Conversations with B.R. Bates

Today we’d like to introduce you to B.R. Bates

Hi B.R., thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Hi there. I’m B.R., and I’ve been a writer all my life, ever since I was a little girl and pasted together sheets of ruled paper to write my first “book.” (I still have that somewhere!). Over the years I’ve written all kinds of stuff — poetry, short stories, a one-act play, novels, pop culture reference books (!), even science fiction. When I was in high school and it came time to think about a career, I knew I wanted to be writing, and I was steered by others toward journalism. I thought … working at a newspaper? Reporting? Really? It didn’t seem to fit the ideal life I pictured (at the time!) of writing novels. I was not the gregarious, outgoing type that I pictured a reporter to be.

But things have evolved for me — so much! I went ahead and took the journalism route because it seemed logical — I could be doing this for a day job and continue my freelance writing in the off-hours. I graduated from Michigan State University’s accredited School of Journalism, and I spent a decade in the daily newspaper biz. I concentrated more on the editing of copy and the design of pages. I really enjoyed that. But I was always writing, and I continued my fiction writing on the side, then eventually took more of a journalism turn in my off-hours, too — researching classic television shows for reference books. I have truly loved that, and I continue to do that as time allows. But in more recent years, I have developed a love for true crime. I have been eating up the TV shows like “Dateline” and “Forensic Files,” and rather naturally then turned to researching those kinds of book projects, as well. For my first true-crime book, “The ‘Baby Doll’ Serial Killer,” I collaborated with someone who is a friend of a friend, a retired Detroit cop who worked this serial killer case in 2000. And it has been a very fascinating, rewarding project. It has definitely returned me more solidly to the journalism roots I grew in college.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
If you concentrate on your career, everything is a climb. I was single throughout my 20s and 30s and even 40s, for the most part, so I could give a lot of care and attention to my work. Each job I got was a rung on the ladder. I would say it was actually hardest to find that jumping-off point right out of college. I worked for a lobbying agency before I was able to get my first “career” job, which was editing at a software company. From there, I went to my first daily newspaper job, which meant a move out of state. That was very scary for a chick in her young 20s, though it was a necessary growth move. (I’ve lived in four different states so far, and I think it’s very beneficial, character-wise.) I’m thankful that the trajectory of my “day jobs” over the years has been consistently uphill, and I was at the director’s level in my 30s. I still have a day job, for that sense of security, I guess, but it’s part-time these days so I can give more time to my own writing projects.

So I would say, overall, the ability to pay the bills during the daytime, still practicing the trade of your chosen career path, then spending your off-hours doing the work you really love, and to somehow keep moving forward, keep learning, keep progressing, at both of those, is the biggest challenge. It’s a balance, and a sort of dance. But it’s been rewarding. I know there are a lot of people out there who do a day job that’s sheer drudgery for them, so that it allows them to do what they really love in the off-hours. I respect that a lot, too. I’ve been fortunate enough to keep with my desired career for my day job, too, but I know it’s not always possible to do that.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Writing is like breathing for me. I can sit down and write just about anything at any time. I don’t know why. It’s just second-nature for me. A gift from the Lord, really. Editing is second nature in much the same way. When I served as the communications manager for a megachurch in Atlanta, my boss told me I was like a chameleon and could adapt writing styles for whatever format I had to write in. And I’ve really written in a bunch of different styles over the years — not just different lengths and genres of books, but also newspaper stories, magazine stories, websites, advertising copy, radio spots, TV spots, social media posts, whatever.

These days, though, for my day job I manage websites for a federal government agency (“U.S. Department of …”). I’ve been doing that for about 15 years. That job involves a small writing component, but it’s more editing and coordinating production. It pays the bills, as my true love is in my own writing projects. For years, I researched and wrote fun little goofy reference guides to the classic TV shows I grew up with and loved. More recently, I have veered to the true-crime path, and I absolutely love it. I wish I would have started these true-crime projects years ago, but I guess my interest wasn’t there back then. My tastes have changed a lot over the years. Now, if I could do this true-crime thing full-time, I definitely would. But as a fellow reporter-friend of mine has said (he did his own book about a Detroit criminal case), there’s not any money in it. It doesn’t necessarily pay the bills. You sell a few copies, but not every book is a bestseller as people often assume. We’re not churning out instant Harry Potters here. There are a lot of writers who toil away in relative obscurity, and that’s a challenge, too. You have to love it, in order to do it. It’s truly the cliche of a labor of love.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
The advice I give to aspiring writers — because believe me, if I had a dime for every person who’s ever told me they want to write a book! — is to just start writing. Start jotting down notes. People talk about writer’s block, but I’ve honestly never had it. I can always write. But a lot of people do get blocked, and I think it’s because of their own expectations or the perceptions that they’ve heard from others, that things have to follow a certain process, or go in a certain way. For instance, the idea of starting a book at the very beginning. The first sentence. And what if they can’t think of that first sentence? Well, it’s a terrible way to tie yourself up. I say just jot down notes. Jot down where things are going later in the book. Write a chapter from the end of the book. Just write wherever in the process you want to write, knowing full-well that you can rearrange it later. Microsoft Word is a marvelous thing — it allows copying and pasting! Don’t be bound by the process that other people follow. Develop a process that works for *you,* and it may be no process at all.

As far as what I wish I knew when I was starting out, I’m really not sure. Just keep moving forward, I guess. You won’t always have an audience. Sometimes you’ll have an audience of one. Don’t be discouraged — especially nowadays, when everything is about likes and shares and follows. We weren’t burdened by that when I was starting out! But if you believe it, and you feel it, write it for yourself, if nothing else. Writing is very therapeutic. You may never even share what you write. But don’t worry if it takes you a while to find your audience. There’s a mass competition nowadays for “market share” — for a slice of audience in a world that’s continually getting more and more overwhelmed with content (I don’t have enough hours in the day to listen to all the podcasts I am interested in). So don’t worry about the likes and follows.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://BRBates.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brbates.author
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BRBates
• Other: https://www.goodreads.com/br-bates