L. J. Smith is always looking for innovative questions and observations for the Ask L. J. Column. Please share your thoughts with her by writing an email with Ask L. J. in the subject field of the email. You may see your query or comment here.
"I loved Shadow Souls. Will there be more delicious Delena moments coming up in Midnight?"
“Shadow Souls is the book I have enjoyed writing the most since the original Vampire Diaries book, The Awakening. I didn’t worry about going into a different dimension and crossing the boundary between “urban fantasy” and “high fantasy.” I just followed my heart and wrote.
And I can’t deny that there is a strong chemistry between Damon and Elena. But this is, after all, a love triangle, with Stefan at the other point. And with Stefan back, Elena’s guilt is enormous. I think that I may have gone with my own personal feelings a little too far in Shadow Souls–and now poor Damon is racked with human emotions and reactions to Elena. Anyway, I hope that the Delena squad understands that, well, those problems may make Damon end up doing things that he otherwise wouldn’t do. Besides, Damon is the Bad Boy of the Vampire Diaries. He has to do some naughty things in order to keep his mind at ease.
Anyway, brace yourself for Midnight—and keep Shadow Souls on hand to read if you get worried, and be prepared for a wild ride.”
"I like your strong female characters? Why do you write about them?"
“Because I want to create role models for teenage (and even younger) girls who read my books. If you look at the books, just about every heroine has a future career or goal in mind (even fickle Elena Gilbert is determined to one day return to the Dark Dimension and help free the slaves). Some of my characters, like Rashel Jordan of The Chosen, and Jez Redfern of Huntress (both from the Night World series) are already immersed in their careers as vampire-hunters. Poppy North (also Night World, as are the next few girls) has an ambition to travel the world, and Mary-Lynnette Carter wants to become an astronomer. Hannah Storm wants to be a paleontologist (although these days she’s probably got her hands full helping to run Circle Daybreak.)
Some of my characters don’t start out as strong girls. They start out as shy, introverted or gentle girls, like Cassie Blake of The Secret Circle, or Jenny Thornton of The Forbidden Game. Then the story is about how they become stronger, through their terrifying experiences and their concern for other people. Strange Fate has this kind of a heroine, Sarah Strange.”
"What is your favorite color?"
“Topaz blue today.”
"What is your favorite music?"
“Too many kinds to count.”
"Where did you grow up?"
“In the place my first book (The Night of the Solstice) is set: Villa Park, a tiny town completely surrounded by the city of Orange, California. Usually I say “about twenty minutes from Disneyland” and people say “Oh!””
"When is your birthday?"
“September 4th, but you’ll never get the year out of me! I am allegedly a Virgo, organized, critical and practical—but Virgos don’t believe in astrology and neither do I.“
"Do you have siblings? If so, how many?"
“I have one sister, who, although a year and a half younger than me, was taller than me by high school and has always been a lot like a twin, although she was always dark-haired and I was always blond.”
"Do you have any children?"
Not after teaching special ed kindergarten! But I do adore them and I have always considered my sister’s kids as partly mine.
"Why do you write urban fantasy?"
“I suspect it is because it was fantasy literature that had the most influence on me when I was a child and adolescent. I’ve often said that as a child I was certain that magic must exist, and that I would find it. But by the time I was twelve or thirteen I realized that if I wanted magic I was going to have to make it for myself. I was already a writer by then—I’d started with poetry when I was four or five, and showed my work to teachers by age 6. But I was a storyteller from a much younger age than that. As far as I can remember, I always had several stories going on in my head and many of them partially written down. My first two published books were only “urban fantasy” in the sense that C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia are. But my first bestsellers were the next books I wrote, The Vampire Diaries. Once I got started with vampires and witches and so on, I got so many letters (yes, snail mail—this was the old, old days) asking me to write more that I did write more. “
"I want to write a book, but I don’t know what about. How do you get inspired?"
“m not going to be much help, I’m afraid. I am always doing one story or another in my head, so you could say that my problem is being too inspired—many of my stories never get written down because I can’t keep up with the thoughts in my mind. There is one exception. For ten years I suddenly had writer’s block, before the end of the Night World series. My sister’s husband was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer, and my mother with terminal cancer. While I was immersed in this, I had no inspiration at all. I couldn’t finish the book I was in the middle of writing. There were no stories in my head. That was the worst time of my life, and I could find no way to break through the block. But I tried meditation, going without reading or watching videos at all so I was stuck in my own head, taking care of toddlers, writing just any old junk on a keyboard, writing in a notebook instead of on computer, writing diary entries, and writing nonfiction. Nothing helped me, but it might help you.
About Twilight . . .
“Sorry, but I don’t comment on Twilight at all, now, except to say that I haven’t read it or seen the movies. Yes, I do appreciate readers who know my books—some of them who have known them since the Vampire Diaries came out back in 1990-91 and Night World somewhat later—and who make lists of the similarities between my books and the Twilight series. I appreciate most the readers who’ve read all my series and thus can make complete lists. But I’m not sure what, if anything, I might “do” about the lists.”
"What is your favorite color?"
“Topaz blue today.”
"I am writing/have written a book, but I don’t know how to publish it. What do you recommend?"
“I have a whole blog about this subject, but I’ll reproduce it here, since it’s one of the most frequent questions on writing in general that I get.
First of all, is your book really finished? Or is it a rough draft or missing any chapters or needing reading through and editing? The first thing is to have a finished book. For new writers, that’s imperative.
Second, you should be able to find books at any bookstore or on Amazon, such as the Writer’s Market or Writer’s Guide, that list agents who send books to publishers. Or do it the easy way and google “agents for authors of (your specialty).”
Never EVER take an agent that asks you to pay them for sending your book to a publisher. These people are running scams. A real agent will ask to see some part of your book, such as the first ten pages or the first chapter. They will probably also want you to give them a short synopsis or query that describes the entire book in one page or five pages. Find out what the specific agent you pick requires. Then do your best to describe your book in exciting terms, to interest the agent in representing you.
Different agents have different specialties. Make absolutely sure you’re not wasting your time sending your book to an agent that only works with adult books, if your book is YA, or an agent who specializes in romance books, if your book is urban fantasy/paranormal. The agents have websites where often they will tell you outright what they are looking for and what they won’t accept. Make sure that you send exactly what they ask for, and nothing more or less.
Third, cross your fingers. If an agent takes you on, you don’t have to do any more work (unless the agent critiques your book and asks you to). The agent will send your book to different publishers and try to get them to buy it.
If a given agent or publisher refuses you, but gives you criticism, that’s good! Think about their remarks, change your manuscript if you feel that their criticism has merit. (It probably does. I know it hurts to be told your book needs to be changed, but agents and publishers know what will sell–and you want your book published.
Fourth, if you have tried 10 agents who specialize in your book’s type, and they have refused you, you can try the slush pile. This doesn’t sound very good, but it just means the place where publishers put books that have been sent to them from the authors who don’t have agents. Some books get do published from the slush pile! After I had written The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening for Harper, and before it was published, I got a very excited phone call from a young assistant at Harper. Somehow she had gotten hold of the manuscript for The Awakening and she thought that it had come from the slush pile. She wanted to publish it. I had to explain that it was already coming out—from her own publisher. We both ended up laughing.
Fifth, there is also the self-publishing or “vanity publishing” method. Google these terms, since I don’t know anything about the process. I believe that you can sell self-published books on Amazon, but it’s best to check that information with Amazon.”
"How do you feel about the Vampire Diaries TV show?"
” think it is a brilliant story, brilliantly written, beautifully acted, with terrific direction, cinematography, and music. I couldn’t improve it (except perhaps to image Nina blond and put Meredith back, and a few other things). Of course, I still wish that someone as talented as Kevin Williamson would come along and tell the story the way it is told in the books, but that doesn’t dull my appreciation of the version that is out.”
"I want to be an author someday . . . How do I become a writer?"
“I think there are two things I would advise for someone who wants to be a writer. The first is to keep reading—not just vampire books, but any and all books that even slightly catch their interest. Reading will open the world to you.
And, second, write a little something every day. It can be as simple as a long text conversation (but remember that when you’re sending in your first book, grammar counts!) or writing in a diary, or scribbling down an idea for a story. But the absolute best training is to try to write stories in a normal conversational style, to keep a blog that you update frequently, to write fanfic, or to write poetry (if you want to be a poet—or even if you don’t.)”
"What are all the Vampire Diaries in sequence?"
“First arc: The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening, The Struggle, The Fury, Dark Reunion.
Second arc: Vampire Diaries, The Return: Nightfall, Shadow Souls, Midnight (out March 2011)
Third arc: Vampire Diaries, The Hunters: Phantom, Evensong, Eternity (not out yet, but Phantom is written.)”
"Will you link my blog or site to your site?"
“Yes. Just send me the link, and a brief description of what your site is. If it’s for adult fanfic—you know what I mean—just tell me so I can include it in the link section. I am very sorry to have dropped the ball on two or three foreign blogs that wanted me to link to them. With my old site, it took a long time and a lot of money to change anything about the site. I hope this site will be different.”
"When is the next Vampire Diaries book coming out?"
“Vampire Diaries Volume 7: Midnight,the last book in the Vampire Diaries: The Return trilogy, or arc, will be out March, 2011. After that will come a new arc, called—well, propably Vampire Diaries: The Hunters. It will contain three books as well, called Phantom, Evensong, and Eternity.”
"Why aren’t there volume numbers on the Vampire Diaries books?
“Don’t ask me; I only write the words—I theoretically approve the covers, but I don’t know what would happen if I ever said ‘No, I don’t like that.’”
"Why don’t you make a movie out of your book _______"
“I am only a writer; I don’t make TV shows or movies. And I don’t have the contacts to get someone to make a movie out of my books. That role is up to my agencies’ TV and flim rights specialist.”
"When is Strange Fate coming out?"
“I don’t know. As you’ve probably heard, I wanted to publish this epic in two volumes, but Simon & Schuster did not. I had what I felt was a complete volume already finished—the first half of Strange Fate, called The Mystic—before I began to write any of my recent Vampire Diaries books Nightfall, etc). At this point, I don’t even have a signed contract for Strange Fate, but I keep working on it, these days using the ‘cameo appearance’ of old soulmates and friends in place of seeing a post-apocalypitic fututre with Brionwy and her young friend Crispy.”
"How do you pronounce Brionwy? Is it true that Brionwy will not be in Strange Fate?"
“I pronounce as an American probably would: BRI-on-wee. But I always have a native speaker check my foreign names and other text, and they may very well say “No, it’s bree OTH vy” or something else strange and wonderful. This happened when—years ago—I picked ‘Myfanwy’ and found that it was pronounced “muh VAN wee.” Still lovely, just different.
And, yes, it is true that Brionwy’s Lullabye was originally part of Strange Fate, but the post apocalyptic future that Sarah Strange dreamed about Brionwy and her friends sort of took over the whole book. So I had to extract them, and instead had Sarah dream about the soulmated couples you’ve already seen in Night World. This turned out to be much better for Strange Fate anyway, as you get to see Poppy and James, and Phillip and every other pair of soulmates in the series, even if its just a cameo role. I plan to write Brionwy’s Lullabye as a book of its own. I do love the characters.”
"Will you write a sequel to Secret Circle/Forbidden Game/Dark Visions/Solstice & Valor?"
“Anything is possible. After I finish writing this arc of Vampire Diaries and also writing Strange Fate, I have many ideas for new standalone books and trilogies. But I have always particularly wanted to write a single book edition of The Forbidden Game for adults (it would necessarily be a sequel), and have even written a few pages of it. And each of those series is dear to me in one way or another. I guess I have to admit that I’m not sure what I will be writing a couple of years from now—it also depends on what the publishers think, and what readers desire.”
"Why do you write about strong female characters?"
“Because I want to create role models for teenage (and even younger) girls who read my books. If you look at the books, just about every heroine has a future career or goal in mind (even fickle Elena Gilbert is determined to one day return to the Dark Dimension and help free the slaves). Some of my characters, like Rashel Jordan of The Chosen, and Jez Redfern of Huntress are already immersed in their careers as vampire-hunters. Poppy North has an ambition to travel the world, and Mary-Lynnette Carter wants to become an astronomer. Hannah Storm wants to be a paleontologist (although these days she’s probably got her hands full helping to run Circle Daybreak.)
Some of my characters don’t start out as strong girls. They start out as shy, introverted or gentle girls, like Cassie Blake of The Secret Circle, or Jenny Thornton of The Forbidden Game. Then the story is about how they become stronger, through their terrifying experiences and their concern for other people. Strange Fate has this kind of a heroine, Sarah Strange.”
"Who is your favorite writer?"
“Terry Pratchett! My favorite, whom the Washington Post called the modern Chaucer. Read his books, starting with somewhere around Guards, Guards! and going at least as far as Monstrous Regiment. You will be amused and may well shed some tears. I think his books should be mandatory reading for all human beings. I also enjoy a wide variety of literature, but actually prefer non-fiction to fiction books, unless they are very amusing (like Dan Brown’s bestsellers . . . sometimes unintentionally amusing). I do quite a lot of research for my own books and some of the non-fiction is about that. I also read a lot about my interests in science and psychology.”
"What is your favorite book?"
“Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch. Keep a hanky handy.”
"Why did you choose to become a writer?"
“I didn’t choose or decide. I have been a storyteller since before I learned how to read or write. I knew from my earliest childhood—the first things I remember—that I would only be happy as a storyteller. When I learned how to read and write I immediately began writing stories and poetry.a lot about my interests in science and psychology.”
"Where do you look for inspiration for your books?"
“I don’t really need to look for it. It comes to me from everywhere. An example would be an intricate wallpaper that gives me the idea for a story about a child with cerebral palsy or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) who has to lie on a couch and look at the same paper all the time. He is as interested as I am in the theory of superstrings and multiple dimensions in physics. In fact, by studying his wallpaper he finds a design that looks like one of the representations of space in eleven (or twelve or fifteen) demensions, and this allows him to disappear before his mother’s eyes into a different dimension. The rest of the story follows his distraught mother as she attempts to find exactly what he saw so that she can go after her lost child. This story would be meant for a science fiction magazine, but I’ll probably never write it. It’s just a daydream.”
"Which of your characters are you most like personally? "
“All of them and none of them.” I have to be a little bit like them in order to see the world through their eyes, but I’m not completely like any of them. I see very well through Elena Gilbert’s eyes, but also though Cassie Blake’s, Kaitlyn Fairchild’s, Jenny Thornton’s or Quinn’s or Damon’s or Julian’s eyes as well.
"How was your first book published ?"
“I began The Night of the Solstice in high school and finished it in college. My first agent was the woman who typed it into manuscript format for me (It was hand-written written on six or seven lined notebooks). It was the first book that she had ever tried to sell, and she sold it to Macmillan. It got great reviews but had an absolutely hideous cover, and since I thought I was writing it for teenagers—while it was marketed as a middle-grade (ages eight to eleven) book—it did very poorly in sales. Later, when I’d written several older “vampire/witch” trilogies, it became a bestseller in paperback. I was really overjoyed at that, since it was my first “child.””
I will place more Q & A as time goes by… L. J.
That's it for now. Until next time, I leave you with this...
