Dani Brown: The Queen of Filth

Dani Brown isn’t known as the Queen of Filth for nothing! She merges eroticism with horror, torture, and other extreme subjects so that each of her books will crawl under your skin, burrow inside you, and make you question why you are coming back for more. Her stories are so dark that she won the Most Extreme Horror award in 2016!

Today, I sat down with her to discuss her career, what inspires her the most, and what makes her tick!

Q: Who has been your biggest supporter(s) throughout your writing career?

A: I would say the most support has come from other authors through Facebook. I think other writers know what help and support a writer needs. And, of course and most obviously, my friends. Most of them won’t read what I write (they either don’t like reading or my books aren’t to their tastes) but they give me the best support that real world people can – they leave me alone to write the book and don’t ever demand responses to their messages right away (especially as I moved back to my home country when I was 16 so there’s like a 5 hour time difference).

Q: Where do you draw inspiration from in your work?

A: Inspiration usually comes from song lyrics. Sometimes that’s good; sometimes I have to listen to the same album on repeat for a week. And then there was that time I had the same song on for three hours (I haven’t listened to it since, but I finished the story). I don’t tend to look up what the original song writer meant with the lyrics as that serves no purpose for my story. I don’t even tend to look up the lyrics because who really cares if I’ve misheard them? The song just inspires the story.

Probably the most influential on my writing was Coil’s music video for their first version of Tainted Love. I liked the flies in the honey (I think that was actually Golden Syrup and not honey used in the video and if it wasn’t, then I like to imagine it is). I don’t typically write about AIDS, but in 56 Seconds (written in early 2018, so a few years before COVID-19) I liked the idea of a computer virus replicating inside the human brain and although I don’t think I said as much in the story, I did imagine Honey sort of like a virus in DJ Donnie’s head.

Q: What is your writing process like? Do you listen to certain music, snack, make loads of phone notes when inspiration randomly strikes?

A: I’ve already talked about the music and the extent it plays. I used to carry around index cards to make notes on and I have a few pencil cases filled with these index cards as well as post it notes that came unstuck (I once wrote a novella on post it notes). But then my fingers started getting cold so I started using the notes features on my phone. Unless I’m in the shower – then I have bath crayons (just in case).

I do have a routine though. I wake up early to write before work and I do that on my laptop. This will be either direct onto the laptop or from the notes I’ve made, or if I’ve written a story longhand (those ones I tend to save up to type on the weekend and then edit and rework them before work). Then once I’m on the way to work, the phone notes come out. On my desk at work I have a post it note with all the stories I currently plan on writing (slowly those get crossed off as I finish them). That way, I can make relevant notes while I’m at work. I don’t write when I get home from work. I have a full-time career outside of fiction (it is still writing, so I can’t say outside of writing), and I’m a single mother so by the time I get home, it is time to make dinner and then get ready for bed to start the day again tomorrow. My child is a teen and currently asserting his independence, but he still needs my attention. And I have my cats. They’re cuddly little fluff balls, but they still have needs too.

Lately, I have been writing on both days of the weekend as well. I lost the entire year last year to some employment related issues and some housing problems, so I have to make up for lots time. I usually like to use one of those weekend days or at least Friday evenings to be a bit bored, maybe read or watch TV or have a meal out. I’m hoping to have that time back over the summer (provided I don’t get ill or have to deal with any more problems).

Q: Is there a genre or subgenre that you want to explore that you haven’t yet? Conversely, are there any that you’ll never write?

A: I know I wouldn’t write epic fantasy. I read a lot of fantasy and that’s just too many characters to keep track of. But it does influence what I write. I’ve recently finished reading A Chorus of Dragons by Jenn Lyons (the last one sat on my to be read pile for over a year) and that has influenced my current stories, but I’d never be able to write anything like it.

I don’t really think about genres and subgenres when I’m writing. That’s more for when I’m finished and it needs to either be pitched or if I’m self-publishing, I need to sort out the marketing. If I’m pitching, I need to pitch to the right publishers/agents and if I’m self-publishing, I need to target the right audience. There’s no point in trying to sell something like Stara (one of my extreme horror stories) to sci-fi fans. They’re not going to want to read that unless they also read extreme horror (and if they do read extreme horror, then they’ll likely be in extreme horror spaces as well). I suppose writing that way, I may accidentally write something epic if I ever devise a way to keep track of everything (I have trouble keeping track with some of my more complex bizarro stories).

Rather embarrassing story, but I was sending off short stories one day and there were a few and I mixed them up and all rejections. Not because they were bad stories, but because I sent each one to the wrong market. I try to be more organised now and if I’m feeling stressed or something, I force myself to take a step back and not have a repeat incident.

Q: What has been the hardest part of your career as an author so far?

A: I think the hardest part if having people throw themselves at me because they think I should be doing something else. It is my life. I’m not hurting anyone. I just want to be left alone to do it. At this point, I’ll be turning 40 in July and I still have yet to accomplish the things I set out to accomplish in my 20s when I graduated from university, not because I lack motivation (at one point I was waking up at 5:00 a.m. just to get some writing in before people were awake to interfere), but because of people hindering me. I’m perfectly happy doing what I’m doing, but I guess people don’t like seeing a single woman knowing what makes her happy and they feel the need to interfere. It comes from everywhere: family, son’s father’s family, social media, my son’s primary school (they were awful for it), ex-boyfriend and his family, and so-called friends.

Q: What do you consider to be your greatest strength and weakness as an author?

A: Again, this isn’t something I’ve sat here and thought about. I do know that unless I’m specifically asked to write something for a US market or in US English, I get very annoyed (okay, triggered, I have PTSD and this will trigger it) and the edits come back in US English or the editor hasn’t understood British references and tried to Americanise them (this ruins stories). If I’m asked, I will write things in American or for a more American audience (which I do feel is a bit insulting to Americans), I can’t really write or do much of anything constructive until I get the stress that has caused out of my system. So, I guess that is a weakness. Plus I have the other people floating about who go out of their way to stop me from writing (bear in mind, I write for a living too). That is also a trigger.

I wouldn’t really know what my strengths are. I guess being too stubborn to give up, even when the people around me demand that I do (with some legal changes, I have been able to cut out a lot of these people, but I can’t cut out government forms, which demand to know what I’m doing to improve my situation because I claim a measly amount in tax credits). Even when that means I’m not getting enough sleep and putting my health at further risk, because I’m not going to give up because some cockwobble that feels entitled to my time or the government say I should.

Q: Who is on your radar as someone you’d love to work with?

A: Probably Selene Kapsaski. I would love for her to turn one of my books into a film. I would also like to say Amanda M. Lyons because I love her stuff and she’s edited my stuff before, but it is too American. I think I should just stick to reading about different cultures, but if she ever needs something British in one of her stories and if she’s reading this, hi Amanda!

Q: At some point in our lives, we’ve all heard the negative comments: “You’re not good enough.” “you’ll never make it.” “This is the worst thing I’ve ever seen.” “You don’t belong.” How do you move forward when faced with negativity?

A: I wish that I could say that it rolls off me like water off a duck’s back, but unfortunately, over the years, it has had a terrible impact on me. As I mentioned before, wherever possible, I cut these people out of my life. I try to get on with things as best I can. I’ve been in therapy a few times as a result of dealing with those attitudes from people. I try to bring what I’ve learned in therapy any time I’m stressed when I meet with hose attitudes so I can calm down sooner. I don’t think I should need therapy just to live my life though. I’m not doing anything that is hurting anyone, so I don’t get why people feel the need to say these things or cause these problems to make things as difficult as possible. I’m just minding my own business so they’re the ones going out of their way to say and do these horrible things.

I think the worst part is the way it has affected my son. He has witnessed people saying those things to me, and it took a lot to get him to be motivated to do well.

Q: What advice would you give to women who are wanting to write, especially if it’s something others might perceive as “outside of the norm”?

A: Find the balance between not letting people know what you’re doing but getting them to understand that you aren’t wasting your life, so they don’t try to inflict “help” on you by not letting you do what you are doing.

While her dining room is being re-decorated, Dani plans on working on several longer releases: We Gave the World Synthpop Dreams will hopefully be done this year, but it isn’t being self-published so may have to wait to be released until the right home is found for it, Snow White, or something entirely new, like a bizarro novel/novella or several transgressive books. Once her dining room is done, the multimedia stuff is coming back out and Dani will work more on 56 Seconds.

Take a look through Dani’s website for her full catalogue and updates on all her current and in-progress works and browse her page on Godless for her more extreme titles! You can also follow her on Facebook and Instagram, and don’t forget to give Ketamine Addicted Pandas a vote in the upcoming BoH Indie Brawl contenders polls if you enjoyed it!