Knight introduces a new hero, a 7-foot-tall repo man named Butch Quick, in latest book
Zombies and cursed girls no longer turn Brian Knight’s head. Instead he’s fallen for a seven-foot-tall, 250-pound Indian “with a face like a leather football helmet.”
That’s how the Clarkston author describes Butch Quick, the hero of his new series of novels: “The Misadventures of Butch Quick.”
For more than a decade, the 38-year-old author churned out tales of horror in short stories, novellas and novels. For his new book “Sex, Death and Honey,” he turns to crime. He’ll sign his work from 5 to 8 tonight at And Books Too in Clarkston.
Quick is a repo man, bounty hunter and bouncer at a nightclub called Boomtown in a fictional city called Paradise Valley. Lewiston-Clarkston Valley names and landmarks provide much inspiration for the author. Quick works for his Uncle Higheagle and is haunted by a serial killer named Redwolf who murdered his wife and daughter years before.
“It just seems like there’s nothing new to explore,” Knight says of leaving the horror genre. “Butch Quick, he’s got pretty long legs on him. I think I can stay with him for a long time.”
Knight is married with three children, two now grown. He grew up in Orofino and Lewiston, drives a propane truck for a living and writes in his spare time. He says he learned everything he knows about writing from reading. He’s written and published countless short stories and had novels and novellas published by a variety of small presses.
The small presses Knight works with often specialize in small runs of collector’s edition books that are handmade or unusually bound or sometimes illustrated. They sell for hundreds of dollars to people who are usually more interested in the book’s form than in reading it, Knight explains.
Several of his stories are preserved in this way. His World War II zombie tale “Apocalypse Green,” is hardbound in camouflage. Before it became a novel “Sex, Death and Honey” was a novella bound in red satin and fishnet stocking material encircled by a garter.
Knight gives readers a free taste of Butch Quick’s misadventures in online missives called “Quickies.” The short tales give readers a sample to let them decide if the book is for them or not, says Knight. “Big Trouble in Little Boots,” a prequel novella where Quick meets Go-Go Gidget the Dancing Midget, is also available online for free through ButchQuick.com.
One critic called “Sex, Death and Honey” “junk food for the brain,” says Knight. “I didn’t see that as an insult. ... It’s a pretty wild ride from beginning to end.”
In mid-September Knight will release his first young adult book. “The Phoenix Girls: The Conjuring Glass” is written under the pseudonym Kelly Knight. He wrote it for his daughters because his horror work was too disturbing for them to read when they were young, he says. It’s a fantasy for ages 9 to adult and he plans to continue it as a series.
In the course of his career, Knight says his bestselling book is 2005’s “Broken Angel.” It’s set in a small Idaho town where a strange girl with no memory shows up at a roadside diner. She’s soon attacked by a man who, in turn, is attacked and killed by a teenager. It turns out the cursed girl inspires insanity and violence wherever she goes. Nearly everyone in the book dies.
“One even dies twice. That’s a good one if you can pull it off,” Knight says.
While he hasn’t had any luck interesting an agent in taking his work to larger publishing houses Knight refuses to go the self-publishing route. He believes in the power of an editor to shape a story.
“It’s become too much of an easy answer for people who haven’t worked on their craft,” says Knight, who has started a local book discussion forum at
http://lc-valley-bookworms.com/.
If you go
Who: Clarkston author Brian Knight
What: Author signing
When: 5-8 p.m. tonight
Where: And Books Too, 918 Sixth St., Clarkston
More signings
Other authors signing their books this weekend at And Books Too:
Books about haunted hotels and ghost towns are the subject of choice for author Bruce Raisch, who will sign his work from 5-8 p.m. tonight during Alive After Five in downtown Clarkston. Raisch is the author of “Ghost Towns of Wyoming,” “Ghost Towns & Other Historical Sites of the Black Hills,” “Ghost Towns of Idaho — The Search for El Dorado,” “Haunted Hotels of the West,” “Show Caves of the Ozarks,” and “Underground Treasures of the Black Hills — Tour Caves, Mammoths, Mines, Museums & More.”
Gregory Metcalf will sign his book “Help! I’m in the Band!” from 4-6 p.m. Friday. The book shares humorous stories of Metcalf’s experiences as a band member and award-winning Washington state band teacher. Metcalf will perform with his band ThreeJazz from 6-9 p.m. tonight at Rooster’s Waterfront Restaurant in Clarkston.
