Tell us a bit more about you and where you’re from.
Reed: I have humble roots in south Mississippi. It’s not a rags to riches story, but like many of us, I grew up with salt of the earth people all around me and a few standalone outsiders as well. It makes for great storytelling and even better characters. For money, I’ve mown lawns, worked stockrooms, sold men’s suits, and even watched the plants go withered and brown (like my soul) in the Wal-Mart garden center. Beyond that it was television and marketing and digital media in northwest Florida. Currently, I do graphic design, photography, and brand enforcement within the arts and architecture school at a university in Pennsylvania.
What inspired your winning story? Why did that particular theme resonate with you?
Reed: I’ve always enjoyed throwing together a quick, short piece to keep the writing chops limber. There are more than a few of my flash stories in the Shallow Waters Patreon archive. My first submitted story “Nothing In There” actually made it into volume six of the e-book series. But, with the “festivities” theme, I started thinking how a party’s not a party until someone brings out a cake. Dammit, I love cake. I’ve had way more than my share of it over the years. (Now I’m diabetic, sigh.) Anyway, with the online phenomenon of making cake look like every day, non-edible objects, I had to wonder about the opposite where it does look like cake, but it’s something far more sinister and way harder to swallow.
When, and why, did you start writing?
Reed: Fifth grade. They forced me to. And I hated it. Then I learned to love it in high school with the proper encouragement from some wonderfully patient teachers who noticed I had a knack for vocabulary and wordsmith-ery. I’ve been trying to impress them ever since.
To read more about J. Brian Reed and about him being a horror author, click HERE!
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