In the midst of the Hollins Children's Literature summer semester, not only has Hollins professor Alexandria LaFaye paused in the midst of her teaching to answer some questions for me, but she's also found the time to do this with a brand new baby!
A. LaFaye is the author Worth (winner of the Scott O'Dell award for Historical Fiction), The Year of the Sawdust Man, the recently released Water Steps and many more titles. She's also a fantastic person & loves helping her students make their books the best they can possibly be!
KF: Are you a musically-inspired writer or do you need silence? If you write to music, care to share any of your fave writing songs/singers/groups?
AL: I use music about half the time and it’s always thematic—with Worth, I used a prairie cd complete with a thunder storm and cows, for instance.
KF: Is there any writing advice you wish you’d never heard?
AL: Anything that begins with the premise—"to be a real writer you …." I hate that line—mostly because it's a culturally restrictive misconception about being a writer 99% of the time. And I'm sure it also has to do with the fact that it usually excluded me with whatever came next because I didn't do it. I.e. I don't write every day like most writers advise that "real writers" do.
KF: Come clean: Out of all your characters, which one is your favorite? No fair saying all of them, but if you’d rather turn it around and say your least favorite, I suppose I’ll forgive you.
AL: My least favorite main character would have to be Raleia Pendle (ETA: From Strawberry Hill) because she is narrow minded and selfish in a world with a myriad of opportunities for her to expand herself. That changes over the course of the novel, but the girl she is at the beginning is quite the brat, in my opinion. Ironically, my Aunt Teresa is convinced she's based on me. Yikes. Actually, the character in that book that is based on me, is Raleia's little brother Ticton.
KF: How did you start writing historical fiction? What draws you to particular times & their stories?
AL: I love history, I have an undergraduate degree in history, and I’m also trying to get people to see the every day people of history and understand that 98% of history is about understand how everyday people live—so writing historical fiction just seemed like a natural extension of all of that. I'm always looking for the untold tale—the plantation owners who decided to follow through with the "40 Acre and a Mule" idea after the Civil War (Stella Stands Alone) or the kids whose lives where changed by the arrival of the orphans on the Orphan Train vs. the orphan train riders themselves (Worth).
KF: Writing historical fiction and fantasy are often compared as similar kinds of writing, where you have to place the reader in a totally different world and help them find their way. But what do you think is the biggest difference when writing historical vs. fantasy? Do you find one trickier than the other?
AL: They both require carrying "the fourth glass" as it were— I take this image from a restaurant in Mankato, MN where the waitresses would have balance four glasses in one hand – the first three are setting, character, and plot and the fourth glass is adding the "other worldly" aspect of history or fantasy. History is based on an actual world that existed and must be researched until you internalize the facts and zeitgeist where as fantasy is a world you create and have to make vicarious for your readers. I would say fantasy is therefore "trickier" because it's more about sharing an internal world than a past world.
KF: You seem to know a lot of (what many people would call) random facts! How much of your vast store of knowledge comes from research for your books or, conversely, how much does information you encounter inform what you work on? This might be a bit of a chicken-or-the-egg question, so any examples are welcome!
AL: I collect them all over – TV, museums, reading, conversations with folks, newspapers, magazines, etc. I would say my knowledge comes from research for books, teaching, and studying – I learned a lot of taking courses from a broad range of subjects in school. I would have to say that my random facts don't inspire a lot of my books until they start to gather momentum by connecting with other facts.
Take WATER STEPS as an example. That started because a student of mine at SUNY Plattsburgh wrote a picture book about Champy— Nessie’s (as in Loch Ness) immigrant cousin in Lake Champlain and I thought – fantasy is best served with 50% realism and 50% fantasy—or even more on the realism side if you’re doing reality based fantasy, so I started searching for a scenario where that would fit and came up with the idea of Silkies in the lake and my knowledge of them came from random collection of facts from references to Molly Hunter novels and THE SECRET OF ROAN INNISH, plus Irish folklore research in response to the film HARVEY. After seeing that, I had to learn more about Pookah's and was woefully disappointed to find out that they're evil and homicidal. Yikes.
Couple all that with my background in psychology which is drawn from a fascination that goes all the way back to high school and carries through a false start in psychology in college to currently research into the field and you have Kyna coping with a crippling fear of water. Probably more info than you want to know, but then again, you were asking for about my pedantic tendencies now weren’t you?
KF: Since this is my blog and I love Hollins, I'm going to take any chance to talk it up- including asking you to! What’s your favorite part about the Children's Literature program at Hollins University, from either a student perspective or a teaching one?
AL: COMMUNITY— Hollins is about being with people who understand and love the field from a critical and creative perspective and they love being with folks who share that love and it's evident in every aspect of the program, the classes, the public events, the program parties. I loved it as a student and continue to enjoy it as a faculty member.
KF: Knowing how much of a help you are when it comes to critique/revision, here’s a question from Travis M.: What is your most successful revision technique?
AL: Recursive Revision—revise as you write—hit a roadblock in a chapter, go back to the beginning of that chapter or the chapter before it—reread—revise-and re-immerse yourself in your fictional world. This also works when returning to a piece after a hiatus of any length. Reread-revise-re-immerse each time you return to a piece and you’ll have a much more polished and homogenous manuscript when you’re done.
Oh, and it looks like I’m done. Thanks for the great questions. I hope my answers have been helpful.
KF: Thank you, for taking the time to do this & providing such fascinating answers!
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Interview with Stephanie Burgis!
And now for another author interview! I hope you enjoy this discussion with Stephanie Burgis, author of the upcoming Regency fantasy trilogy, The Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson starting with A Most Improper Magick.
KF: Are you a musically-inspired writer or do you need silence? If you write to music, care to share any of your fave writing songs/singers/groups?
SB: I don’t need music, but I definitely prefer it, and I make a different playlist for every novel and short story. My first novel, A Most Improper Magick, has a definite theme song: "Stand and Deliver!" by Adam & the Ants. For me, it totally captures the sense of high-spirited fun (and highwaymen!) that I wanted in my novel.
KF: Is there any writing advice you wish you’d never heard?
SB: "Real writers outline". Ouch ouch ouch! I REALLY wish I’d never heard that one. I know that outlining works for a lot of great writers, but for me, it completely kills the spark of inspiration I need to write a book or story. In the old days, I used to ruin a lot of potential pieces that way. Nowadays, whenever I get stuck, I sit down and freewrite about the story until I figure out what should happen next (or, more generally, where the characters need to go by the end of the story to complete their personal arcs), but I never, ever try to sit down and map out exactly what happens from points A to Z, and there are never any Roman numerals involved. ;p
KF: Come clean: Out of all your characters, which one is your favorite? No fair saying all of them, but if you’d rather turn it around and say your least favorite, I suppose I’ll forgive you.
SB: My absolute favorite character is Kat Stephenson, the heroine of my trilogy (The Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson). She’s recklessly brave, 100% loyal to the people she loves, and she dares to say all the things I wish I could let myself say in real life!
KF: Your first book, A Most Improper Magick will be out in 2010. Can you tell us a little bit about it, or about the series in general?
SB: A Most Improper Magick is the first book in The Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson. Here’s how I described it in my original query letter:
Her mother was a scandalous witch, her brother has gambled the whole family into debt, and her Step-Mama is determined to sell her oldest sister into a positively Gothic marriage to pay it off--so what can twelve-year-old Kat Stephenson do but take matters directly into her own hands? If only her older sisters hadn’t thwarted her plan to run away to London dressed as a boy and earn a fortune! When Kat makes a midnight foray into her mother’s cabinet of secrets, though, she finds out something she never expected. Her mother wasn’t just a witch, she was a Guardian, a member of a secret Order with staggering magical powers--and Kat is her heir.
Of course, there’s no chance of Kat choosing to join the Order that forbade her parents’ marriage...but Mama’s magical mirror doesn’t seem to understand that. It keeps following her wherever she goes, even when the family travels to Grantham Abbey to meet the sinister Sir Neville, her oldest sister’s chosen fiancé. And what with Sir Neville showing a dangerous interest in Kat’s untapped powers, her mother’s old tutor insisting that she take up her mother’s position as a Guardian, and her sister Angeline refusing to listen to her about anything, as usual...well, it’s a good thing Kat kept her boy’s clothing, because she may well have to use it--especially if the rumors of a highwayman are true.
ETA: Thanks so much for this, Stephanie! Not only is it a great introduction to the book, I'm sure some currently-querying writers are grateful for the example! (Including myself!)
KF: This is one author-specific question I also asked Tiffany Trent: You write a lot of historically-based fantasy- how do you balance the need to have relate-able characters with social constraints of any particular time period that we might not really understand now?
SB: It really is a balancing act. One of the things I always try to do is read a bunch of letters and diaries from the time period, as well as biographies of real people who lived back then, to try to capture the voice of the period and understand the social rules. Then I try to convey those social rules as a natural part of my story, so that readers can understand, for instance, why it would be so outrageous for a twelve-year-old girl to wear boy’s clothing. (Nowadays, of course, girls wear jeans and T-shirts just like boys, so what’s the big deal?) But it can’t ever lapse into info-dumping, because my main goal, trumping everything else, is always to tell a great story!
KF: Are you a plotter, a pantser, or somewhere in between? Note: I hadn't expected the answer to this to be part of your "evil writing advice" answer!
A definite pantser! :) (See above.)
KF: A question from Travis M.: How do you schedule your writing time?
SB: This has become a lot more complicated since I had a baby! ;) In the old days, I used to write first thing after breakfast, while I was still drinking my morning coffee. That’s my natural time of day, when I most easily think creatively. Nowadays, though, I have to cram my writing into whatever free time I can steal out of the day, whether that’s after breakfast, after lunch, or for 20 minutes in the middle of the night! I’ve also had to dispense with all the little rituals I used to have to ease myself into the right frame of mind. (For instance, when I was writing A Most Improper Magick, I would always read a few of Jane Austen’s letters before I got started every day.) I don’t have time anymore to do anything but fling myself into the novel straight away, whenever I get any time to myself...and luckily, that’s working out pretty well so far. I enjoyed those old writing rituals, but it turns out they aren’t nearly as necessary as I used to think.
KF: A question from Kitty: Where do you find the names for your characters?
Kat was always Kat, from the first moment I "heard" her speaking the first paragraph of the novel in my head. (I was in the middle of chopping onions at the time, but I dropped them to run and grab a notebook to write the paragraph down!) At one point, I wondered whether I should change her name, because there had been a few other recent novels whose heroines were also called Kat, and I was worried that it might be too common, but I just couldn’t do it. Her name is too much a part of her identity. With other characters, the names have just come from daydreaming and brainstorming until I end up with something that feels subjectively right.
KF: And a question from Megan: Where do you find inspiration for your stories?
SB: The best way to find inspiration, for me, is by reading historical nonfiction, especially good biographies, or by watching good historical documentaries made for television. For instance, my story "The Five Days of Justice Merriwell", which is set in an alternate-history, fantasy version of the English Civil War, was inspired by watching the two episodes about Oliver Cromwell and the Civil War in Simon Schama’s "A History of Britain" documentary. Finding out about all the incredible things that real people have done - some of them SO much crazier and more unlikely than anything we’d ever put into fiction! - is a great way to start thinking about what my fictional characters might do in similar situations or settings, and what kinds of complicating relationships they could have.
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions, Stephanie! Now, everyone go pre-order A Most Improper Magick!
KF: Are you a musically-inspired writer or do you need silence? If you write to music, care to share any of your fave writing songs/singers/groups?
SB: I don’t need music, but I definitely prefer it, and I make a different playlist for every novel and short story. My first novel, A Most Improper Magick, has a definite theme song: "Stand and Deliver!" by Adam & the Ants. For me, it totally captures the sense of high-spirited fun (and highwaymen!) that I wanted in my novel.
KF: Is there any writing advice you wish you’d never heard?
SB: "Real writers outline". Ouch ouch ouch! I REALLY wish I’d never heard that one. I know that outlining works for a lot of great writers, but for me, it completely kills the spark of inspiration I need to write a book or story. In the old days, I used to ruin a lot of potential pieces that way. Nowadays, whenever I get stuck, I sit down and freewrite about the story until I figure out what should happen next (or, more generally, where the characters need to go by the end of the story to complete their personal arcs), but I never, ever try to sit down and map out exactly what happens from points A to Z, and there are never any Roman numerals involved. ;p
KF: Come clean: Out of all your characters, which one is your favorite? No fair saying all of them, but if you’d rather turn it around and say your least favorite, I suppose I’ll forgive you.
SB: My absolute favorite character is Kat Stephenson, the heroine of my trilogy (The Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson). She’s recklessly brave, 100% loyal to the people she loves, and she dares to say all the things I wish I could let myself say in real life!
KF: Your first book, A Most Improper Magick will be out in 2010. Can you tell us a little bit about it, or about the series in general?
SB: A Most Improper Magick is the first book in The Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson. Here’s how I described it in my original query letter:
Her mother was a scandalous witch, her brother has gambled the whole family into debt, and her Step-Mama is determined to sell her oldest sister into a positively Gothic marriage to pay it off--so what can twelve-year-old Kat Stephenson do but take matters directly into her own hands? If only her older sisters hadn’t thwarted her plan to run away to London dressed as a boy and earn a fortune! When Kat makes a midnight foray into her mother’s cabinet of secrets, though, she finds out something she never expected. Her mother wasn’t just a witch, she was a Guardian, a member of a secret Order with staggering magical powers--and Kat is her heir.
Of course, there’s no chance of Kat choosing to join the Order that forbade her parents’ marriage...but Mama’s magical mirror doesn’t seem to understand that. It keeps following her wherever she goes, even when the family travels to Grantham Abbey to meet the sinister Sir Neville, her oldest sister’s chosen fiancé. And what with Sir Neville showing a dangerous interest in Kat’s untapped powers, her mother’s old tutor insisting that she take up her mother’s position as a Guardian, and her sister Angeline refusing to listen to her about anything, as usual...well, it’s a good thing Kat kept her boy’s clothing, because she may well have to use it--especially if the rumors of a highwayman are true.
ETA: Thanks so much for this, Stephanie! Not only is it a great introduction to the book, I'm sure some currently-querying writers are grateful for the example! (Including myself!)
KF: This is one author-specific question I also asked Tiffany Trent: You write a lot of historically-based fantasy- how do you balance the need to have relate-able characters with social constraints of any particular time period that we might not really understand now?
SB: It really is a balancing act. One of the things I always try to do is read a bunch of letters and diaries from the time period, as well as biographies of real people who lived back then, to try to capture the voice of the period and understand the social rules. Then I try to convey those social rules as a natural part of my story, so that readers can understand, for instance, why it would be so outrageous for a twelve-year-old girl to wear boy’s clothing. (Nowadays, of course, girls wear jeans and T-shirts just like boys, so what’s the big deal?) But it can’t ever lapse into info-dumping, because my main goal, trumping everything else, is always to tell a great story!
KF: Are you a plotter, a pantser, or somewhere in between? Note: I hadn't expected the answer to this to be part of your "evil writing advice" answer!
A definite pantser! :) (See above.)
KF: A question from Travis M.: How do you schedule your writing time?
SB: This has become a lot more complicated since I had a baby! ;) In the old days, I used to write first thing after breakfast, while I was still drinking my morning coffee. That’s my natural time of day, when I most easily think creatively. Nowadays, though, I have to cram my writing into whatever free time I can steal out of the day, whether that’s after breakfast, after lunch, or for 20 minutes in the middle of the night! I’ve also had to dispense with all the little rituals I used to have to ease myself into the right frame of mind. (For instance, when I was writing A Most Improper Magick, I would always read a few of Jane Austen’s letters before I got started every day.) I don’t have time anymore to do anything but fling myself into the novel straight away, whenever I get any time to myself...and luckily, that’s working out pretty well so far. I enjoyed those old writing rituals, but it turns out they aren’t nearly as necessary as I used to think.
KF: A question from Kitty: Where do you find the names for your characters?
Kat was always Kat, from the first moment I "heard" her speaking the first paragraph of the novel in my head. (I was in the middle of chopping onions at the time, but I dropped them to run and grab a notebook to write the paragraph down!) At one point, I wondered whether I should change her name, because there had been a few other recent novels whose heroines were also called Kat, and I was worried that it might be too common, but I just couldn’t do it. Her name is too much a part of her identity. With other characters, the names have just come from daydreaming and brainstorming until I end up with something that feels subjectively right.
KF: And a question from Megan: Where do you find inspiration for your stories?
SB: The best way to find inspiration, for me, is by reading historical nonfiction, especially good biographies, or by watching good historical documentaries made for television. For instance, my story "The Five Days of Justice Merriwell", which is set in an alternate-history, fantasy version of the English Civil War, was inspired by watching the two episodes about Oliver Cromwell and the Civil War in Simon Schama’s "A History of Britain" documentary. Finding out about all the incredible things that real people have done - some of them SO much crazier and more unlikely than anything we’d ever put into fiction! - is a great way to start thinking about what my fictional characters might do in similar situations or settings, and what kinds of complicating relationships they could have.
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions, Stephanie! Now, everyone go pre-order A Most Improper Magick!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Character Interview Poll
Back when I was trying to figure out what to do with this blog over the summer, a number of people expressed interest in not only real-person interviews, but character interviews. This also interested me, because I think I've exhausted my brain trying to come up with questions to get to know my characters better.
So, characters available for interrogation include pretty much anyone* in the Arion books or Wings & Fangs. Please tell me what you want to know, and who you want to hear from. Questions can range from "What's your favorite color" to "What's your favorite song?" to "How did you feel when..." but please note if I've sent you partial/full MS of anything, don't ask anything too spoiler-y; I might answer that kind of question in a private email, but probably not on the blog. Sorry.
So pretty, pretty please leave questions & who they're for in the comments. If I don't get any questions, I probably won't bother with the character interviews, so if you're interested at all, gimme something to work with! ;-)
*If I don't know enough about the character, I'll say so, but I doubt you'll be asking questions of Maid #2 or Random Clerk, so feel free to ask anybody.
So, characters available for interrogation include pretty much anyone* in the Arion books or Wings & Fangs. Please tell me what you want to know, and who you want to hear from. Questions can range from "What's your favorite color" to "What's your favorite song?" to "How did you feel when..." but please note if I've sent you partial/full MS of anything, don't ask anything too spoiler-y; I might answer that kind of question in a private email, but probably not on the blog. Sorry.
So pretty, pretty please leave questions & who they're for in the comments. If I don't get any questions, I probably won't bother with the character interviews, so if you're interested at all, gimme something to work with! ;-)
*If I don't know enough about the character, I'll say so, but I doubt you'll be asking questions of Maid #2 or Random Clerk, so feel free to ask anybody.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Interview with Tiffany Trent!
Today is my first interview on this blog, and I'm very excited to say it is with the fabulous Tiffany Trent!
Tiffany is the author of the Hallowmere series, and currently has a few other projects in the works! She's graciously come out of her current Internet Hiatus to answer some questions for me. Enjoy!
KF: Are you a musically-inspired writer or do you need silence? If you write to music, care to share any of your fave writing songs/singers/groups?
TT: VERY musically oriented. I practically need music to write. It just sets the perfect mood. I love soundtracks especially because they usually have a dramatic arc that helps with the action of the stories. But I do also have a few bands I'm partial to—early Duran Duran is practically on repeat including rarer tracks like "Secret Oktober," "The Seventh Stranger," and "Night Boat." I also love Snow Patrol—"Run," "Chasing Cars," and "Set the Fire to the Third Bar." Mute Math is my most newfound love—"Noticed" and "Control" are among faves there. And then there are old standbys like Sia, Massive Attack, Fiona Apple, Rachael Yamagata, and Imogen Heap. I could go on, but probably should stop now, eh?
KF: Is there any writing advice you wish you’d never heard?
TT: I was strongly dissuaded from writing genre early on because it was creepy, fantastic, and…*genre*. I wish I'd never listened to that, though in truth working in literary nonfiction circles for a while probably did strengthen many aspects of my fiction.
KF:Come clean: Out of all your characters, which one is your favorite? No fair saying all of them, but if you’d rather turn it around and say your least favorite, I suppose I'll forgive you.
TT: My favorite character is one very few people have met, so I'll just talk about published characters. I admit that probably my favorite character thus far is Euan, the Fey Prince in Hallowmere. I still kind of want to write a book from his PoV. ETA KF: Ha! Yes! *want*
KF: You write a lot of historically-based fantasy- how do you balance the need to have relate-able characters with social constraints of any particular time period that we might not really understand now?
TT: That's really, really hard. I'm a bit of a stickler for historical accuracy. I worried endlessly over whether I'd gotten all those details right with Hallowmere, thinking everyone would call me on them and never dreaming that people would take issue with the books because I was being *too* accurate. I found myself often having to defend the main character's choices and actions because she really was acting as a sheltered girl of the 1860s would have. Some people saw her as weak because she didn't forge straight ahead and take control, but I knew for a fact that a girl of her situation would not have been equipped to take charge like that. She had to learn how, and that was meant to be a big part of her arc throughout the books.
KF: I know you have a martial arts background- do you think you'll ever write any books based around those experiences?
TT: I already have, actually, with my first (unpublished) novel. I'd like to someday return to those books and re-tool them for YA. They're adult right now and fraught with problems, but I think a YA version would be really fun. Also, I suspect that my next contemporary novel will feature a teen martial artist. And of course I can't help wishing I could get some martial arts novels in graphic novel form, as homage to my wuxia novel predecessors.
KF: Can you tell us anything about what you're working on now? According to your Twitter, your word count keeps going up, up, up!
TT: I'm working on a contemporary paranormal that I’m calling MARKED, for now, though I'd guess that title will change. Through a series of chance encounters with a hell-bent Muse, a young violinist could be the salvation or destruction of the world's greatest band. This is one of those novels that you just write for the love, because it won't stop beating at your backbrain. When this one is out my system, I will go back to my book about Darwin and the secret history of his voyage on the Beagle.
KF: You've done a lot of revision lately, so this question comes from Travis M.: What is your most successful revision technique?
TT: As I'm writing, I realize and accept that I'm most likely leaving holes. Of late, I've had more success getting through the first draft and on to revision if I just give myself permission to note what needs to happen in a subsequent draft and move forward. This may make for a real mess later, but it keeps me moving. Just getting to the revision seems to be the big hurdle for me. Once I'm there, I'm fine. So giving myself permission to wait until revision to work out a kink is a very good way to tilt me toward the process.
KF: And, because I've wondered this about some of your characters, this question from Kitty: Where do you find the names for your characters?
TT: Etymology. If you want to see what my characters are going to do, look up what their names mean. Corrine, for example, means "Light Bearer." One of the names I chose for Euan actually means "Son of the Dark Fairy." I don't do this with all of them, but the majority of them I do. And sometimes the name just comes to me. Lately, all names seem to be courtesy of the Letter V—Vespa from my most recent novel and Velvet in the current novel. I'm hoping to explore more of the alphabet soon. :-)
Thanks for the great answers, Tiffany!
Tiffany is the author of the Hallowmere series, and currently has a few other projects in the works! She's graciously come out of her current Internet Hiatus to answer some questions for me. Enjoy!
KF: Are you a musically-inspired writer or do you need silence? If you write to music, care to share any of your fave writing songs/singers/groups?
TT: VERY musically oriented. I practically need music to write. It just sets the perfect mood. I love soundtracks especially because they usually have a dramatic arc that helps with the action of the stories. But I do also have a few bands I'm partial to—early Duran Duran is practically on repeat including rarer tracks like "Secret Oktober," "The Seventh Stranger," and "Night Boat." I also love Snow Patrol—"Run," "Chasing Cars," and "Set the Fire to the Third Bar." Mute Math is my most newfound love—"Noticed" and "Control" are among faves there. And then there are old standbys like Sia, Massive Attack, Fiona Apple, Rachael Yamagata, and Imogen Heap. I could go on, but probably should stop now, eh?
KF: Is there any writing advice you wish you’d never heard?
TT: I was strongly dissuaded from writing genre early on because it was creepy, fantastic, and…*genre*. I wish I'd never listened to that, though in truth working in literary nonfiction circles for a while probably did strengthen many aspects of my fiction.
KF:Come clean: Out of all your characters, which one is your favorite? No fair saying all of them, but if you’d rather turn it around and say your least favorite, I suppose I'll forgive you.
TT: My favorite character is one very few people have met, so I'll just talk about published characters. I admit that probably my favorite character thus far is Euan, the Fey Prince in Hallowmere. I still kind of want to write a book from his PoV. ETA KF: Ha! Yes! *want*
KF: You write a lot of historically-based fantasy- how do you balance the need to have relate-able characters with social constraints of any particular time period that we might not really understand now?
TT: That's really, really hard. I'm a bit of a stickler for historical accuracy. I worried endlessly over whether I'd gotten all those details right with Hallowmere, thinking everyone would call me on them and never dreaming that people would take issue with the books because I was being *too* accurate. I found myself often having to defend the main character's choices and actions because she really was acting as a sheltered girl of the 1860s would have. Some people saw her as weak because she didn't forge straight ahead and take control, but I knew for a fact that a girl of her situation would not have been equipped to take charge like that. She had to learn how, and that was meant to be a big part of her arc throughout the books.
KF: I know you have a martial arts background- do you think you'll ever write any books based around those experiences?
TT: I already have, actually, with my first (unpublished) novel. I'd like to someday return to those books and re-tool them for YA. They're adult right now and fraught with problems, but I think a YA version would be really fun. Also, I suspect that my next contemporary novel will feature a teen martial artist. And of course I can't help wishing I could get some martial arts novels in graphic novel form, as homage to my wuxia novel predecessors.
KF: Can you tell us anything about what you're working on now? According to your Twitter, your word count keeps going up, up, up!
TT: I'm working on a contemporary paranormal that I’m calling MARKED, for now, though I'd guess that title will change. Through a series of chance encounters with a hell-bent Muse, a young violinist could be the salvation or destruction of the world's greatest band. This is one of those novels that you just write for the love, because it won't stop beating at your backbrain. When this one is out my system, I will go back to my book about Darwin and the secret history of his voyage on the Beagle.
KF: You've done a lot of revision lately, so this question comes from Travis M.: What is your most successful revision technique?
TT: As I'm writing, I realize and accept that I'm most likely leaving holes. Of late, I've had more success getting through the first draft and on to revision if I just give myself permission to note what needs to happen in a subsequent draft and move forward. This may make for a real mess later, but it keeps me moving. Just getting to the revision seems to be the big hurdle for me. Once I'm there, I'm fine. So giving myself permission to wait until revision to work out a kink is a very good way to tilt me toward the process.
KF: And, because I've wondered this about some of your characters, this question from Kitty: Where do you find the names for your characters?
TT: Etymology. If you want to see what my characters are going to do, look up what their names mean. Corrine, for example, means "Light Bearer." One of the names I chose for Euan actually means "Son of the Dark Fairy." I don't do this with all of them, but the majority of them I do. And sometimes the name just comes to me. Lately, all names seem to be courtesy of the Letter V—Vespa from my most recent novel and Velvet in the current novel. I'm hoping to explore more of the alphabet soon. :-)
Thanks for the great answers, Tiffany!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
June Reading List
Other than the first and last books, this month was, apparently, Vampire Month!
1) Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery
The Emily Trilogy, Book 1
Middle Grade, 10+
This is one of my forever-favorite books. I was a little afraid to re-read it, since I hadn't since beginning at Hollins, but nope, it held up, and I realized I'd even forgotten a few of the minor subplots. I never read Anne until I was in college, thinking it somehow a betrayal of Emily, since everyone always seemed to like Anne better- but not me. I still love Emily best. And, of course, Teddy Kent.
2) & 3) The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and The Struggle by L. J. Smith
The Vampire Diaries, Books 1 & 2
YA, 12+
I won this volume a while back from Kazdreamer, and when I received the 5th book to review, I figured it was the perfectexcuse time to read the series. I enjoyed these, but feel like I was missing out, since I didn't read them when back when (granted, they came out when I was still reading Boxcar Children). I know if I'd found them when I was 13 I'd have loved them. Either way, I thought they were lots of fun, though at first I was ambivalent about Elena. I did grow to like her. She definitely had a lot more... gumption... than certain other heroines of vampire romances. And I found myself liking that about her later on, but at first I could not understand why I wanted the girl who always got what she wanted to get what she wanted. *shrug* Whatever. So I dove right into the next volume...
4) and 5) The Vampire Diaries: The Fury and Dark Reunion by L. J. Smith
The Vampire Diaries, Books 3 & 4
YA, 12+
I enjoyed this one, too, though the plot arc from books 1 through 3 made much more sense to me than the plot of the fourth book. I think it was originally a trilogy that was added on to, but someone correct me if I'm wrong there. Anyway, up until the very end of the fourth one, which made absolutely no sense and had no explanation , I was still thinking they moved along decently well & were pretty fun, light reads. So I headed into book 5 with a certain set of expectations...
6) The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Nightfall by L. J. Smith
The Vampire Diaries, Book 5 also The Vampire Diaries: The Return, Book 1 (apparently this is a 'new trilogy' but the same characters?)
YA, 12+
And then I got to this... well, there's no real nice way to say it. I just thought it was a mess. Supposedly set a week after the end of Dark Reunion, where the "Class of '92" graduates, suddenly everyone had a cell phone, shopped online, and had a lot of technical capabilities. And none of the characters acted like they had before- any development they'd had from the end of the previous book was gone. And, apparently, vampires cannot have sex, though all the blood-sharing scenes were overtly sexual (I can give examples if asked). And for me, the biggest disappointment was that it was just kind-of dull. The characters run around for 500-some pages doing next-to-nothing, but discussing it over and over and over. *sigh* I really, really wanted to like it! But I just couldn't. I have seen some reviewers who loved it, so maybe it was just me... but I couldn't get into it.
7) Operation Storm City by Joshua Mowll
The Guild Trilogy, Book 3
MG, 10+
This one was fun. I wish I'd read the other two first, because a number of references weren't fully explained (which I think is fine, especially in the concluding book in an on-going trilogy), but all-in-all, this was an exciting adventure, set in India and China in, I believe, 1920 or so, and features a brother and sister pair on a mission to find and rescue their parents, a female straight-talking pilot, a maharajah and his butler, a tiger and a host of other interesting characters. While I recommend reading the earlier books in the series first, this is definitely one I'll be seeking out to read the first two. Also, the books are formatted kind-of like a textbook in that there are charts and pictures and explanations of side-characters throughout- great for kids who like more to their books than just pages of endless words (like my hubby, who flipped through all the technical drawings!)
Books read this month: 7
Books read this year: 41
Anyone read any of these? I welcome discussion, especially of The Vampire Diaries books! Maybe someone can talk me into liking Nightfall?
1) Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery
The Emily Trilogy, Book 1
Middle Grade, 10+
This is one of my forever-favorite books. I was a little afraid to re-read it, since I hadn't since beginning at Hollins, but nope, it held up, and I realized I'd even forgotten a few of the minor subplots. I never read Anne until I was in college, thinking it somehow a betrayal of Emily, since everyone always seemed to like Anne better- but not me. I still love Emily best. And, of course, Teddy Kent.
2) & 3) The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and The Struggle by L. J. Smith
The Vampire Diaries, Books 1 & 2
YA, 12+
I won this volume a while back from Kazdreamer, and when I received the 5th book to review, I figured it was the perfect
4) and 5) The Vampire Diaries: The Fury and Dark Reunion by L. J. Smith
The Vampire Diaries, Books 3 & 4
YA, 12+
I enjoyed this one, too, though the plot arc from books 1 through 3 made much more sense to me than the plot of the fourth book. I think it was originally a trilogy that was added on to, but someone correct me if I'm wrong there. Anyway, up until the very end of the fourth one, which
6) The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Nightfall by L. J. Smith
The Vampire Diaries, Book 5 also The Vampire Diaries: The Return, Book 1 (apparently this is a 'new trilogy' but the same characters?)
YA, 12+
And then I got to this... well, there's no real nice way to say it. I just thought it was a mess. Supposedly set a week after the end of Dark Reunion, where the "Class of '92" graduates, suddenly everyone had a cell phone, shopped online, and had a lot of technical capabilities. And none of the characters acted like they had before- any development they'd had from the end of the previous book was gone. And, apparently, vampires cannot have sex, though all the blood-sharing scenes were overtly sexual (I can give examples if asked). And for me, the biggest disappointment was that it was just kind-of dull. The characters run around for 500-some pages doing next-to-nothing, but discussing it over and over and over. *sigh* I really, really wanted to like it! But I just couldn't. I have seen some reviewers who loved it, so maybe it was just me... but I couldn't get into it.
7) Operation Storm City by Joshua Mowll
The Guild Trilogy, Book 3
MG, 10+
This one was fun. I wish I'd read the other two first, because a number of references weren't fully explained (which I think is fine, especially in the concluding book in an on-going trilogy), but all-in-all, this was an exciting adventure, set in India and China in, I believe, 1920 or so, and features a brother and sister pair on a mission to find and rescue their parents, a female straight-talking pilot, a maharajah and his butler, a tiger and a host of other interesting characters. While I recommend reading the earlier books in the series first, this is definitely one I'll be seeking out to read the first two. Also, the books are formatted kind-of like a textbook in that there are charts and pictures and explanations of side-characters throughout- great for kids who like more to their books than just pages of endless words (like my hubby, who flipped through all the technical drawings!)
Books read this month: 7
Books read this year: 41
Anyone read any of these? I welcome discussion, especially of The Vampire Diaries books! Maybe someone can talk me into liking Nightfall?
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)