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Arts & Entertainment

Horace Brickley's Assault on Virtue

"If you want a hero that is a schizophrenic, hyper-religious, homeless person, I am your guy."

Horace Brickley is a pseudonym used by a local short story author. He prefers the pseudonym because he likes how it rolls off the tongue, and because it prevents the teenage history students he teaches from discovering his less-than-virtuous writings.

Horace, a recent UC Davis graduate, embraces uncomfortable topics and awkward details in his short stories that may not be considered suitable for the young and delicate.

In an attempt to become a more solid writer, the self-described misanthrope challenged himself with the task of writing a short story every day for the month of August. Upon completion, each story was uploaded to his blog, Horace Brickley's Assault on Virtue.

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Q. Tell me a little bit about yourself:

Horace: I earned a BA in History, and then I went back to UC Davis in the summer and completed all the classes required to earn a teaching credential in Social Studies. I'm about to head to San Diego to get a CELTA certificate, so I can teach English abroad. I'm a bit of a misanthrope, which comes out in my writing. There is a distaste with people and reality that leaks out of me and onto the page in subtle and obvious ways, depending on the story.

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Q. When and why did you begin writing?

Horace: I grew up in rural areas, and when you live out in the sticks you have to come up with ways to entertain yourself. I was an adventurous kid, and that drive to discover things has always been strong within me. When I was a kid I always used to think that I was going to find a pot of gold, or a time traveling machine hidden away in a shop. Once I figured out all that was nonsense, I had to do something to make up for it. So, I started writing stories, which typically have some sort of adventurous vibe to them. Between fifth and sixth grade, I wrote three stories that were carbon-copy rip-offs of Sierra's Space Quest series, which is a video game series from the eighties and nineties.

Q. What kind of audience do you typically have in mind when writing?

Horace: Anyone that holds a critical view of conventional ideals, morals, and virtues. I named my blog The Assault on Virtue because I absolutely loathe the typical version of the hero, and I think a lot of people feel the same way. I think most readers are done with Captain America heroes and they want something a little more realistic, or interesting. If you are looking for a story where you can love the hero the whole time and he never betrays your trust, then there are thousands of writers that have you in mind. If you want a hero that is a schizophrenic, hyper-religious, homeless person, I am your guy.

Q. Tell me about your short story challenge. Where did the idea come from?

Horace: The short story challenge is a simple one: write one story everyday for an entire month. Each day has to be a new idea, so not a series of thirty-one short stories, but thirty-one individual ideas. They can be any length, but the point of the challenge is to write and be creative every day, not to make it through the challenge. They don't have to be edited or perfect, but there has to be a first draft posted by 11:59pm, for each day of the month. The idea actually came from two books: “The Clockwork Muse” by Eviator Zerubavel, and “On Writing” by Stephen King. They couldn't be more different books, but they both have the simple idea that writing and creating ideas is something that you do, not a muse or imp. You do it, and you can do it every day, and if you want to be a solid writer then you have to write often. That's the clockwork part, and that is the part that I wanted to touch with the short story challenge.

Q. What was the most difficult part of the challenge?

Horace: Hands down, coming up with a new idea every day. Most of my friends were absolutely useless when I asked them for help. I came up with twenty-six out of the thirty-one ideas out of thin air, and the ones I used from friends and writing prompts were drastically changed. Writing is easy, but creating a coherent idea is difficult.

Q. Were there any challenges you did not anticipate?

Horace: Scheduling my life around the challenge was hard. I wrote Do Us Part in less than an hour, from creating the idea to posting it on my blog, at a friend's house. I was running out of time for the day. It was about ten o' clock, and I had no idea before I sat down and stared at the blank screen of the document file.

Q. Which story do you feel most reflects yourself as a writer and why?

Horace: I think they all tell you a little bit about me. Muscle Memory is about the downside of the single life and casual sex. Into the Meat Grinder is about being a cog in a wheel, a soldier in a meaningless war (the war being a metaphor). Do Us Part is about my fears of commitment, and I think a lot of other people's fears about commitment as well. Misanthropic is probably the best representation of how I feel about life and society.

The character suddenly loses his civility filter, that thing almost all of us have that prevents us from calling ugly people ugly and stupid people stupid all of the time. The man up and discards conventionality in pursuit of happiness, but it isn't the happiness that most people would want – it's his happiness, which so far as I can tell is going to involve a lot of unsavory sex, violence, yelling, and drug use. I'm not saying I want all of those things, but his dedication to himself, since he has no family, I find admirable.

Q. Do you feel this challenge has helped you as a writer?

Horace: Absolutely. If you asked me if I could write 66,000 words on August 1st, then I would have said “no.” But here we are, and while their quality is dubious, those words are on paper... digital paper.

Q. What advice do you have for other writers?

Horace: Quit. Quit right now and let me have all the jobs. Seriously though, Stephen King and Zerubavel have already given the best advice, which is to make the time, sit down, and do it. Write, and worry about the rest later. As the old adage goes: “there are no good writers, just rewriters,” which I first heard in my creative writing class at UC Davis. I think it is mandatory for every person that teaches writing, or writes a book about writing, to repeat that mantra because I hear it all the time. It's a tired phrase, but it holds true.

Q. Anything else you'd like to add?

Horace: I think that means that it is time for a shameless plug. Check out my blog at horacebrickley.blogspot.com and do that Twitter thing at me @HBrickley. Read my first drafts and let me know which ones you think have potential, and in a short amount of time you might just see a better version of those stories in Ebook format. Also, please let me know if you do the short story challenge.  

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