Author Blog Soulmate: J.L. Bryan

We're so excited to introduce our new Indie Star and BLOG SOULMATE for this week: 
J.L. Bryan and his BLOG

J.L. Bryan studied English literature at the University of Georgia and at Oxford, with a focus on the English Renaissance and the Romantic period. He also studied screenwriting at UCLA. He enjoys remixing elements of paranormal, supernatural, fantasy, horror and science fiction into new kinds of stories.

He is the author of The Paranormals series of horror novels (Jenny Pox, Tommy Nightmare, and Alexander Death) the Songs of Magic series for younger readers (Fairy Metal Thunder, Fairy Blues, and Fairystruck...so far) and other books. He lives in Atlanta with his wife Christina, their son, and some dogs and cats.

Find him on:
Twitter | Goodreads

1. What made you decide to start blogging?
   Blogging seemed like a good way to connect with readers, much more interactive than my static website. It gives you a sense of having a home on the internet, instead of just crashing at other people's places all the time, or living in a van down by the river.
   
   
2. Favorite and least favorite things about blogging?
   My favorite is how much you can do simply, like graphics, buttons, and hyperlinks to make your post more appealing, and useful, or feedburner to connect your blog to Twitter, Facebook, etc. I'm very interested in the connectivity of things.
   
   My least favorite thing is forgetting to blog and then noticing that you only have one or two posts for the whole month! Oops.
   
   
3. If you could hang out with ONE author, who would it be and why?
   That's so hard! It would have to be one of the authors who influenced me when I was young, like Stephen King or Anne Rice.
   
   
4. What is the ONE book you tell everyone they 'have to' read?
   The book I end up recommending most often is actually nonfiction, The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto (http://johntaylorgatto.com/underground/)
   
   
5. Do you have any bookish guilty pleasures?
   Not really, because I feel like anything I read is educational to me as a writer, whether it's literary or fluff or pulp or the back of a cereal box. Watching TV makes me feel guilty! I also have guilty pleasures when it comes to music, but luckily you didn't ask about those!

Now tell us 5 random, non-bookish things about yourself:

• I have a cat who is a boy named Sue like the Johnny Cash song, and that was totally unintentional. The vet told us he was a female, and he was found living in the sewer as a kitten, which is how he got the name Sue.
• I prefer to avoid wearing shoes when possible.
• I love farmer's markets because they feel like an old-fashioned town fair day.
• I'm fascinated by hidden doors and secret passages. This is why I was obsessed with Clue as a kid (the board game, the movie, AND the home VCR game). I'm still really fascinated by the Winchester House, which was a major influence on Barrett House in Jenny Pox.
• My house is decorated almost exclusively with art by people I know. Well, you asked for random!