what is your name?
My name is Brent, but my pen name is ‘Made in DNA’. It’s an obscure Shirow Masamune reference.
how would you describe what you do?
I’m a short story/novella author working in a variety of niche genres such as sexpunk, sex-fi, and bizarro.
what are you currently working on?
Currently I am finishing two novellas due for publishing this year, BUKKAKE BRAWL (which can be read online for free in a variety of places such as Google Wave and FaceBook among others) and THE BUTT PIRATES OF SKIPSPACE (which isn’t currently available anywhere except my hard drive).
what has had the greatest influence on your work?
My early work was influenced by the early work of William Gibson and Neal Stephenson, but recently I have been greatly influenced by living in Japan for the past decade.
what is the greatest misconception about you or your work?
That people aren’t going to like it because it’s heavily laced with hardcore sex and the word ‘fuck’. However, I have garnered myself quite a few fans among the ladies and those who do NOT like porn. One gent wrote on Twitter that he thought my Twitter short novel MEDIA WHORES was “dada anti-porn”, and a female author wrote on her website that my work “thoroughly electrified” her. Most of the comments I get are along the lines of not-for-the-weak-but-well-worth-it line of thought. That said, I am not worried about those who don’t like my work, because I never write a single word for anyone but me. My stories are for my enjoyment. That may sound a bit more prickish than meant, but why should I write for other folks? All the joy of writing would slip away.
what do you see as the main strengths and weaknesses of the medium you work in?
That I work outside the mainstream. And that is both the weakness and the strength. I don’t owe anyone anything. I work completely on my terms.
how has technology impacted upon the work you do?
While I began writing about 15 years ago, I finally came into my own about 2006 with MEDIA WHORES, a short novella on Twitter. I instanteously had the attention of folks like Annalee Newitz who used my work as an example of what social networking like Twitter meant to fiction in a university level class, Warren Ellis who plugged me on his site, and Pearry Teo director of GENE GENERATION who hosted the MEDIA WHORES PDF at his site after he read it. Without tech, my
novellas would be probably be floating around in my head, perhaps never written, which I suppose wouldn’t be a horrible fate for it.
what’s the greatest piece of advice you would like to pass on?
Be yourself. Write for you. Walk your own path.
where can we find you online?
Several places, if you type in ‘Made in DNA junkdnafiction’ into Google, Bing, or Yahoo you will find everything from my Flickr account (which is mostly public-safe images of my two little boys and family in Japan) to my fiction sites, including SMASHWORDS, LULU, and other places. Really, that’s all folks need to type in. Google comes up with the best results, but folks should use what they like.
what are you reading at the moment?
RED MARS by Kim Robinson
what are you listening to at the moment?
80s punk music.
anything else we should know?
Despite how strange or bizarre or ‘fucked up’ you think my fiction is, I’m really a sweet guy. I dig everything from playing boardgames to snowboarding to digital photography to scuba diving and relaxing with a good book.