I love Spotlight On weeks, it gives me a chance to really get to know
some authors and ask the questions to the things that I really want to know
about. Today, we welcome Nancy Holzner. I read DEADTOWN right after
Christmas when Nancy and I both participated in BookObsessed's Zombie New Year's Eve Bash
and the holiday week leading up to it. I really enjoyed reading DEADTOWN. The story
includes some unexpected twists and turns as well as embracing some higher
fantasy elements and mythology within the modern setting. If you have not
read DEADTOWN, you
should check it out. In the meanwhile, kick back and get to know Nancy Holzner!
Daily Dose: In the early part of the novel, you describe the virus that
strikes Boston. The visual and visceral reaction Vicky experiences sucks you
right in – why a virus instead of a magical attack?
NH: The
main reason I chose a virus to create Boston’s zombies was its ambiguity. Was
the virus just a weird mutation? An act of biological warfare? Something else?
In Deadtown, no one knows, but as the series continues the
origins of the virus become important. That is all I had better say for now.
Daily Dose: Do you have plans to expand Deadtown into a series?
You definitely have the characters and the storyline potential with Vicky and
her supporting characters.
NH: Yes, my initial contract with Ace was for two books, and
Deadtown’s sequel is with my editor now. I’m currently working on
proposals for three more books beyond that. After I’ve got those done, I’ll
know whether Vicky’s story ends at that point or keeps going.
Daily Dose: Why zombies? Did you enjoy typical zombie fare prior to
giving it a fresh spin in your world?
NH: Zombies have tended to belong to horror more than to urban fantasy,
although urban fantasy authors like Mark Henry and Mario Acevedo have written
about zombies in very fun ways in their books. In Deadtown, I wanted to
have a sudden event that forced humans to recognize and deal with the
paranormal population that was starting to come forward, and turning a couple
thousand Bostonians into zombies seemed like a good way to do it. As for
traditional depictions of zombies, I’ve enjoyed Jonathan Maberry’s Pine Deep
trilogy; for zombie movies, I like a touch of humor, as in Shaun of the Dead
and Zombieland. I consider Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein the original zombie
novel, and it’s one of my favorites.
Daily Dose: Vicky's Welsh background is also a fresh spin, embracing the
Celtic but avoiding the more traditional Irish, Scottish or English – what
intrigued you about Welsh mythology?
NH: I used to be a medievalist, so I’ve read a lot of Arthurian
literature, and much of the source material for those stories comes from Welsh
legends. When I was thinking about the qualities I wanted my demon-killing
protagonist to have, I recalled the legend of Ceridwen and Gwion Bach, which
includes a shape- shifting contest. I thought it would be interesting to make
Vicky a descendent of Ceridwen and put a slightly different twist on shape
shifting. Vicky can change into any creature she wants (or sometimes strong
emotion forces a shift), up to three times each lunar cycle. She can shift at
any time during the month, but the animal side grows stronger as the full moon
approaches. Vicky’s race is called the Cerddorion (ker-THORR-yon), which means
“sons of Ceridwen.”
Daily Dose: What do you enjoy reading?
NH: I’ll read just about anything. I go through phases when I’ll focus on
a particular period or genre. I read a lot of urban fantasy (favorite authors
include Patricia Briggs, Ilona Andrews, Devon Monk, and Kim Harrison—who hooked
me on urban fantasy when a friend recommended Dead Witch Walking). Mystery is
another genre I’ll devour for a while before I move on to something else. But I
also like 19th-century fiction, and of course medieval literature. And
sometimes the work of a particular author will grab me, and I’ve got to read
everything by that author I can get my hands on. Examples that come to mind are
Iris Murdoch, Edith Wharton, Ann Patchett, Ian McEwan, Paul Auster, John
Gardner, and E.L. Doctorow. (That’s a pretty diverse group, but they’ve all had
that effect on me.)
Daily Dose: Would you describe a typical working/writing day? What
routines or rituals do you observe to get your writing done?
NH: I write how-to and reference books as my day job, so I have to be
able to sit down at my desk and get straight to work. That doesn’t mean it’s
always easy, of course. For example, there are days when I tell myself I’ll
just glance at the headlines and before I know it, an hour and a half has gone
by as I read the news. I’ve discovered that I’m not good at
multitasking—whether I’m working on fiction or nonfiction, I really need to
focus to make progress.
On a typical day, I get up and try to take a walk before breakfast. If I don’t
get out and get moving then, it’s easy for the day to get swallowed up by work.
I write nonfiction throughout normal working hours—longer if I’m on a deadline.
In the evening, my husband and I usually go out to a coffee shop, and I pull
out my laptop and write fiction. We both work at home, so we like to get out of
the house when it’s time to relax. I get a real left-brain/right-brain workout
most days. On the weekends, I spend some daylight hours working on fiction, and
we go out and do errands—and even occasionally have some fun. :)
Daily Dose: As a writer, what's the most difficult part of the process
for you? The creating? The editing? The submitting?
NH: I love both creating and editing. Of those two, I’d say that facing a
blank page is a little harder for me. I really enjoy taking something I’ve
drafted and shaping it, taking it from a sketch to a scene. Whatever phase of
the process I’m in, the hardest thing is often getting started. I can be a
world- class procrastinator. What helps is to reread what I worked on the
previous day. That usually draws me back into the story.
The very hardest thing, though, is hitting a roadblock in a story and not being
sure what caused it. It’s frustrating to feel stuck. I’ve learned that I most
often get stuck when I’m being too much The Author and trying to make my
characters do something simply because that’s what I’ve decided is supposed to
happen next. Relaxing that authorial stranglehold on the characters—watching
them instead of directing them—usually gets things moving again.
Daily Dose: What's next for you?
NH: Deadtown’s sequel (the title hasn’t yet been finalized) will
be out in about a year. As I mentioned earlier, I hope to continue the series
for several books after that. I’ve got ideas for other projects, too—possibly a
fantasy/ghost story set in the Catskills—but nothing’s fully developed yet. I
do plan to write some short stories set in Deadtown’s world and post
those on my website.
Daily Dose: Your husband is a published author, how do you balance
marriage, home and creativity?
NH: It works well for us. Steve is a terrific husband; he’s patient and
considerate about the time and effort I need to put into my own writing. As I
mentioned earlier, we both work at home, and we each have our own office, so
we’ve got our defined workspaces. Although we write different things (he’s
exclusively nonfiction, mostly programming and science books with over 130
published titles), we both understand the pressures, the difficulties—and the
joys—of writing for a living. So when one of us has a tight deadline or is
immersed in a difficult author review, the other can really sympathize. We’ve
even coauthored a few nonfiction books. I think it would be fun to write a
novel together, but he doesn’t read much fiction.
Author to Author
Daily Dose: Rejection is something every author faces, what is the best
advice you ever received on handling it?
NH: Don’t take it personally. Rejection can feel very personal, because
writing is such a personal act. It’s just you, your characters, and your
words—until you give your story to someone else to read. And when that act of
reading comes with a judgment, it can be hard to take. I try to deal with
rejection and criticism with the attitude that these things come with the
territory. All authors face them. So if I’m facing them, I’m doing what other
professional writers do. Rejection might be something I’d like to cross out of
my job description, but it’s just part of the publishing process. A necessary part.
When I was in graduate school, I had a friend who was trying to get published
in academic journals. As soon as she sent out an article to one journal, she’d
package up the same article as a submission to the next journal on her list. If
a rejection came back, she’d mail the article to the next journal on the same
day she got the rejection. No brooding, no tinkering—just trying again. I
always admired that approach. I asked her what she’d do if she went through the
whole list and no one accepted it. She said she’d either set it aside or
rewrite it from scratch. But it never happened. Before she ran out of places to
submit to, someone accepted the article. I’ve tried to develop a similar
attitude. A rejection feels like a failure, but that’s not necessarily, what it
is. It’s part of the process, and you can develop your own process for dealing
with it.
Be sure to stop by tomorrow for Candace Havens, author of
the newly released Harlequin Blaze TAKE ME IF YOU DARE and
much, much more.
A lifelong writer turned author, Heather Long's first book
REMEMBERING ASHBY is
available for purchase at Sapphire Blue Publishing. Coming soon is the urban
fantasy: PRIME EVIL. The Daily
Dose explores books, television, writing and more -- all topics that Heather
enjoys.
6 comments posted.
This book sounds great, I will have to check it out. Thank you for a great interview.
(Lisa Glidewell 10:45pm February 3, 2010)