, what is your favorite thing to do?
Frank Byrns: Reading. Watching baseball. Playing softball (old man baseball). Movies with my wife.
Popularity: 24% [?]
SO HERE I am spending spring break in California with my best friend, Junie. Our chaperone is a teenager, like us. And soon I’ll get to hang out with the coolest, cutest boy in the Southwest. Life is so good.
Many of you may not know this, but the 
Jeremy Robinson is the bestselling author of