Ohio crime novelist's star continues to rise By Craig McDonald, ThisWeek Staff Writer The day before novelist Don Bruns spoke with ThisWeek, Michael Jackson was arrested in Santa Barbara and record producer Phil Spector was charged with murder. Either case could easily serve as source material for future Bruns books. The Lima, Ohio, native has published two crime fiction novels featuring music journalist Mick Sever -- mystery novels that turn on the bad behavior of high-profile musicians. Bruns' new novel is Barbados Heat (St. Martin's Minotaur, 320 pages, $24.95). It pitches Sever into the rap music world, covering the death of a congressman who has been taking shots at the industry and its artists. While the novel satisfies all of the demands of the crime fiction genre, it also views the issue of rap music -- and its frequent glorification of guns, drugs and misogynistic, even violent, sexual behavior -- from all viewpoints. "I don't want to see any form of art sterilized," Bruns recently told ThisWeek, explaining his own conflicted feelings toward the subject of rap music. "I also have a lot of problems with some of it. ... I think some of these guys had such nasty childhoods. If you can make a living with that, then do it, I guess." The first Sever novel, 2002's Jamaica Blue, saw the journalist tracking a rising Rastafarian band, "Derrick and the Laments," who are losing female fans -- to murder -- along their tour circuit. "When Jamaica Blue came out," Bruns said, "at the same time, they caught the two snipers in Washington, D.C., and there was this whole backstory about a Jamaican Rastafarian band, and that Malvo and his partner were following the lyrics of this band. I said, 'Oh my God, that's exactly what this story (Jamaica Blue) is about.' I think, like most mystery themes, there's something out there that's real that happens either before or after." Bruns comes by his knowledge of the music industry honestly. For several years, he performed with a partner, opening for Ray Charles, the Platters and Redd Foxx, among others. "We went on the road for about six years, and we did a two-man standup," Bruns said. "I did a solo act for a long time after that, and I still play once in a while. About three years ago, I put out a CD of original stuff that I just self-published. But I'm really proud of it. It's a good CD, and I take it along at some of the signings and if people are interested, we give it to 'em with the book." Bruns said his own music has often been compared by others to that of Jimmy Buffett. "It's got a Caribbean flavor to it," he said. "It's got a country/rock kind of feel to it. I never tried to pattern it after anyone. They are more ballads. Even the up-tempo stuff has got more of a ballad feel, I think. It's the kind of stuff I like. I was kind of a Folkie -- I go back to that time." In addition to his musical pursuits and career as a rising star on the crime fiction front, Bruns also runs a successful advertising agency based in Lima, and is a partner in a bookstore, Bookends Used and Rare Books, also located in Lima. "The ad agency thing is funny," Bruns said. "I've done that for 23 years. I have a company called Adman and we do traditional advertising. But we started 23 years ago writing messages on telephone systems. We called it Hold It Systems. That's the name of the organization. We think that we probably invented, on a national level, messages on telephones. So if you hate that ..." The author credits his many years of writing successful ad copy for helping him to develop his propulsive, stripped-down prose style. "There are too many writers who overdo it," Bruns said. "They're over-flowery and they spend much too much time on something. I'm sure I have problems, but I think that a lot of the writing style I have is based on writing advertising copy." Bruns divides his time between Ohio and a second home in Sarasota, Fla. The Sever series is largely centered around Florida and the Caribbean. The author's interest in the crime fiction genre dates back to his childhood, when, as an elementary school student, Bruns shot off a never-published short story to Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. Despite that early rejection, Bruns continued to nurse a dream of someday publishing crime novels. Several years ago, he said, he attended a mystery convention at which he successfully bid in an auction for the right to have a manuscript evaluated by (former Bexley-area resident) Sue Grafton. The creator of the best-selling alphabet-titled mystery series provided the aspiring novelist with a candid and sweeping critique. Grafton also thought Bruns showed considerable promise and encouraged him to rise to the challenge of taking another swing at a new novel. "I really started from scratch," Bruns said. "I used 'Ginny' and 'Sever' in Jamaica Blue. ... I pitched a lot of it. Grafton said, 'Don't give me that crap: I wrote five books and I didn't publish any of them.' She said, 'If you can't write one more, then you shouldn't be doing this,' and I said, 'She's right.' So I totally pitched it and decided 90 percent of it wasn't worth saving." Bruns' second effort at writing a mystery novel paid off: Grafton was pivotal in helping Bruns secure a publishing contract for Jamaica Blue. Bruns is now revising the third entry in the Mick Sever series and envisions several more. He also said he has some ideas for a couple of possible nonfiction projects. Bruns is now engaged in the fairly rare endeavor of recording the audio versions of his own books. "My publisher actually sold the recording rights to Jamaica Blue to Blackstone Audio in Oregon," Bruns explained. "I had my agent call Blackstone and ask, 'Could Don do the book?' They came back with an emphatic, 'Absolutely not. We don't have authors read. We just don't do that. They're just notoriously bad ... they don't get it.' "So I sent them three chapters, anyway," he continued. "They came back and said, 'You can read your book, and would you be interested in doing some other ones?'" So that was kind of cool. I did it in my studio. It was kind of fun to go through that process." Bruns will be reading from his new novel -- in person -- at 7 p.m. Dec. 10 at Books & Co. in Kettering/Dayton (350 East Stroop Road). He is also tentatively scheduled to appear at at least one Columbus-area bookstore early next year. © 2003 ThisWeekNewspapers. All rights reserved.