Brynn Barineau

Category: General

  • New Book Announcement! Jungle of Ashes Aquired by History Through Fiction

    New Book Announcement! Jungle of Ashes Aquired by History Through Fiction

  • Creating Character Through Culture: A Workshop with the Atlanta Writers Club

    Creating Character Through Culture: A Workshop with the Atlanta Writers Club

    Georgia State University: Perimeter College – Dunwoody Campus, 2101 Womack Rd, Dunwoody, GA 30338, Building N-C auditorium

    I don’t have an English degree or an MFA in creative writing. Because of my AP English scores, I didn’t take one college level English class. I still have to Google “how to use emdashes.”

    So allow me to invite everyone in the Atlanta area to my first writing workshop! February 18 at 1:30pm the Atlanta Writers Club has invited me to give a workshop on creating compelling and authentic characters by understanding how culture informs identity.

    Because I do in fact know a few things well, but it took me a minute to realize what they are.

    When I first reached out for speaking opportunities as an author, a librarian asked if I had any experience teaching writing workshops and what topics I felt comfortable speaking on. Ummm…Using Chicago style in-text citations? At the mention of “class” or “workshop,” I immediately considered what I’ve been academically trained to do.

    Sure, I secured an agent and traditionally published. That doesn’t mean I know what I’m doing. I’m a self-taught author. I have one novel out. I couldn’t think of any skills I’d be more qualified to speak on than the librarian.

    A book blogger from Nigeria helped me realize what I do uniquely well even among very talented people. She left a review on NetGalley specifically praising the characters in Jaguars and the fact none of them felt patronizing or like a talking stereotype. I read her review and thought “Oh thank God. I didn’t fuck that up.” Then I thought “But it’s actually hard to end up with a stereotype when you consider all of the character’s cultural groups and individual history.”

    Wait. Do other writers not make lists of all the cultural groups their characters belong to? Does the word culture even appear in their thinking?

    I may not have an MFA, but I do have a master’s in international communication. Specifically, I specialized in cross-cultural communication which was basically two years of studying how human culture is learned, used by the brain, can vary between groups and can cause someone to break down sobbing after being asked to get a form signed before using the club pool. (True story. Culture shock is fun!)

    Here’s what I can teach other writers: how to use an understanding of culture to create characters and worlds that are unique, believable and NOT stereotypes. Sci-fi, fantasy and historical fiction authors are often creating cultures that either don’t exist or no one is actively living, but even authors of books set in the present-day or recent past will have to write characters from backgrounds other than their own. While this doesn’t absolve any writer from the responsibility of getting sensitivity readers, a basic understanding of culture and identity formation can help writers avoid patronizing and stereotyping when populating their fictional world with the diversity the exists in the real world and be aware of which groups they need people to read for.

    So come out to the Atlanta Writers Club next meeting at Georgia State Perimeter College – Dunwoody Campus on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 1:30pm. Free for first time visitors! If you can’t make but this course sounds interesting, get in touch! I’d love to give a talk to your community either in-person or virtual.

  • Brynn Is Not In Brazil

    Brynn Is Not In Brazil

    Hi. So…it’s been a minute. I’d ask how you’ve been the last few years, but I don’t think I could take an honest answer. You’ve either been like me. You’re barely keeping it together and looking in the mirror has been like watching a time elapsed video covering a few decades. Or you’ve managed to thrive and find yourself in adversity in which case, I assume you own a supply chain software company and I don’t want to hear that shit either

    But it’s January 2022 and I’m ready to confidently say I feel like myself again, albeit with thinner hair and a thicker waist.

    What have I been up to? Not writing blog posts obviously. You’d think a writer would process events through writing but whenever I did sit down to write, it felt like someone had taken a shotgun to my attention span. I got fragments of ideas, slivers of thoughts. Piecing together anything sensible, let alone enjoyable, was painful and tedious.

    I’ve over the last 18 months most of my energy has gone to building a life from scratch in Atlanta.

    Mercedes Benz Stadium in the ATL. Home to the Falcons, Atlanta United, & mass vaccinations.

    That’s right. Brynn is officially NOT in Brazil! We moved to my hometown of Atlanta in June 2020. Yup. 2020. A transcontinental move with a child in the midst of a global pandemic. And my husband stayed behind in Brazil because job and money. As risky life changing decisions go, we were open to international flights and furniture shopping during a pandemic but drew the line at no one in the house earning an income. We saved that for 2021.

    I’ll write a whole series of posts on moving from Brazil to the US soon. Getting my daughter registered for school was an odyssey in itself. The Dekalb school system is not set up for an English-speaking, foreign born American citizen with a social security number but only Brazilian school transcripts. The automated messages never tell you what number to push for that.

    Moving back to the United States isn’t the only thing that’s happened. We adopted two dogs from a local rescue. I reconnected with friends I hadn’t seen since high school. I started a book club with two of them and joined a writing with another. That group helped me finish a fourth draft of a historical fiction that I started writing for Nanowrimo 2018 and will finally go on submission to editors this year.

    And I sold my first book!!!!!! (Maybe I should have led with that?)

    After years querying and being on submission, I signed with a small idependent publisher, Orange Blossom Publishing to release my historical fiction, Jaguars and Other Game. It will be my debut novel, launching on November 22, 2022. Just in time for my 40th birthday.

    I have high expectations for 2022. I say that despite having been conscious for the last two years. My husband has joined us full time in Atlanta for the next year. We’re together, vaccinated, and I’m going to launch my debut novel.

    There’s a lot happening. A lot has happened. I’ll write about everything. Keep checking in for updates on the publishing process and fun announcements like the cover reveal and pre-order campaigns. I’m so excited to share this process with y’all.