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<\/p>\nKnox Thompson thinks he\u2019s working a hustle, but it\u2019s a hustle that\u2019s working him. Trying to keep his pizza shop and parents afloat, he cleans out a backroom Kentucky poker game, only to get roped into dealing marijuana by the proprietor\u2014an arrangement Knox only halfheartedly resists.<\/p>\n
Knox\u2019s shop makes the perfect front for a marijuana operation, but his supplier turns out to be violent and calculating, and Knox ends up under his thumb. It\u2019s not long before more than just the pizza shop is at risk.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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SHELDON LEE COMPTON<\/strong>: Tell me a little about how your recent novel Hillbilly Hustle<\/em><\/a> came to be.<\/p>\n WESLEY BROWNE<\/strong>: My family has co-owned a pizza shop called Apollo Pizza in Richmond, Kentucky since 2012, but all told it\u2019s been around about forty years. Before we owned it, it was kind of an open secret in town that you could buy pot there. It struck me that a pizza shop that sells pot made a decent setting for a book. I was in a novel class at the Appalachian Writers\u2019 Workshop<\/a> in 2014 and we were supposed to develop a protagonist. That was where I started to work on the idea of this pizza shop owner. He changed a lot over the course of time and so did the book, but the seeds of Knox Thompson and Hillbilly Hustle<\/em> were planted there. In the novel, Knox owns Porthos Pizza, a pizza shop in Richmond, Kentucky that bears an eerie resemblance to the old Apollo Pizza.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n SLC<\/strong>: It\u2019s especially clear you put a lot of thought into the book. It\u2019s the first true treatment of the contemporary landscape of marijuana in our fair commonwealth, to my thinking. As you\u2019ve told me before, that\u2019s an aspect of the drug culture in Kentucky that\u2019s not often put into focus. And Apollo Pizza\u2026man it\u2019s a legendary spot for regional literature, too. You host readings there, if I\u2019m remembering correctly. How important is it to you to support others who are out there writing and publishing, laying their hearts bare so to speak? The one time we had a chance to actually hang out, during the Lincoln Memorial University literary get-together back in 2015, I knew right away you were a generous member of the citizenry.<\/p>\n WB<\/strong>: We\u2019ve hosted readings at Apollo Pizza for I don\u2019t know how many years, at our Pages & Pints Reading Series. It didn\u2019t actually start there. Before we brought it to Apollo, I hosted a series at the Richmond Area Arts Council for a couple years. Before that I was going to readings on campus at Eastern Kentucky University. Only six or eight people would show and I would be the only non-student who wasn\u2019t there for credit for a class. It seemed like a waste of the writers\u2019 talents but it was kind of the only game in town. I wanted to bring those writers to the community, and also the community to those writers. My wife was president of the Arts Council at the time and they didn\u2019t host any literary events, so the board was glad for someone to create programming.<\/p>\n We drew decent audiences to most of those events, and after we took over operations at Apollo, we\u2019d go there afterward for dinner and drinks. Logistically, it became easier to just host the whole thing at Apollo, where I had the run of the facility and the schedule. Pages & Pints was born.<\/p>\n At its peak, we drew more than 60 people to standing room only readings a couple times. We\u2019ve had some really big names. As with anything, attendance has slacked off some with passing time, but we still draw 20-30 most nights we host a reading, which is nothing to sneeze at. Once a year we host one to fund a scholarship to the Appalachian Writers\u2019 Workshop. That\u2019s the next one coming up. It\u2019s the only one that\u2019s not free to attend.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n SLC<\/strong>: It\u2019s really interesting to learn the history behind the series. And if you\u2019re getting 30 people to a literary reading, you\u2019re basically performing magic. That\u2019s fantastic.<\/p>\n So how have things been going with your debut novel Hillbilly Hustle<\/em>? Do you have many events lined up\u2014readings, book signings, and so forth? Do you have plans to write another book? Also, if you would, talk some about how you became interested in writing and how you became connected with the Appalachian literature scene in general.<\/p>\n WB<\/strong>: This being my first book, the business baffles me a little. Hillbilly Hustle\u2019s<\/em> official publication date is March 1, but tons of people had it in hand by late January. I knew it would go early, but not that early. It had something to do with stock issues at online sellers, and in trying to fix them their internal release dates got changed and it started shipping.<\/p>\n Our first launch event isn\u2019t until February 27\u00a0at Country Boy Brewing. They brewed a special Hillbilly Hustle beer\u2014delicious, by the way. I\u2019ve been writing novels for 23 years and this is the first time I\u2019ve published one. I\u2019m also a pretty incorrigible extrovert. Because of that, I\u2019m ready to come flying out of the box. We have 25 appearances in seven states and I am here for it. I\u2019m sure it\u2019ll be a grind, but it\u2019s a grind I\u2019ve craved.<\/p>\n I have a follow up to Hillbilly Hustle<\/em> in progress called Spoon<\/em>. It\u2019s the second of three books I have planned involving these characters. The antagonist from Hillbilly Hustle<\/em>, Burl Spoon, is at the heart of the next.<\/p>\n I moved to Kentucky in 1996, and soon after that I started to read regional authors. I didn\u2019t really come into the Appalachian literature scene until I attended the Appalachian Writers\u2019 Workshop in 2011. That was the first time I connected with the actual people who wrote what I was reading. My teachers that year were Silas House, Amy Greene, and Charles Dodd White. That changed everything. Not just what I started to learn, but the friends I made who were also writing. I attended the workshop as a student for a total of five years straight. I read so much Appalachian Lit there at one stretch that I had to make a conscious decision to branch out. I still do read a good bit of it, but I\u2019m reading more diversely these days.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n SLC<\/strong>: A couple things right off the bat. Spoon<\/em> is a fantastic title for a novel and 25 appearances in seven states. My friend that seems nightmarish to me, but since you are looking forward to it I\u2019m incredibly happy for you. And it\u2019ll be great exposure for the novel. But seven states? Lordymercy.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t know you moved to Kentucky from elsewhere. That\u2019s great. We gained a good citizen of the commonwealth for sure. Whereabouts did you move from? Also, it sounds like you\u2019ve read and studied the literature enough to earn a platinum Kentucky Colonel title by this point. I\u2019ve been told the Appalachian Writers\u2019 Workshop is a fine get-together, and I know several of the folks you mentioned there. Good, good people all around. I can see how spending time there would have helped make you one helluva writer.<\/p>\n Tell me a little about some of the novels you wrote leading up to the publication of Hillbilly Hustle. <\/em><\/p>\n WB<\/strong>: I came to Kentucky to go to law school at UK but I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit. My wife is from Eastern Kentucky and we were in all the same classes as 1Ls. She didn\u2019t want to move and I didn\u2019t want to leave, so it worked out. The first novel I wrote I started between my first and second year, and big shocker, it was an overly autobiographical novel about a guy at UK law school. Isn\u2019t everyone\u2019s first like that? It was real long, and real bad, but I put some words under my belt.<\/p>\n The next was about a kid who graduates high school but doesn\u2019t go to college as a way of pissing off his doctor father who he blames for the breakup of his marriage to his mother. The kid lives in his mom\u2019s basement and just jacks around. It was better than the first, but it wasn\u2019t good enough.<\/p>\n After that I wrote a tropey middle grade novel for my oldest son that I read to him a chapter at a time as I went. Honestly, I still think that one\u2019s pretty good. I like writing children\u2019s books. I have this gross kids book manuscript that both my sister and David Joy liked better than Hillbilly Hustle<\/em>. I\u2019ve written some humor pieces that appeared on the McSweeney\u2019s website, and it\u2019s more in line with that. I\u2019ve promised my sister that when the smoke clears I\u2019ll dust that one off and see if I can do something with it. I\u2019m going to need a pseudonym or something because it\u2019s bananas. It\u2019s called The Booger Billionaire<\/em>. You know, highbrow stuff.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n SLC<\/strong>: It\u2019s taken a certain talent to write children\u2019s books. The Booger Billionaire<\/em> sounds great. I hope it gets out there someday soon.<\/p>\n Before I get into my next question I\u2019m going to include a couple links to some work of yours. The McSweeney\u2019s piece and a fine column of yours from The Richmond Register<\/em>.<\/p>\n The Reality You Must Accept Upon Setting Foot In My Chipotle @ McSweeney\u2019s<\/a><\/p>\n