Interview with Stanley P. Brown, author of The Third Factor

Today it gives the Speculative Fiction Showcase great pleasure to interview Stanley P. Brown, whose novel The Third Factor: Book II of The Stonehenge Chronicles was published on March 9, 2020.


Your latest novel, The Third Factor: Book II of The Stonehenge Chronicles had its debut in March 2020. This book is the sequel to Veiled Memory, in which we meet the protagonist Dr Madeline Alleyn, a professor of Celtic History who has become embroiled in an ancient mystery that involves her own family. What can your readers expect from this sequel?
Expect the plot to thicken as Madeline finally comes in contact with the stones and translates their message and makes an important finding regarding her mother’s discovery. The full realization of the meaning won’t come, though, until the concluding book (as yet untitled). The Stones of Sumer are the key to the entire trilogy, but maybe I’ve said too much already. The story is really about 5 women – grandmother, mother, and triplet daughters (now 18 years old). I’m writing the concluding story now.

The blurb talks about the Stones of Sumer and the Prophecy of Tarkus. Can you tell us (without too many spoilers!) about the significance of these things and the mystery that leads to Stonehenge? 
As you know, backstory gives any novel depth. The trick is to deliver the backstory in an artful way, dispensing the information in a way that develops the mystery. The backstory to The Stonehenge Chronicles extends to about 5000 years, back to ancient Sumer with the origin of my clandestine community. These people wish to remain “off the grid” so to speak, out of view of normal human society. Admittedly, this is an old trope, but I have a few twists to come in the last book I am currently writing. More of the backstory is alluded to in The Third Factor. Let me just say that the last book will begin with a two-scene prologue – one from ancient Sumer and the other in Greece at the time of Tarkus (about 600 AD). I am leading to the origin of both Stonehenge and my clandestine “community.” A huge revelation occurs at the end of The Third Factor. Warning though, these books end in cliff-hangers.  The last of the trilogy will reveal all!

Why do you think that Stonehenge and similar ancient structures continue to fascinate us after their true meaning has been lost?
Well, it’s precisely because of this mystery, isn’t it? We don’t know. There is lots of speculation but no real answers. My central character is a professor of Celtic history and she is looking for answers as well, principally through the discovery of her mysterious mother who died shortly after (within hours) Madeline was born. There, I’ve said too much. My story is about much more than Stonehenge, but it is the(a) hook. 

Together with The Stonehenge Chronicles, you have published two other novels, The Legacy and Fallen Wizard. In your biography, you say that you have sequels planned for all of your fictional worlds. What is your next project? 
I will complete The Stonehenge Chronicles by the end of this year. Then, I want to move quickly to a sequel of The Legacy. I’ve written a short story in the world of The Legacy that you can find at my website. But warning, it contains spoilers to the story of The Legacy, so if you care to read Blood Moon, please read The Legacy first. Each of my fictional worlds develops a separate mythology. I’ve also started a sequel to Fallen Wizard, my middle grade work (think early Harry Potter). I also have a children’s chapter book which is developing yet another mythology, this time exclusively with animal characters.

You talk about the importance of Marvel comics in helping to form your imagination. Which series do you like best, and do you have a favorite era or artist? 
My reading of Marvel goes back to the silver age (early 1960s) when Stan Lee was still in charge. So I like these writers/artists the best – Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Stan Lee are all legends. It’s an attestation to the strength of their genius that these stories have made Disney somewhere around 50 billion at the box office. As for my favorite characters, I really liked Daredevil growing up and Spiderman of course, and Hawkeye (what kid of the era didn’t like a guy who can shot cool arrows the way he did). Really also liked Dr. Strange and The Mighty Thor and my favorite who has yet to make an appearance in the movies was Namor, The Submariner. Imperious Rex! And can’t leave out Captain America whose trilogy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe are my favorite movies. I even wrote an academic paper with Cap in mind, found at the website for the journal, Advances in Physiology Education, a journal of the American Physiological Society (https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/advan.00106.2016).

What writers do you enjoy reading, whether in or outside the genre? 
I read very widely. Michael Connelly (dark police procedurals), John Grisham (courtroom thrillers), Vince Flynn (CIA black ops), Jim Butcher (urban fantasy), C.W. Hawes (PI detective mysteries), J.K. Rowling (children’s fantasy), Philip Pullman (children’s fantasy), J.R.R. Tolkien (sword and sorcery adult fantasy). Currently reading the biography of Winston Churchill. Oh, and then there is Bernard Cornwell (the best historic fiction writer there is working today).

Your primary career has been as an academic, but you say “the call of storytelling remained strong”. Why do you think that is and what early influences moved you to write? 
My earliest “writings” were letters to the editor (Stan Lee). Don’t know if any ever made it to publication in any of the comic books. I just loved “story.” I devoured thousands of comics. When my house burned down when I was a freshman in high school I lost thousands of Marvel Comics in pristine condition. A real tragedy. I stopped reading then, but I was always an avid movie buff. I finally got to the point where I had to try creative writing (becoming quickly bored with academic stuff). In 2005 I finally put pen to paper with story ideas.

You grew up in Louisiana in the 1950s and 60s. How do you think that has influenced your writing? 
Not much actually. As an aside, I am planning a memoir called Bayou Boys. It’ll be about my younger brother and me and our friends growing up on Bayou Plaquemine. What a life. That will be the only influence Louisiana will have had.

How do you envisage the Stonehenge Chronicles unfolding and will there be further sequels? 
I won’t say that later I won’t have another story to tell in that world, but for now the trilogy will be it. On the unfolding, I can’t get into that. The last scene of the last book has been in my head for well over 15 years. I’m writing to it. Can’t wait to get there.

Tell us about The Legacy, whose main character, Harry Black, discovers a paranormal gift that changes his life for ever… 
The Legacy is my debut novel but not the first one written. It’s actually the third. In it I conceive of a world where magic is always evil. It’s a dark paranormal thriller. Also, I write mixed genre, so The Legacy is a mix of political thriller with dark paranormal elements. The Legacy has a pretty involved backstory as well of a family burdened with countering that evil.

Fallen Wizard, your other book, is aimed at younger readers. A young boy has to deal with a wizard who crash lands in his back yard. Are there different challenges (and pleasures) in writing for children? 
You bet there is, but the one thing I learned from the likes of Rowling and Pullman is that you never write down to children. Write for their parents but please do make the stories strong and challenging (intense plots and great character arcs).

How do you go about researching your novels? 
My stories for the most part are set in our world – everyday earth – in real cities and surroundings, so I have to know these settings. If I have not been there, I research it greatly to get a feel for it. For that, nothing beats the internet.

How do you deal with the social media and marketing side of writing? 
Trying to do the best I can on this front. I like Twitter the best and am often on promoting my work. I also have a very active website – spbrownbooks.com.

On your web-site, you describe your books as “paranormal thrillers”. Can you tell us what that means for you? 
Paranormal is what I view as an overarching term that includes contemporary fantasy. It, of course, includes elements outside the norm. For example, The Legacy has ghosts in it and other paranormal elements, like sorcery. Thrillers are fast paced stories with high levels of tension. All of my stories are also high concept (big plots). They are also all mixed genre with the exception of Fallen Wizard which is a contemporary fantasy.

You say “Nothing fascinates me like writing, creating stories, or sub-creating as J.R.R. Tolkien referred to it.” What are your thoughts about Tolkien, who almost invented the Fantasy genre out of nothing? And what does sub-creating mean to you? 
Tolkien was a great creative genius of a man. A great genius. A brilliant academic and leader in his field. His stories set the standard for the field of sword and sorcery. It’s because of him that I simply can’t get into other works in this genre. They all copy Tolkien at some point. Game of Thrones, for example, by George RR Martin, is something that is very popular that I can’t get into because Tolkien is always in my head. Tolkien was a Christian as am I and as such he viewed man as created in the Imago Dei, in the image of God. As such, we are endowed with creative powers. Under God, his image bearers also create, but our creativity is always secondary because of our creaturely status below the creator. But it is what sets us apart from the rest of God’s creative order. He creates. We sub-create. Makes sense? You asked, so I had to get theological with you. 

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About Stanley P. Brown

Stanley P. Brown always had heroes as a child. Born in Plaquemine, Louisiana to Joseph Harry, a painter, and his wife Vivian, a homemaker, these heroes mostly took form in his big brother, Harry, and those populating the pages of Marvel Comics. Realizing he didn’t have the right stuff to be a superhero himself, he concentrated on academics at Louisiana State University and The University of Southern Mississippi, where he earned his doctorate in Exercise Physiology. He went from there to his first academic post at The University of Mississippi. Others followed, as did many, many scientific publications and several textbooks. But the call of storytelling remained strong in him, and he answered that call with publication in 2017 of his debut novel, The Legacy. Veiled Memory and Fallen Wizard followed in 2018. A fourth fictional world is currently being created and he has sequels planned for all of his novels.

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