We chat with debut author Brian Asman about Good Dogs, which is a heartfelt and harrowing story of survival, belonging, found family, and the lengths we’ll go to protect it.
Hi, Brian! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Sure, I’m a writer and sometime producer/actor/director from San Diego, California. I’ve been lucky enough to get work produced across multiple mediums, from novels (Good Dogs) to film (A Haunting in Ravenwood) and comics (Tales of Horrorgasm). I like to write across genres, too, but I’m primarily a horror guy. When I’m not writing, I’m playing with my Staffordshire Terrier, Dracula, and hiking, cycling, jumping in the ocean, and enjoying an ice-cold craft beer.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
It’s been with me as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, I would make up new names, powers, and universes for my action figures, and act out complicated, ongoing storylines. In third grade, I actually got in trouble because some friends and I were writing stories where we’d all fight Freddy and Jason, but we kept killing each other off in super brutal ways and my teacher was not happy about it. Luckily she was very encouraging about the writing part, she just wanted us to be a little less murdery. If only she could see me now!
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: I can’t remember my first, but I read Matilda by Roald Dahl dozens of times as a kid.
- The one that made you want to become an author: I’ll go with Tapping the Source by Kem Nunn.
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Teatro Grotesco by Thomas Ligotti.
Your debut novel, Good Dogs, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Werewolves v. Slasher. You buy.
What can readers expect?
A high energy, propulsive narrative spanning multiple time periods, with an emphasis on found family and fraught interpersonal relationships. Also, werewolves.
Where did the inspiration for Good Dogs come from?
I’ve always loved bipedal werewolves, like The Howling. I’ve also always loved slasher flicks. I’d never seen the two concepts put together before like this: a slasher yarn where werewolves are the victims. So I had the basic premise. Then the other thing that inspired the book was seeing an actual central California ghost town for sale. For like $250,000, which is half the price of a one-bedroom condo where I live, you could buy a literal ghost town. Boom, I had a unique location. If I was a werewolf, and a remote, unpopulated town were that (relatively) affordable, why not buy it and have a place to “wolf out” in peace? But then, what if I’m not alone? What if the town’s got a bloody history, as Old West ghost towns are wont to do? WHAT IF THERE’S SOMETHING THERE AND IT WANTS TO KILL ME, MUAHAHAHAHA?
Yeah, so that’s where.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
This is going to sound like a bit of a copout, but I’m always having the time of my life when I’m writing. The flashback scenes were especially fun to write, because I changed the voice of each particular section to fit the time period.
This is your debut published novel! What was the road to becoming a published author like for you?
I’ve had something of an unorthodox journey, in that this is my first full-length novel but I’ve published several novellas, one of which was fairly successful. I’ve written all my life, but got serious in 2016. I started publishing short stories in anthologies that year. Then I went back to school, got an MFA, got an agent, wrote a couple bad novels and then some okay ones, became a meme, and then scored a 2-book deal with Blackstone, plus a film deal with a major studio. The last few years have been a whirlwind, but that’s how it goes in publishing. There’s a lot of lag time, then things hit an inflection point and BOOM, everything’s happening. It’s definitely been an exciting ride.
What’s next for you?
My next book, Man F*ck This House (and Other Disasters), comes out in October 2025 from Blackstone. Very excited for that one, it’s an expanded edition of my hit viral novella Man, Fuck This House with additional short stories. And I’ve got a few film projects in the pipeline as well.
Lastly, what books have you enjoyed so far this year and are there any that you can’t wait to get your hands on?
As far as new releases go, I really dug I was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones. I finally read House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski and loved it. A few other notable books I’ve especially enjoyed this year are American Narcissus by Chandler Morrison, For You by Mona Kabbani, Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison, and It’s Alive! By Julian David Stone, which is a fictionalized account of the 1931 production of Jame Whale’s Frankenstein.
