About:
John Brady is drawn to sci-fi’s imaginative pleasures, LA’s sprawling possibilities, and political satire’s hope for a better future. His second novel, The Public Sector, a speculative fable for our post-real times, will drop in February. Golden Palms, his first novel, is an LA noir and it’s funny in places. His other fiction and non-fiction writing have appeared in various outlets, including the sci-fi anthology AB Terra, Allium, pioneertown, Exposition Review, the Los Angeles Review, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Mother Jones, Punk Planet, and on National Public Radio. He’s written speeches for mayors, CEOs and community leaders, helped citizens fight the dark arts of bureaucratic obfuscation and created political policies that turned out to be pretty useful.
The Public Sector tells the story of a fragmented world of multiple truths, a cop who must keep it that way, and a band of young rebels determined to stitch reality back together again.
“Blade Runner Meets the Goonies”
Matt Lanzdorf
In a normal world, the police are supposed to keep the peace. This isn’t a normal world, and Vera Burns isn’t a normal cop. The center has not held. Vera’s fellow citizens—folks like the book burners and the book lovers, the neo-puritans and the pan-sensualists, the dog people and the cat people, the daynighters and the nightcrawlers—have retreated behind walls where they nurse their particular understanding of what’s true and real. In this segmented status quo, Vera’s job is to keep the separation. Neither Vera nor anyone else believes it’s paradise. But they know it’s better than the polarized and violent past. It’s stable. Predictable even.
Until a girl ends up dead in a place she doesn’t belong. Was it a murder? An accident? Why was she so far from home? As Vera investigates, she discovers an underground movement of rebel kids conspiring to resurrect the civic spirit and build a true city. Now Vera must decide whether this plan is the dream of silly children or the way to a better future.
Golden Palms isn’t your usual noir.
It’s funny in places. It’s about politics.
Ted Burek isn’t some jaded private dick or bitter cop with a past. In fact, Ted’s not much of a detective at all. He’s a low-level political hack looking for some redemption in LA’s halls of power. Someone doesn’t want to make it easy for him, though. Someone is determined to make trouble for his boss.
To get to the bottom of what’s going on, Ted will face off with a ghostly gang assassin, radical bicyclists, out-of-town hard boys with malice in their hearts, slick real estate developers, over-confident tech bros, bloviating pols and one strident, but beguiling political activist.
As Ted gets closer to the truth and further in over his head, he’ll discover just how high the price of justice can be.
The Latest
Ab Terra 2024
The fifth edition of this sci-fi anthology from Brain Mill Press featuring writers from across the globe. It’s an honor to have my story “You Will Let Me Be” included. It’s a speculative tale about the potentially unfair privileging of the past, status anxiety, intergenerational conflict, and stabbing.
Aurora
A story about the northern lights, child endangerment, and perceptions of nature and beauty across time.
Wanted: Bios
Set in the probably-not-so-distant future, a story about inspiration, biographical appropriation, debts owed, and starving to death.
Artists as Writers: Speechwriting
The writers in this marvelous collection reflect on the steps they took on the path to their craft. I was honored to contribute my story about becoming a speechwriter.
“The White Pine”
A story about the first tree in the forest and the cycles of natural and human history. It’s about death too.
Some Other Stories
“Tomorrow’s Gonna Go Off”
A story about not-quite requited friendship set in Venice, California. There’s surfing and mediations on masculinity, violence and loneliness in it too.
“This Is an Interview with a Pipe”
A story about treachery and pipes. Winner of Exposition Review’s Flash 405 “Change in Perspective” contest.
“A Wheel Story”
A story about wheels and memory and admiring a friend for a talent he has but you don’t.
“Sinker”
A story about fathers and sons and beer.
“A Confusion Story”
A story about two Martin Landaus, cryogenics, and the wish to have avoided embarrassment.
“Six Across”
An LA Noir about words and rum.