A Conversation with Kellen Burden,
Author of "Flash Bang"
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| Featured Author, Kellen Burden |
I started writing "Flash Bang" when I moved out to Denver, Colorado in 2011. At the time I was working as an Undercover Loss Prevention Agent in grocery stores in the Metro Area. What that essentially meant, was that I was walking around, usually with a partner, sometimes alone, in grocery stores. I was dressed like a normal shopper, I walked around with a shopping cart full of groceries, and when people stole things, it was my job to bring them inside and make them wait for the police to show up. As you can imagine, most of them weren’t really obliged to do that. Our boss, who was a former cop, had a pretty straight forward approach to the whole situation which was: make them. So at least once a week I was in a fist fight with a strung out shoplifter, rolling around in the snow in front of a grocery store, eating punches for a KitKat bar, or some ridiculous thing. A job like that draws interesting types of people and over the course of my time doing it, I really bonded with the people that I worked with. They were mostly military or ex-police, some honest to god bounty hunters and just a handful of random assbeaters. Really good guys that you could trust with your life.
There was one occasion, in which one of the bad guys we had just brought in failed to appear to his court date. On a whim we Googled him on a whim and found his Facebook. The guy I was working with at the time, Seth, had said: “we know where he is, lets just go get him.” We didn’t, but it was in the subtext of that sentence that the idea for "Flash Bang" surfaced. In the what-if.
From where do you get your ideas?
Most of the ideas for the book came from conversations. From talking to people who were smarter than I am. When you work with a partner for 8 hours a day in a grocery store, there isn’t much else to do but talk. And talk. And talk. The character in my book, Harkin, is based almost entirely on a close friend I worked with, Austin. He was a military police officer, and not someone that you wanted to mess with. You could also usually count on him to say one absolutely unforgivable thing per day. Spent a lot of time apologizing for him. However, at the core of him, he was a really good person who would do anything for you. Another friend of mine, Seth, was the inspiration for the character Etch. We would fist fight in a park to train at least three times a week, and there was one instance, while working together, in which we were peppersprayed by a gang member with police issue mace who outweighed the two of us combined. Seth wouldn’t give up and he wouldn’t let me give up and in the end, we got the guy into handcuffs. It’s people like Seth and Austin, and experiences like those that gave me the material for good writing; good characters.
Do you ever experience writer's block, and how do you overcome it?
Absolutely. There were months at a time when I wouldn’t write a word. I’d sit down at the computer and stare at the keys and walk away 20 minutes later with nothing to show for it. I’ve found that putting the computer away and going free hand for a little while, helps me get into what I’m trying to say a little better. I also usually have a running soundtrack in my head for certain parts of the novel and if I play that particular song while I’m working on that particular part it really helps me get into the right headspace to finish it. Sometimes I fight my dog too. I dunno if it helps but it’s fun as hell.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
I’m still an aspiring writer myself, but as far as advice goes, I’d have to say: keep writing. Pound through it and get to the end. There is no better feeling then looking down at your finished work and knowing that you did it. That it’s done. And the only way to get there is to keep writing, even when it feels futile.
How do you market your work? Are some avenues more successful than others?
I’m finding that social networking is a great means of marketing my work. That, and playing to my strengths. I personally made a lot of movies when I was in high school, so, I made a couple of really low budget trailers for my book. They reached a great deal of people and they didn’t require much from me
If your book was made into a movie, who would play each role?
It would star the original cast of Golden Girls.
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Synopsis:
"Flash Bang"By Kellen Burden
Sebastian Parks is drowning in a flood of his own creation. Dishonorably discharged from the Army, he’s wracked with night terrors and an anger that he can't abate. Unemployable and uninterested in anything resembling a normal job, Parks makes his living in fugitive apprehension, finding wanted felons on Facebook and thumping them into custody with his ex-military buddies John Harkin and Eric "Etch" Echevarria. When the body of a teenage Muslim boy is found in front of a downtown Denver nightclub Parks, Harkin and Etch are called on to do what they do best: Find bad men and make them pay.
First-time author Kellen Burden serves up edgy humor, brutal action and characters you can’t get enough of. "Flash Bang" will keep you turning pages until the end.
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Official Book Video Trailer for "Flash Bang"
By Kellen Burden
About Kellen Burden:
The author can be contacted at www.kellenburden.com
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FOR MORE INFO:Website: www.kellenburden.com
YouTube: http://youtu.be/pj2rWjDjp8E
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BUY THE BOOK:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/17v3VFz