About the Author, Brian Tremain Gill
Brian Tremain Gill is an international lawyer by trade, a former quasi-diplomat by accident, and a writer by calling. His middle name comes from the children's book by Esther Forbes. He might have lived up to literary expectations sooner if not for a habit of venturing off to faraway lands – although consequently he would have fewer interesting tales to tell.
Author Brian T. Gill
Adventures in Throgwottum Glen Wonkus
In 1992 Brian spent the summer in Armenia, where he endured bombardments from neighboring Azerbaijan. Eight years later he worked in Turkmenistan under constant surveillance. He, his wife, and their first son were in Kyrgyzstan during the coup of 2005, living within yards of a street beset by looters and arsonists. In 2008 his family, now with a second son, managed to be in the middle of both a shelling (Ashkelon, Israel) and war (Tbilisi, Georgia). Brian's professors had emphasized that international law may be practiced from the comfort of an air-conditioned office. Approximately once a month he regrets not heeding their advice. The rest of the time he feels deeply enriched by his encounters, and grateful to have emerged unscathed. Every day he hopes to put his experiences to positive use.
Brian contends that he has produced volumes of fiction, though past works written for bureaucracies were often treated as factual. Thankfully, trees are renewable. “Adventures in Throgwottum Glen: Wonkus”™ is one of Brian's first truth-in-labelling attempts at the genre. Previously he authored poems and short stories, several of which are posted under the Free Materials section. Not a single jinjibar was logged to print any book or other resource available through this site.
While living in Vienna Brian developed an appreciation for opera, which clears his mind for writing. GubuGars' self-proclaimed "Factotum" title is inspired by “The Barber of Seville,” and the “Adventures in Throgwottum Glen” series has a mild buffa tone. Veering into the tragic form, Brian regards Puccini's “Vissi d'arte” as sublime.
Lastly, he is enormously fond of pigs [read “The Garbadine Swine” in Free Materials], whom he considers underrated within the animal kingdom. To the chagrin of his wife, he wishes to acquire a baby potbelly, to be named Winston. Brian insists that listening to heavenly arias can be reconciled with maintaining a mud-dwelling pet.
“ [N]o civilization rests forever content with literary boredom and literary violence. Once again, a conscience may speak to a conscience in the pages of books, and the parched rising generation may grope their way toward the springs of moral imagination. ”
— Russell Kirk“ This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it's done. It's that easy, and that hard ”
— Neil Gaiman“ There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting. ”
— Louis Brandeis“ Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer. ”
— Barbara Kingsolver“ The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story. ”
— Ursula K. Le Guin“ It is the writer who might catch the imagination of young people, and plant a seed that will flower and come to fruition. ”
— Isaac AsimovIn penning “Adventures in Throgwottum Glen: Wonkus”™ Brian strove to follow Kurt Vonnegut's eight rules:
- 1. Use a time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel that the time was wasted.
- 2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
- 3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
- 4. Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.
- 5. Start as close to the end as possible.
- 6. Be a sadist.
- 7. Write to please just one person.
- 8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible.
