Vivi Anna in interview with Kelley Armstrong
- 2005 -
Kelley Armstrong is one of my favorite authors. I love the way she writes and her subject matter. Who doesn't love otherwordly heros and heroines!! I just finished INDUSTRIAL MAGIC and loved it!! Lucas is turning out to be a whole lot of hunk! And I love how Paige has grown into her magic and into her role as a leader. You go girl! I have to say I am looking forward to the next book HAUNTED coming out May 31, 2005!
If you haven't already, check out Kelley's site at www.kelleyarmstrong.com. She has an online serial going on...Elena and Clayton and their roots. And she also has a lot of fun stuff going on there. I think her site is one of the best author sites out there! Check it out for yourself!!
First of all, I have to say how thrilled I am that you have taken the time out of your busy schedule to talk with me. You are one of my favorite authors and an inspiration to me.
Who in your personal life has been the biggest influence on you towards your writing career?
My husband has always been my biggest supporter. Even when I would tell him that my chances of “making it” were infinitesimal, he was certain I would...and if I didn’t, that was fine with him, too. As long as I enjoyed writing, that was all that mattered.
What other authors have influenced you in your life? Have you met those authors, yet? If so, what was that like?
Growing up, my writing was most influenced by arguably the two biggest writers for someone in my genre--Stephen King and Anne Rice. King, for his ability to find the extraordinary in the ordinary, and Rice for showing me that the “monster” didn’t have to be monstrous. I have never met either, and don’t ever expect to, but I’m grateful to them for inspiring me.
Did you always want to be a writer? Why?
I’ve been writing since childhood, but I never intended to become “a writer”. In my family, it was considered a hobby, not a career. It was only as an adult that I began to dream of getting something published. Even then, I knew it was unlikely I could make a full-time career out of it, so my goal was to be able to work part-time at writing and part-time at something else.
If you had to choose another career what would it be?
If I had to, I’d return to computer programming...but I really hope I don’t have to! I enjoy programming, but I love writing, and it’s the kind of work that I don’t consider work at all.
Are your children budding authors? How has your writing career, do you think, influenced them? Or has it?
My children are 3, 4 and 12, so only the eldest is at the “writing” stage. And she hates it. I can’t help but wonder if my writing has something to do with her dislike of it--perhaps she expects to be a natural and, when it doesn’t come as easily as she thinks it should, she abandons it in disgust. I tell her that I’m always here if she needs help with her writing for school. She loves reading, and that’s more important.
Is there a moment in your career where you thought “Wow, I’ve done it! I’m finally a writer!”?
I thought there would be...and there really wasn’t. It was very strange. I always dreamed that if I ever got published, I’d be “a writer”. Then I sold my first book, but didn’t feel that made me a writer...I was just someone who’d sold her first book and hoped it wouldn’t be the last. Then I sold the second and quit my full-time job, but still felt a bit dishonest calling myself a writer. Now that I have four books out, I’d never describe myself as anything but a writer, yet I don’t remember that moment when I finally became comfortable with the title.
Have you published anything before Bitten? Short stories? Poetry?I had a few short stories published, as contest winners and in small literary magazines. None of it paid, though, so Bitten was my first sale.
Why werewolves? Why witches? Why otherworldly beings? What fascinates you about them?
I’ve always been fascinated by the supernatural, and my writing has, from the earliest years, reflected that. In my twenties, as I “got serious” about writing (took classes, read writing books, joined groups), I was encouraged--strongly encouraged!--to leave that stuff behind and “get serious” with my choice of subject as well. I tried, and did plenty of stories in other genres, but on the side I was writing my werewolf novel. Even if I thought it would never sell, I loved writing it. For me, it’s the allure of the fantastical--putting fantasy into everyday life.
Do you think paranormal as a genre will get as big as say ...mystery or romance in general? I work in a bookstore ... do you think one day there will be a whole separate section for paranormals? I know I'd love to see it!
Right now, it’s a growing genre, but I worry that it’s in a cycle--it’ll increase in popularity, then wane as interests change. I think it’s too specialized to ever be a “major” genre, like mystery or romance. If it remains as a distinct subgenre (like historical romance or cozy mysteries), I’ll be happy.
What’s on your computer right now? What are you working on? If you can tell us that is ... LOL
I’m working on three things right now. First, I’m finishing my 2004 online novella. Second, I’m well into the second half of a mainstream thriller, probably due out in 2006, and finally, I’m still in the first half of book 6 of the Otherworld series.
Is there another genre you would like to tackle in the near future?Well, I am right now...and almost by accident! By the time Bitten was published, I had Stolen finished, and was well into Dime Store Magic. Stolen was due out in 2002...but my US publisher kept delaying the release date. In the meantime, I finished Dime Store Magic and knew there was no sense starting book 4 when I was worried over the publication fate of Stolen. So I began a mainstream thriller. Halfway through writing it, Stolen got back on track and all went fine after that, so I put the thriller aside. Recently, my agent asked whether she could pass it around, and it sold to my publishers as part of a two book deal to launch a potential new series
I think I was drawn to you and your work because you are a fellow Canadian. There are not many genre writers out there that have been published. Do you think there is pressure on Canadian writers to write about American things? Pressure to set their stories in American cities?
If there is, I haven’t seen it in this genre. Same as with my new mainstream book--the protagonist is Canadian, living in Canada and, although most of the first book is set in the US, subsequent ones will be more Canadian, and no one has suggested I change those plans. When I wrote Bitten, I had plenty of well-meaning advice from instructors and people in my writing groups (all Canadian), that I serious consider making Elena American, or at least move the Toronto segments south of the border. They feared the Canadian content would lessen my chance of getting published outside Canada. I stuck to my guns, though, and when the book sold, it was never an issue.
Do you think your books would have been as popular if they were set in Winnipeg, or the small town of Red Deer in Alberta? Do you think setting has any bearing on the marketability of a book?
In my books, I don’t think it would have made a difference. Setting doesn’t play a major role in the series. If I’d been living elsewhere in Canada, I’d have put the Canadian segments there, and I suspect the response would have been the same--Canadian readers like seeing familiar places in the books but outside Canada, readers just don’t seem to care one way or the other!
How hard do you think it is for a Canadian writer to ‘make it’ without going across the border to get published or agented? I ask, because I have noticed not a lot of Canadian publishing houses market genre books.
I have a Canadian agent, and my books are published in Canada by Random House Canada (with separate publishers in the UK and US). That’s not the norm, though, namely because both agents and publishers in Canada seem more welcoming to “Can Lit”. There are very few agents here who take genre work and the publishers that do are the big ones, who only accept agented material. Most genre writers find themselves crossing the border for representation and publication. While I love having my agent and a publisher nearby, in the world of email, borders aren’t as important as they once were. Most Canadian genre writers I know have American agents and publishers, and are happy with them, and have never felt that being Canadian was a drawback.
What advice would you give to the brand new writer? To the writer with a finished manuscript?
To new writers, the advice I offer is very boring--and unpopular. I tell them to practice, practice and practice some more. Read everything they can get their hands on and write whenever they get the chance. To someone with a finished manuscript, I tell them to get all the feedback they can....then take a hard look at what others say, and make use of the advice that makes them think “now why didn’t I see that?” I also advise them to network--to get out there in their writing community (or cyber writing community) and take advantage of every contact they find. Join writing groups, attend readings and signings, talk to other writers (professional and aspiring) and take advantage of any knowledge they can offer. You never know when one of those contacts will set you on the road to publication.
FUN QUESTIONS: if you dare!
What books are on your night table? Do you read a lot? Do you have time?
I used to read a lot more than I do now. I’m in that phase of my career when I’ll work as hard as they’ll let me, in hopes that I’ll gain a readership and be able to ease off later. That means when I am reading, it’s usually my own work (editing), research for a book, or critiquing a budding writer’s work. On my reading table right now is The DaVinci Code. I resisted it for a long time, waiting for it to hit paperback, but that doesn’t seem likely to happen soon, and I was starting to feel as if I was the only person who hadn’t read it!
Do you have any hobbies that you pursue? Any other passions beside writing?
These days it seems that my kids are my main hobby...and I spend a lot of time pursuing them! I also like to cook, and dabble in computer programming. Like reading, hobbies have fallen by the wayside for now.
If you could cast a movie for your Bitten and Stolen books, who would be your stars? How about Dime Store Magic and Industrial Magic? *NOTE TO READERS* the movie rights to BITTEN have been sold, with Angelina Jolie in negotiations to star.
I’m the worst person to answer this. My readers have so much fun with “fantasy” casting--there are at least a dozen threads on my discussion board devoted to it--but I honestly can’t match my characters with actors. I guess that’s because, for me, it would be like asking who I wanted to portray members of my family...I can’t imagine an actor in the role. In a movie version of any of my books, what’s really important to me is not whether they match the physical description, but whether they could take on the role and have fun with it.
Do you travel? What has been your favorite spots, so far? Where do you wish to travel to?
Well, I’ve been travelling more lately, as I start to get out to conventions. Before that, by the time I had money to travel, I had small children and couldn’t. Now, though, conventions are the perfect excuse to ask Grandma to watch the kids while my husband and I go away for the weekend. After all, it is work. And being promotion, my expenses are a tax write-off. Now the only trick is to find conventions in all the cities I’d like to travel to...
If you could be any animal what would it be, and why? (and yes otherworldly animals count!)
Definitely a predator...if only so I wouldn’t need to be constantly looking over my shoulder for a hungry beast. Probably a wolf or a big cat. There’s more appeal to the sleek, fast predators than, say, a bear.
If I were to come over to your house one morning unannounced (no don’t worry I won’t ...*BEG*) what would you be wearing and what would you be doing?
If it’s a weekday, I’d still be in my pajamas, probably sitting at the kitchen counter with my laptop, answering a few e-mails and checking my discussion board as I get the kids ready for school and the baby-sitter. That’s the best time for getting caught up on all that...before deadlines and the concerns of the day take precedence.
Thank you Kelley! I appreciate the time you have taken to answer my questions. And I hope to meet you at RT in April in St. Louis!!!! NOTE TO READERS: Kelley and I are going to meet for coffee at RT, I'm very excited!!