seriousfic

7. Do you listen to music while you write? What kind? Are there any songs you like to relate/apply to your characters?

Actually, I have this tendency to name chapters after lyrics from a song that fits the theme of the moment. If it's an action scene, sometimes I'll play trailer music, sometimes I'll play one of those "thematic songs" and try to fit the action to the music. Sometimes there's even music within the story that either really fits the drama or really doesn't, like this one super-tragic scene that goes on while Bad Romance is playing on the jukebox. Who knows, maybe I could turn "brutal violence set to bubble-gum pop" into my trademark. Worked for Bret Easton Ellis.


Although really, listening to Lady Gaga could drive anyone to murder.

5. By age, who is your youngest character? Oldest? How about “youngest” and “oldest” in terms of when you created them?

Age-wise, one of my characters has a kid sister who I think is nine-ish. Don't quote me on that. She doesn't really have a plot function, but I think she makes the world feel a bit more crowded and realistic. Plus, if I have to put up with a baby sister for 18 years, I should at least be able to use the anecdotes I get out of it. Oldest... well, one of my books involves immortal gods, so take your pick of the guys who've been around since the beginning of time.

( Teel deer crossing. )

3. How do you come up with names, for characters (and for places if you're writing about fictional places)?

I generally shoot for a kind of onomatopoeia and subtext. Just hearing a name should remind you who a character is and maybe even give a little insight into how they work. Plus, a name with a double meaning gives me something to be inordinately smug about.


"It has an obscure meaning in Latin. You've probably never heard about it."

Just for instance, there's a character named Call. Right off, it's kind of a friendly, naif sort of name. And there's a bit of metafiction to it: she's a damsel in distress, so she's literally a call to adventure. More over, her name is short for Callisti. The golden apple that started the Trojan War was called kallisti. Since the conflict centers around everyone fighting over her, it's pretty apropos.

And the same thing with fictional places. Something that sounds right and hopefully has a larger meaning.

And really, I don't spam you people enough.

1. Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you've worked with and why.

Well, there's this one thing I'm working on that blends a couple genres I'm interested in and gives me a chance to play with a lot of fun tropes. The tone is such that I can be really goofy and jokey at one moment, and then later on play things seriously and make people cry. Angst, but not too much angst. Plus, lots of fun left-field stuff like a quest narrative within the urban fantasy genre, a lack of sexy vampires, badass female characters with canonical queer tendencies... good sandbox.

Plus, it is such a relief to set something in present-day with a snarky narrator. Instead of having to find out exactly what Sherilyn Fenn's hairstyle is called, I can just say someone has hair like Sherilyn Fenn. It's very hard to pull that off when you write LOTR fanfic, no matter how many times you put her name through the Elfen Name Generator.