Bet you thought you’d never see another one of these posts, didn’t you? Well, you’re wrong, because I’m hoping to kick-start the series again in the coming weeks. And here’s the very first in the latest batch, from Bishop Rider author Beau Johnson himself. Over to you, Beau…
Book title: Brand New Dark
Location: Culver City
Author: Beau Johnson
BeauJohnsonFiction.com / Twitter
“Oh, hello there. You startled me. I kid. I kid. I know. I know. But if I’m anything, it’s far from conventional. (insert weird face emoji here)
Anyway.
Tess! Thanks for having us! Very kind of you to give this Canadian and his thoughts your time.
All right, so today I believe I’m scheduled to discuss location-slash-setting. This is correct? Good. Cool. I mean, it’s the only thing I’ve prepared. But just so you know, I’m not going to be going on about any old location. Why not? Well, Tess, allow me to count the ways! One, like my main character’s life itself, why yes, I do like to make things more difficult than they should be. And two…well, I don’t really have a two. Honestly, I’m just happy to be here, Tess. More important, I really didn’t think you’d let me get this far.
Anyway.
So, Culver. The city itself, this has always been Bishop Rider’s stomping ground. He wasn’t born there, no, but it is the place he dies. In the overall narrative, however, Culver comes nowhere near a setting that I choose to bring to life. It houses roughly a million or so people, sure, and Rider does visit its sister city, Hanson Falls, quite often, but it’s not the be all/end all to the backdrop of Rider and his struggle.
No, Rider has his safehouses for that.
Which, in my mind, has always been the location that allows this figment of my imagination to shine. Each safehouse becoming more integral to the story as the years have worn on–both here, with me writing this as I am, as well as the fractured timelines I tell Rider’s story from.
He prefers one safehouse over another, of course, and yes, there had at one time been three, but alas, life has a habit of getting in the way. (insert explosion emoji here)
Would I change things? Make Culver City a living breathing character if I could go back? Nah, I don’t think I would. It serves its purpose, serving up degenerate after degenerate in all the ways I need/have needed it to. It’s those particular basements in those particular safehouses that have come to stand out with regard to location in Rider’s universe. I imagine the upgrades have something to do with this as well, perhaps a killbox or two, but I feel if I give anything else away here I may start spoiling certain storylines to come. It means I’m going to have to back away now, Tess, slowly, while offering my thanks once again as I do. I say this from above the ravine one of those safehouses I mentioned backs onto, as Rider and I look down upon Culver as it sleeps. There are no stars here tonight either, Tess, and nary a moon. There is only the city, its lights, and the glasses of scotch both Rider and I raise to you now.
Thank you for having us, Tess. We appreciate the time. (insert awkward high-five/hug emoji here)”
***
Beau Johnson is a husband, father, writer, booster. He has written three books, A BETTER KIND OF HATE, THE BIG MACHINE EATS, and ALL OF THEM TO BURN. Each hold Bishop Rider stories, the man’s life and struggle, but on July 12th, 2021, BRAND NEW DARK, a Bishop Rider only book, will be unleashed upon the world through Down and Out Books. Of late, Beau has also found he holds the power to trigger the world’s least favorite/most racist Buffy the Vampire slayer on Twitter. Her followers too, of course, but that’s a bio for another story.
Beau provides endless support for other crime writers, and seems to get less credit for it than he ought to! He writes noir stories that are on the blacker edge of dark, and you can find a collection of them in his book ‘
Tess Makovesky 