Living Dangerously: 42 Days of 666 - Day 9 with S.G. Brown

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Weston Ochse is a former intelligence officer and special operations soldier who has engaged enemy combatants, terrorists, narco smugglers, and human traffickers. His personal war stories include performing humanitarian operations over Bangladesh, being deployed to Afghanistan, and a near miss being cannibalized in Papua New Guinea. His fiction and non-fiction has been praised by USA Today, The Atlantic, The New York Post, The Financial Times of London, and Publishers Weekly. The American Library Association labeled him one of the Major Horror Authors of the 21st Century. His work has also won the Bram Stoker Award, been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and won multiple New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. A writer of more than 26 books in multiple genres, his military supernatural series SEAL Team 666 has been optioned to be a movie starring Dwayne Johnson. His military sci fi series, which starts with Grunt Life, has been praised for its PTSD-positive depiction of soldiers at peace and at war. Weston likes to be called a chaotic good paladin and challenges anyone to disagree. After all, no one can really stand a goody two-shoes lawful good character. They can be so annoying. It's so much more fun to be chaotic, even when you're striving to save the world. You can argue with him about this and other things online at Living Dangerously or on Facebook at Badasswriter. All content of this blog is copywrited by Weston Ochse.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

42 Days of 666 - Day 9 with S.G. Brown

For the next 42 days we're going to be counting down to the release of SEAL Team 666. Why 42? Because it's the answer to the universal question.

Today we have S.G. Brown, who I've known since I met him at the Stoker Awards Ceremony in Burbank. Like Cody Goodfellow, our last guest, it was also Eunice Magill who pimped Scott on the masses. Since then we've been to haunted mansions together and other feats of obnoxious courage. I count Scott a friend and admire him for his cool and easy writing style. All of his books are terrific, but I adore Lucky Bastard.

BIO: S.G. Browne is the author of the dark comedies Breathers, Fated, Lucky Bastard, and I Saw Zombies Eating Santa Claus, as well as the eBook short story collection Shooting Monkeys in a Barrel. Feel free to check out his writing at www.sgbrowne.com.

1. What’s your favorite military movie, book or television show?

It's a toss-up between M*A*S*H the movie and M*A*S*H the television show, but I'll have to go with the TV series since that's what I grew up on.

2. Why is it your favorite? Here’s where you can ramble a bit.

I'm a fan of dark comedy and the TV show excelled at using it to great effect. The humor was a perfect fit for the subject matter and did an excellent job of showing how the members of the M*A*S*H unit dealt with the daily stress of being doctors in a combat zone. The show also managed to maintain consistency in its tone and quality despite the turnover of major characters, though I thought the show lost its heart once Radar left. But I can still remember characters’ names, specific episodes, and certain lines as if I saw the show yesterday. The show, especially with the original cast, remains one of my favorites of all time, military or otherwise. Frank Burns eats worms.

3. What themes are overused? And is it overused, or just truthful observation?

As for what themes are overused, I don’t recall ever feeling like I got beat over the head with anything, though occasionally Hawkeye (Alan Alda’s character) could get somewhat didactic with his soapbox speeches but I forgave him. So all in all, I’d say the show managed to espouse truthful observation as opposed to overused themes.

+ + +

Thanks, Scott!

And everyone please don't forget to Pre-order SEAL Team 666 from your favorite store:

Powell's ~ Amazon ~ B&N ~ Indiebound ~ Overstock ~ WalMart ~ Books-a-Million ~ Mysterious Galaxy ~ Poisoned Pen ~ Dark Delicacies ~ Hastings Books and Music