Jennifer Brody, pen name Vera Strange, the award winning sci-fi and horror author of The 13th Continuum, Deep Spectre 6 and the ongoing Disney Chills series kindly allowed me an interview. Here she talks about her previous career as CEO of Continuum Entertainment Group, her pivot to writing and inspiration for the genres.

1. Starting from the beginning, when did you first begin writing?

I’ve always read voraciously and written in various ways, but I didn’t start seriously writing until I turned 28 — and that’s when I began teaching myself how to write prose and novels.

2. However you started your work in film, founding Continuum Entertainment Group, working on films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Lord of the Rings. What work did you do as CEO?

I began my career in Hollywood working for A-list directors and movie studios, but now I’ve shifted to writing, packaging and producing my own IP (books, stories, graphic novels) for film/TV. It’s fun to combine both of my worlds — and favorite things.

 3. How did (if it did) your experience in film help you as you entered writing?

It helped tremendously! It gave me a solid foundation in shaping ideas and story structure. I also worked on a ton of big book to film adaptations — THE GOLDEN COMPASS, JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR. NORRELL, LOTR — which was a nice gateway to fiction and publishing.

 4. What is your daily writing routine?

I wear many hats these days, so sometimes I’m in “author” mode like this week, getting ready for ONCE UPON A SCREAM, my sixth Disney Chills book to publish. But when I’m first drafting, I write first thing when I wake up and usually draft one to two chapters a day … until the book is finished. That means, I can draft a whole novel in about a month. I try not to take days off writing when I’m in the middle of a draft. 

5. Now veering to your writing portfolio. Your debut sci-fi novel, The 13th Continuum focuses on humanity on the brink of extinction with a group of survivors racing against their tyrannical government to find the ancestral Surface with air supply for their colony. Since it touched on the topics of pollution and extinction, were their major real life-events that inspired you?

Of course! THE 13TH CONTINUUM was inspired originally by a real event — the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico — and I thought — what if we destroyed the surface and had to go really deep underwater to survive.

 6. The Continuum Trilogy is tightly woven with jaw-dropping cliffhangers and steady world building, was it all planned out at once or did you build on it as you wrote each book?

I love books that grip you and keep you reading — so it was by design. I sold the first book with two or three page outlines for books 2 and 3 — and the story held all the way through to publication. I think that’s why the book in part has so much Hollywood interest.

7. I’d also like to note that while the plot is addictively fast-paced, readers can also spot homages to other literature like Fahrenheit 451, Lord of the Rings etc. Which leads to my question of favorite book from any genre?

I have too many to list! 13TH CONTINUUM was heavily influenced by LOTR, but also Isaac Asimov’s FOUNDATION. I love Bradbury, Neil Gaiman, Anne Rice … A WRINKLE IN TIME … Edgar Rice Burroughs … but also film/TV like James Cameron’s THE ABYSS.

 8. Your other work, Spectre Deep 6, a sci fi graphic novel with paranormal elements was a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award in 2020. Congratulations! What’s the process for getting nominated for one of the best dark fantasy books?

Ha, it’s our fun little ghost soldier book. It honestly never occured to me that it was horror — but of course it is. The book is paranormal and revolves around ghosts. We’re honored they recognized it as it was our first graphic novel together.

9. Speaking of dark fantasy, albeit more family friendly, your latest series is the Disney Chills series. What is like working for such a big brand? Are you given a list of villains and approved plots to choose from or do you have all the creative control?

Writing for Disney is a dream come true — and especially getting to write the villains. The series has grown in popularity. Disney has given me so much creative freedom to craft the series, the stories, and set the dark tone. I’m so thrilled they let me write the “unhappily ever after endings.”

10. Since you’re a fan of horror like Stephan King and Goosebumps, how do you manage the balance between chills for middle schoolers while not making it too sanitized?

I write it dark — it’s fantasy horror — but I don’t pull back. Stephen King writes amazing tween and teen characters, and he’s kind of like a YA author in so many ways. My favorite King book is IT.

 11. I can’t ask which was your favorite book to write for the series since you’ve already said Ursula was your favorite villain so that’s why you’ve chosen her first. So I’ll ask, what is your favorite scare sequence or scene from each (or one or two) book?

I love Ursula — my other favorite is Maleficent. I love so many of the scare sequences. The goldfish in the toilet. The ink in the shampoo bottle. The father drinking inky water … I could go on and on.

12. Your latest book Once Upon a Scream has the Mistress of all Evil as the antagonist this time, can you spill any secrets about what’s coming up?

This is my favorite book so far — I love the MIstress of All Evil and wanted to do her justice. There will be a spinning wheel, ravens, a rose garden maze, the sword of truth … and quite possibly a dragon. 

 13. After book 7, is Disney Chills continuing, what other villains do you have in mind? Or any more original works coming up?

I hope to continue the series beyond Book 7. Villain TBA and it will be out in 2023. There are so many villains I still want to write. Let’s hope Disney lets me keep going. I also wrote a Darth Vader story published in the anthology STAR WARS: STORIES OF JEDI AND SITH. I have a dark horror short story coming out in Weird Tales later this year. And I’m working on a new space opera and graphic novels. Stay tuned …

You can find out more at her website: https://www.jenniferbrody.com/ and be on the look out for Once Upon a Scream coming out next week.