- Who knew when I looked you up that you’d be a pretty popular dude? Ok List ALL your titles so everyone knows what I’m talking about please.
That’s a pretty big list. I’ve done a lot of stuff, to my good fortune. But the highlights are 8 bestselling anthologies, including three Predator anthologies (Predator: If It Bleeds, Predator: Eyes of the Demon, Aliens Vs. Predators: Ultimate Prey), the last of which I co-edited with Jonathan Maberry, Monster Hunter Files with Larry Correia, and two Joe Ledger anthologies with Maberry, the second of which Joe Ledger: Unbreakable will be out in November from JournalStone. I’ve also done two big Infinite Stars anthologies, and my latest Robots Through The Ages, co-edited by Robert Silverberg, a true legend, will be out July 25th on hardcover, trade paperback, and audiobook and features a cast that includes Leonard Nimoy, Bronson Pinchot, Tim Campbell, Stefan Rudnicki and a bunch of heavy hitter audio narrators. As a full time indie editor, I’ve also edited novels, the most famous of which was The Martian by Andy Weir.
As a writer, I have seven published novels, including the space opera trilogy, The Saga of Davi Rhii, and the police procedurals The John Simon Thrillers. My latest, SHORTCUT, which is being developed as a movie as you mention later, is a hard science fiction thriller about a math genius whose formula for speeding up space travel becomes real for him when he has to launch a mission to space to rescue his kidnapped wife. I have several other novels on submission. I’ve done shorts in various universes, including Predator, AVP, Joe Ledger, and Monster Hunter, Decipher’s Wars (forthcoming in August, I am told), and also The X-Files.
Also have a nonfiction craft book called HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL that you can download free on Smashwords (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/902575?fbclid=IwAR0g1TB357N8QwYoNEj8d3YOzPqozeUE6GtHWvasX3QEX_PI702TDGb2d4Y) and have several articles out or coming from Analog Science Fiction and Fact, among others.
For a complete bibliography, you can see my Wikipedia page https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Thomas_Schmidt
- What sparked the writing bug in you?
Well, my Mom likes to say I never played with a toy the same way twice. So I’d say I was born with the creative bug. My first writing efforts were fanfic in grade school for various books I liked and then I did TV scripts for a while. Didn’t start really focusing on prose until years later as an adult, but I did take my teenage scifi epic idea and turn that into The Saga of Davi Rhii books. So it wasn’t all wasted.
- How long have you been on your writing journey?
As mentioned, since childhood but as a prose author and professional really since 2008, with first publication as a novelist coming in 2011 with The Worker Prince (Saga of Davi Rhii, Book 1)
- How does your family react to your writing?
I have support, but I get the usual questions: where do you come up with this stuff? Which is much better than the questions I used to get like “Can you really make a living from this?” Or “Why don’t you write for fun but get a real job as backup?” The real job thing is legit. 90% of even bestselling authors I know have day jobs. Mine happens to be editing books, so I’m very lucky.
- When you’re writing, what’s in your cup?
Twinnings English Breakfast tea or Sparkling Ice Black Cherry.
- Is your writing space organized or organized chaos?
I actually have a professional office in my home. I have a printer, copy machine, two file cabinets, bookshelves, scanner, and so on. Walking down the hall from my bedroom it’s like stepping in to an office at a business. And so I’d say organized, even if I don’t use it all the time. I think discipline is essential to productivity so having a disciplined space is just part of that. If you want to make a job of it or come close, you really do have to treat it like a job with regularly dedicated writing time and space, I’ve found. It helps to surround yourself with that sense of it being real work rather than fly by night.
- Have you always been a fan of Sci-Fi?
Oh yes. I am part of the generation that raced from dinner to catch Star Trek: TOS reruns or Space 1999, and then were triggered to create it ourselves by Star Wars, which blew our minds in 1977. Black Hole, Dragonslayer, so many influences followed including the classic Bass animated The Hobbit and Lord of The Rings adaptations.
- Is it humbling to have your book turned into a movie?
If it happens it will be yes, but it’s just in development. SHORTCUT came about in a unique way though. Hunt Lowry, who runs Roserock Productions and has produced Nicholas Sparks’ A Walk To Remember, John Grisham’s A Time To Kill, Donnie Darko, and a bunch of other stuff, came up with the concept and brought me in to develop a book with hopes he could then develop a film, so we worked from his treatment and had meetings and so on and then I went off and wrote. I’d say 90% of the second half is all me, including the ending, but the first half is 80% him so we were equal partners really, and of course, he had the core idea and created several of the major characters before I got involved. So I wound up with print rights and he has film rights and we each are developing our own part of it separately with a bit of friendly cooperation.
- How much say did you have in the movie process?
I get credited as “Based on a book by” and that’s about it. I contributed all the dialogue and lots of characters and plot elements, but the movie is Hunt’s baby, and I’m not involved. I will get to visit the set and attend the premiere, but have no real creative involvement unless someone asks me which could still happen since they are just developing it now. There’s not even a script yet.
- Is the book better than the movie?
I like to think it will be because I usually feel that way about all adaptations with few exceptions, but it hasn’t happened yet, so to be fair, can’t really say. I think the book is really good, and I hope the movie turns out good as well.
- Where can readers learn more about you?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Thomas_Schmidt is my wikipedia page, as mentioned.
My website and blog are at: Www.bryanthomasschmidt.net
Www.topshelfediting.com is my editing site with a partner but I also work through Reedsy. You can find tons of articles and podcasts and interviews online and even some panels on YouTube I have done at San Diego Comic Con and other places.
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