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[Olwen]

The Writer's Spotlight: Interviews with HPN Authors

Each month an HPN writer will be showcased in this thread. You will have an opportunity to read a brief biography by your favorite author, and find links to her fiction, both on and off HPN. And here, in this thread, our authors will answer your questions in a Q & A format, immediately following their biographies and fiction links. If you would like to submit a question for the author of the month, please PM it to me and I will pass it along. At the end of the week, your questions and their answers will be posted. This is your golden opportunity to ask those questions that you really want answered, like "Do you wear a lucky t-shirt when you write?"

OK, maybe the questions will be better than that, but you get the idea.

*** ***

The Writer's Spotlight is proud to introduce the author for July:

Sly_Lady

Biography:

"I do things in my own good time. Since I was young, I knew I’d write a book and, with the amazing arrogance of youth, I knew I’d be profound, original and stun the world with my genius. Sigh…

I’m from the Midwest, from Minneapolis. “God’s Country,” they called it, with endless blue skies and four spectacular seasons. I took time off after college to work, vaguely planning on law school, since lawyering seemed a nice grownup job. But I met a guy and my tale is utterly conventional. I was a stay-at-home mom with three kids, pets and a husband whose work led us to different places. My daughter was born in Sweden, a lovely place I lived in for three years. We lived in Minnesota, Boston, where my son was born, and Detroit. I love Detroit. People often make the yuck face, but Detroit stirs powerful feelings in me. My youngest daughter was born there and though we moved last year, I’ll always miss it. We came to Minnesota to be near my family, especially my mom, who was eighty-one.

My adult life was spent among kids and parents, living in various places, seeing the sights. I was lucky. I read a lot, volunteered in my kids’ schools and made friends. I worked part-time jobs and had the privilege of sharing my kids’ lives and knowing their friends. But that changed when my husband and I divorced nastily. Since then I’m a middle-aged woman seeking work in a fast-moving, technical world. It’s, erm, interesting…

I became a Potter fan in the late 1990s and started writing fics. My first long story, started right after HBP was released, was a piece of pro-Snape propaganda disguised as a wild romance. Back then many fans considered Snape Teh Evol, so I wrote an outrageous defense of him. I wrote like mad, enjoying the rush I get at finding the precise word I’m grasping for, giggling when I wrote something silly. I haven’t finished all my fics, but I will, since they jump-started my writing.

I began my novel in November 2008, National Novel Writing Month, and my goal was to write fifty thousand words in one month. Instead of somber profoundness, I decided to have fun. Fifty thousand fun words were easy, and voilà, I had a first draft. My mom, a romance addict, was my first reader. She was a connoisseur of smut. I frequently peered around the corner as she read on my laptop. She finished, proclaiming, “It’s good!” I was thrilled. (Mom liked a good sex scene!)

The last months of my mom’s life, we shared “A Shunned Man.” I self-published so she could have a copy quickly. She pondered which actors would play Sepp and Claire in the movie. I didn’t know how short our time would be, but when I got the first copy in May, she was in a nursing home, too weak to hold the book. She only managed to read a few pages.

By mid-May I knew my mom was dying. I prepared to quit my job, which is part-time and not terribly lucrative, to be with her so she wouldn’t die alone in that home. But the company is large enough that they offered family leave. Thank heavens and Bill Clinton, I could go to my mom without losing my health insurance and job. I left the next day. It was sad, hard, and the best thing I’ve done. We got her home in the last days of her life and my brothers, sister and I were all there when she left us.

So that’s it. Even this short, short version is lengthy, but since I remember the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, albeit fuzzily, there’s a lot of ground to cover. What more can I say, except, buy the book! Read the book! I hope you enjoy the book! After a lot of years living but not writing, I can finally say and really believe that I’m a writer."

Works by Sly_Lady:

Harry Potter Fiction:

Return of a Sexy Animagus

Sev at Fifty: Still Sexy After All These Years (Rated M)

Escape From The Deathly Hallows (Rated M)

Severus Snape, Paterfamilias (Rated M)

What Now, Severus? (Rated M)

Severus Snape Begins the Beguine (Rated M)

Everybody's Favorite Book Seven (Rated M)

Severus Snape's Magical Baby (Rated M)

Things Much Worse Than Death

Sisterhood of the Snape Hunters]

Contemporary Fiction:

A Shunned Man

... Questions and Answers ...

What was the first thing that ran through your mind when you first held a copy of the book that you had written?

My first thought was, "Finally!" Since my mom was failing so quickly it was really important that she get that first copy. But I sat down and paged through it, and was startled to recognize the words I had written inside a book. It was all so new, with fresh paper and a shiny cover that my kids helped design, and I felt giddy. It was an amazing moment.
 
 

Do your story ideas just pop into your brain   or does reading something   (not necessarily even about HP) put that plot bunnie into motion?

Characters come first, then I try to imagine where they might come from. Once they are in my head, they go on and do things that surprise me sometimes!

I started "What Now, Severus," to dispel the notion that Snape = evil, sadistic, a murderer, etc. What I learned is that I like writing people who are outsiders. At some time or other, everybody feels isolated. Most people know the feeling at times. The choice of whether to conform or to be true to one's self is something we all face in our daily lives.
 
 

How do you choose your OC's names?   Friends,  family, or just pluck them from thin air? 

A few names of real people work their way into things. In the fics my cats' names are in it, because the little guys don't live forever, so I can "immortalize" our pets. But there's this awesome online thingy called Behind the Name: Random Name Generator. There are lots of name generators, but that one's my favorite. It's where Sepp's name came from, of course.

 

Do you write at a particular time of day, or just when the mood strikes you?

Actually, my greatest motivator was NaNoWriMo, where I was forced to write like mad in every spare moment for a month. I tend to be lazy, like now, when I was hoping to work on my sequel, but instead I'm messing around online and discovered these questions. I think mornings are better, but I really need to discipline myself.   

What do you find easier to write - serious fiction or snarky satire/parody?

I fear a tinge of snark may slip into my more serious fiction at times without me realizing it. I love to giggle when I write parodies, but I also like to seriously imagine what people do in their real lives. Both are about the same, I guess.   

Please tell us about the sequal to your book!

Well, there's still a lot up in the air, since as usual my characters are heading off in directions I didn't exactly plan on. But Sepp, who never knew anything about his mother's past, decides to see if she has any living family members. What he discovers will be… unexpected.   

[Ugarte]

 

[Olwen]

***** *****

The Writer's Spotlight is proud to present the Author for August:

Louisa

Biography:

My name is Louisa, not a great shock there since it is the same as my forum name, which was the result of being too lazy to think up something fancy when I signed up at various forums.  I also – for the last year or so – go by the name of Full Moon Dreams.  That name, if anyone cares, was the working title for a short story, and although the story eventually got renamed I liked the name enough to use it for a username instead.  Any rumours that I was trying to distance myself from my regular user name are totally unfounded *cough* really.

I can’t remember when I first decided to wanted to write, though even at school I enjoyed the homework that related to creative writing, and in typical waffling fashion used to go overboard with it on a regular occasion. 

If I had to pick one day when I decided, then it would be the day of a particular English class when I was thirteen years old.  English classes in my school often ended with the last fifteen minutes or so being used for the public humiliation of a single student by reading out to the class some poor soul’s homework assignment.  When it wasn’t you being tortured it was great – fifteen minutes of daydreaming or doodling on your notebook.  If you were unfortunate enough to be in the spotlight it was a time of cringing and trying to crawl under the desk… the windows were too high to climb out of.

Well, on this particular occasion, it was my turn to be tortured, and my creative writing assignment was being read out to the class.  As anyone who reads my stories knows, I have a problem with keeping things short and succinct (this biography will no doubt be another shining example of that deficiency), and my homework on that day was no exception.  The four pages minimum for the homework was at nine pages, and would have been longer except I ran out of time.  The story had a rather abrupt ending that bugs me to this day (some twenty years later).  Well, the teacher didn’t take into account my waffling and the bell rang for the end of class before she had got to the end of the story. 

Now – finally – comes the part I really remember and what made me think ‘this is what I want to do’. 

As I said, no one listens at the end of these classes.  It is a time for relaxing, doodling and generally taking no notice of the teacher whatsoever.  But as I left the classroom one of the other girls pulled me to one side because she had to ask me what happened next in the story.  I don’t know what stunned me more – that someone had actually been listening in class, or that the story had interested someone so much they had to know what happened next. 

Whatever it was, once the shock had subsided I remember thinking that I wanted to write… and have been writing on and off ever since.  The only reason I have never completed anything and tried to be published is my own abominable procrastination, and the addictive lure of fan fiction.

I first got into the Harry Potter fan fiction arena whilst hanging out at The Forum That Must Not Be Named.  There was a delightful thread there where people would re-write scenes from the books from Snape’s point of view.  I couldn’t resist and was immediately hooked. 

One of those scenes ended up spawning my Origins stories, firstly the Snape one and later the Lupin one.  Two stories that got ridiculously long and took a disgraceful length of time to actually finish.

My Harry Potter stories – which rarely include Harry himself – cover a wide variety of genres, some more than others, though these days I tend to focus on fluffy slash stories centring around Remus Lupin and Sirius Black.  How I wound up in that particular genre is not that interesting though, so I will leave it at that.

I occasionally delve into other fandoms, though my main fandom is, and always has been, the Harry Potter one. 

As for original fiction – I try to write some every month, though since starting back at work I find that my original stuff is getting put on the back burner more and more often.  I am determined though, that if I am out of work again in November (which is a distinct possibility) then I will be signing up for NaNoWriMo just so that I can get my backside into gear and get a first draft down on paper.

In the meantime I can’t really call myself a writer, though I still dream of the day that I can.

***** *****

Bibliography:

Origins: A Young Remus Lupin Story
Origins: A Young Severus Snape Story
Snape & Wormtail: The Spinners End Years
The Muggle Way
What If?
Rita Skeeter Makes a Comeback
Meant To Be
The Sorting
A FLEETING VICTORY
Snape & Sybil- Their First Day
Snape Snaps
Snape’s Hidden Heritage
That Awful Boy
An Interrupted Evening
A Night of Memories
Righting A Wrong
Isolation
First Blossom
The Tale of Flicker the Snidget
The Karaoke Mission

***** *****

Questions and Answers

Why do characters like Snape and Lupin have more appeal for writers than Harry?

I think that Snape, Lupin and the rest of that generation hold more appeal for writers than Harry because there is so much that can be done with them.  If you are writing something from Harry’s point of view you are very restricted in what you can do – J K Rowling put Harry in a lot of different situations and we already know how he reacts to those.  If a writer wants to do something different with the character there is not as much to work with as with the Marauders and Snape.  It is the open-ended aspect of their personalities that appeals to me personally. 

How do your inspirations come to you - does the story come into your mind as a complete idea, or do you jot down little ideas that grow as you write them?

Mostly my stories come to me as complete ideas, though occasionally subplots have a tendency to take on a life of their own.  But for the most part the stories are completed in my head before I type a single word.  The ideas themselves come from all over the place.  I love the ‘what if?’ scenarios and playing with those to show what might have happened if such and such happened or didn’t happen.

This may be a hard one to answer, but what do you think is Snape's best feature as a character? And Lupin's?

I think that Snape’s best feature as a character (in my opinion) is his strength of character and his courage that only grew over the years.  He is one of the most intriguing characters I have ever read about, and I think that J K Rowling does him a great injustice to refer to him as just another of the bad boys. 

Lupin’s best feature is harder to answer.  We see much less of him altogether in the story, and a lot of the time he is not shown in the most positive of lights.  Hmm, that sounds like something that should be said about Snape, but I find it more true for Lupin than for our favourite Potions Professor and Spy.  Lupin does have a strength about him though.  His life has been dominated by the fact that he was bitten, and I think that it would have been remarkably easy for him to join Fenrir and the other werewolves.  But despite everything that life threw at him, he was essentially a good man who fought for what was right, even though at times he would have been fighting for those who were prejudiced against him.

Of course, there is one other reason that I like Lupin’s character so much, and that is because I adore wolves and have always been fascinated by them. 

I know you said it's not that interesting, but what makes you like to write the slash stories?

Well, I didn’t really start out writing slash stories with the intention of getting so caught up in it.  The first one was Meant to Be, my Albus/Gellert story where I was seeing if I could write seamless flashbacks.  I never really intended to write any more than that one.  However, I am one of those people who does try to read stories that have been written by those who have read and reviewed my own stories.  One of the readers of that story over at fanfiction.net had only written about one other pairing (Remus/Sirius) and since it was only rated a T I decided to give it a chance.  That was when I realised that not all of the writers of slash fics use it as an excuse to write stories of an adult nature, and I decided to see if I could write that pairing as well – since I already loved writing Marauder era fics anyway.  I never expected my slash stories to be so popular.

Another point though is that I have always enjoyed reading and writing romances of the het nature, and in an ideal world there wouldn’t have to be any sort of stigma attached when the romance is between two characters/people of the same gender.  When I am writing slash romances I don’t actually do much that is different to writing het for the most part. 

When you participate in NaNoWroMo this year, do you have any idea yet what kind of story you'll write?

If I participate (it will depend on whether I am in work or not) it will certainly be a fantasy story since I write nothing else these days.  The one that I really want to get written, but keep starting over with, is one which takes the legends surrounding mermaids and gives it a bit of a twist.

Not a question, but I've read your stuff and you're not only already a writer, but you're a very good one!

Thanks, but I am old fashioned enough to think that if I am not published then I can’t really call myself a writer.  I would like nothing better than to walk through a book shop and see my name (pen name at least) on the cover of a book on the shelves.  Until that day, I would hesitate to call myself a writer at all.






Posted on: August 01, 2009, 02:24:34 PM*bump*

[Ugarte]

 

[Olwen]

***** *****

The Writer's Spotlight is proud to present the Author for September:

Silver Ink Pot

Biography:


My name is Jeanne Kimsey, although in Harry Potter Fandom I have other nicknames: Silver Ink Pot or SIP for short, and Rattlesnakeroot on Livejournal. I think some people are born to attract nicknames and that would be me.

I grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with a large family and a house full of old books. My mother was a big reader - books, newspapers, National Geographic, the Sears Catalog, house plan books from the hardware - anything. She would read whatever we kids were reading for school, or our library books, and I guess I'm just like her because I found Harry Potter when my daughter asked for the books after seeing them at school.

English was always my best subject in school, and then I studied English Literature and Language at the University of TN at Chattanooga. I learned how to write a good essay. Criticism, however, was not my first love.

I started out writing poetry while still in high school, and when I was a senior I had a poem accepted by Seventeen magazine. It was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me. Later in college I was published in the school literary magazine, and became the Editor by my senior year.  I took workshop classes in Poetry writing, and then worked towards a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the Univ. of Alabama. But I realized pretty fast that in the U.S. there isn't much of a future in poetry, unless you want to float around from place to place as a guest writer for half your life, which I definitely did not see myself doing.

I came home very disillusioned, but pulled myself together and became a workaholic as a tutor at a private school, working for a monthly art museum newsletter, and then as a librarian. In the midst of all that, I met my husband in 1984 while he was still a student. Our first home was a run-down apartment building on the Tennessee River where we lived for 8 years. We had two children, then moved to our present little house in the country. Later we had a third child and my world became really small and child-centered for years.

I had plenty of time to read, but most of the time I couldn't find a novel that I liked. Every book seemed to have uninteresting characters and depressing endings. So when I discovered the Harry Potter books, with their message of hope and magic, I was entranced. I was amazed they actually got into print, since so much of children's literature today tries to be "important" and therefore, negative. After four books I was a big fan, and after the fifth book, Order of the Phoenix, came out in 2003, I was obsessed and joined a forum to find some answers.

Nothing I had ever done prepared me for the indignities of Fandom. I wasted a lot of time on silly threads comparing the Marauders to the Beatles, and deciphering the hidden anagrams in “Droobles Best Blowing Gum.” We “Deconstructed” the Marauders” in circular arguments that are still floating around in the atmosphere somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.

It was fun, but eventually I discovered “Development of Snape’s Character through Order of the Phoenix.” Suddenly there were serious topics to discuss: bullying, cliques, appearance versus reality, respect, and trust. And there were other people in the world who wanted to discuss the books as literature and find the clues in references to mythology, alchemy, poetry, plays, novels, and even songs. I was at home in that world, and that’s where I’ve been in ever since. To find a community of like-minded people is the greatest gift of modern technology. I can't even express what some of my friends have done to expand my world.

In early 2004, the website Mugglenet in connection with Wizarding World Press started a “writing opportunity” for the fans to get some of the favorite theories into print in a book that would later be called The Plot Thickens: Harry Potter Investigated for Fans by Fans. I had several theories that didn’t quite fit on the forums, but I wasn’t sure if I could write a coherent essay about them. I entered four ideas into the contest and all four were taken, much to my surprise. It’s funny to look back at that time because I did not have much confidence in myself as a writer. My computer died during the editing, and my final drafts were written in longhand at the kitchen table and typed at the library. I had never saved anything to a floppy disc before. I had never emailed a document before. I had to download my contract at the library and then hurry home to cook supper. I didn’t think I would ever get something finished and into print, but I did.

Nothing ever seemed quite that hard to write again. Sometimes I would be inspired by all my great friends here on HPN or CoS, and an essay would almost write itself. I had several more essays posted on Mugglenet Editorials, and wrote in a frenzy here on HPN just before Deathly Hallows was released.

After that I started writing weekly entries in my Livejournal "The Illuminated Dungeon" which gained quite a following because of the HP Lexicon Trial. I love the freedom of being a blogger because you are the Moderator of your own destiny. It's another great place to practice writing and to sharpen your arguments.

In the Fall of 2007 I was approached to work on a book for Mugglenet again. We worked on that for a year, and the manuscript became Harry Potter Should have Died, which was a true labor of love. It was a privilege and blessing to get to work with Ulysses Press and to get to know Emerson Spartz and Ben Schoen. It was like working on any book – sometimes it was lonely, sometimes stressful, sometimes depressing considering the theme of death that pervades Deathly Hallows. But the goal was to create something irreverent, fiesty, and thought-provoking that fans would enjoy. We wanted to remind people that not all the questions have easy answers and that Fandom is still going strong.

So that’s my long-winded story. I don’t know the secrets of writing a good essay except to be passionate about a topic, use interesting language, try to have a sense of humor, and make it personal. Don’t ride the fence too much – it gets painful after a while. Don’t be afraid to take a stand on an issue, even if people release the hounds on you. Be brave. Bring up something that makes someone else uncomfortable. Play Devil's Advocate. It’s OK to be wrong, but
don’t ever become boring.

***** *****

Bibliography:

On Mugglenet:
Mugglenet Editorials ~ Horace Slughorn's Slippery Name
Mugglenet Editorials ~ Dumbledore and the Tantalizing Tantalus Clue

On Harry Potter Network:
Apothecary Snape: Potions, Medicine, Alchemy, Healing
Bullying in the Books: Some Wounds Run Too Deep for Healing
Essence of Asphodel: Lily Evans Potter and the Poetic Tradition
Green Light on the Tower: Illuminating What Really Happened
The Harry Filter Phenomenon: Sometimes It Works Too Well
The Hippogriff Symbol and Severus Snape: Keeping an Eye on the Impossible
The Importance of Being Luna
James Potter: Reformed Bad Boy?
Mithras Victorious: Severus, Harry, and the God of Roman Soldiers
Was Groupthink the Downfall of the Marauders?
The Harry Potter Lexicon Lawsuit: Fair Use and Andy Warhol's Soup Cans
How Would Harry Potter Judge Susan Boyle?

On Livejournal:
Snape Victorious As a Human Being
Dear Ms. Rowling, What About My Good Guy Syndrome?
The Parseltongue News ~ Vindictive Edition
Word Ownership: Who Invented the Slithy Snarky Slytherin Snorkack?
The Search for Alohomora ~ Found
Welcome to NarcissaCast

Fiction:
Ask Snape
Snape's Summer Cruise Part II: The Voyage of the Cocktail Killer
Deathly Hallows Epilogue: Those Fields
Lily's Mysterious Mood Swing
How I Spent My Summer Vacation: Dear Old Dog Days

Books:
The Plot Thickens: Harry Potter Investigated By Fans for Fans
Mugglenet's Harry Potter Should Have Died

***** *****

Questions and Answers

While working on ‘Harry Potter Should Have Died’, did any of the questions you researched change your mind about something you’d interpreted differently in the series?

I became less thrilled about the Elder Wand plot, because when you really study it, there are some serious questions about whether JKR broker her own rule of "love over magic" theme found in the rest of the series. That was probably my biggest revelation and a bit of a disappointment: that magic really did save Harry after all, more than love. Snape's love became much more important, in my opinion, than Lily's love for Harry, or his love for everyone else. Snape's love and asking Voldemort to show Lily mercy gave her a choice to live or die, and that protected Harry. Later, Harry chose to sacrifice himself, again due to Snape's memories, but at the moment Harry "died, he was all ready Master of the Wand, had used the Stone, and had the Cloak. He was basically invincible.

So no matter how many times JKR protests the idea of a deux ex machina, it's there. The magical blood saved him, but so did the Elder Wand. As a plot device it had nothing to do with Lily's love or her blood, although I guess technically Harry's goodness makes him "worthy" to be Master of the Deathly Hallows. But there again - the Wand only sees power, and it's a stretch to say that "Love is Power" but maybe that's what JKR meant. However, the Wand also stayed with Grindelwald for many years during WWII when atrocities were going on and he was in control, so love and the wand don't go together.

You are a fierce and loyal defender of Severus Snape, which is a good thing. What is it about the character of Professor Snape that resonates so deeply with you?

Oh wow - how do I keep this a short answer? "See my published works"?    But seriously, what I really love about Snape is his perseverance, and that's no joke. He stays on track no matter what happens to him - pain, suffering, loss of love, anger, torture, humiliation at the hands of small children, you name it. He's an inspiration to me because we all feel weak and powerless, and I think he felt that way most of his life, but especially in the face of Voldemort. Then he found a way overcome his fears and literally stare down Voldemort. If that's not courage, I don't know what is.

Why do you think so many people misunderstand the character of Professor Snape?

I believe some people cannot look past his words and see the good intentions. In waiting so long for the series to end, people tricked themselves into buying the whole "ugly villain in black" persona that was actually debunked in the first book. If people want to see Snape as a funny cartoon character with sadistic tendencies, who am I to judge them? For me, though, he's a sensitive person who had to hide that all his life, first from his gruff father, then from bullies, and then from Voldemort and the other Death Eaters. I think Alan Rickman had the perfect description: "There's such still waters there." Yes, and still waters run deep.

Which of your marvelous essays here on HPN  is your  favorite, and why?

Probably the one about the Hippogriff symbolizing Snape's character, because Snape actually flew in Deathly Hallows, and that made me extremely happy!   

Who is your second favorite character in the series?

It's a complete tossup between Luna and Neville. I love them for different reasons, Luna because she is so wise beyond her years and intuitive, and Neville because like Snape he also tries so hard to improve himself. I love it that Neville killed the snake that killed Snape. That's poetic justice.

If you could ask JK Rowling one question, or make one statement to her, what would that be?

It's not really one question, but a series of related questions. The main question I would ask her is whether she realizes the hypocrisy in calling Snape and Draco "bad boys," when obviously James and Sirius were just as bad. Why do Gryffindor students such as the Marauders, the Twins, and Ginny get a pass on bullying while others in Slytherin who do similar things are shown to be evil or ugly?  Why does she glorify popularity and good looks if she wants people to look beneath appearances. Why is Slytherin still vilified in Deathly Hallows, and why did all the Gryffindors marry within their own House? She never blurred the lines between the Houses enough, and she never showed a positive side to Slytherin at all. That's a failure on her part, I think, and she'll be explaining it for years to come.

Since HP has finished, have you found any other series or books that you are excited about?

No, I'm not looking for another series and I really don't expect to find anything similar.    I spent my teenage and post college years reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy over every year because nothing else appealed to me. And I had given up on fiction and certainly on criticism, since most modern novels seemed very negative to me. I think the HP phenomenon won't be duplicated in my lifetime. Twilight appealed to some of the same readers, but clearly the series fell short by the end because it lacked some of the integrity and literary roots that HP has.


Posted on: September 01, 2009, 05:46:39 PMYay, we're back!

Great answers, SIP!

If anyone's interested in being the Author for November, please contact me, or I'll just let this go until after the holidays. In fact, if any writer here  would like to be in the Writer's Spotlight, please drop me a line. Thanks!