Scenes from an Interview: Don Bruns

The Mystery of Writing

By Gus Mollasis

Don Bruns is a liar and also one hell of a writer. Don’t believe me?

Just ask anyone who sits in on today’s version of the legendary game of Liar’s Poker—the game which became popular locally in the 1950s, when Andersonville author MacKinlay Kantor got some of his writer friends together on a Friday at the old Plaza Restaurant in Downtown Sarasota for a round of drinks, or two, or three. Realizing they needed to limit the drinking, they came up with a plan. Whoever lost a game of Liar’s Poker bought the one round of drinks that day.

In addition to Kantor, this informal group of friends included locals Karl Bickel, Dik Browne, Walter Farley (author of The Black Stallion series), Richard Glendinning, Charlie Husking, John D. MacDonald, Ed Pierce and Waldo Proffitt. Visitors included Art Buchwald, Buckminster Fuller and Mike Royko. Leslie McFarlane, ghostwriter of the first 21 Hardy Boy mysteries, and Budd Schulberg (On the Waterfront) were also part of the group.

Today the legacy that Kantor started continues with a new, local informal group of friends made up of novelists, screenwriters, journalists and columnists who gather to talk about current and past events, swap stories, share drinks and of course lie when they play Liar’s Poker.

And it’s no lie that it’s a game that best-selling mystery writer Don Bruns wouldn’t miss for the world.

But to Don Bruns writing is anything but a game. It’s serious business. Something he’s had a lot of success and fun doing since publishing his first book some 17 years ago. 

As a younger man, when he played a little more music on his instruments than he did on his typewriter, Bruns got the bug that often bites those from the cold Midwest when they encounter the allure of azure tides, fiery sunsets and palm trees waving welcome home signs.

“I fell in love with Fort Lauderdale,” says Bruns. “I had my guitar in hand. We were there for Spring Break, playing for college kids, playing at a hotel that was right on the water. That whole thing just had the romance. It was a total feeling of wow!”

It was also something that Bruns remembered years later when he was considering a place to retire with his wife. “We literally stuck a pin in a map of Florida, and it ended up hitting Sarasota.”

In the beginning, Bruns was a snowbird running his advertising agency from the Sunshine State. “My staff was all up North and I could do anything on a laptop. I had a studio, could do voice work and pretty much anything.” He made the complete commitment to Sarasota about seven years ago.

While Bruns didn’t publish his first novel, Jamaica Royale, until he was 50, he’s always had an affinity for the written word that dates back to his roots and beginnings in Lima, Ohio, where he was born from what he calls a “wonderful upbringing.”

“My childhood was great. We were free range. From morning to night we were outside. I built tree forts. I bought an 80-millimeter movie camera. We were kids playing Cowboys and Indians, building sets out old lumber. It was a very creative and fun childhood.”

Bruns remembers always being attracted to the creative side of life.

“I was woodwind player from the time I was in the 3rd grade. By the time I was in the 6th grade, I had formed a dance band and we played dances for Standard Oil, Westinghouse and other corporations in Lima. We were a dance band of 6th graders playing for adults. Later we formed a rock n’ roll band in high school and played all the high schools. I always gravitated toward the creative.” 

It was in a Lima classroom where Bruns, as a young boy, admittedly just an average student who was often bored, remembers vividly being hit with the writing bug. 

“Other than the music classes, the only class that ever served me well was Typing, with my teacher Frances Gorman, in the 8th grade. I can’t imagine where I would be had I not taken that class.”

It certainly helped the young Bruns when he pounded on the typing keys as the sports editor for the school newspaper, The Shawnee Chief.

Still if there is ever one place or moment where Bruns could say that he fell in love with the power of the written word and the magic of storytelling, it was an American Literature class taught by Mr. Robinson (Robby).

Bruns recalls, “I read like crazy all my life. And I liked to write at the paper. But Robby taught Melville’s Moby Dick. I remember him analyzing the text. Pointing out some of the red herrings and the real symbolism you had to follow. I had never read a book like that before, studying it and talking about it. It gave me a much greater appreciation. I remember him going on about how we had to capture the spirit of Ahab and feel the energy of a book. He got on his chair, jumped onto his desk and picked up a flag pole imitating Ahab going after the white whale.”

Bruns remembers sitting with his classmates, mouths hanging wide open, but he also remembers something else about that day. “At that moment I realized this is bringing literature to life. I can do this.”

He remembers another story. With Bruns there is always another story, and in this case, it was yet another teacher who had a big influence on him becoming a prolific author.

“I was in fourth grade and I had a teacher named Miss Jessie Cooper. She told the class in the beginning of the year that we’re going to write a book. We all looked at each other and said, ‘How are we going to write a book?’”

“Miss Cooper said, ‘I am going to write a chapter, then I’m going to give it to desk one and they have a week to write a chapter. Then I’ll give it to desk two and they will have a week to write another chapter. And so on and so on. And in 26 weeks we’ll have 26 chapters and we’ll have a book. What do you want to write about?’”

“We shouted back: The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew. And so, it became a bunch of fourth graders solving a crime. I can’t tell you what happened in the book. All I know is that in 26 weeks our teacher mimeographed four or five copies and we passed them around to go over. It was one of the biggest revelations and very eye opening to me.

“Even when I read The Hardy Boys, I wanted to be Franklin W. Dixon, which was the pen name for the several authors who wrote that series.”

Bruns, who wrote plays and poetry in high school and college, toyed with writing his first novel, starting and stopping it over many years.     

“I loved travel books and adventurous stories with a sense of setting. I especially loved a story that was set in the mountains of Tibet. I thought that would be a great trip. I always wanted to go there,” he recalls. Eventually he would make his journey up to that writer’s mountain top.

Now, a few years and many books later, he has amassed 16 titles on the bookshelf of his life that contains three separate mystery series—all of which he has penned since 2002.

His first book, Jamaica Blue, was the cornerstone to his five book “Caribbean Series” that also includes Barbados Heat, South Beach Shakedown, St. Bart’s Breakdown and Bahama Burnout. The series introduces us to the protagonist Mick Sever, a rock and roll journalist of extreme charm who’s a competent sleuth. Of Jamaica Blue, author Sue Grafton wrote, “Don Bruns has staked his turf…sex, drugs, rock & roll, and murder. What more could you want?”

And she is one lady who should know. She knew exactly what she wanted from Don Bruns when their paths crossed, and she saw potential in this yet to be published author.

Whether you are writing mysteries or merely living the mystery that is your life, there are seminal moments when you experience something and everything changes because of a life-altering event. You don’t always know how it happened or why it happened—it just happens. That is mystery in itself. 

Such was the case when Don Bruns met Sue Grafton.

“I turned 50, took my guitar and headed to Jamaica. There I contemplated my life. Where I had been and where I wanted to be as I explored the lifestyle that one does when they are there.

“When I came back, I called my accountant and asked how I could write the trip off. He said, ‘Write a book about your trip and sell it.’ And so, I did.” 

“I decided that I had been writing that book for years and to now take it seriously. I had the feeling that if I don’t do it now, then I’m never going to get it done. So, I sat down and wrote a story.”

A friend convinced him to go to a writer’s conference in Arizona to meet and network with other like-minded people to see how it’s done. He did.

There he met Sue Grafton, the Alphabet Series mystery writer—A is for Alibi, B is for Burglar. At the conference she auctioned off a critique of someone’s manuscript with proceeds going to charity. Bruns bought her critique for “550 bucks.”

After cleaning up the manuscript with the help of his wife who was an English teacher, Bruns sent it to Sue Grafton. “One week later I get an eight-page critique from Sue. It started out with: ‘Have you ever read a book in your life?’ It didn’t sound to me like it was going to be a positive critique.”

“The truth is that it was very negative and filled with a lot of red ink. Comments were generally along the lines of, ‘You made this huge mistake here…What were you thinking here? What were you trying to prove?’”

“Finally, I just put it away,” Bruns confesses. “Three days later I get a phone call from Sue Grafton. I thought it was a joke, because I had told some people about the critique.” Turns out it was no joke.

Bruns remembers the conversation well.

Sue Grafton: “Are you ready to shoot yourself or shoot me?”

Bruns: “I don’t know you and you don’t know me, but I think you were a little harsh.”

Sue Grafton: “I was going to send you a one-page letter telling you to clean up your characters, to do this and do that, but instead I sent what I sent. You are an extremely good writer. You make a lot of classic mistakes. Clean up those mistakes. Now, throw away that manuscript and write me a new book.”

I told her I didn’t have the time. She said, “Don’t give me that S***. I have five books in desk drawers that will never see the light of day. Write me another book. I’ll read it and if I like it, I will get it sold.”

Six months later, Bruns sent Sue Grafton Jamaica Blue. She called him the day after she got it. “I read it in one sitting. It’s wonderful. I can get those sold.”

After 9/11, Grafton attended a world mystery conference named in honor of famed mystery author Anthony Boucher.  As she was ready to do her Q & A with an audience of around 1500, Bruns was astonished when Grafton said, “I want to introduce Don Bruns who is in the audience. He’s got a book that somebody needs to buy. It’s really good.”

“I looked at my wife and said ‘Holy crap.’ I go out in the hall after the talk and Charlie Spicer from St. Martin’s Press approached me and said, ‘Are you the guy? Do you have the novel?’ I handed it to him. He read it on the train to New York. The next week he called me and said, ‘Get an agent, because we’re going to buy your book.’”

“And that’s how you get published,” Bruns says with a grin.

Published in big way. Multiple times. With multiple series.

Bruns will tell you that he likes all of his books while not leaning on the cliché of “I like them all—they are all my children.”

Of his Caribbean series, he favors South Beach Shakedown. “Working on that was wild. The party atmosphere. Going to the clubs. Feeling the hard driving rhythms of the music. Speed boats. The rich and the powerful. Due to the nature of that whole scene, it was my favorite of the series.”   

I asked Bruns who he is in his books. Is he Mick Sever? He gave me the right answer—a writer’s answer. “I realized early on that I was everybody. I was the worst and the most depraved character and the guy who can leap tall buildings. They all have to come out of the same person—in this case, me.”   

They indeed all do come out this man with the distinguished looking grey hair, genuine smile, free spirit and easy writing style.

For Bruns, writing is not a chore or something he struggles with. “I never get writer’s block. I don’t know a writer who does. Sure you put it down, but then you have to pick it right up, especially when you’re writing on deadline. The words come to you, and often it just flows.”

Another mystery series followed as he created a character named Quentin Archer—a former Detroit Cop who is a New Orleans homicide detective. In its inaugural book, Casting Bones, “Library Journal” heaped praise on his effort, stating: “As hot and steamy as a Louisiana night, this series debut hits all the right nights with evocative Big Easy setting, colorful and memorable characters, and smartly twisted plot.”

The kind of praise a writer relishes and that almost didn’t happen.

Bruns, who was between books at the time, had been working on building his Twitter following, through the advice of others. Because of Twitter, he got an e-mail from a woman named Kate Grant who was with Severn House Publishing in England, looking to publish more of his work. Bruns would have never guessed that building his Twitter following would lead to getting his new series published. The second of the books in that series was Thrill Kill and his latest book No Second Chances was just released in May of 2019.

For Bruns, it’s not about second chances, but about second acts. His life both on and off the page has been literally filled with what iconic mystery writer Dashiell Hammett claimed was “the stuff dreams are made of.” 

Bruns has penned no less than seven novels in his third series, Stuff, which follows clues and leads down dark alleys of two private investigators—James Lessor and Skip Moore. The first, Stuff To Die For, was followed by Stuff Dreams Are Made Of, Stuff To Spy For; Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff; Too Much Stuff; Hot Stuff and Reel Stuff. The series has been praised by reader and critic alike with accolades a writer never gets tired of hearing.

The mystery of it all. How he does it. And does it again, again and again. Bruns will humbly tell you with a straight face that he’s not terribly structured on the craft of writing. “I’m not organized enough to have a process. It would take the creativity out of it. I always have four or five ideas in my head where I want to go next.”

Bruns is grateful he has contracts for the books in his series and that pushes him to get it done. He also tells me that in all the years he’s never missed a deadline and therefore never had to return an advance.

I asked him how a writer knows when it’s just right. Without hesitation, Bruns boldly proclaims, “You don’t. I don’t know a writer who turns in a book satisfied. Ever. Because if you can keep it even one more week to brush up on this and polish that, and make the character a little richer, you might. You simply never know that.” 

What about the famous writer’s adage that a writer writes what he knows?  I had to ask him. “I kill people. I don’t know about that. I don’t know how to kill people. I have a book—Murder for Dummies,” he laughs. “I flip through it and find poisons. If the authorities ever do a search on any mystery writer’s computer, they may be in a lot of trouble. I have researched some pretty dark topics.” The stuff dreams and mystery novels are made of for sure.

What does this mystery writer hope readers take away from his books? “I like people to feel like they’ve been on a trip. I kid around with people about the Caribbean series. I tell them for 25 bucks you can go to Barbados, feel like you’ve eaten the food, smoked the weed, had the drinks and done everything.”

His motto in life sounds like it comes straight off the pages and out of the mouths of one or any of his characters. “I am the sum of the people I’ve met and the places I’ve been. In real life, stories and song.”

On being remembered after he’s gone, he simply states, “I don’t care if they remember me. I hope that the books are still in print and they’re still enjoying the travel and the adventures.”

I’d like to believe him. Because he’s one hell of nice guy and a great writer. But I also know that he’s a liar getting ready to meet his fellow writers at his Friday poker game.