Hello, and welcome to The Meaning Of…the very first blog post. I’ve asked a few writers and musicians to answer the question of “what’s it mean” about either a favorite scene or song, and I figured I’d better go first, since, well…it’s my blog!
See…writers, whether it’s a novel or a song or a poem…well, I’m going to guess that most of us use things in our work that have meaning. I don’t necessarily mean symbolism — you’ll never quite convince me that the color of the wallpaper in someone’s short story is a symbol of the character’s emotional issues with his father — but I do believe the author might’ve chosen a certain color of wallpaper because it’s what he had in his childhood bedroom (hey, and therefore, might actually represent his OWN issues with his father…)
Bottom line, writing is an intensely personal business, and it would be silly to think that the choices we make in colors, names, situations, etc. don’t have some meaning to us, the authors. I know I add personal bits and pieces, trivia, really, to my work as I write it. Pretty much whatever I’m eating, watching, reading or listening to is likely to end up in whatever book I’m working on.
So, here it is: The Meaning of Dirty…
Dirty — The title. I had an idea that I wanted to write a book about a woman who meets a man who just takes her on this sort of wild, sexual journey and they do all this stuff, and it was all really DIRTY, and I wanted to write a book called DIRTY that pretty much summed it all up. Of course, as I started writing it, I realized that’s not what was going to happen, and it wasn’t really going to be that book…and that it wasn’t about being “dirty” at all.
This is what happened. – The first line. Also happens to be the first line of Stephen King’s The Mist, and I remember reading once why he chose to start HIS book that way, that it was the same or similar to someone else’s first line. I tried a lot of other opening lines — including This is how it started. But none of them worked and I ended up with that. I’m not sure why — by the time the book was finished I’d gone through several versions, and made no connection to The Mist until later, reading something else, realized, there it was.
I met him at the candy store. He turned around and smiled at me. Yeah, just like the song. Not intentional. I was surprised enough to smile back.
This was not a children’s candy store. This was Sweet Heaven, an upscale, gourmet candy store. No cheap lollipops or chalky chocolate kisses. The kind of place you went to buy expensive imported truffles for your boss’s wife because you felt guilty for fucking him when you were both at a conference in Milwaukee. If you pay attention, this becomes an important detail later in the book.
He was buying jellybeans, black only. He looked at the bag in my hand, candy-coated chocolate. Also in one color. I’m fascinated by the fact you can buy M &Ms in only one color, or jelly beans in only one flavor, and they cost three times as much as if you buy them pre-mixed.
“You know what they say about the green ones.” The rakish tilt of his lips tried to charm me, and I resisted.
“St. Patrick’s Day?” Which was why I was buying them.
He shook his head. “No. The green ones make you horny.”
I’d been hit on plenty of times, mostly by men with little finesse who thought what was between their legs made up for what they lacked between their ears. Sometimes I went home with one of them anyway, just because it felt good to want and be wanted, even if it was mostly fake, and they usually disappointed.
“That’s an urban legend made up by adolescent boys with wish fulfillment issues.”
His lips tilted further. His smile was his best asset, brilliant and shining in a face made up of otherwise regular features. He had hair the color of wet sand and cloudy blue-green eyes, both attractive but when paired with the smile…breathtaking. Dan, in my head, looks like Ewan McGregor. There. I’ll just say it.
“Very good answer,” he said.
He held out his hand. When I took it, he pulled me closer, step by hesitant step, until he could lean close and whisper in my ear. His hot breath gusted along my skin, and I shivered. “Do you like licorice?”
I did, and I do, and he tugged me around the corner to reach inside a bin filled with small black rectangles. It had a label with a picture of a kangaroo on the front.
“Try this.” He lifted a piece to my lips and I opened for him although the sign clearly said ‘no samples.’ “It’s from Australia.” It’s Kookaburra licorice, which is the BEST FREAKING LICORICE EVER MADE. I’ve bought it online in 5 lb boxes and had it shipped at an exorbitant, outrageous cost to me, that’s how good that licorice is. Also, black licorice is *my* favorite.
The licorice smoothed on my tongue. Soft, fragrant, sticky in a way that made me run my tongue along my teeth. I tasted his fingers from where they’d brushed my lips. He smiled.
“I know a little place,” he said, and I let him take me there.
* * *
The Slaughtered Lamb. It’s also the name of the pub in An American Werewolf in London. Awwww, yeah. Love that movie. There is a place in NYC called The Slaughtered Lamb, too. A gruesome name for a nice little faux-British pub tucked down an alley in the center of downtown Harrisburg. Lots of my books are set in Harrisburg because it’s familiar to me, though I do not live there any more, and it’s a big enough city to have “stuff” but also rural enough to have other “stuff” and frankly, how many books are set in Central PA? Not many, at least that I’ve found. Compared to the trendy dance clubs and upscale restaurants that had revitalized the area, the Lamb seemed out of place and all the more delightful for it. I once read a review of Dirty, back in the day when I read reviews, that said I didn’t know what I was talking about, as Harrisburg was made of strip malls and had no “urban crime” or some such nonsense. Yeah, well, golly, since I’ve actually BEEN to the pubs and dance clubs in downtown Harrisburg, and I can tell you there actually ARE neighborhoods that are not “good” neighborhoods, I think I know what I’m talking about. So there, reviewer who maybe drove past Harrisburg once in 1987.
He sat us at the bar, away from the college students singing karaoke in the corner. The stools wobbled, and I had to hold tight to the bar. I ordered a margarita. Personally? I drink margaritas, if I drink, which is not often.
“No.” The shake of his head had me raising a brow. “You want whiskey.”
“I’ve never had whiskey.”
“A virgin.” On another man the comment would have come off smarmy, earned a roll of the eyes and an automatic addition to the “not with James Dean’s Ohhhh, James Dean. Mmmmmm, James Dean! prick” file.
On him, it worked.
“A virgin,” I agreed, the word tasting unfamiliar on my tongue as though I hadn’t used it in a very long time.
He ordered us both shots of Jameson’s Irish Whiskey,When I was in Ireland, I toured the Jameson factory, which is the first place I ever really heard of it; therefore, it’s what my characters drink and also what I drink (when I drink, which is rarely, and if I’m not having a margarita.) and he drank his back as one should do with shots, in one gulp. I am no stranger to drinking,This, however, is NOT me, as Elle is quite the boozer and I’m not even if I’d never had whiskey, and I matched him without a grimace. There’s a reason it’s also known as firewater, but after the initial burn the taste of it spread across my tongue and reminded me of the smell of burning leaves. Cozy. Warm. A little romantic, even.
So, there you have it. The “meaning of” The first couple pages of Dirty. Interestingly (to me, anyway) while I was looking this stuff up, I found 15 pages of a short story called “One Two Step” that was a sort of precursor to Dirty, featuring the scene in the dance club when Dan asks Elle to dance for the first time, only they had different names (Reese and Elise) and it wasn’t told in first person. You can see it here.
Wow, holiday schedules are a beyotch. Kids off from school, travelling, cooking, not writing…I’m all discombobulated and I still have a kid at home today. And tomorrow. OY.
So, before I go take a shower and get started on the day, here is a blog post to get me situated back in the reality of WORK and not PLAY.
SWITCH is up for pre-order and wow, look at that price!
NEWLY FALLEN — available now!
Get 25% off DEEPER!
For audiolovers — — Woooo! Reason Enough, Layover and This Is What I Want on Audio! If you like that sort of thing. Sorry I can’t get a pretty linky type thing with a graphic and whatnot, but iTunes won’t let me.
And thanks to everyone who helped make THIS possible!
Hello, Doug, and welcome to my blog! Thanks so much for agreeing to become my minion…erm…be interviewed.
You’ve been writing stories since childhood and started publishing novels in your late twenties – was writing something you always knew you’d make a career from, or did you think it was just something fun to do?
I always felt I was a writer, whether I ever had a career or not. I started writing at age 8, and just never stopped. I was a middling student in school, but every now and then I’d write a short story and it would jump me into some accelerated program. I went to some great schools as a kid — well, great for me.
But I must be honest: I never did well in classes in which I had no interest and in which the teacher couldn’t reach me in some way. But writing and literature were my passions as a kid and in college.
So, I hoped to make a career from writing but I had no real indication that it could be done. I’m still never sure — I feel it can all end tomorrow. But I’ll keep writing stories, regardless.
Your first novel, Goat Dance, appeared in 1989. The eighties experienced a surge of popular horror fiction. What were you reading in the eighties and did those books affect your decision to write Goat Dance? Where did the idea come from?
I had been thinking about the book that became Goat Dance for at least five years before I sat down to write it. I was preoccupied with mating, work, and other things and I never really thought I’d sell anything I’d write at that point. I just didn’t think it would happen. I wasn’t depressed about it — I wrote stuff and I just kept it to myself, mostly.
Goat Dance was bought by Pocket Books in 1987 — about a year after I’d finished its final draft — but they didn’t bring it out until 1989, and by then I had two more books nearly done. I would write the books — back then — fairly quickly and then spend months doing other things, discovering places and people and enjoying life a bit too much.
The horror market actually was pretty much kaput by ‘89 when the book came out, but it still had a little steam left in it. I’ve been very fortunate. I find it unbelievable that I’ve had all these books published over the years — and the books are exactly what I wanted to write at the time and they all found homes with major publishers. I could not have predicted any of that.
In fact, I doubt I could’ve predicted my life from indicators in childhood. I would’ve thought I’d be living in a box on the side of the road by now.
What scares you?
Normal life. If I told you more, I’d have to hunt you down.
Do you try to write about what scares you, or what you think might scare someone else?
As odd as it will sound, everything I’ve written is autobiographical, only twisted and hidden and hyper-exaggerated and prevaricated and turned around and made upside-down so that the metaphor of some experience is all that’s there.
So, to me, I don’t write “scary,” I write “what this really meant or means to me, taken to some fantastical nth degree.”
Do you have a typical writing day?
Never. But every day, I write, whether I put words down on paper or not. My entire orientation to the world is as someone who is constantly storytelling, one way or another. And by that, I don’t mean “lying,” but I mean, I’m always reshaping experience and outlook and whatever understanding I have into a story.
My current book, Isis, while ostensibly a throwback to the gothics of the late nineteenth century, is genuinely from experience — but not a supernatural experience. Again, it’s hyper-exaggeration of an experience I’ve had, turned around, twisted, undone, stripped down to a metaphor.
The Priest of Blood, my vampire epic, is purely a re-telling of an aspect of my experience through a filter of a supernatural tale. And no, I’ll never tell.
At this point, your career’s spanned about two decades. How has your writing changed from when you started? What publishing differences have you experienced?
My writing’s changed insofar as my understanding of what I’m doing and what might be done in fiction has changed. Despite having a marketable storytelling ability, I’ve never thought of a market when I write (or when I have, it didn’t matter — I always ended up telling the “Doug Clegg” story). I’ve always written from experience, with my twists.
But what has changed is I now understand craft more deeply and can see where and why a story of mine has gone wrong, and where I can now go back and fix it, editorially. There are aspects of storytelling that create a narrative dynamic, and there are aspects of character that are important to create so that the effect of the story becomes more powerful.
Those are the things I’ve spent the past three years slowly studying and working on. It has helped to revisit classics, re-read great Greek tragedies, re-visit Shakespeare’s work, go to the great movies and novels of the 20th century that have unbeatable stories that hold up years later — essentially, the modern classics of storytelling. Turning to the world of art also helps — the great artists also have these characteristics in their work.
So I keep studying craft and keep learning from masters. It has both slowed my output a bit and re-energized my love for story.
Regarding publishing differences, well, one of the big differences is co-op in bookstores. It has changed the way marketing is done for books, which used to reach out more to the consumer outside the bookstores. Now, the bookstore itself is the front line of the marketing and promotional budget for those books that get displayed.
When I started, it was indie stores and Waldenbooks and B. Dalton. As big as a B. Dalton might be, it never reached the physical space of B&N and Borders or the unlimited spaces of Indiebound.com, BN.com, Amazon and Borders.com. This changed how many books could be shelved, which I think transformed how publishers put books out. Publishers adapt to the bookselling and book-buying environment, and as those have changed, publishing has followed.
On the other hand, I don’t think publishing changes fast enough — the internet has turned things upside down in terms of bookselling and reader attention and patterns of consumer behavior. It takes a keen mind to keep up with it, and luckily there are a few publishers who have kept pace with the changes. But not all. I think constant innovation is the future of any business with an online component, and I think people need to be hired in those companies who have these kinds of creative, innovative minds.
On the other hand, a lot has remained the same in publishing, too. Since I’m not on the other side of the wall with the publishers, I don’t know enough about the changes or lack of them. I just know it from my side of the wall, as a writer.
You were on the forefront of epublishing and utilizing the Internet to get your work in front of readers. Now you’re a writer who uses social networking to connect with readers often, with your Ask Me Thursdays and Tell Me Fridays. So tell me the truth: Facebook, huge time suck or valuable promotional tool? And how have you resisted playing Farmville all day instead of writing books?!
I never play games online, unless it’s the Isis Game.
Regarding Facebook and Twitter as timesucks, they can be, but here’s what I do: my husband set up an exercise bike in our TV room. On it, he created a desktop where I can take my laptop and a water bottle.
So when I go on Facebook or Twitter, I’m usually doing about 3 miles of exercycling. That way the timesuck is lost to “exercise time.”
Additionally, I go on Facebook and Twitter when I’m waiting in the car (not driving) with my iPhone or when I’m standing in line somewhere. That way it’s more “filler time.”
I like communicating with people. When it gets to be too much, I just don’t go to Facebook or Twitter. But I like the people on there and learn a lot about what people are reading and doing — and I like answering questions about writing, since it’s been my entire life.
And when the internet gets to be too much, I use my Alphasmart Neo, which you recommended to me. It’s a great device, I can get a ton of writing done on it because it provides zero distraction and I can even go up to my roofdeck, sit in the sun, and write.
Your website is amazing, including free downloads, games, serial stories…did you ever imagine having such a hands-on, immediate connection with readers when you began? What’s the best part about having that connection?
Megan, I really love the internet. Before I was aware of the internet much (back in the late ’80s and very early ’90s when I only went on GEnie occasionally) it always felt like deathly silence when a novel of mine came out. Now, I get to hear from readers, I get to communicate with other writers, I get to email manuscripts to my editors, I get to see upcoming cover art right after it’s been created, and I never have to stand in line for movie or theater or train tickets again. I never have to spend hours in a mall (I’m not a fan of malls) to buy something. I just go click and buy it.
Publishers have found me via the internet and have become aware of my fiction that way — as have readers. I love it. My neighborhood is not just the people who live on my block — they’re the people I communicate with online.
Tell me about your bunnies!
Okay, well, there’s a whole saga. Years ago, when Raul and I were biking out in Jersey City at Liberty Park, we saw a furry little thing at the side of the road. I thought, from a distance, it was a Himalayan cat. Turned out it was a bunny. Now, I wasn’t a rabbit person. I saw them as cute rodents. (They’re not rodents at all, I discovered.)
So this little rabbit had been dumped by someone. She was eager to be picked up and taken home. There were feral dogs and cats all over this one area of the park, plus owls and other predators. We called this part of that park the Buddha area, so we named her Buddha. And she became a Buddha to us. We fell in love with her — she had a remarkably social personality with us, and she taught us a lot about the prey animal. I mean, how could something so wonderful and fascinating be the meal for every predator out there?
Years later, Buddha sadly died (she was at least 7 or 8 by then.) We decided we’d honor her by adopting another bunny, who was sadly sitting in the local Humane Society — surrounded by yowling cats and howling dogs. This was Luka, and he came home but barely moved because he’d had no real stimulation. So we adopted Rosemary from a rescue group, and she was feisty and even up for fights. Eight months later, wedding bells (no babies — they’re both fixed.)
They’ve pretty much taken over half a room in the house, and have two three story condos as well as the floor. They’re remarkable.
And you haven’t even asked about the mouse (rescued from our cat, the mouse came up to us for help. She now has three aquariums to choose from, with tubes running through them — and like Buddha, is the most personable of little mice. She’s been with us about six months.)
What’s your favorite book by you?
Hard to say. Neverland and Isis are up there, but so is The Hour Before Dark and The Priest of Blood and The Queen of Wolves.
What’s your favorite book by anyone else?
Too many. But my favorite writers are Guy de Maupassant, Isak Dinesen, Herman Hesse, Ford Madox Ford and Ira Levin. Among many, many others.
Do you listen to music while you’re writing? If so, what kinds? Do you use playlists or soundtracks?
I don’t listen to music much. Sometimes when I write, I listen to Loreena McKennitt or some movie soundtracks or even Francoise Hardy.
Do you have a dedicated office space or do you prefer to roam while you’re writing?
I have all of the above. My office and library are fantastic — a room-long table for a desk with two computers (one for internet stuff, one for writing) and tons of books — about 20 bookcases in all.
I have to add, my husband Raul is half the “Douglas Clegg” business — he is the first proofer, brainstormer, research-checker, “business-stuff” person and more. We have an LLC together. We’ve been together for my entire 20 year career.
Please tell me a bit about your newest release, ISIS. It looks absolutely gorgeous – and for me, personally, part of the joy in reading a book is often the presentation. Is ISIS your first illustrated novel, and how did the decision come about to illustrate it? How closely (if at all) did you work with the illustrator?
The illustrator is my friend Glenn Chadbourne. He’s a genius. We were fortunate to get him for Isis. My publisher at Vanguard, Roger Cooper, and the team there, really felt that Isis needed illustrations. I brought Glenn in, and he wowed all of us with his stunning illustrations.
Glenn has recently collaborated on a Stephen King project, the illustrated Secretary of Dreams.
In my opinion, Glenn should become famous and in-demand once people see this book. From the cover alone, you can see his genius. He is a genuine artist — he has done this since he was a little kid. Pen-and-ink, those drawings. Beautiful. He just goes at it.
We spoke on the phone every day and went back and forth on the drawings for the book. I wanted to bring him the love of the story and I think he translated this beautifully into his drawings. They’re breathtaking.
But a lot of credit goes to Roger Cooper at Vanguard, as well as Georgina Levitt and Amanda Ferber. They saw the potential with this little book and the art that Glenn produced.
ISIS is part of your Harrow saga. Did you know you were going to write this story, which occurs before the others, all along or did the idea come to you later?
Isis is only slightly part of it. Harrow, as a series, is not a series. It’s the idea that a house was once built for the potential of infinite hauntings. Then I just began world-building around it. Isis herself, in the book, never sets foot in Harrow. We never really know her in the other Harrow books other than as a psychic who wrote a book about Harrow later on.
But in ISIS, she is a girl growing up in Cornwall, and her adventure has to do with her family and the beginnings of her psychic ability. It’s a tale of “Be careful what you wish for,” and also a story about the potentially destructive nature of family.
Authors get asked all the time, “where do you get your ideas” – can you describe to me the process of “getting an idea” and how you decide if that three-second snippet of dialogue or that jumbled scene is worth turning into a novel?
All of my ideas come from life. I’ve either directly or indirectly experienced something, and then I take it to the nth degree, I wrap it in fiction, I clothe it with another point of view. A lot of my writing is to get at the truth of something that I have found mysterious in life. I think life itself is difficult and even hostile at times, and yet at other times, it’s wondrous and surprisingly gentle. I bring my ideas of this in, then from the filter of my imagination, I recreate and reinvent it through story and my sense of story.
I just love storytelling. I did it before I could write. Before I could read, I used to sit down with the funny pages and make up each line of dialogue in the comic strip for my dad and mom. I think storytelling is innate in all of us, but those of us who become writers maintain equilibrium by getting it down on paper and recreating experience into something more permanent and structured than reality can ever be.
Rapid fire portion!
Up or down?
Up! Plotter or pantser?
Both. Right or left?
Left In or Out?
In AND out. East or West?
South Front or back?
If I answer this, it will lead to a bad joke. Chocolate or vanilla?
Ginger. Sam or Dean?
Sam. Kirk or Spock?
Neither. That Romulan Nero. Kirk or Picard?
Picard. Trek or Wars?
Wars. Facebook or Myspace?
Facebook. Beach or lake?
Beach. Roller coasters or merry go rounds?
Hate them both. I choose the House of Horrors. Fangs or claws?
Claws. Ghosts or ghouls?
Ghosts. Onions or carrots?
Onions!
Learn more about Doug including information about his new release, ISIS, at his website, Twitter and Facebook.
Hi, Christopher, and thanks for agreeing to become my minion…er, be interviewed for my blog.
Christopher Dallman’s first album, RACE THE LIGHT, debuted in 2004. The album was nominated for Best Debut Male in the 2005 Outmusic Awards, and featured the song Over my Head, which was also featured on MTV’s “The Real World”. In 2009, look for Christopher’s next releases!
Five years between albums – that’s a long time. Is it difficult to promote and play the same music for so long without having something new? How do you keep it fresh while performing? Did you continue writing music in the interim?
5 years is a long time, indeed! Sometimes, I look back and think I must not have been working hard enough. But other times everything happening right now feels soright that I think that it just needed to go this way.
You know, it IS difficult to promote and play the same stuff over the course of a few years! Particularly when you are dealing with pretty heavy subject matter, like I was with the songs on Race the Light.
After spending years with those songs living inside of me, 6 months recording the album, and then 2 years devoting every waking moment finding a way to have it reach new ears, I was just done. I was spent and broke and really tired of singing those songs. But once I had decided that I was ‘done’ promoting that album, new songs weren’t really coming out of me. So I basically took a break from music without consciously choosing it. The break chose me.
I am always KINDA writing, even if it’s unfocused and slow moving. I always have some point in my day that I pick up my guitar just to find out what happens. I rarely traditionally ‘rehearse.’ But I’m always goofing around on the guitar.
How do you decide it’s time to commit to another album? Is it a creative decision, financial, spiritual…? Do you write all new songs for it, or revisit music you already wrote?
Well, I’m not actually making another album. I’m making a series of 3 EPs that I will release a few months apart from each other . For those who are unfamiliar with the term, an EP is a shorter album, usually 3-5 songs.
I decided to do it this way for a bunch of reasons. The most important is that, while I suddenly found myself sitting on a big pile of beautiful, unrecorded songs, it didn’t seem like there was a thru-line unifying them all into one album. Race the Light was a journey with an arc and I don’t think the same could be said of the songs I’m recording right now.
Another reason is that releasing less content more often allows the opportunity for each EP to build momentum off the one before it.
The plan right now is to release Anthem, my song for marriage equality– which just came out. Then in the fall release a bunch of songs for free download, all setting the stage for the first EP to be released in December. But the plan is ever evolving. Don’t hold me to it
Do you feel each album should have an overall theme, or is that how your songs feel to you when writing them?
I’m not sure if I need an album to have an overall theme, but there should be something that helps it all hang together properly.
As you work on new songs, do they tend to come in themed groups or is each one separate and a surprise?
Every song is a surprise. It’s exhausting.
How long does it take to write a song?
Sometimes 5 minutes, sometimes 5 years It’s such a mystery.
How do you know when it’s finished? Is it ever?
I think there comes a time in the growth of every song where it is ‘ready,’ but my songs are never finished. And if I’m going to be stuck performing them for the rest of my life, they will for sure change and grow in order to keep them emotionally fresh and true.
When you perform live, do you sing the songs the same each time, or do the words sometimes get mixed up? ☺
Oh, I mess up all the time But I keep it fun.
You grew up in Wisconsin and now live in L.A. – what’s the best part about living in L.A., and the worst? How does it compare to living in Wisconsin?
The best part of LA. Hmmmm. I have a weird journey with this town. While I grew up in WI and now live here, there were 5 years spent in NYC between the two. Adapting to NYC from LA was really difficult for me and for the first few years, I kept dreaming about living anywhere but here. But something in the last year just clicked and now I love it. I hate to be so cliche, but the weather is really just perfect and is probably the best part of LA.
How do you decide which songs to cover, and do you try to honor the original artist or find your own interpretation of the music? How do you take the words of someone else and make them your own?
I never actually pick a song to cover and learn it. I always just stumble upon it accidentally and then be, like, ‘Oh that’s cool, I should do it!.’ The performance and arrangement always needs to strike a balance between honoring the original song and at the same time making it your own. If you aren’t going to actually interpret it, what is the point of doing it?
When you perform live, do people sing along? What’s it like to look out into the audience and hear people singing your own words?
Sometimes people sing along and it’s amazing. Totally thrilling. It’s better than applause.
If you’ve written a song based on experiences with a partner or someone close to you, perhaps a love song or a breakup song, what’s it like to sing that song when that person is no longer in your life? Does it “twinge” each time, do you get past it, does it become just another song…do you retire it?
It’s different for different songs. Even if they are about the same person! RTL is written about the end of one single relationship, and there are some songs on it that I happily perform at every show… others I am just over. I doubt it’s permanent… most likely they just need to rest and then I can revisit them revitalized.
It’s a pretty interesting phenomenon that you can be fully healed from a life experience and still revisit the essential emotion of it when performing.
Do you write every day?
I play and sing and explore every day.
“In the bathroom I comb my face with water” is a lyric from your song Brand New Lover. I can’t adequately describe to you how much I love this song without sounding like a giddy 15 year old girl, so I won’t even try. OMG I LOVE THIS SONG SO MUCH IT’S LIKE FIYUH!!!
Ahem.
That’s not a question, I guess, I just had to put that in there.
Thank you!
What instruments do you play (aside from the guitar?)
That’s really it! I took piano lessons for 8 years from very mean catholic nuns. I don’t really play anymore. But I’d love to start again.
What’s your favorite song, by any artist?
Amelia by Joni Mitchell.
What’s your favorite song by you?
It’s always the last song I wrote. Right now, it’s a new one called ‘Everything to Everyone.’ I’m also really digging the song I’m recording right now with George Stanford. It’s called ‘Subterranean.’ It’s really dark and vibey. My friend Sean calls it my Vampire love song! We’re almost done with it and then I think I’m going to release it as a free download.
Your new album is in production right now (if that’s not right, please feel free to correct me.) Can you describe a typical day in the studio? Tell me a bit about the album.
Well, I’m working in 2 different recording situations, and they are very different. One producer I work with is George Stanford and we work right in his house. He has his pro-tools computer in his bedroom and I perform in the living room. We work Thursday nights after 6pm, spend 4 or 5 hours and it mostly feels like hanging out. I will lay down my guitar and then a scratch vocal. Then we just dive in an add whatever instruments feel right. He plays most of them. He’s amazing and it’s so incredible to watch him work. When we have rounded out the sound of the song, I add my vocal, then harmonies, then we’re done. With George we move quickly.
The other situation is with a producer named Barrie Maguire and an engineer named Rachel Alina. Rachel was the assistant engineer on my first record years ago, so I walk into that situation with a great deal of comfort. Barrie, Rachel, and I record at a studio in Silverlake called Redstar. It’s a really special place with tons of vintage instruments and gear. Our approach there is different. Rachel and Barrie are very in tune with sounds and we try out lots of different mics to find the one that shapes my voice best for the song. We record the vocal and guitar live and then add the other instruments later. It takes a lot longer for the songs to develop at Redtar.
They are different approaches, both yielding great results, but the two approaches is another reason for separate EPs and not a full album. I don’t think it would do either producer service to smoosh their respective visions together onto one cd.
You’ve just released a new music video OVER MY HEAD, which is one of my favorites! Tell me about the video – was it your first official music video? What’s that like? Is making a music video a milestone for a musician? (I’m a bit older than you, grew up during the height of MTV mania – videos were THE sign a band had made it)
Making the video was really great and the response has been awesome. It has taught me the value of the visual in what I do. It’s given a whole new life to the song.
Growing up with what MTV USED to be, it certainly was a milestone for me. It was very surreal making the video and even more surreal seeing the finished copy. I have to give big props to the director Kevin Thompson. He did a great job of capturing the mood and colors of the song.
What’s your favorite part about what you do?
Performing. It’s relentlessly terrifying, but when you CONNECT it’s like nothing else.
If you weren’t playing/singing/writing music, what would you be doing?
I really don’t know. Sometimes I think I would be a good teacher. I can see myself writing.
When you AREN’T playing/singing/writing, what do you do? Other hobbies? What do you like to read or watch?
I’m a big reader. FIction. I like to run outside in the hot sun. I like red wine. I am heavy into True Blood and am sad there are only 2 episodes left this season. I’m a big fan of TV on DVD.
Rapid-fire!
Front or back front Up or down Down Left or right Right In or out OUT Black or white Black East or west East Chocolate or vanilla Chocolate Earth or sky Earth Lake or ocean Lake Coffee or tea Coffee Sam or Dean Sam Kirk or Picard Picard Kirk or Spock SPOCK! Trek or Wars Trek Hero or villain Villain Oboe or clarinet Oboe Major or minor Minor
Right now, ‘Anthem’ is available exclusively for download at http://www.christopherdallman.bandcamp.com and half the proceeds of its sale benefit the Human Rights Campaign.
So I realized I have a new book coming out in just a few days (though I know there are people who have found it out there in the wild already) and I figured I should probably get the word out. So, here’s the deal…I’m going to give away 15 copies of the book! Pleasure and Purpose! How can you get one?
Be one of the first 15 to feature the book trailer for Pleasure and Purpose on your blog or website! That’s it. Easy.
Here’s what you do: embed the code for the trailer (find it at http://blip.tv/file/2473582) and send me the link to your entry at readinbed AT gmail.com with CONTEST in the subject– I’ll reply with what number you are. If you’re in the first 15, you get a copy of Pleasure and Purpose and I’ll send it to you when I get my copies. (I don’t know when it will be, probably sometime in September.)
If you’re not in the first 15, don’t fear. For everyone who features the video on their websites or blogs after the first 15, you’ll be entered into a drawing to also win a copy of Pleasure and Purpose.
Contest ends one week from today, September 4th, and I’ll let you know if you won a few days after that!
So remember: feature the above trailer on your blog or website. Send me the link before Sept.4th. First 15 get a copy of Pleasure and Purpose.
BONUS! also feature the information about this contest in your blog or website and you’ll be entered to win a copy of No Greater Pleasure, out in October!
BONUS BONUS: retweet (or tweet) this blog entry with @Megan_Hart in the tweet and you’ll be entered to win a copy of BOTH BOOKS! (you must include @Megan_Hart in the tweet or else I might not see that you did it.)
All entries must be submitted before September 4th at 3 pm EST.
First off, thanks very much for agreeing to be interviewed for my blog. I’m going to get my enormous fangirl SQUEEEEE out of the way right off the bat so we can get on to the interesting stuff.
OMG I TOTALLY LOVE YOUR BOOKS OMG THEY ARE MADE OF AWESOME!
*ahem*
An introduction: Chelsea Cain, author of New York Times Bestselling novels Heartsick
and Sweetheart
lives in Oregon. Before starting on her career writing thrillers, she worked as a journalist for The Oregonian as well as writing several non-fiction books.
On to the questions…
Heartsick was your first published novel, but not your first published book. How has the experience of launching what many call a “first” book with such success, including NYT Bestseller-dom, national acclaim and lots of media attention, been different from or the same as your experience with your first few books?
On the whole, it’s been pretty fucking awesome. I get to see my book in airport stores next to gum and neck pillows! And I have this great publisher full of great people whom I actually truly like, and they spend money to market me and to market the books, which is huge. I get to travel all over the world. I’ve been to Oslo. Oslo! (Can I just say how much I love the Norwegians?) Financially speaking, my life has changed completely. With my other books – mostly illustrated humor books – I wrote them for the process, and because they afforded me a little bit to live on. But I never actually considered the fact that I could make a good living writing – you know, be “successful” – because how many people actually get THERE? I’ve always just written to entertain myself. I wrote HEARTSICK because it was thick into a thriller faze and I had finished reading all the thrillers I loved, and it seemed easier to write one than to find one that somebody else had written. What’s the quote? “I’ve never understood why someone would write a book, when you can easily buy one for a few dollars?” I’m sort of the opposite.
On the other hand, there have been a lot more demands on my attention. I spend a lot of time doing marketing because people are interested, which is awesome. But it changes the ratio of writing time. It’s a constant challenge, because if I don’t write, I won’t have anything to promote, and if I don’t promote, people won’t find the book in great numbers, and then I won’t have the opportunity to write.
One of the reasons I picked up HEARTSICK (actually, I requested it as a birthday gift and got it, SCORRRRE!) was because I’m fascinated by the premise of a female serial killer. You’ve said “in real life, there aren’t that many violent female serial killers. We tend to kill quietly, suffocating our babies or poisoning our husbands, and we tend to get away with it. But I wanted to explore a woman who killed violently, like a man, because she liked it.” (via Chelsea interviews Chelsea for the Oregonian on your blog)
The idea seems to be that female serial killers most often don’t do it violently, or get a sexual charge from it, the way traditional male serial killers do – yet you created Gretchen Lowell, one of the most fascinating serial killers AND women I’ve ever read.
Did you worry at any point while writing the book you wouldn’t be able to pull it off? That you couldn’t make her…well…believable?
God, yes. I totally worried that she wouldn’t be believable. Because I did a lot of research. And the thing about psychopaths is that real textbook psychopaths are not very interesting. And there haven’t been a lot of violent female serial killers, so right there I was stretching people’s believability meters. But one of the things I did, in writing HEARTSICK – and a HUGE liberation to me as a budding thriller writer – was to say, the hell with it. I’m going to write the book I want. I’m not going to worry about avoiding stereotypes or clichés or being authentic all the time. I’ll just tell the story I want how I want to tell it, and I’ll hope that I can bring something to the narrative that elevates it enough that readers will come along for the ride. HEARTSICK, in many ways, is a kind of fan fiction. Because I took characters and situations I loved from books and TV shows and movies that I loved and I threw them all in a big stew and tried to tell my own story.
Did you think about how your novel and characters might be compared to another popular novel – Silence of the Lambs? Did it matter?
About halfway through HEARTSICK, when Susan and Archie go to visit Gretchen in prison, I was like, uh oh, this is SO Silence of the Lambs. I even put that line in where Gretchen calls Susan “Clarice,” so readers would know that I knew. But even so, I was surprised at how that comparison came up in every single review of the book. Because while there are similarities, they’re not huge. But I think that Silence of the Lambs is such a pop cultural touchstone that it’s hard to avoid. And it’s a great book, so I appreciated being compared to it in any way.
Hannibal Lector, the “villain” in Silence of the Lambs, is arguably as much the hero of that story as Gretchen is the heroine of Heartsick and Sweetheart. Why do you think readers love to love these characters who do the worst, most awful things – acts that nobody in their sane minds would find compelling, much less sexy – and yet we loooooove Gretchen on the page in a way I hope I wouldn’t if I met her in real life. Why???
That’s a complicated question. I think that we’re attracted to people with power who are good at their jobs. (Even if their jobs are serial murder.) We’ll also attracted to wit and charisma. I also think there’s something really compelling on our lizard brain level about people who are able to cross that social barrier that prevents the rest of us from committing murder. As for Gretchen, there aren’t a lot of strong female archetypes in fiction, especially thrillers, so think that readers enjoy seeing a woman who is so totally in charge.
I write romance and erotic romance and love to read thrillers and horror – imagine my twisted and somewhat shameful delight when I read Sweetheart and Archie and Gretchen’s relationship got the spotlight. You’ve said Heartsick is about the violence and Sweetheart was about the sex. Did you find writing the books different with those “slants” — is writing sex/emotion different or the same than writing violence/emotion for you?
I think of these books as their own sort of twisted romances. I realized early on that Archie and Gretchen’s relationship was all about the intimacy of violence. So it seemed natural to explore both sides of that. The “slant” is the same. Intimacy. It’s the power that shifts. Every scene between Archie and Gretchen is about these tiny and colossal shifts of power – who has it, and who doesn’t.
Which do you think Gretchen likes more? Killing or having sex? I think the two are totally entwined to her.
You wrote Heartsick while pregnant and with a small child in the house, without a contract in hand. How was writing Sweetheart a different experience for you? How about Evil at Heart, a third Archie/Gretchen book coming out in September 2009 (OMG I CAN NOT WAIT! I CAN NOT WAIT! I CAN NOT WAAAAAITTTT!!)?
It was weird, because when I was writing HEARTSICK it was to not get a job. I kept thinking if I can just finish this book and sell it then I won’t have to get a job. That’s a real motivator, let me tell you. But when SWEETHEART came along, it was my job. I’d been given money. And a deadline. We were suddenly very comfortable. So I found myself not writing for myself anymore, but for all of the people counting on me – my editor and agent and publisher, the marketing staff, my husband and daughter, etc.
How do you resist the siren song of Twitter and Facebook long enough to get any writing done? Or actually…I’m not sure you do…
It’s hard! Social networking is such a distraction because it pulls me out of the zone. It may just be a moment – a quick update, an attempted witty rejoinder – but then I go back to the work and I’ve lost the momentum. On the other hand, it’s an important way to keep in touch with readers and stay on people’s radars. And just touch base with friends. I’m still negotiating it, obviously. I need to start making rules. One hour in the morning. One hour at night. Did I just write that? That will never happen. But it sounds like a good idea, right?
Something that just occurred to me: Archie and Gretchen both have a strong “ch” sound in their names. How did you choose their names? Do you have a special method for choosing character names, do they have to have a special meaning, or is it always just crazy random happenstance?
That’s very insightful of you! I liked the way that their names sounded together – that hard consonant sound in the middle – like even their names belonged together. Names are always fun. And curiously hard to come up with. I have this terrible habit of getting sounds stuck in my head, so that I’ll write a scene and realize that I’ve given everyone names that start with A, which is really confusing to the reader. Or I’ll name a character after someone famous without realizing it. These days I like to work my friends’ names in. Just their first names or last names, never both. There are lots of things like that in my books – in-jokes for me and one or two other people.
You’ve compared yourself to Susan Ward rather than Gretchen Lowell, and it’s obvious from your website you like coloring your hair, a trait Susan shares. Do you ever color your hair crazy colors, say…oh…blue or purple? And do people stare at you in the grocery store or say “what color were you trying for, hun?” And do people say stuff like “oh, right, you’re that ‘creative’ type” as though that were the name of a disease? Or…is that just me?
I’ve done many shades of red (from natural to magenta), pink stripes, platinum, blonde, brown and black. Black lasted five days. I looked like a Goth seventeen year old. Even worse: I looked like a thirty-something mom TRYING to look like a Goth seventeen year old. Color is funny. There are always some people who love it, and some people who don’t. I’m not good with hair compliments, though. When someone tells me they like my hair, I immediately change it. I don’t know why.
You write thrillers. What do you like to read?
I’m a very loyal series reader. I still read everything that Robert B. Parker puts out. Ditto Jonathan Kellerman. I love Val McDermid’s thrillers. But my taste is all over the map. Mostly I go for the funny and sublime. Give me a smart-ass with a lyrical prose voice, and I’m yours. The narrative vehicle is secondary. TV. Comics. Books. Poems.
What are you working on right now?
Book four of the “heart” series. Let me know if you have any titles with the word “heart” in them, that aren’t totally irritating.
**Editor’s note…Heart of Glass?
What’s the book you haven’t written yet but would love to write?
I’m planning on starting a new series soon, and I’ve got a story knocking around in my head that I’m anxious to get out on paper. Every time I get to steal away some time for it, it’s a treat.
What’s the book you will NEVER write?
I will never write a children’s book.
Rapid fire portion!
Chocolate or vanilla? Chocolate.
Back or front? Back.
East or West? West.
Up or Down? Down.
In or Out? Out.
Left or right? Left.
On or off? Off.
Sam or Dean? Dean.
Kirk or Picard? Picard.
Kirk or Spock? Spock.
Sex or violence? Sex.
Sects or violins? Sects.
Wars or Trek? I can’t decide this one.
Mac or PC? Mac.
You stand before three doors. What colors are they, what’s behind each, which do you choose and why?
Black – past
Red – present
Pink – future
I choose the red door, because I live too much in the past and future and not enough in the present. It’s something I need to work on. Plus, red is my favorite color.
Thanks so much for answering my questions, Chelsea, and good luck with your next release. (OMG I CAN NOT WAAAAIIIITTTTTT!!!!)
And one last question: when will Archie and Gretchen come out with an episode 2?
Three words: Labor Day episode.
Find out more about Chelsea Cain and her fabulous and delicious Heartsick, Sweetheart and Evil at Heart at her website. Find her on Twitter, too!
Thanks for the interview! (I ordered Evil at Heart and can’t wait to read it. Srsly.)
M
New book trailer!
And don’t forget to pick up a copy of Evil at Heart from your favorite bookstore. Comes out Sept. 1!
Hey, everyone! Today’s verra special guest is Wendi Lynn Avignone, who happens to have one of the very coolest jobs in the whole world. Yes folks, she gets to put makeup on the faces of HEROES. (Yes. You know she gets to make Peter Petrelli’s scar and goop up Sylar! Wooooo, she’s lucky.)
I am a latecomer to Heroes, having just discovered I loved it during season three, but you can better believe I’ll be glued to the tube for season four. And now that I’ve had a chance to follow Wendi on Twitter, and get some sneak peeks and teases about the next season, I’m even more excited!
On to the interview!
How would you like me to introduce you?
WENDI LYNN AVIGNONE/ ALLISON HEROES KEY MAKEUP ARTIST
How long have you been a professional makeup artist?
19 years
Did you go to school to study makeup, was it part of a larger degree, or did you fall into it by accident?
Fell into it by accident and did take many classes, yes. Read the rest of this entry
Golly, I love the Internet. I really do. I know there’s a lot of junk to wade through, and yeah, social networking is a huge time suck and comes with its share of “issues” – but you gotta love how it enables people who’d never have met to meet one another. Don’t you?
I “met” Weston in the convoluted internet way of “friending” and “following” and I guess I was a lemming in there at some point because I ended up friending him on Facebook AND following him on Twitter (and maybe Myspace, too, god, it’s all become a blur) and then he was kind enough to share his time with me and give me this interview.
And yeah, he’s trying to blame me for his new IM habit, but I’m not taking the blame, people. You can lead a horse to water, but he’ll only drink it if he wants to.
On to the show!
First off, let me add that his name totally kicks ass. WESTON WALLS. How cool is that? He’s not only got one W, he’s got DOUBLE DOUBLE-YOUSE!
Hey, everyone, check out this new video by a new band, with a new song. I like the song! And the video features my minion, Chris Winters — and he’s just all kinds of cute. He’s the dude in the car with the girl and at the table…
What’s your name? Who’s your daddy? And hey, babe, is he rich like me?
LOL!
Seriously, what’s your name and what do you do?
I’m Anne, but without James and Alex . Most days I’m pretty boring – I write, I cook, I clean, I do yoga and the housewife/mom thing. I work part-time editing audio for presentations and doing transcription to justify a rather obscene Starbucks and shoe habit.
Your first novel is now available from Ellora’s Cave — tell me a bit about Liberating Lacey.
Ah, Lacey. Well, Lacey’s a 36-year-old newly single woman who thinks that maybe she missed out on something when she married her first lover at 22. She goes to a bar and picks up Hunter, a Clive Owen lookalike/younger cop, for a one night stand…except it turns into so much more than just one night. Hunter and Lacey embark on a sexual journey through all of the “firsts” Lacey never explored with her husband, but intertwined with the sex is a profoundly emotional experience. While she’s older than Hunter, the book is more of an exploration of how two people from very different worlds find that those differences just don’t matter when it comes to the strength they can draw from love.
How long have you been writing? Is LL your first novel, or do you have some “drawer babies” as I like to call them?
I’ve been “writing with the intent to publish” (which for me means I stopped whining about wanting to be a writer and started writing) for about three years, and I have SEVERAL drawer babies. I wrote three category novels that didn’t fly and an erotic romance I’m not sure I want to do anything with. When I started writing I felt like a failure if I didn’t sell what I wrote. I’ve gotten much more comfortable with the idea of writing something to explore a topic/theme/situation or, God forbid, learn something about writing and letting the chips fall where they may in terms of sales.
When you’re not writing, what do you like to do?
Read. I’m currently into historical romance, but I read a ton out of genre. Lots of nonfiction, lots of whatever people recommend. I’m a huge fan of Sharon Shinn who writes fantasy-ish stuff with just enough romance (if you haven’t read Sharon Shinn, immediately order Mystic and Rider and/or Archangel from your favorite bookstore. They’re awesome). I bake bread, and I quilt. I used to knit rather obsessively but I’ve got some repetitive motion stuff going on that’s keeping me from the “chick with sticks” thing.
Do you have links to a website, blog or buy pages?
My website is annecalhoun.com but I’m far more active on my blog at annecalhoun.wordpress.com. That’s the place to keep up-to-date with mememe, and the site includes a Liberating Lacey page with information about music, trivia, and an excerpt. If you’d like to buy the book, go to the Liberating Lacey page at Ellora’s Cave.
Now for the rapid-fire part of the interview:
front or back – front – I’m short black or white – Is this a formal or summer event? Is it a wedding? Am I the bride? Please God, don’t let me be the bride…I’ve done that once and my advice is to elope. Do not pass Go, do not collect…wait, get the money, but…what was the question?
chocolate or vanilla – Am I wearing black or white? Is this a formal event? Are we outside? Which is melting faster? Is there syrup? Wait…is my kid there? If my kid’s there I’m wearing all the ice cream flavors. Sam or Dean – Dean, but slut that I am, I’d play rock-paper-scissors with either of them. Kirk or Picard – Picard, any color, any game Spock or Kirk – Old Star Trek – Spock – New Star Trek – both. Oh God, wouldn’t that be fabulous? up or down – hmmmm…I am a tree, an ancient tree, with roots spreading deep down into the ground and branches swaying up in the air. Oooooohhhhhmmmmmmmmmm. left or right – left. Left wing, left coast and most assuredly left behind. in or out – In. Definitely in. Wait a minute…what are we doing? Do I have to drive? Am I wearing black or white? Nothing? I’m out. Star Wars or Star Trek – Battlestar Galactica Dracula or Frankenstein – Neither. Like human males aren’t difficult enough?
Sorry…I don’t do rapid-fire well!
You stand in front of three doors. What colors are they, what is behind each, which do you choose and why?
The first door is black and behind it is the tar-like, sticky, hot, smelly bog of procrastination. The second door is red and behind it is a red Mini Cooper with a white racing strip with Tahmoh Penikett (aka Helo from Battlestar Galactica) in the passenger seat. He’d holding a bottomless cup of soy chai latte from Starbucks, the key to amazon.com’s warehouse, another key to a suite at Hotel 57 in New York City. The smile on his face tells me I’m going to the hotel before Amazon’s warehouse. The third door is white and behind it is the virtuous life of a suburban mother and housewife who writes romance. I choose door number three…because I love my life.
Anything else you’d like to share with the class? I mean…readers?
Class dismissed!
I write to music. Always. Hear what I'm listening to right this very minute as I write. You can listen to what I was listening to when I wrote certain books and stories. And, if you like a song, please purchase it from your favorite retailer so you can support the artist -- because downloading music without paying for it is as douchey as pirating ebooks!
And how have you resisted playing Farmville all day instead of writing books?!
It’s such a mystery.
