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Post by marianne on Oct 5, 2005 22:41:53 GMT
Hi Patcher's, I'm delighted to say that Lyda Morehouse, author of Archangel Protocol, Apocalypse Array and Fallen Host will be out next guest. Check out her website at www.lydamorehouse.com/Stay tuned for dates. MDP
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Post by Chirugal on Oct 7, 2005 17:32:59 GMT
Yay, new prey! I mean, author to question...
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Post by Cj on Oct 13, 2005 17:56:12 GMT
ooh cant wait
new questions are'a formin
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Post by marianne on May 6, 2006 2:52:35 GMT
Hi Patchers Lyda Morehouse will be here 18th, 19th, 20th of May. She will be logging in according to US date and time. Lyda's website is at www.lydamorehouse.com but she also has a blog as Tate Hallaway - her new pen name for her supernatural fiction. Her latest book Tall, Dark and Dead is out on Amazon. See you all on the 18th with lots of questions. bests MDP
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Post by Sheyana on May 6, 2006 23:14:19 GMT
we'll be there!
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Post by Chirugal on May 6, 2006 23:20:22 GMT
Brilliant. EDIT: Thought I'd get some questions down now, seeing as it's nearly time to start... Hi, Lyda! Thanks for coming! I've not yet had chance to get hold of your books (poor student and all!), but I've managed to track down the beginnings of them on Amazon. 1) How do you go about writing a novel? Do you start with the characters and find a plot from there, or do you find the plot first and then create the characters? 2) What are your favourite aspects of writing? 3) Is there anything you don't like about it?
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Post by marianne on May 17, 2006 21:56:46 GMT
Hi Lyda,
And welcome.
Thanks for coming to talk to us.
I'm a day ahead of everyone else I think, so I'll jump in too.
Can you tell us what the kernel for the Archangel Books was? Did you wish to explore certain themes, possibilities?
best MDP
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Post by lyda on May 19, 2006 23:21:08 GMT
Hey, thanks for having me. This is my first time being a guest author, so... I apologize in advance if I do something stupid. So, to answer the questions posed so far: 1) How do I go about writing a novel? Do I start with characters or plot or what? Usually, I start a novel thinking I'm writing a short story. For ARCHANGEL PROTOCOL (my first published novel) I started with a scene. I had the image of a detective in her office, ala a Dashiell Hammett novel, and a pretty young thing coming in and propping HIMself on the edge of her desk. For the most part, it's character. Although, I find that when I'm writing science fiction, that character usually brings along with her/him bits and pieces of their world. That was certainly true with Deidre, since her main problem is all about having lost her faith in a world where having a religion is required. 2. What do I like about writing? On good days, all of it. I like playing pretend on paper. 3. What don't I like about writing? Lately, I don't like the business of writing. But, then I've been bitten in the ass by the publishing industry. Supplimental Question: What was the kernel for ARCHANGEL PROTOCOL and was I looking to explore themes or what? I hate to admit this, but the idea for ARCHANGEL PROTOCOL came to me after watching X-Files. It was an episode called "Die Hand Der Verletz" (there's a synopsis here: www.redwolf.com.au/xfiles/season02/2x14.html) and while I watched it I was struck by the fact that all the bad guys ever seem to have to do in horror films is go "booga-booga" and Satan HIMSELF will show up to do their bidding, and meanwhile it doesn't seem to work for the, shall we call it, other side. Also, it started to bother me that in most horror movies (I'd seen "The Prophecy" about this time) when our intrepid heros discover they're battling demons no one ever thinks to themselves, "Holy Crap! This means God is real, because if there's a Devil, there must be a God." And, instead, they often enlist the help of --in the case of "The Prophecy"--Satan, who, if you know your Milton, actually doesn't have a good track record WINNING wars in heaven. So, all that came bubbling to the surface after seeing that particular X-Files episode. Plus, I been given a dare by someone on a fan listserve I belonged to (for another TV show, this one for "American Gothic" about a small town sheriff who might be Lucifer) to write a story in that made the battle between ultimate good and ultimate evil interesting. I failed to do that, but ARCHANGEL PROTOCOL was my attempt. Okay, enough babbling for now.
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Kuja
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Posts: 67
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Post by Kuja on May 20, 2006 3:22:07 GMT
I have a question, if I may... How do you plan out your stories, and in how much detail?
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Post by lynnejamneck on May 20, 2006 4:08:16 GMT
Hi Lyda,
Thanks for letting me pick your brain.
OK - have you ever thought of developing a different book/series for any of the characters in the AngeLINK world that explores a different part/time of their lives?
Also - what do you find are the primary differences in your 'way of writing' between sf and the supernatural? Do you find it easy to switch from one to the other?
Cheers,
Lynne
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Post by Cj on May 20, 2006 9:37:18 GMT
Hi Lyda thanks for coming to talk to us you mentioned above that you dislike the business of writing is it easy to get shoved around in it? i always liked the idea of self-publishing but i know that limits your audience, do you think the bad side of the business is something you just have to accept or is there another way? thank you!
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Post by Chirugal on May 20, 2006 11:17:12 GMT
Thanks for those answers, Lyda. ^_^ I'm not going to be around for the rest of the session (unexpectedly going to visit my family) so I'll ask one more question and then thank you very much for coming.
How do you set about giving your characters distinctive voices? In something I wrote a while ago, the criticism I got back was that two of my characters sounded very similar - how do you avoid this?
Thanks so much for taking time out for this - it's always great to meet new writers and get their perspectives on things. Enjoy the rest of the session!
~ Amy
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Post by lyda on May 20, 2006 15:03:00 GMT
Tackling more questions...
How do I plan my stories, and in how much detail?
The stories I finish, I usually have nearly completely plotted out. At the very least, I know what the end of my story is going to be before I start it. This seems to be especially true for novels, for me, which is to say that if I don't know the end, I'm probably not going to finish it.
Lately, though, I should say, I've been writing to proposals. Which means, my publisher bought the book based on the plot outline I gave them. So, I'm never sittng down to write something as huge as a novel without having a clue about where it's going.
Short stories... are usually a lot of stops and starts, and I would probably be better served having some kind of plot outline, but I don't. Which is probably why a lot of my short stories end up unfinished.
The level of detail varies. Most of my novel plot outlines don't go into a whole LOT of detail. They hit the emotional/plot highlights, but there's lots of wiggle room for all that "oops, I didn't know my character was going to say that/do that" magic. Normally, I think of myself as fairly orgainic writer, but I always have a sense of where I'm going.... especially if I have a deadline.
Did that answer the question? Or did you want to know about research?
Lynne asked (waving at Lynne!) -- have I thought of developing another series based on any of the characters in the AngeLINK world?
YES. I've even started a prequel to Mouse. I really wanted to write the story of how Page became sentient and how Mouse went from an orphaned street kid in Cairo to an international information broker.
I also think Rebeckah has an interesting pre-AngeLINK story that could use some developing, especially growing up knowing that her mother invented the Medusa bomb (and her father was a reality TV star, but that never made it into any of the drafts of my novels. It's just information I've always known.)
I stopped writing those because, right now, there's no market for books like that and I don't have an infinite amount of time and energy to devote to books I want to write vs. books I'm contracted to write. I have a two year-old at home, and he devours all the free time I have. What's left, I use to write. That's why I tend to work on one project at a time.
ALSO -- What are the differences in my 'way of writing' between SF and supernatural? Do I find it easy to switch from one to the other?
Yes. Actually, the difference I really feel is between writing contemporary settings vs. science fictional settings. It is -- no surprise -- a lot easier to write things set in the now than it is to remember ever detail about even a near future. So, in that way, I find writing the contemporary romance a lot easier.
But, the paranormal elements are not unlike the paranormal (fantasy) elements in the AngeLINK universe. Which is to say, I need to remember the "rules of magic" and pay attention to all the fantasical details. And, there's, honestly, where I find the fun in writing the vampire novels. Writing about vampires vs. writing about angels is just a different side of a similar coin, if you will.
And, like I said above, since I'm kind of a serial writer, I'm really only working on my contemporary fantasy stuff right now, and there's not a lot of switching back and forth.
NEXT -- Is the business of writing easy to get shoved around in? And, what about self-publishing?
I hate to say this, but I suspect you get screwed when you go the self-publishing/small press route also, just in a different way.
Despite my problems with a big New York publishing house, if I could change the past, I wouldn't decide not to take the contract with Roc/Penguin USA. I don't think a small press would have been the best outlet for the AngeLINK series. Because of where I was published, I won some major awards and got a lot of attention. This all good stuff.
What I would change... well, I would try to figure out how to scoop Dan Brown with the whole religious thriller thing. :-)
Unfortunately, I'm off for the moment. I'll be back later today to answer Amy's questions and any others that might crop up in the meantime. Sorry for the long post, but I thought it would be nicer than lots of little ones.
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Post by lyda on May 20, 2006 19:07:16 GMT
Okay -- Amy's question about distinct voices... how do you make characters sound different from each other?
That's a tough one.
A lot of the writing I do, I do rather instinctively. So, I'm tempted to say that what you need to do is listen to the voices in your head, which is kind of what I do, only not quite as insane sounding as all that.
One trick that someone TAUGHT me about writing dialogue is to try reading what you've written out loud. When I do that (and I still do, despite having several books under my belt now) I find I catch repetative sentence structures, repeated words, and things like that which can all add to the phenomenon of characters who seem to sound like each other.
(Actually, I'm doing that right now to make sure that what I've written makes sense. I'm a big proponent of listening to how text comes off when it's spoken out loud. So, imagine me sitting at my desk in Minnesota reading this out loud to you.)
Anyway, I think that another way to learn to give your characters a seperate voice is to spend some time listening to how other people talk and think about how that reflects what kind of person they are. How we talk is very much how we show the world who we are.
So I often like to use dialogue as characterization. That's to say, when I'm writing Mouse (who is a very kenetic and verbal person) I let his sentences run-on and his thoughts roll-over one another until they just sort of run out of steam. For Rebeckah I always remember her military training and keep her sentences short and to the point (difficult for me, since I'm nothing like that.)
Revision is a great tool, too. With Mouse I can usually catch his "voice" in one pass. Because, like I said, I'm a lot like him when I talk. With Rebeckah, I might have to rewrite her dialogue (or narrative, since I also wrote chapters from her point of view) several times in order to cut out unnecessary words, etc.
Does that help?
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Post by marianne on May 20, 2006 22:18:11 GMT
Hi Lyda,
thanks for the great answers.
What is your feeling about the paranormal series thing - do you think it here to stay, or do you think its popularity will wane eventually. I asked Kelly Armstrong this and I would be interested to hear your opinion. Can we ever get too much of vampires?
Also - do you think changing names is the key to writing in different areas? It seems to me that Neil Gaiman writes whatever he likes under his own name yet - other authors choose or are directed towards pseudonyms.
best
MDP
best Marianne
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