Sci-fi Fan FL Spotlight: T. Rob Brown

T. Rob Brown is an award-winning photojournalist, who has received national recognition for his work.  For several years, he was Senior Photographer for The Joplin Globe  in Missouri, and is currently a freelance photographer for The Associated Press.  He has also been a contributing writer for both Star Wars and Marvel role playing books, and is currently writing a supernatural fantasy novel.  He is also my cousin.  Whenever we had to a chance to visit each other while growing up, we would spend hours discussing sci-fi and fantasy.  He is a kindred spirit, and I am very proud of his accomplishments. This week, I wrote and asked if I could interview him for this week's Sci-Fi Fan FL blog, and he graciously agreed.

Q:  When did you become a fan of science fiction?

A:  I became a fan of popular science fiction when the visage of Darth Vader burst forth onto what I would later come to know as the "Tantive IV." This was in May of 1977 when my parents took me to the drive-in movie theater to see the original Star Wars.  I read a lot of young adult science fiction and fantasy after that but I wouldn't say I became a die-hard science fiction fan until my sophomore year in high school when I was introduced to Robert Heinlein's novel "The Puppet Masters." That changed everything and expanded my horizons beyond just popular sci-fi and fantasy.

Q.:  Who are some of your favorite sci-fi/fantasy authors?

A.:  My favorite sci-fi and fantasy authors: [J.R.R.] Tolkien and CS Lewis had a big influence on my youth. I'm a big fan of George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice & Fire" novels and the "Game of Thrones" TV series that evolved from it. My favorite Star Wars authors (so far) are Timothy Zahn, Michael A. Stackpole (who I have taken many writing classes from), and Alan Dean Foster. The late Aaron Allston was pretty good too. Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman are also among my favorites -- both very inspiring for my love of [Dungeons and Dragons] and fantasy stories. I also enjoy the R.A. Salvatore Drizz't novels and the Dresden Files books by Jim Butcher (who, like Margaret Weis, is from my hometown of Independence, Mo.).

Q.:  [As a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien], what do you think about The Hobbit movie series?

A.:  The Hobbit -- as I mentioned before, is a beloved book I read in my childhood. It was the most serious fantasy book I had read up to that point and it made a big impression on me. Peter Jackson did such an amazing job adapting The Lord of the Rings series and I know I've heard a lot of feedback that people think the Hobbit movies aren't as good. I don't know that I hold to that but I do realize the literary differences from which both stories stem as well as the changes Jackson is making to his version of The Hobbit to make it blend better with The Lord of the Rings. Not everyone realizes what he's doing there. He's taking what was a children's story, updating it to be the same maturity level as The Lord of the Rings novels, he's adding back in the missing pieces of the story that were told in the appendices for The Lord of the Rings to complete the story. He's not just milking one children's book into three movies -- though, I do think three was a bit much. It could have and probably should have been done in two. The action level in the first Hobbit film, An Unexpected Journey, is not quite up to the level that people came to expect from The Lord of the Rings -- and for that, it appeared to be a lackluster movie to many. I, on the other hand, love the idea of immersing yourself in the world of Middle-Earth for a while...take it in...smell the roses. People forget... these were books, you were meant to live in that world, feel the world, and become a part of it. I think this also is a result of the style of writing from Tolkien's time being different than say how George RR Martin might have written the story with character viewpoints and a focus more on characters and less on the world itself. But that's just it. In Middle-earth, the world itself IS the major character. The world has its own story arc and it changes, just as a character would. Without showing you the world and getting you to love it, how can its change from the Third Age to the Fourth Age even matter? Honestly, I enjoyed the first Hobbit film. I love that world. I love Bilbo Baggins. Even as great as Frodo was, Bilbo was always my favorite Hobbit. Martin Freeman does an excellent job of playing the young Bilbo and I couldn't have been happier with the choice to keep Ian Holm in as the elderly Bilbo to tie the two movie trilogies together. Desolation of Smaug was pretty good too. Was it perfect? No. I think they took a lot of liberties with the property but I still enjoyed it. That's what we go to see movies for, right? To be entertained... that's why I go. Not everything can be a literary or cinematic wonder. Frankly, I think that's the heart of the matter. Because of the greatness of The Lord of the Rings, people expected The Hobbit movies to excel on that same level or more -- they had big hopes for these movies and expected perfection. They might not be perfect but they're quite enjoyable.

Q.:  How did you get involved in writing role playing books?

A.:  I had been attending Gen Con in Indianapolis for several years and kept speaking to people at Wizards of the Coast about wanting to write for the Star Wars and/or [Dungeons and Dragons] roleplaying games. They get a lot of people asking. It takes a lot to standout. That didn't happen for me until I applied for a full-time position at [Wizards of the Coast] as a copy editor. With my vast journalism experience, I passed several cuts in the application process and had a phone interview. Though they didn't end up hiring me full-time, they did offer me a freelance position -- so the application process was well worth my time and theirs. It took another year to move through the system until they found an open slot on a book I could work on (they work quite a ways ahead in order to make publication deadlines). I started writing in 2008 for my part of the January 2009 release of "Clone Wars Campaign Guide"   http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/The_Clone_Wars_Campaign_Guide  That book won a silver ENnie award at Gen Con in 2009. Having the first book you work on end up winning an award is pretty cool. My next effort was an increased role (twice the word count) on "Galaxy of Intrigue" in 2010.  http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Galaxy_of_Intrigue

For the Star Wars RPG, I worked under mentor Rodney Thompson. He's one of the brightest designers at [Wizards of the Coast]. He created the award-winning "Lords of Waterdeep" board game and a lot more.

In 2011, I went through the Joplin tornado (lost my home and car). So that year, I didn't really do much with game design -- but I did have more than 40 photos published in the book "32 Minutes in May."  http://route66news.com/2011/11/13/book-review-32-minutes-in-may/  In early 2012, I joined the design team as a freelancer for Margaret Weis Productions' Marvel Heroic Roleplaying. This was under mentor Cam Banks who was the creative director then for MWP. Later that year, my work on "Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: Civil War Event" and "Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: Civil War: Young Avengers/Runaways" released. For both, I wrote game adventure content and supplemental information on news organizations (something far from foreign for a veteran journalist) within the Marvel universe. I've been a big Marvel fan since elementary school when I started reading "Amazing Spider-Man" comic book line and watching the cartoon series. I'm also a big Incredible Hulk fan. So having worked on both officially licensed Star Wars and Marvel projects has been a dream come true. Coincidentally, both properties are now owned by Disney.

Q.:  [Earlier this week Marvel announced that the character of Thor] is going to become female.   Do you have any thoughts on that?

A.:  Thor as a female... yes, I did hear about that and saw several jokes about Thor telling Odin that he's now a female, about Thor telling Stark he's now female (which was golden). Lots of humor there to be seized. My question is this...why? We already had Thor Girl. Now we have two female Thors. Why? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Girl She's been around since 2000. Besides, Thor was always a male in the mythology, why change it? His nickname is "Odinson" -- he can't really be that if he's a female. *chuckle* Neither can "he" and Loki be "brothers." "Siblings" just doesn't have the same ring to it. Normally, I don't take much worry about rather they change the color of a character's skin (unless it's integral to a backstory -- like say, you can't change Black Panther to be say a white guy because he's the prince and later king of Wakanda, an African kingdom. Same goes for Storm, she's the princess of another African kingdom and later Queen of Wakanda when she marries Black Panther -- changing their race would destroy their entire backstory and ruin the characters). Did changing newspaper editor Perry White from white to black change anything in the most recent Man of Steel movie? Nope. Laurence Fishburne is awesome, to boot. Did changing Nick Fury from white to black affect anything? Actually, I think it made that character stronger and we traded up in the movie universe from David Hasselhoff to the totally awesome Samuel L. Jackson -- so that was a big win, I think. So, how about changing gender? Why should we do it? Is it because there aren't enough female super heroes out there? I doubt that. We have lots and some pretty awesome ones at that. Perhaps it's because the classic Avengers never had a major female member. Sure, Black Widow and Wasp are in there... but as Patton Oswalt would say, they're the B Team Avengers along with Hawkeye. Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America are the key members of the classic Avengers team -- all guys. I guess the writers figure Thor is the easiest to make female because he has long blonde hair but personally, I think it's just lazy writing. Later on, Ms. Marvel gets added to the Avengers and She-Hulk spends some time in there... the team "beefs up" in regards to its feminine side. I will be interested to see what they do with this new female Thor and see how much it affects their comic book sales. Who knows, women might cling to it and the sales could grow. It's hard to say but it sounds like a financial risk to me. Perhaps they have plans for a lesbian relationship between Thor and the Lady Sif or Valkyrie, I have no idea. No matter what they do, it won't be anywhere near as strange as Beta Ray Bill. *grin*

Q.:  [As a photojournalist], have you ever had an assignment that affected you personally?

A.:  There have been many photo shoots that affected me personally. An important thing to do in photojournalism is to not take sides, to not show favoritism, to try to distance yourself from what's going on. This isn't always easy. During the tornado aftermath, I found myself crying during photo shoots where people lost everything. I was also going through my own loss and emotions and related stress. Sometimes, those were the most difficult images to take but a veteran shooter like myself presses through it and gets the job done.

Q.:  What are some of the most enjoyable photo assignments you have had?

A.:  The most enjoyable? That's a bit tricky. There's the level of enjoyment WHILE taking the photo and the level of enjoyment of seeing the photo after the fact. Sometimes images are not easy to take but they are rewarding. For instance, I was in the middle of a police shoot out back in the early 2000s in downtown Joplin, Mo. I got some great images and won multiple awards for them -- but my life was at risk. A bullet hit a pole that was just a few feet behind me. While it was happening, it wasn't enjoyable -- although the adrenaline rush was interesting. After the fact, the images were rewarding if sad to recall that a man lost his life that day. The excitement of the moment comes with highs and lows. Few assignments are as glittery as most people might imagine -- but you have to focus that the service you do for the readers is important--they need to know what's going on in the world around them. Most of my greatest images are from sad, horrific, or scary events. It's unfortunate that this is the world we live in, but we also can't stick our head in the sand and ignore reality. I believe that's why I love sci-fi and fantasy so much. In my off-time, I get to immerse myself in another world where the action and violence are fantasy and of my own (or an author's, director's, or gamemaster's design).

Q.:   What projects are you working on currently?

A.:  My biggest current project is my supernatural fantasy novel "Rise of the Broodslayers" based on a fantasy world I created with about 15 years of development. My slug line for it is: "A party of religious misfits find themselves off to save the realms in the name of a deity none of them believe in." Religion and undead are a major theme in the story -- faith vs. magic and death vs. life. My main focus has been the characters, the dialogue, and some wicked plot twists. I'm currently at 52,000 out of a 100,000-word goal. I plan to release the book through Kickstarter and it will later be sold on Amazon, DriveThruFiction, and Smashwords unless a publisher picks it up first. I'm writing a screenplay version of it this year, as well, for a screenwriting class I'm taking as part of my master's degree. The novel is also an introduction to the fantasy campaign setting for my future RPG. Further information on that at http://2d10system.com and http://unlimitedjourneys.com -- I still have a lot of work yet to do before the RPG will be marketable. Playtesting will be vital.

A special thank you to T.Rob Brown, for taking time out of his hectic schedule to be spotlighted in this week's blog.  

Until next time, I am, 

Sci-Fi Fan FL