SAVANNAH, Ga. () — In the shadowy realms of gothic art, where the eerie and the unsettling reign supreme, Savannah author Brom – that’s it… just Brom – is right at home.

“I’ve always considered myself a storyteller, first and foremost. I tell stories with pictures, art, words, and when I put it all together, that’s my vision. When I was a child, I would take construction paper, and I would write little stories and draw pictures and staple them together and make books. And I’m very fortunate to be doing the same thing now. I’m just using oil paints and computers and word processors.”

Born in Georgia, Brom, an Army brat, spent his entire youth on the move, living in such places as Japan, Hawaii, Germany and Alabama. In his 20s, he began working as a commercial illustrator in Atlanta. From there, he made his mark developing and illustrating for Dungeons & Dragons’ best-selling role-playing worlds. 

From his earliest memories, he has been obsessed with the creation of the weird, the monstrous and the beautiful. And that has resulted in several best-selling books. His most recent, “Evil In Me,” centers on Ruby, a rock and roller who faces possessions and damnation, and must get the world singing in order to save her soul.

Sound cool? It is. And Brom will be at the 2025 Savannah Book Festival in February to talk about his work and meet fans. He’s looking forward to discussing how being an author and a visual artist work in tandem to help his creative process. He says that it usually starts with a “tickle.”

“Usually, the story starts out with a germ of an idea. Something that tickles me, that interests me, and it can be a very small element. And I usually can kinda work out where I want it to start, where I want it to end, and some of the key points along the way. But I always leave myself free. Once I’ve learned who the characters are, they often start steering the story. The characters start writing. And then that’s when writing is at its best.”

When Brom writes in the female voice, he often bounces ideas off his wife, Laurie, who is also a talented artist. He often finds he has more in common with his characters who are very different from him – women and children, to name a few – than he expected.

“Many of them are based on a lot of my life as a self-described misfit in the South in the late 70s, early 80s. And for me as an artist, I found music, especially punk rock, gave me a lot of freedom to be myself. So I’ve channeled a lot of my personal experiences into their experiences.” 

And those experiences resonate with his readers. “Being an author and an artist means spending a lot of time by yourself in a room. Though I’m an introvert, I still very much enjoy meeting face-to-face with people.”

Brom will discuss his book, “Evil In Me,” at the 2025 Savannah Book Festival on Saturday, Feb. 5, at 5 p.m. in the Jepson’s Neises Auditorium. All Saturday author events are free and open to the public. Click here for the festival schedule.