Brought up in a house with a family member as an English Teacher is always hard, however, for people like Kat Richardson, it gives them a good start into the wonderful world of literature, who, for bedtime tales were read a translated version of Homer's Odyssey. Graduating to fantastic lie telling on a Bridge Inn, Santon Bridge, Cumbria level. It probably would come as no surprise when she wrote her first short story in first grade.
Currently living in Seattle on a sailboat with her husband and their ferret we decided to investigate everything from the world of the supernatural greywalker Harper Blaine, to finding out a bit more about Kat, barely escaping with our lives heres the results of the enquiry...
Falcata Times: Writing is said to be something that people are afflicted with rather than gifted and that it's something you have to do rather than want. What is your opinion of this statement and how true is it to you?
Kat Richardson: Bah! I think writing is something you have to have a drive to do, but "afflicted" with? Nope. I like writing; it's not always easy and fun, but what worth doing is? Writing is something a writer can't stop themselves from doing, because they /love/ it. It may be a sick, masochistic sort of love sometimes, but... hey, that's what we're here, for, right? Giving our id a workout, playing with our brains in public... it's a bit narcissistic of us to be tossing up our verbiage and saying "Look at what I think; isn't it marvelous? And oh yes, please give me money for it." So unless a dose of narcissism and a desire to pay the bills doing something you like is an affliction, I'd have to call that notion "codswallop."
FT: When did you realise that you wanted to be a writer?
KR: It kind of crept up on me, like a very long twilight in Alaska, until sometime around age 20 or so I thought maybe I should stop fooling around and actually do it. I mean, I'd been writing stories for myself most of my life--I wrote my first short story when I was eight, though I must admit it stunk--so when I finally got a clue it wasn't "I want to be a writer" it was "Oh... I guess I'm a writer. Well... all right then. But what will I do for /money/?" Of course it then took me another 19 years to actually get published, but that's another story.
FT: It is often said that if you can write a short story you can write anything. How true do you think this is and what have you written that either proves or disproves this POV?
KR: I think it could be true for some people, but it's largely a Lit School myth. Short stories and novels are vastly different from each other; two forms battling over a common language. It's like sprinting versus marathon-running. What they have in common isn't really the running, it's the tools. I had never sold a short story until 2007 when I submitted one for Wolfsbane and Mistletoe. I've sold exactly one other, but I'm working on novel number five and most of my work seems to turn into long forms, rather than short forms. I could probably learn to be a better short story writer, but at the moment, it's not on my priority list. That said, I think successful short story writers tend to have better control of their craft than many novelists at the same stage in their careers. Unfortunately, a lot of what passes for short stories these days are vignettes, without a complete story arc or character development; those tend to be easier to do in novels, than shorts. On the other hand, I've met a few fabulous short story writers who turn into amazing novelists, like Ken Scholes, whose first novel, LAMENTATION, is remarkable, so my opinion, here, is probably worth what you pay for it.
FT: If someone were to enter a bookshop, how would you persuade them to try your novel over someone else's and how would you define it?
KR: I don't think I can make someone buy my book if they aren't interested in the niche to begin with and even then, they'd have to like the darker end of the Urban Fantasy spectrum, leaning toward Mystery and away from Romance. If they like the early Anita Blake books, or if they like Jim Butcher or Simon R. Green or John Meaney they might like my books too.
FT: How would you "sell" your book in 20 words or less?
KR: They're paranormal detective novels; hardboiled PI with Ghosts and Monsters.
FT: Who is a must have on your bookshelf and whose latest release will find you on the bookshops doorstep waiting for it to open?
KR: No one really--OK well... maybe Sean Chercover because I just love his books and they don't get the buzz I think they deserve. I rarely get to read anything when it first comes out, since I don't have the reading time I used to have. I cram things in wherever there's time, so jumping on the latest by anyone just doesn't happen with me. Living on a sailboat, I don't keep books for long either, since they rot in the moist environment on board. Most of my books get turned over to the used bookstore, library sale, or to friends. Signed books go into storage. Research books get to hang out until I'm done with them and then it's off to the storage unit for them, too. Ironically all this shuffling means I tend to re-purchase books when I want to read them. For instance, I've bought four copies of Connie Willis's book TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG because I like it so much. And I try to buy new, since that benefits the author, although that isn't possible all the time.
FT: When you sit down and write do you know how the story will end or do you just let the pen take you? ie Do you develop character profiles and outlines for your novels before writing them or do you let your idea's develop as you write?
KR: I always know the ending and most of the middle. It's the beginning that often eludes me and usually has to be rewritten a couple of times. I used to outline in great detail, now I make bullet lists of plot points, clues, characters and so on and arrange them until I have a sort of skeleton plot outline. Then I start writing and adjust things as I go. Things change as I go along and working from a looser outline allows me to take off in interesting directions if they present themselves, while reminding me of things that have to happen eventually. I need to have some kind of plan or I can't keep track of things, but I no longer need a detailed one.
FT: What do you do to relax and what have you read recently?
KR: Relax? Do writers do that? Actually I do try to treat my writing like a job and not do it all day long, every day. I watch DVDs with my husband, play World of Warcraft, and take walks with my camera. I'm trying to get back to the gym more often and do things that are physical, rather than intellectual or sedentary--we're trying to make more time to go sailing and to ride the motorcycles and go target shooting, but weather isn't always cooperative with outdoor plans in the Pacific Northwest. I do read when I can. Recently I finished Stephen Hunt's THE COURT OF THE AIR, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped. Emma Bull's TERRITORY and THE LAURENTINE SPY by Emily Gee were a bit more satisfying and I've been having some fun reading Katie MacAlister Aisling Grey novels and the Haunted Bookshop mysteries by Alice Kimberly--they're light, but they are well-written and funny, which is a nice break from the grim horrors of vampires and ghosts I've been writing myself.
FT: What is your guiltiest pleasure that few know about?
KR: I think all my guilty pleasures are out in the open: Reading cheesy historical romance novels; playing World of Warcraft; spending too much time online; and chocolate tourism (I hunt down locally-made chocolate in whatever town I'm visiting, if I have time)? Yeah, I'm boring.
FT: Lots of writers tend to have pets. What do you have and what are their key traits (and do they appear in your novel in certain character attributes?)
KR: We've had dogs, cats, and ferrets until recently. We're currently petless, since tube-rats don't live forever. The Greywalker novels feature a ferret as the protagonist's pet largely because I like ferrets and they are curious, stubborn animals with a wide streak of fearlessness (or possibly foolishness) and my protagonist is kind of like that too. I had given her a dog originally, but my agent pointed out that the protagonist never had time to take care of the dog, so I gave it to the fictional neighbor, instead. My agent still doesn't care for the ferret, but that's just tough for him, because at this point the fans and my editors would kill me if I wrote out the ferret. Ferrets are stinky little trouble makers, but they are ridiculously playful and they just don't give up. I like that attitude.
FT: Which character within your latest book was the most fun to write and why?
KR: Marsden. I don't want to say too much about him, since that might be a spoiler, but he's a curmudgeonly old bastard and it was fun to write someone so contrary.
FT: How similar to your principal protagonist are you?
KR: I guess it depends on what you consider most important in a person: background or attitude. Harper's tall and thin and emotionally distant. I'm average height and pudgy and always going in a million directions in the grip of completely irrational emotions and enthusiasms. We both have messed up families, but who doesn't these days? We both grew up in LA. We both love Mystery novels. She's kind of aloof and I'm kind of goofy. She's quiet; I chatter. She likes soup; I like chocolate. I'm sedentary at work; she's active. Like most women in the genre, I've been accused of writing my protagonist as a Mary Sue--an author's avatar or wish-fulfillment projection--but I'm not sure how much that's true, since I can only see from my own POV, not anyone else's. I know I wouldn't want to have her life or her problems. But I would like to be clever and confident and taller and thinner!
FT: What hobbies do you have and how do they influence your work?
KR: The great thing about writing is everything you do or see has the possibility of being useful in a story. I do a little target shooting, so my character also knows a little about practical shooting. I used to dance, so she knows a bit about that, too. I like to travel, so I use the places I go in my books. I ride a motorcycle, so I recently put a motorcycle chase in a story. Anything interesting, from people-watching to sailing, might have a chance to show up in a story. But only if it fits.
FT: Where do you get your ideas from?
KR: I usually get them from a guy wearing a sleazy trench coat in an alley. Two for fifty bucks. The serial numbers are filed off, but I have my suspicions about where they came from....
FT: Do you ever encounter writers block and if so how do you overcome it?
KR: Mostly I encounter Writer's Stupid--where I've written something really dumb and then have to fix it. I generally notice this only once I'm deeply in the hole of the stupid and have to figure out how I got in there before I can go on. Long walks or talking it over with my husband usually help. But sometimes drastic measures are called for: chocolate and index cards. Chocolate for me and index cards to write down the plot points on and rearrange them until I find the one that doesn't work. That one gets thrown out.
But sometimes I'm just stubborn and lazy. When that deadline looms, however, lazy is right out.
FT: Certain authors are renowned for writing at what many would call uncivilised times. When do you write and how do the others in your household feel about it?
KR: I prefer to write late in the day when all the other busy-ness is over. No one really cares, luckily, since the seals in the marina aren't going to complain and my husband has literally slept through earthquakes. I can't always write when I want to, though, so I write when I can be sure of a reasonable block of time--or I make one. It's a job. If you approach it like one, it's a lot easier to get it done.
FT: Sometimes pieces of music seem to influence certain scenes within novels, do you have a soundtrack for your tale or is it a case of writing in silence with perhaps the odd musical break in-between scenes?
KR: Depends. If I'm feeling too isolated, I play music that's not too intrusive. Otherwise, I just work in the ambient sound. If I really need a particular feel that I'm having trouble with, I'll play something
I associate with that mood. I played a lot of Latin American music when I was writing "The Third Death of the Little Clay Dog," for instance.
But I generally don't play music with lyrics I can understand—they distract me from the words I'm trying to put down.
FT: What misconceptions, if any, did you have about the writing and publishing field when you were first getting started?
KR: I used to be a magazine editor, so I already knew a lot about the editing and production process. What I didn't know was how the publicity machine works. I'm still trying to figure that one out, but I suppose if I ever do, I'll be the most popular woman in writing—with other writers since we're all trying to get a handle on that one.
FT: If music be the food of love, what do you think writing is and please explain your answer?
KR: It's a lie that reflects the truth. Beautiful, transcendent lying. It's one thing humans do and critters don't. Chimpanzees have been taught to paint, gorillas can sign, bees give directions, but none of it is bigger than they are, none of it reaches toward art. Only people embellish. We make up tales because we want to say something grander than that which lies within the scope of one average human's life.
FT: What can you tell us about the next novel?
KR: It's the beginning of the end. Not of the series, but of the story arc that began with Greywalker. In VANISHED Harper has to start looking at herself and her past if she's going to understand what she is and why.
Most of the action takes place outside of Seattle; about two-thirds of it in London, so Harper is out of her comfort zone. Needless to say, she's going to get a few surprises.
FT: What are the last five internet sites that you've visited?
KR: Hrm... let me think.... Twitter, HistoryLink.org, Bouchercon 2009, Wikipedia, and Getting Medieval--my friend Jeri Westerson's blog about her historical mysteries.
FT: Did you ever take any writing classes or specific instructions to learn the craft? If so please let us know which ones.
KR: My dad was an English teacher--I cheated--and I have a bachelor's degree in Print Journalism. I got to take all the usual stuff about craft, production, and ethics from that perspective. I also happened to have an adviser who believed journalism could be literature and I was lucky enough to take his class on that topic and read everyone from Addison and Steele to Hunter S. Thompson. I've also taken classes in grammar and children's literature, Science Fiction literature, creative writing, and poetry--at which I suck, incidentally, except in iambic pentameter. I also had some good logic, anthropology, and history instructors from whom I learned a lot about analysis, myths, and how "truth" changes depending on who's writing it. Maybe not the most formal of craft, but I still use what I learned from those guys.
FT: How did you get past the initial barriers of criticism and rejection?
KR: I come from a family of theater people. I got critiqued and rejected a lot even before I started trying to get published. I don't like it any better than anyone, but I got the idea pretty early that good criticism is a learning tool. Bad reviews and critiques are just chaff you have to learn to sort and ignore. And by bad I mean the sort that are mean spirited and don't render any real information. A glowing review that says nothing is as useless to improvement as a vicious one, it just hurts less. I'm also stubborn and the more people tell me I'm not going to succeed at something, the harder I try to prove them wrong.
FT: In your opinion, what are the best and worst aspects of writing for a living?
KR: You get to be your own boss and you have to be your own boss. It's also pretty unstable and the boss is usually a bitch. But you get to do things your way for the most part and someone always loves you (usually your dog.)
No comments:
Post a Comment