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~ Lilith Saintcrow ~

 

 

This month we have a sit down with author Lilith Saintcrow!
 

 

Hi Lilith and welcome to Sensual Reads & Reviews.

Hi there! Thanks for having me. Thanks also for being so patient with me!

Please tell us a little about yourself.

Not much to tell. I’m a mother and a writer, and I study Latin and work at a bookstore for fun. I’m probably the most boring person on the face of the earth.

I was born in New Mexico and was bounced around a lot growing up, since my mother married an Air Force man. We lived in Britain for a long while, and then in Wyoming, and then moved to the Pacific Northwest, where I’ve been rolling around for a while. I’ve been writing stories since second grade and been writing every day for a decade and a half. I love Thai food and B movies, good chocolate and red wine, and I married a funny little Japanese man who just happens to be my best friend. That’s about it.

I had the pleasure of reading Dark Watcher. Could you tell us more about this series? How many books do you plan in the future?

I’m glad you liked it! I finished the original quartet of the Watcher series (Dark Watcher, Storm Watcher, Fire Watcher, and Cloud Watcher, one for each element) and have also finished a fifth (Mindhealer). We’re now waiting for Fire Watcher, Cloud Watcher, and Mindhealer to make it through the production queue. I have another Watcher book (working title: Finder’s Watcher) in the works, and plans for a few more knocking about in my head. It’s an ongoing series I intend to play with for as long as it’s fun, both for me and the Readers. All of which boils down to: I don’t exactly know yet how many there will be.

How about Dante Valentine? Could you tell us more of this character and the stories?

Dante Valentine came into being late one night as I was staring at my laptop. Several of my books, especially the romances, were written to spec; Danny Valentine is one of those characters who came up and demanded to have her story told. The story is set about six hundred years or so in the future, and it deals with Dante, who is a Necromance—no, not like Anita Blake, honestly. I’ve only read two Anita books, and that was a long time ago. Anyway, one day Danny gets a knock on her door. It’s a demon, and he’s come from Hell to make her an offer she can’t refuse. And things just get worse from there.

How about your writing schedule? What is a day in the life of Lilith Saintcrow like?

I usually resurrect myself when my four-year-old son gets up, my daughter waits until everyone else is up before appearing. After that it’s two hours of getting two children fed, getting myself caffeinated, and generally starting the day. Then there’s answering email and coaxing my daughter through her daily schoolwork. After lunch I settle down to write, and depending on the project at hand, I can go for six to eight hours with frequent breaks to feed everyone and restore order among the little people. Whenever my husband wanders home he makes dinner (if I tried, disaster would ensue) and the evening is given over to writing while he plays with the kids. This is usually my most productive time. Once the kids go to bed we might listen to an audiobook or settle down to conversation while I knit. You see? Incredibly boring.

What would you say is your inspiration?

I get inspiration from so many places—books, movies, snippets of conversation or things I see during the day. But mostly it’s music. I listen to music all day, whether radio, Internet radio, or CDs. Music shakes everything loose and wakes everything up for me.

Do you ever see yourself in your characters?

Oddly enough, no. The closest I’ve ever come to seeing myself in a character is Elise in Fire Watcher, of the Watchers series. And that’s only because we both have nose rings.

Do you have any quirky writing habits?

Define "quirky." Seriously, writing itself is so weird an avocation that it’s almost impossible not to have odd little habits. I will not walk away from my laptop at the end of a chapter, I have to have something written on the next chapter before I can go away. I also tend to wander around muttering to myself when I’m trying to figure out dialogue or plot lines. And then there’s fight scenes—sometimes I block them out in my back yard much as theater people block out stage fights. I’m sure the neighbors think I’m mad.

Did you ever see yourself as something other than an author?

Well, I’d call myself a mother first and a writer second. When I was young, my mother told me I had so much potential, and I should be a doctor or a lawyer. I was also a massage therapist for a while, but I’ve always come back to writing.

Could you tell us about your poetry?

I find poetry very personal. My novels I can let other people read and not worry so much, but the poetry is like being utterly naked. Most of the poems I write aren’t for general consumption, they’re for me to work out things inside my own feelings. The poems I do allow out into the world are the ones I am fairly sure aren’t too self-revealing.

Poetry is a healing process for me. I went through a cycle of writing several poems every day, when I was struggling with grief over a friend’s death. It was either do that, or go stark raving insane from the pain. Since then I’ve turned to poetry, usually when I’m going through life changes or a traumatic period. There’s something about the discipline of the form—boiling all the words and images down to fit into a small straitjacket of a poem—that helps me process, I think.

How about future works? Any plans for more of your great series?

Well, let’s see. The second Dante Valentine novel, Dead Man Rising, is due out in September 2006. I’m currently writing the fifth Valentine book. As for the Watcher series, as far as I know Fire Watcher is coming out early in May 2006 and Cloud Watcher is coming out in July. Then there’s Mindhealer, the fifth Watcher book. I have some other books making the rounds right now, but nothing’s set in stone yet.

Several fans have asked me about a possible third book in the Society series, but that’s a long way off.

Is there any news or other links you would care to share?

All the news I have is about other people! My friend Betsy Gallup’s book Psycho Psychic is coming out soon, and I’ve had Marie Brennan’s book Doppelganger recommended to me both by my editor and by a bookstore friend. My friend Nina Merrill just got two of her short-fiction pieces accepted by Amber Quill, and we celebrated with a very nice dinner. Plus, my absolute favorite author Tanith Lee has some new books coming out, I’m ultra-excited about that. Any day a new Lee book comes out is a good day, in my opinion.

Any advice for future authors?

The best advice I have is twofold: never give up, and never doubt your voice. The very last creative writing class I took was years ago, and I haven’t attended another one because the teacher of this particular class told everyone that in order to write well, they had to write like his favorite author. That set me back for years and still makes me angry to think about. I think it was a horrible thing to tell a class of budding writers that they had to imitate a particular author. So that’s the "never doubt your own voice" thing. I tell all my students never to doubt that they have a story to tell.

Add to that the "never give up." It took me over fifteen years of writing every day to get something published. It’s all a question of numbers. Keep writing, and eventually you’ll produce something someone wants to publish. Seriously.

Thank you Lilith for sharing about yourself. I look forward to your future works and chatting with you again!

Thank you! Always a pleasure, Shay.




Interview was conducted by Previous Owner Shay
Sensual Reads & Reviews

 

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