We had the good fortune of connecting with Brian Skeens and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brian, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I knew my work defied genre so I figured I’d invent my own!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I have always been a writer but I didn’t realize that until I read Of Human Bondage. Here was not one who fled the sesquipedalian when no other would suffice; here was an ear for the true vernacular, and most of all who embraced Emotion. I had found with my then Silly Putty sensibility the katharsis and joy which filled me every time I wrote what I felt in any genre. My mental illness is my chief antagonist and War with it never ceases, and I am proud of confounding it each day!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I hope money wouldn’t be an obstacle because I’d have to take my friend 6 hours away to Raleigh, North Carolina—my favorite city in America. We’d go to a movie at the marvelous independent theatre there and browse the shelves of the seemingly endless bookshops. I hope he would find my enthusiasm winsome.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There’s only one deserving of Any shoutout from me, and that is my beautiful, gifted and boundlessly patient wife, Kerry Lyn Skeens. I had died had I not found her love in the land of the living!

Website: Hiraethlit.com

Instagram: Nouveaumontaigne70

Twitter: @OfTheBeetGarden

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