Did you have a playlist for In Evil Times?
I have been listening to a lot of Mozart piano concertos and Beethoven cello sonatas and Saint-Saens Piano concertos. I was classically trained singer so I tend to favor classical music though I am beginning to enjoy more pop music now.
What’s your writing process like?
I get up each morning. I look at my outline and I know what is up next to write. I try to write every day, but writers are always writing. Dialog is spinning through our heads, we’re eavesdropping on diners at neighboring tables, etc. The other thing I do is each morning I reread the previous days work, and edit and rewrite. That means I’m fixing as I go and putting myself back in the space where that novel and its characters live. I also can’t jump ahead and write a scene that I know is coming. I have to experience it in real time with my characters.
How different is it from your perspective to write for TV vs writing for print?
I actually write my books using a lot of the tricks from screenwriting. In fact I believe my time in Hollywood has made me a much better novelist. For example, I will cut from a line of dialog and have that line finish in the next scene spoken by another character. I try to have every scene and every chapter hand off to the next one like a relay runner. I almost always start in the middle of a scene rather than do all that — knock, knock, come in, thank you for seeing me captain, etc. And my books are very dialog heavy. I have to remind myself to fill in all that boring description. (fill in gif of irony here)
In your Imperials Saga, you’ve got a society with an aristocracy and lines of inheritance and family inter relationships. How do you keep track of reoccurring characters and back story?
I use Scrivener which is a wonderful program that keeps things beautifully organized. They have sections for characters, places, research. With every book I keep track of any new characters, adding them to the list, and I update the status of returning characters. Okay, so Delia is married and her two kids are now this age and one’s at The High Ground. That sort of thing. Every phrase that is unique to the books ends up in the research section. All the planets, descriptions of them, capital cities are listed in places.
In addition to the human culture of the Solar League, you also have a number of non-human species with their own cultures and history. How do you manage world building? That is, did you work out the world building concepts, for instance the cultures and aliens first, or as you went?
I had a pretty strong idea of the traits of the various aliens. I knew the Cara’ot were master traders, and genetic engineers. I knew the Isanjo were functionally high steel workers, the Flutes are highly skilled in mathematics. Truthfully I cheated a bit though I’m going to have to address this in book four since I have an alien view point character. Because the aliens are a conquered people their own religions, cultural norms, etc. have been suppressed by their human rulers. Most of them claim to worship human gods, particularly the Christian god, they don’t have to accept the limits female participation in business because they are considered less than, but in most ways they try to ape their conquerors. It’s just safer that way.
Although I’ve only read the first two books of the five-book series, it’s pretty clear you have a plan for the journey and a destination. Any advice about how to plot?
Plotting is my favorite thing to do. And yes, all five books are worked out and the final scene of the series is already laid out. I start with a cork board and 3×5 or 4×6 cards and multi-colored pens. (You can also use a white board, that’s what we used on Star Trek but it’s hard to make changes or move scenes. I prefer the cards.) Anyway I put up cards detailing Teaser, and generally 3 acts though some longer books can be 4 or 5 acts. I then assign a color to each major character. I then put down the final scene of the book. Because if I don’t know where I’m going I can’t get there. I then generally put in the teaser. The hook that convinces someone to buy the book. I then put in the final scenes of each act. The exciting revelation that puts the heroes deeper in a well or changes up the game, etc. I then fill in the big scenes that get me to those act outs and the climax. The reason I use different colored pens is so I have a visual cue that I’m losing track of a character or another character needs to be cut back. Sometimes you discover in the early plotting stages that you don’t even need a character because you can’t keep them on the board. For a screenplay I would have every scene blocked out. For a novel I can’t do that, but I lay out all the major scenes or what I call tent pole scenes.
[Editor’s note: Melinda Snodgrass has an excellent post about “the teaser, the hook, the opening scene of a book” on her blog.]
What’s your writing environment like (your work area and tools of choice)?
I hate clutter so my space is very orderly. I love writing from my home in NM because I have a breathtaking view out my window. In L.A. I’m in a cubby hole and I really hate it, but right now my life is lived in two places. I generally have music playing, but not vocal music because I was trained as a singer and I start listening to the lyrics rather than writing. I keep a cup of coffee or tea at my elbow and sometimes a small sweet. More because it gives me something to do with my hands when I’m thinking about a sentence or a scene.
What have you read lately (in the last year or so) that you really liked?
I adore Emma Newman’s Split Worlds series; Django Wexler’s Shadow Campaign series, Paul Cornell’s London Falling books. I have to read a lot of Wild Card stories from our writers who I help edit so I don’t get as much time to just read for pleasure as I would like. I also find myself sick of words by the end of the day so I often play a video game rather than read. Or watch TV because that is homework for me.
Do you have any particular favorite books about writing?
I actually don’t because I sort of stumbled into this. Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman is good. I liked Steven King’s book On Writing, but I don’t agree with him about just feeling your way through a book. I think plotting — being an architect as my friend George R.R, Martin puts it — is essential if you have to write on deadline, and especially in Hollywood.
What’s your favorite charity?
I have a number of them. I donate to Planned Parenthood, I’m an investor making micro loans with Kiva, I donate to Heifer International. I sponsor girls through Child Reach, I’m an ACLU member, The Horse Shelter in Santa Fe. I have a page on my Website called Doing Good. If a reader makes a $25 or more donation to any of the listed charities and sends me proof of the donation I will send them any book of their choice autographed. I pay the postage too.
Great interview. I’m sharing it on Twitter and Facebook.
I found it by accident. Perhaps you could post a link in Novels, or SF/F.
Awesome interview. I’ve recently discovered this writer (while rewatching STNG) and was excited to see her here.