Interviews
Today’s interview of author and WU contributor Robin LaFevers was born out of fan-girl love by WU contributor and author Ann Aguirre. It’s fun, freewheeling, and packed with writerly insights.
Robin was raised on a steady diet of fairy tales, Bulfinch’s mythology, and 19th century poetry. It is not surprising she grew up to be a hopeless romantic. She has also spent a large portion of her life being told she was making up things that weren’t there, which only proves she was destined to write fiction. She is the author of fourteen books for young readers. Her most recent book, GRAVE MERCY, is a young adult romance about assassin nuns in medieval France. Her books have received numerous state awards and have sold in over nine countries. Though she has never trained as an assassin or joined a convent, she has been on a search for answers to life’s mysteries for as long as she can remember.
Robin also co-founded the popular Shrinking Violets blog, a marketing resource and support group for introverted authors.
Enjoy!
Ann: Hi Robin! I’m allowed to call you Robin, right? We’re totally besties since we met for 45 seconds (I was timing it) at RWA, and I have successfully wrangled the second book in your amazing Assassin series. I regret nothing. I’ll allow our readers to groan and gnash their teeth for a few seconds. Now then… onward to the juicy stuff.
Robin: (Introverts—let this be a lesson to you. Introducing myself to Ann was a total ‘outside my social comfort zone’ moment—but I recognized her name from WU and was trying to convince myself that part of the point of going to conferences is making an effort to meet new people. Not only did she not bite, but she was charming and gracious. Lucky me!)
Ann: You write the most amazing books. I know that’s not a question, but I can only do interviews fan-girl style. So for the sake of clarity, imagine I’m bouncing up and down because I love your books that much. That said, I was particularly captivated by the gritty realism and the historical detail in your world. How much of that did you draw from actual historical precedent?
Read MoreKath here. Well, she’s done it again. Fantasy author extraordinaire, and valued WU contributor Juliet Marillier’s next book, SHADOWFELL, is the first book in what is sure to become another bestselling series for young adult readers. It releases today with huge buzz, and terrific reviews.
Tough-to-please Kirkus writes:
Marillier’s deep knowledge of folklore and the early-medieval period shine through, but never overwhelm, her latest. In Alban, the Good Folk (widely varied, magical creatures) have occasionally intermingled with humans, and as a result, some humans are “canny.” Canny Neryn can see the Good Folk, which may only be the beginning. But tyrannical King Keldec has turned Alban into a realm of fear and hatred where canny folk are killed or used as weapons. Neryn and her father have fled the king’s Enforcers for years, haunted by their village’s massacre. When a mysterious stranger saves Neryn from her father’s drunken gambling and an Enforcer raid, Neryn finds herself journeying towards Shadowfell, the secret rebel enclave she hopes exists. Neryn’s struggles—to exist day to day, to make peace with the tragedies of her past and the uncertainties of her present and, above all, to grasp and even use her own terrible power—ground this tale. The slightest thread of a blossoming relationship winds throughout, while magic imbues everything but feels real; the Good Folk are other, but not, in this carefully detailed world, fantastic.
Proper fantasy, balanced between epic and personal; this promises to be an engrossing series, with intimations of bigger things ahead.
Marillier presents a classic quest in the high fantasy tradition, but there are no noble warriors to be found in this first book in a planned trilogy. Neryn’s gifts lie in seeing, listening, and asking, and the turning points are marked by belief, not battles. The land of Alban is not a comfortable place, Flint is not a comforting man, and Neryn is up to the challenges of both.
Juliet’s storytelling means this is a not-to-be missed addition to bookshelves. We’re so pleased she’s given us a peek at her writing process and the inspirations behind SHADOWFELL. Enjoy this Take 5 with Juliet Marillier.
Q: What’s the premise of SHADOWFELL?
Shadowfell is about freedom and rebellion. It’s about having the courage to stand up for what is right even when doing so may cost your life and those of your loved ones. Although the story is set in an imagined version of ancient Scotland, I was writing it at the time of the so-called Arab Spring, when we saw ordinary people rising up against repressive regimes, often at huge personal cost. That undoubtedly influenced me in creating the young freedom fighters of Shadowfell.
Read MoreTherese here. I’m thrilled to present today’s interview, profiling WU contributor Erika Robuck and her novel Hemingway’s Girl, which releases today! Erika’s book presents a fascinating look at an author we only think we know, Ernest Hemingway. Said Publishers Weekly of the work:
Robuck brings Key West to life, and her Hemingway is fully fleshed out and believable, as are Mariella and others. Readers will delight in the complex relationships and vivid setting.”
Though Erika self-published her first book, Receive Me Falling, in 2009, Hemingway’s Girl marks her debut in traditional publishing (NAL/Penguin) and will be followed by Call Me Zelda, a novel featuring Mr. and Mrs. F. Scott Fitzgerald, in 2013.
What was Erika’s journey like, and what’s Hemingway’s Girl about? Let’s start with a look at Erika’s book trailer, and go from there.
Q: Hemingway’s Girl paints an intimate portrait of one of the most iconic authors of all time. How did this story become the tale you had to write?
My fascination with Ernest Hemingway began in college when I took a course on his works. A MOVEABLE FEAST and THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA have stayed with me, and I’ve reread them often over the years. When I visited Hemingway’s home in Key West I felt a strong connection to it and to his life during the time he lived there. The dreams and stars aligned so it felt like Hemingway was haunting me until I began writing HEMINGWAY’S GIRL. He hasn’t stopped.
Q: The average Joe likely knows Hemingway as an iconic author but may know little to nothing about his personal life. I didn’t realize he’d killed himself, for example, or anything about his tendency to be cruel. What was your process in terms of getting to know Hemingway at this level? Being a fan of his work, was it hard for you to reveal his dark edges and not whitewash his personality? Did you pick and choose personality traits to display in your story, or was it your goal to show him in true form, for better and worse?
Read MoreTypically we hear about books being turned into movies. Occasionally, it happens the other way; a movie gets “novelized.” My friend Denene Millner recently turned the screenplay for the movie “Sparkle” into a book, and I asked her to share with Writer Unboxed what that experience was like. Following is our Q&A:
How did the project come to you?
My brilliant agent, Victoria Sanders, conjured it up after several conversations with me about my love for Whitney Houston and the impact she had on my development into a young woman, and a few talks with the brother of the original “Sparkle” producer, Howard Rosenman. I’d been considering doing a book of personal essays about Whitney, and Victoria and I were working on that piece when she had those initial talks. After a conversation or two with Howard, and my revelation that the original “Sparkle” was/is one of my all-time favorite movies and Whitney is one of my all-time favorite voices, it came to pass that Howard thought I would make a fine writer for the project of turning his story and Mara Brock Akil’s screenplay into a novel. So it was a stroke of genius on Victoria’s part, a stroke of luck on my part. The stars definitely aligned on this one.
Had you ever done a project like this before?
I had the great fortune of doing the novelization of “Dreamgirls,” the 2006 film starring Beyoncé, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson, whose performance won her an Academy Award. That, too, was serendipitous: the editor who wrangled the rights to the novelization was someone with whom I’d worked on a few other projects and when she was looking for a writer—someone who could turn out a solid, well-written story on a wicked two-week deadline—she turned to me. Like the “Sparkle” project, I was sent the screenplay, did research on the era, the original project and the characters, and then wrote the story. It really is an incredible process: I love taking stories and filling in the back-stories of the plots, the characters and those moments that you don’t necessarily see in the movie. It is an awesome collaborative process.
Read MoreTherese here. You already know the victim star of today’s interview, as I’m sure you’ve enjoyed Yuvi Zalkow’s many humorous videos on the writing life here at WU in the past. (And if you haven’t, you can start now!) Yuvi’s Failed Writer series might be on a forever sabbatical though, as Yuvi’s first book–A Brilliant Novel in the Works–was released today, and it is, truly, brilliant. Full of Yuvi’s trademark humor and angst, and possessing a depth that literally had me standing in the ocean on my vacation because I could not put it down, this book is a compelling gem. But, hey, maybe you’ll listen to this woman if not to me.
Yuvi Zalkow writes like the secret love child of the smartest person you’ve ever met and the weirdo who lives down the block. In A Brilliant Novel in the Works, he mines the territory between heartbreak and hilarity with a voice so original it’s as if he made the territory up. His prose is wise and perceptive, generous and bold, funny and tender. The truest thing I can say about this ambitiously realized debut is: you must read this.
– Cheryl Strayed, author of WILD, TORCH, and the Dear Sugar advice column
That’s right. Sugar loves Yuvi’s novel.
So what’s Yuvi’s book about? Honestly, it’s hard to explain. On the surface of things, it’s the story of a writer who doesn’t know what he’s writing. It’s a book about suffering and searching for answers by wading through ancient (often Jewish) history. It’s about impending fatherhood, lost childhood, and faltering marriages. It’s about life, with a character whose name is Yuvi. So is it fiction…or a memoir? Let’s lead with Yuvi’s book trailer, and go from there.
A BRILLIANT NOVEL IN THE WORKS Book Trailer from Yuvi Zalkow on Vimeo.
More questions than answers? Mmhmm. Time to grill him.
Q: Did you grapple with your novel as much as fictional Yuvi seemed to grapple with his? Or did you know what the story wanted to become from the start?
Yes. I definitely grappled with how to write this novel. Probably even worse than fictional Yuvi because I only show the parts in the novel that worked for the story itself. On the upside, it was definitely a blast to write about fictional Yuvi’s struggles — I was amazed at how much I could get away with revealing about my messy state of mind in real life. Of course, in the end, it was a ton of work to figure out what I needed to reel in and what I needed to take further so that the story would work. So I did have to pay a price for all the writerly cheating I did…
Unlike the fictional Yuvi, I had some rough mileposts in mind when I started the story. But I took a lot of wrong turns, particularly in the second half of the book. It was a breeze writing about fictional Yuvi’s flaws. I have a billion flaws (both real and fictionalized) that I’m dying to share with anyone who will listen. But it was lot trickier imagining a character arc, and finding […]
Read MoreJ.D. Mason is the author of several bestselling novels including, And on the Eighth Day She Rested, This Fire Down in My Soul, You Gotta Sin To Get Saved, and Somebody Pick Up My Pieces. J.D. has been nominated for The Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Awards in the African American Fiction and Best Contemporary Fiction categories. Her latest Beautiful, Dirty, Rich is the beginning of a new series about scandal, sex, intrigue and secrets in a small Texas town called Blink.
Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say:
Families torn apart by greed and duplicity, characters driven by blinding passion, toe-curling sex, and a moral compass that goes with the flow: Mason (One Day I Saw a Black King) doesn’t disappoint with this soap opera yarn of an everywoman wrongfully convicted of murder 26 years earlier. Now, with a $20 million inheritance in the bank, Desi Green wants to tell the truth about the sensational Blink, Tex., murder case that left Julian Gatewood dead and Desi’s mother, Ida, Gatewood’s lover, loaded. “All anybody thinks is that she was a home wrecker, and he was a cheat who had the misfortune of getting shot for his troubles.” But Desi knows, “There’s so much more,” including a murderous judge, a slave-trader cop, and bribes to convict Desi of killing Gatewood, “that beautiful, dirty, rich bastard” whom Desi and Ida adored. Desi and conniving pal Lonnie go up against Gatewood’s scion Jordan—a J.R. Ewing for the 21st century—and addled widow Olivia to expose family secrets and find the real killer. Mason’s characters create an addictive drama with universal themes of laying claim to family—and to truth.
I’m delighted to share this Q&A with J.D. about creating compelling characters and stories using “a true and honest and fearless assessment of self.”
In Beautiful, Dirty, Rich, you really keep the plot clipping along. When you revise, what kind of stuff do you cut to keep the manuscript lean and mean?
Most of my manuscripts start out pretty lean, and I end up having to add content in order to make them decent sized novels. My writing mantra is “get it out of my head and down on paper and fill in the blanks as time goes on” and that’s usually how it comes together. Besides that, I have a short attention span and the content has to hold my interest before I can feel comfortable that it’s holding my reader’s interest. The devil’s in the details, sure enough, but I try to be conservative in how I approach those details so as not to overwhelm the audience. My stories can get pretty complicated and I get character happy, and something’s got to give, so I try not to bog the story down with more than it needs.
Your books are plot-generated, yet you draw characters really well. You have a pretty big cast of characters and you succinctly describe them. We get just enough history and description to know who they are. How do you do that?
Actually, I’ve always thought of myself as more of a character-driven writer. My plotting skills are not my strong suit, so through the years, I’ve learned to pay more attention to them and really work hard at fleshing out the […]
Read MoreOver the past year, there’s been a self-publishing experiment taking place in the Calgary branch of the Romance Writers of America. (CARWA, members of which are known under the apt moniker “Carwackians.”) I’ve been an interested observer. Now that the Bandit Creek Series has matured, and can provide lessons and data, CaRWA’s third-time president joins me for a candid conversation.
Tawny Stokes, aka Vivi Anna, has been writing since 2002. She began by publishing short stories for men’s magazines before moving on to write novels. In 2005, within a period of one week, she landed her first agent and New York publisher. Since then, she’s published close to 17 books and novellas for Harlequin, Kensington and Avon in a variety of genres: paranormal romance, urban fantasy, sci-fi, and young adult.
She’s self-published 9 projects, only 3 of which were formerly through epublishers.
Tempted to call her a slacker? Then you should know Tawny has deep interests in TV-script-writing. She has a TV pilot in development with Bogner Entertainment, and among other awards, she finaled in both the Austin Film Festival and Slamdance Film Festival with her adapted TV pilot, Occult Crime Unit. You might know her as one of the co-founders of the popular #TVwriterchat on Twitter.
Jan: Set the stage for us, Tawny. Can you describe the scene and catalyst which led to the cooperative’s formation?
Tawny: It was after our chapter general meeting. Jade Buchanan and I were giving a talk on the different ways to publish, discussing epublishing and self-publishing. When I’m passionate about something, I get a wee bit animated and that day was no exception. I was explaining about one of the cool things about self-publishing – that an author could write a book with a friend, another author, or even a huge group of authors. I pointed to someone in the crowd and said, “I could write a book with you.” Then I looked at everyone and said, “I could write a book with all of you.” That’s when I saw the spark in those 20 sets of eyes. The mood was instantly electric.
Then I said, “Let’s do it. Let’s write a connected book series together.”
When the brainstorming started, it was amazing. I’d never felt creative energy like that before. It made me even more excited. But I remember the next day I emailed DL Snow and said, “What the hell did we just do?”
Can you give us an idea of the baseline level of expertise within the “Banditos?”
Read MoreKimberly Reid is author of the Langdon Prep series of YA novels about a girl detective named Chanti Evans whose mom is an undercover cop. Chanti lives in the hood but goes to a private school in a swanky neighborhood. The 2nd in the series, Creeping With the Enemy, pubs today!
A little of what people had to say about My Own Worst Frenemy, the first in the series:
“Chanti is smart and funny, and this multicultural cast is a welcome addition to the world of teen mysteries. The story is well paced and full of surprises…This clever mystery with a biting look at class and privilege is a breath of fresh air.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Reid’s debut, which kicks off her Langdon Prep series, perfectly nails what it’s like to be a scholarship student at a chi-chi private school, let alone being the new girl at school. Really apropos title. The amateur sleuth high jinks are fun. A great start to a promising new series.” — RT Book Reviews, 4 stars
Kim’s mother was a police officer and served as a detective on some of the Atlanta Child Murder cases. Kim wrote an award-winning memoir called No Place Safe about growing up in Atlanta during that time. I’m so happy to have her here today to chat with us about plotting and selling a YA series. Enjoy!
How did you develop your sleuth, Chanti Evans?
I stole from my life. I was watching an episode of Veronica Mars, a TV show about the teen daughter of a cop. Veronica learned a lot about crime-solving from her dad and was always playing amateur detective and getting into trouble. She reminded me of myself at 16, except I mostly avoided trouble and was not especially brave. My mother was a detective, I learned a lot about police work from her. With Chanti, I could create a character fearless enough to do all the things I wanted to as a teen but never had the nerve.
How did you know you had a series and not just one title?
Once I began writing, I knew I couldn’t tell everything I wanted to about the character in one story. Each book has Chanti solving a new crime, but her backstory also involves a mystery that at first she isn’t even aware of. But she begins to suspect her mother hasn’t been truthful about something in her past. That backstory mystery evolves with each book in the series. Besides that, I just have so many crime topics to explore. Not only was my mom a cop, my stepfather is a criminal attorney and my husband worked in a police department for over a decade and now works in the court system. In my old corporate job, my customers were cops. I’ll probably always be writing crime stories.
Read MoreLast week I talked to Australian author Kate Forsyth about her new novel, Bitter Greens, which is being released this month by Random House Australia. This week Kate discusses the novel further, talks about her life as a working writer, and gives us an intriguing preview of her new project.
JM: I know Bitter Greens was written as part of your work on a doctorate in fairy tale retellings at the University of Technology in Sydney. How different was this experience from writing your earlier adult novels? Did the academic side of things put any constraints on the way you created the book? Was your process different?
KF: I thought, when I first began to conceive and develop the idea of doing a retelling of Rapunzel, that it would make a fascinating doctoral project. Bitter Greens was a very research-intensive book to write, and it seemed a good way to maximise all those long hours reading through scholarly fairy tale articles. I had actually written a novel before under university supervision – my novel Full Fathom Five was written as my thesis for my Master of Arts in Writing. (Although I wrote it in my 20s, it was my eighth published novel).
I do not feel my doctorate put any constraints on me in a creative sense. My supervisor, the novelist Debra Adelaide, was more concerned in helping me find the voice of my protagonist, and to help me learn to be a better writer. I am always eager to learn, and so I was grateful to her for her close scrutiny of my work. I’m not used to showing my early drafts to anyone and so I did find that difficult, but she was very tactful.
I actually love writing articles and essays as well as poems and novels, and so I’ve been enjoying the theoretical aspect of the doctorate as well. I like to know everything I possibly can about a time or a place or a person or a subject before I write about it, and so I would have studied just as intensively for the novel as I am now doing for my exegesis. I am writing about the many different retellings of Rapunzel, from the earliest Maiden in the Tower tales right down to Disney’s ‘Tangled’ and the use of Rapunzel motifs in advertising and popular culture. It’s fascinating.
In April, I am giving the keynote speech at a conference on Folklore & Fantasy at the University of Chichester, in Sussex, England. I’ll be talking about how deeply the roots of fantasy fiction run into our past, into the archetypal stories of myth, legend, fairy tale and folklore. This is something I find absolutely fascinating, and so I’m looking forward to it!
JM: Some passages of Bitter Greens must have been exceptionally challenging to write. I’m referring in particular to scenes of sexual violence, part of your realistic depiction of the society those women lived in. I found parts of the book extremely disturbing to read. What were your reasons for choosing to present this material so openly?
KF: It is true a few scenes were exceptionally difficult to write. I had to get up and leave the computer, and come back […]
Read MoreI was recently lucky enough obtain an advance reading copy of Kate Forsyth’s new novel, Bitter Greens, to read during my Christmas break, and was bowled over by its magnificent blend of history, fairytale and sheer storytelling flair. Bitter Greens will be released this month by Random House Australia, and not only has Kate agreed to be our guest on Writer Unboxed for a two part interview, she’s also giving away a copy of the novel to a lucky WU reader. Post a comment on Part One of this interview by April 12 to be in the draw, which is open to readers from any part of the world.
Kate is an extremely versatile writer, as you’ll see in this interview, and she seems to thrive on challenge. With Bitter Greens she’s done something entirely new. I couldn’t wait to ask Kate about the creative process for this particular project, which combines her scholarly interest in fairy tales with the creative passion of a true storyteller.
To introduce the novel, here’s a quote from Kate’s website:
Bitter Greens is an historical novel which intertwines a retelling of the Rapunzel fairytale with the dramatic true life story of the woman who first told the tale – the 17th century French writer Charlotte-Rose de la Force. It moves from the dazzling court of the Sun King in 17th century Paris and Versailles to Venice in the 16th century, and is filled with romance, magic, history and danger.
JM: Kate, congratulations on this wonderful new novel and thanks so much for agreeing to talk to Writer Unboxed. Bitter Greens is one of those books that breaks out of recognised genre moulds – it’s part historical novel, part fairytale, and part serious examination of gender roles, power and cruelty in 16th and17th century France and Italy. I want to start at the very beginning. I know you’ve loved fairytales since childhood. Will you tell WU readers about your first encounter with the Rapunzel story?
KF: I first read the Rapunzel fairytale when I was a young girl in hospital, suffering a series of treatments and operations for a damaged tear duct. I was given a copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales and the stories in that little leather-bound book have been my favourite fairytales ever since – among them, of course, Rapunzel. I felt a great affinity with that other young girl, locked away alone in a tower as I was confined alone in my hospital ward. I loved the fact that her tears had the power to heal the Prince’s blindness and wished that my own tears, weeping constantly from the damaged tear duct, would heal mine.
JM: What would you like our readers to know about Bitter Greens?
KF: I began wanting to retell the Rapunzel fairytale, which has fascinated and puzzled me ever since I first read it as a child. I’ve always loved both fairytales and retellings of fairytales, but it seemed to me that most reworkings of the Rapunzel story sidestepped the biggest problems in it. For example, why did the witch want to lock her in a tower. Why was Rapunzel’s hair so impossibly long? Why didn’t Rapunzel ask […]
Read MoreKath here. Many of you know longtime WU community member Lisa Janice Cohen from her lively guest posts and insightful comments over the years. It’s been a long road to publication for L.J., one that we can all sympathize. But now she’s announced that her YA fantasy novel THE BETWEEN is ready for launch. We love it when one of our readers realizes a dream, that’s why we’re so thrilled to be able to have her discuss her writer’s journey and her novel. Lynn Viehl of Paperback Writer, reviewed THE BETWEEN and gives it a thumb’s up:
L.J. Cohen’s classic-based magic system suits the world-building and the characters, makes sense and doesn’t smother the story with a lot of unnecessary spell gunk. I think L.J.’s skill with using the magic elements (as well as handling the Shakespearean world-building) comes from her poet side. I kept seeing that lyrical influence throughout the story, too; from the rhythms of the dialogue and the action to the descriptive passages.
Ready for a magical yet real story? Check out THE BETWEEN. Meanwhile, please enjoy our Take 5 with Lisa Janice Cohen.
Q: What’s the premise of your debut novel?
Lydia Hawthorne is a high school senior poised to take her first steps into the adult world when emmisaries from Oberon and Titania’s warring Fae courts arrive, each trying to claim her in Faerie. She is an ordinary girl trying to cope with the unraveling of her ordinary life, immersed into a world of unfamiliar politics, veiled threats, and untapped magic. Thrust into an endless cold war between the rival courts, Lydia must tap their power to survive without losing her own essential, stubborn, humanity.
Q: What would you like people to know about the story itself?
Read MoreTherese here. When I learned that Donald Maass recently brought a new agent into his fold at DMLA, you know my first thought was to interview her here at WU. I’m so glad that Katie Shea took the time to answer a few questions for us and let us get to know her and her literary tastes a little bit. Enjoy!
TW: Tell us about your journey to becoming a literary agent. Did you always want to be an agent? Have you ever been a writer?
KS: I love answering this question because I have always wanted to be a writer. As a little girl, my dream was to have a best-selling novel. After college, I was a freelance writer for a couple of websites, and I had the lifestyle beat for a small press. When I realized there were businesses called “literary agencies” in New York, I wanted to learn more. I got an internship with FinePrint Literary Management to absorb what agents were looking for and process of getting your book published by the big wigs. (Hoping I would one day do this.) During this time, I was drafting my first novel, writing on a strict weekly schedule. However, while learning more about the business, I began to love it. Reading queries was interesting and exciting to me. A pile of submissions was a land of possibilities, a path toward discovering a new fantastic writer. Moving from there, I got a fantastic opportunity to work along side of agent, Erin Niumata at Folio Literary Management, where I worked with celebrity chef, Buddy Valastro and his first cookbook, CAKE BOSS: STORIES AND RECIPES FROM MIA FAMIGLIA. I was hooked. This was what I wanted to do. (*Note: My first drafted novel, THE DIVORCE HOUSE, is currently aging in my desk drawer. I do plan to work on it someday.)
TW: What areas do you/will you specialize in?
KS: I love real-life stories. I want the raw, emotional, gritty, story line that I can feel deep inside my bones. At the DMLA, I am specializing in commercial-scale literary fiction, women’s fiction, realistic YA, and memoir.
TW: What do you look for in a compelling project?
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