BRIANT LASLO AUTUMN IRON WRITER CHAMP

Congratulations to Briant Laslo for winning the Iron Writer Autumn Quarterlies with his flash story “Vibrancy.” Briant moves on to compete for the year title in June 2022. He won his first competition in July with “The Descent.” Today, meet Briant Laslo:

First off, congratulations Briant! I think you have competed in every competition we’ve had from the beginning, so I’m really happy to see you qualify for the year competition next year. This means we will be seeing more of you in the future. Can you please tell us about yourself as a person and a writer?

BRIANT LASLO: Well, I’m a bit of an anomaly. I was born with a form of muscular dystrophy and I’ve been in a wheelchair since I was two years old. My parents were originally told I would be lucky if I made it until I was five, I just turned 50 this past July. And, the only medicine I am on is a minor blood pressure medicine, so, no difficulties breathing, talking or anything else. When I turned 18 or so, my doctors LITERALLY said “okay, we give up, we don’t know how long he is going to live, just like anybody else.” I’ve kind of embraced that way of thinking my entire life. I never want to end my life wondering “what if I had…” None of us know how much time we have left in this reality, so we all need to enjoy as much as we can. And writing is a part of that for me. Whether it’s something dark, or funny, or outright adventurous, it’s a great outlet for me to create something that, on the one hand, just gets it out of me, and on the other creates something that people can, hopefully, enjoy.

Wow! That is such a fantastic origin story! From my point of view, I think you are really lucky to be aware of the immediacy of existence and I can see it in the flash fictions you’ve posted at ironwriters.com. When did you first know you were a writer? Where has your writing taken you? 

BRIANT LASLO: You know, I still struggle a bit identifying as “a writer”. I think it’s more that I associate “writer” with a profession, and I have not as of yet attained the level where I can treat writing as my profession. Although, that is certainly the dream. My best life would be being able to sustain myself with my writing. I’ve always considered myself a storyteller though. Ever since I started playing Dungeons & Dragons when I was just eight years old, I was always the storyteller, the Dungeon Master. At social gatherings I’m always ready to retell stories that actually happened in my past, or create brand-new tales just to get people talking and interacting. It’s only in the last three or four years that I started trying to focus a bit more on getting my writings out to a wider audience. It’s taken me to a couple of conventions, I learned more about the Civil War than I ever knew before from researching a steam punk story I was writing, small journeys like that. 

I think every artist struggles with that imposter syndrome at some point in their life. I know I do. An unfortunate fact is that many great writers never reached the point of supporting themselves with their work. I think you have definitely earned the right to identify as a writer. Aside from the ability to crush self-doubt, what do you think are some of the most important skills for a writer to have? 

BRIANT LASLO: I think that creativity is obviously the most important. Doesn’t matter if you are creating a home from scratch or researching some actual historical event, if you can’t be creative with it then it’s not going to interest anybody. Whether it’s creatively describing the scenario, the times, the lay of the land, or coming up with a whole new plot twist that nobody saw coming but still makes perfect sense, it’s all about creativity. And then I think that being able to go with the flow is extremely important. For me anyway, a story takes on its own life. It doesn’t necessarily go exactly the way you thought it was going to go at the beginning, or even necessarily finish exactly the way that you thought it would. Characters start to breathe and make their own decisions, and there comes a point where you think about what you wanted your character to do next and you realize “there’s no way she would do that!” Well, when that happens, you can’t force the character, you have to be true to that character and see where it takes you. Which, I suppose, kind of leads back to creativity.

I love it when the characters in a story start to do their own thing. It’s the one time when we, as creators, get to be surprised. Maybe that’s why so many deities choose to serve time as mortals—it’s nice not knowing what happens every minute. How about you—what is your most important and treasured moment as a writer. How about as a human?

BRIANT LASLO: Well, as I mentioned earlier, I feel like I’m still pretty much in the infancy of “being a writer”. I think that as of right now, possibly my most treasured moment was attending my first World Fantasy Convention, which was the 44th annual in Baltimore. Being able to hang out with so many different people, both established and aspiring authors was fantastic. I remember having a late night conversation in a group that included Scott Edelman, and people were just talking about who they were. When it came my time, I mentioned that I just had my first short story published, an alternate telling of Cinderella. And, the way that a number of the other aspiring authors reacted saying “well geez, that’s more than I’ve had, I don’t have anything published yet other than self-publishing!” And Scott Edelman congratulating me on the good work of getting something published really felt great.

As a human, it would be meeting my best friend Karen. We met back in 1993 on a now defunct early social media network called Quantum Link. She was living up in Salem, Massachusetts. I was in a small town called Johnstown, Pennsylvania (look it up, floods kill everybody about every 40 years) and we hit it off. We now live together in Pittsburgh and she helps me with everything that my muscular dystrophy makes it more difficult for me to do. From getting in and out of bed, to eating, to traveling. She is without question the sole reason I am still alive at 50 AND happy to be alive.

I think some of my most treasured moments have happened at writer conventions as well. There is nothing quite as empowering as being in a group like-minded people. Finding your best friend is also up there. Where do you hope your writing will lead you in the future? 

BRIANT LASLO: As I mentioned earlier, being able to sustain myself as a writer is the dream. The bigger dream would be being able to sustain my immediate circle so they didn’t have to have regular, mundane jobs either. But, beyond that, would just love to be able to bring some kind of escape to more people. Whether it’s a 10 minute flash fiction story that somebody can read during their lunch break, or a 300 page fantasy epic that they can enjoy over a few nights. Would love to be able to make more conventions as well, I enjoy the interaction with a bunch of creative minds.

I hope to see you at some conventions! I plan to physically attend StokerCon and Necon next year. Personally, I hope virtual conventions become a staple that continue long past the pandemic. I’ve enjoyed getting to attend a lot more this last year. Can you share what you have coming up, and where we can find you?

BRIANT LASLO: I’m working on three separate stories right now that I hope I’m able to develop into full-length novels. I’m working on a shorter comedy idea that’s coming in at around 60,000 words. A real-world introspective serial killer story that’s more of your typical book length, looking at about 80,000 words. And then lastly, a friend of mine and I have worked on a fantasy novel, the first of a trilogy, for many many years. The actual writing of it is complete and coming in as a big one, around 120,000 words. I hope to someday be in a position where I can spend the time needed to tighten it up, streamline it and find a home for it. You can find me online at amazon.com/author/briantlaslo and on Facebook at facebook.com/Briant.S.Laslo.

Biography: Briant Laslo has been defying the odds for a long time. Born with a form of Muscular Dystrophy, his parents were told he would be dead before he was five years old. He turned five in 1977 and is still going strong. Despite the wheelchair and extremely limited use of his arms, he has driven across the country four separate times with his friend and believes in experiencing as much of this life as possible. Having spent the last 15 years working in the world of Social Media, building relationships between Fortune 1000 companies and their members, Briant has seen the impact a good story can make. An avid reader, he now is beginning his journey in the world of writing, seeking to bring his creations and stories to a larger audience.