Writers of Color Blog Tour Spotlights Rae Lindley
This month the Writers of Color Blog Tour Spotlights Rae Lindley, author of the exciting Cimmerian City.
I was lucky enough to catch up with Rae and this is what she'd had to say about her experiences since we last spoke to her prior to her novel coming out…
It’s been a complete thrill ride! I’m still waiting for it to sink in that my book Cimmerian City is finally out in the world considering it’s been with me for so long in its early stages. I’m out there telling everyone I can about the book and that there’s more coming in the series. I’ve been receiving wonderful feedback on the book from readers and reviewers who are avid readers and they keep asking when the next one is coming out so I’m working hard on getting that one released as soon as I can.
In the meantime, I’m also writing the third book in the series Cimmerian Girl (after Cimmerian World) and I just finished a paranormal fantasy romance novella entitled Ariya: A Kiss of Ashen Twilight about a vampire and an Aziza fairy which is a fairy race originating from Africa. After I finished it, I got the idea for another story in that universe so I may write the continuing story after that.
But for now I’m gearing up for the end of the Cimmerian City grab contest on November 10th. I can’t wait to see who gets the goods!
Thanks so much for spotlighting me and for the follow up on my progress. I’ll see you around the bookshelves!
Sincerely,
Rae
We’re glad to hear things are going well, and for those of you don’t remember what a sweet lady Rae is, here’s last months interview with her at Dreamtime, dated Oct 10th. Take a peek.
Moon: How would you describe to a stranger who Rae Lindley is?
Rae: I would say Rae is a cheery, romantic, enigmatic soul with many layers to uncover. A quiet observer with a rich inner life, a strong faith and cynical optimism. Whose idea of a good Friday night is spent with a movie, a paper and pen in hand.
Moon: You speak of faith. Tell us more about what that means to you and how that affects your work.
Rae: To me it's about believing in something and living in according to that belief. I'm a firm believer in God and the Christian ideals taught by his son. Some of my characters also share the same beliefs and even though I find some things highly improbable of happening, I still find it fun to dabble in supernatural stories and stories that deal with beings from the depths of outer space. There's also certain words I won't use in my writing (because I don't use them myself) and certain things I won't have my characters doing.
Moon: Do you find that Christian characters and beliefs are sometimes less accepted in the speculative fiction genre than then they might be in other markets?
Rae: Hmm, you know I'm not sure. I don't really pay attention to the Christian market across the genres in general, but I think based on how the media portrays "the Christian person" it may be less accepted because of the setup of moral beliefs. Which is kind of weird considering the Bible features a lot of supernatural and fantastic elements of struggles between good and evil that make for great stories within themselves.
Moon: What first inspired you to want to be a writer?
Rae: I'd say a mixture of just seeing if I could tell stories and having a need to tell them. I wrote my first story after seeing a contest in a Disney Adventures magazine, around this time actually 17 years ago. The first story I ended up writing naturally turned out pretty horrid. I didn't pick up pen and paper until 2 years later when I wrote a play inspired by some of the movies I loved back then like The Untouchables and Bugsy Malone (I had a thing for 40s gangster/noir movies--hehe, still do). Movies became a pretty big inspiration for me because of how imaginative they were.
Moon: I noticed to do visual art as well. What mediums do you work in and how do you think you talent with art works/affects your writing?
Rae: I love to work in the digital format and sometimes in acrylic when I feel like having that physical touch of actually painting. Sometimes I combine the two. I think my art compliments my writing because it's another form of telling a story through the visual medium. I like to create mock book covers now for some of my books and even my short stories to show what the characters look like and what sort of environment they live in.
Cimmerian City is probably the story that garnered the most artwork because my main character Raven was always in my head and I loved testing out different poses and pictures with her as the subject.
Moon: Do you have favorite artists and/or authors whose work has influenced yours, or that you have learned from?
Rae: Oh definitely. I really love Greg Horn and Stephan Martiniere. Both do a lot of concept illustration artwork in the speculative genre and Horn especially works in digital comic art. Their works are simply breathtaking to me because they make me want to step inside their world and get completely lost in it.
Moon: Now Cimmerian City is you newest novel that’s coming out tomorrow. Please tell us more about that story and what inspired to you write it.
Rae: Cimmerian City was inspired in my high school English class in 1999 when we were studying Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. I really liked how it mirrored our current time in its social conventions despite being written more than 60 years or so ago and I was also struck with the idea of vampire-like creatures being able to live in the future during the day because of the massive pollution that blocks most of the sun's rays out.
Fast forward after a few years of finally finding the story I wanted to tell and a new, more fleshed out version was born in Cimmerian City. It's basically about a young Crow Nation/Egyptian woman who, like most young adults, doesn't really feel she has a set place in life. Things take a turn for the weird when she is on a trip to get some art supplies and is attacked by a creature in the desert. Things take another turn for the weird when she dies at the hands of two experiments and wakes up 10 years later as a "go between" protégé for the Vice President of the corporation that has replaced governments in the western hemisphere. Vampire-like beings named Dracins walk the Earth alongside humans and vie for civil rights despite being seen as bloodsucking animals. Raven also fights with the fact that she belongs to two different worlds and is not sure who to trust.
The story also parallels two other characters alongside Raven who end up with losses and struggles of their own as they work toward bringing down this corrupt corporation set on destroying Earth and their biological mistake in the form of the Dracin race.
Cimmerian City is the first of a series where I hope to explore the social dynamics between the Dracin race and humans while revealing more about Raven's inner struggles with who she is being of two backgrounds; not only Human and Dracin but also Native American and Egyptian.
Moon: As an author of color, a woman, and a writer of multicultural fiction, have you found either of these factors to be an advantage or a challenge when submitting and or marketing your work?
Rae: As far as submitting, I think it may be an advantage since there is a need for multicultural fiction (especially in romance) because there is a big readership out there waiting for more stories to featuring characters that look like them or experience what they have to go through in today's society. With online marketing, it hasn't really been a challenge or advantage from what I've noticed since most readers are captured by the story and (I hope) they may identify more with the struggles in the story, especially if they share the same heritage.
Moon: What drew you to write speculative fiction rather then anouther genre?
Rae: I like the fact that in speculative fiction there's so many extraordinary things that could happen. There really is no limit for the imagination with all the paranormal and futuristic 'what if's' that you can dabble in using various creatures protagonists as well as villains. I always liked how, in science fiction particularly, a lot of commentary on our current society can be illustrated through a parallel society that may, on the surface, seem so different from our own. But when you go deeper, you see a reflection of ourselves without the message being hammered into the brain. I loved how the original Star Trek did this so well.
Moon: What is some of the biggest challenges you find yourself facing working in this genre?
Rae: I'd say over saturation at the moment. There's a ton of paranormal stories currently cornering the market. So much, in fact, that I hear there's a separate section in the bookstore for them now! In science fiction, there's the issue of an aging market that isn't as admired as it was in the 50s & 60s, etc. possibly because we are living most of what the previous sci-fi authors only imagined. But there is still the ability to revive it through cross genre platforms like Susan Grant and Linnea Sinclair are doing with their sci-fi romances.
On the upside, with so much saturation and emphasis on one particular trend, there's an opening for other genres to explore which is what I enjoy doing when mixing futuristic science fiction with romantic dark fantasy elements and horror. Or even dystopian with high fantasy elements. There's really no limit to the possibilities, in spite of current trends. I think it's just a matter of seeing what kind of stories your characters have to tell in different types of settings
Moon: I hear you do quite a bit to help promote other authors work beside your own. Tell us about Lavender Isis and what motivated its creation.
Rae: Lavender Isis started out as a publishing effort with Melissa Wathington and myself after working together at a previous small e-publishing house that was just starting up. We ended up parting ways with that publisher but we still wanted to help authors get their stories to readers and seemingly overnight, Lavender Isis was born.
After a few months we decided to close our doors and transform it into a promotional tool for getting small press, self publishers and independent authors works more exposure because often these are the books that get left out in the cold. We're hoping readers can absorb themselves in a bookstore of good stories and great reads that they may never have heard of, while at the same time adding to the author's reader base who are on edge waiting for more of their books to come out.
Moon: What would you say are the biggest hurdles for independent authors and small presses in getting this work noticed by the public?
Rae: Definitely the amount of exposure and lack of funds to do said exposure. With a big publishing house, you're listed alongside big names and usually the house can afford to splurge on promotions, getting you into bookstores and things like that. Although now with new authors (even NY pubbed ones) the promotion is still up to them to get their name out. They just have the added advantage of the prestige pubbing their work which is great.
Unfortunately for small press and indie authors, they have to work twice as hard to get not only their name out there but also recognition for their work because where they come from has such a stigma attached to it. Thankfully with most readers a good book is a good book no matter where it came from and word of mouth will spread if they really enjoy the author's work.
The readers I've spoken to said they don't usually check the publisher on the book and it's just a matter of getting your work into the hands of those readers who will connect with it.
Moon: So what things marketing wise do you think will get a writer, as the phrase goes, the best bang for their buck?
Rae: I'd say online promotion because that's worked pretty well for me and for authors on a tight budget, there's a lot of ways to reach readers without paying a lot out of pocket. Anyway where I can reach readers directly and show them my work such as chats, online radio shows, mailing lists, myspace and things like that are fun. A website works well too because I like to use my artistic skills with the design and the gallery I place in there next to my writing. Ads can only go but so far but I think the more people know me and what kind of work I tend to put out, they will feel more comfortable looking forward to what I have to offer next.
Moon: You mentioned earlier that movies really inspire you. If a movie producer offered you endless amounts of money to make Cimmerian City a movie and you could pick any actors you wanted, what would the cast look like.
Rae: After picking myself up off the floor, I would refer to my list that I kept in my head throughout writing Cimmerian City. Rachel Luttrell of Stargate Atlantis is my dream actress as Raven. Strange story, during the time I was getting an idea of Raven's look I saw Rachel on on an episode and that was along the lines of how I wanted Raven to be as far as the look and moves. Not to mention I love Rachel's name for entirely shallow reasons. *smile*
At first I wanted Russell Wong for Russell (part of why I named him that) but then Karl Yune came to mind especially with the length of hair he has and the strength he carried through Anacondas (I know it sounds weird, but trust me on this!) which brought out my secondary main character.
Character actor Gordon Tootoosis would be great as Raven's mentor (he was my main inspiration for the look and personality of the character). And as the smooth Vice President of the corporation Thomas Kretschmann is Tyler Deamond. He has the look down pat in the second Resident Evil movie.
Sad but true, I thought it'd be fun to cast my book like a movie on my website and ended up doing so with one of my pages. *chuckle* Here's the link
Moon: Before we go, what advice would you have for new authors starting out?
Rae: I'd say if you were going to write to be published, be prepared for the long haul ahead because the work doesn't stop at "The End". Know your market, ask questions and get to know the industry. Even if you plan on sending your work out to a big publisher, have a working idea of what they will be doing with your book so you can know how to market to readers and what processes within the publishing it will go through with each step.
Despite all that on the business end, never give up, don't stop enjoying what you do and do it the best you can.
I want to thank Rae Lindley for taking the time out to talk to us and urge our reader to spend some time getting to know this wonderful author better. Take a swing by her website and pop over to the Official Cimmerian City Blog, or even her lj blog
scifirae
Also I strongly advise you to take a peek at Rae's new book Cimmerian City
Excerpt
In the 21st century, corporations rule the world, science is big business and governments no longer exist. A war breaks out between two races…and one of them isn’t human.
Stripped from the headlines of today's news, Cimmerian City is a novel spanning 10 years.
Greed can turn a good man’s heart to stone. This is especially true in the age of commerce and large corporations. No new pill can be taken without a laundry list of side effects that the patient may have to endure. But what if the side effects are more dangerous than the pills are helpful? What if the side effect causes the patient to be immune from standard dangers, such as firearms, the climate, etc., but causes them to change into otherworldly beings?
It is seen through the eyes of a young woman named Raven Blackheart. It is a future where corporations rule the world and political parties have been dismissed. An Earth that is recovering from a global war that has divided two races: Humans and Dracins, quick, tough skinned creatures that are children of the side effects from 20th century pharmaceuticals. Raven awakens in this world as a product of both races and nurtured by the vice president of the main corporation in the world as a symbol of the union of races. With her help, Vice President Tyler Deamond’s corporation can take both beings off Earth, which is quickly becoming a waste planet, and to a new terraformed planet. But, as Raven learns, nothing is as it seems, especially concerning humans.
Here are the links of the other WOCTB blogs participating in the Rae Lindley tour this month
Dark Parables
Gregory Banks
East of Mars
Nicole Givens Kurtz