The Sisters In Crime Blog Hop Post
I don’t write mysteries or thrillers, but was tagged by the wonderful Judith Starkson, whose new release, Hand of Fire, about the Briseis of The Iliad, isn’t a mystery either. And my latest release, Knossos, definitely isn’t a mystery.
Which male authors write great women characters? Which female authors write great male characters?
I tend not to think about other authors in terms of gender. A story and its characters either work for me or they don’t. But since you asked for an example, I love the way Colleen McCollough draws her male characters in her Masters of Rome series. Gaius Marius, Sulla, Caesar, she does a fabulous job getting inside their heads. I also like her portrayal of Odysseus in Song of Troy. Odysseus is not an easy character to write. McCollough shows him being clever and cunning during the ten years of the Trojan War, which not even Homer does in The Iliad.
If someone said, “Nothing against women writers, but all of my favorite fiction authors happen to be men,” how would you respond?
I’m not into the whole male versus female author thing to begin with. If a male can write an awesome female character or vice versa, then that’s great. If a reader chooses to read only male authors or vice versa, well, that’s their call, although they may be missing out on some great books. That may sound rather nonchalant and off-putting, but I’m a very down-to-earth person. I’m just here in my little corner writing the books I’d like to read. I’m not here to “convert” anybody. And when I read, all I care about is that the author can write characters that are convincing, compelling, and not walking clichés.
What’s the best part of the writing process for you? What’s the most challenging?
If you mean, a part like doing the research, writing the ending, collecting the royalties, well, I tend not to break the writing process down like that. I could be doing research while simultaneously writing the last chapters of a novel; this is what happened with Knossos, because each chapter covered a different period in time. If I had to choose one thing, it probably would be doing the research, but then the most challenging thing about that would be how much of that research to incorporate into the manuscript. I collected enough material on the Knossos Labyrinth to write two books, and in the end there were eras and stories I had sketched out that I couldn’t cover.
Editing a manuscript can be as challenging as writing the first draft, because by that time I’ve lived with the setting and characters so long that I’m exhausted. Writing Knossos was particularly challenging because when I finished each chapter I had to decompress before starting the next, as the chapters are self-contained stories with their own characters, problems, plot, etc. It was like writing ten separate novels.
Do you listen to music while writing? What’s on your playlist?
I’m one of those fussy writers who needs absolute peace and quiet when writing. But I do listen to music in the car. Soundtracks, mostly, from movies like The Lord of the Rings, Alexander, Troy, etc. Sometimes the film tracks will inspire a scene. For example, I have a copy of the score from Michael Wood’s BBC documentary In Search of the Trojan War. A track from that album inspired the scene in The Young Lion where the adolescent Orestes drives a chariot for the first time.
What books are on your nightstand right now?
No fiction, unfortunately. I’m in the last semester of Medical Billing and Coding, so my pleasure reading is the textbook Insurance Handbook for the Medical Office, a copy of ICD-9-CM 2012, and CPT Procedures. But I have ordered a gently used copy of Through A Glass Darkly, and have Adrienne Mayor’s latest, Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women, on my wish-list.
If you were to mentor a new writer, what would you tell her about the writing business?
To tell the truth, it’s not something I like doing, because most writers don’t want to hear that they need to work harder at their craft, so I always send a disclaimer to warn them what they’re getting into with me. I’m not a squealing teenager cooing all over you on FanFiction.net. I don’t sugar-coat things. Please, don’t get the impression that I’m some modern-day Medea sitting at the keyboard eager to butcher your baby-I’m not a mean person, honest-but if you come to me with terrible grammar, a lazy attitude, and your work is full of clichés, and you insist that you’ve written a masterpiece, I’m going to tell you. And you should be glad I told you. I’ve worked with “editors” who never bothered to take the time to explain the mistakes I was making, and so my writing did not improve. I need to hear what’s wrong so I can correct it.
I have a marvelous editor now. Kev can rip my work a new one and make me laugh about it. Well, he did in the beginning, with Helen’s Daughter. Not so much now, because I listen to his advice and don’t make the same mistake twice. Both of us work hard to make my novels the best they can be. But most writers who ask for my advice aren’t ready to hear that they haven’t written the next blockbuster. I’ve had to deal with some adults throwing tantrums that would my cousin’s two-year-old to shame. You know what I say to them? Suck it up. Would you rather hear it from me, or from your readers?
When it’s a younger writer, I blame today’s school system for the way they screw kids up, and trust me, I know. I was a teacher for three years. It made me ill, the attitude the school administration had, all based on studies by university academics who’d never seen the inside of a real classroom, or hadn’t been in thirty years. Everybody has to be a winner. We have to cushion those fragile egos. Nobody is allowed to fail. Except that in real life you do fail. A lot. Kids need to fail sometimes. Failure is a great teacher of persistence. It challenges people to try harder and deal with rejection, and rejection is a big part of every author’s life.
When it’s an adult writer around my age (I’ve been 29 for the longest time, you know), then I have no explanation, only this: Leave your ego at the door, stop encouraging shill reviews from your friends and family, learn and keep honing your craft, and deal with it when your mentor/editor points out an error. And, I suppose, that’s how you go from being a writer to becoming an author. I'm still learning as I go.
I’m tagging L.M. Ironside/Libbie Hawker, whose historical novels about Hatshepsut and Thutmose III deliver entertainment and intrigue.