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Mary Rosenblum
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Welcome to our Professional
Connection live interview.
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Tonight we'll be chatting with
Louise Marley, fantasy writer for adults and YA and also a Long Ridge
instructor now.
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Louise Marley's first novel,
Sing the Light, the first of the Singers of Nevya novels, was published in
1995, and since then she has been publishing steadily, sometimes against
the odds. The Terrorists of Irustan represented her passion for feminist
social science fiction, and The Glass Harmonica her love of music, as with
the Nevya novels. The Child Goddess speaks to both her love of children and
concern for those who are abused or abandoned, and to her fascination with
religious life. Airs Beneath the Moon and Airs and Graces, the first of the
Toby Bishop novels, set out in a different direction.
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Toby Bishop is the pen name
that she uses for this YA fantasy line.
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It has flying horses, no less.
How can you lose? J
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And it's a very nice series
with a girl as the main character.
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You can read about her many
accomplishments at http://www.louisemarley.com/
or http://www.tobybishop.net/
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Mary Rosenblum
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Hi, Louise.
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Louise Marley
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Hi!
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Mary Rosenblum
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Let’s do start from
the beginning. How did you get started writing in the first place?
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Louise Marley
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I started like a lot of people
do, I think, by telling stories to my son when he was little! Those turned
into book ideas, and I was off and running.
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Mary Rosenblum
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That's interesting. Was YA an
interest of yours from the start?
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Louise Marley
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I started with picture books,
but I had NO talent at all. Then I went straight to adult. Young adult came
later
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when I had the great good
fortune to have an editor ask for a YA nove.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Which book was that?
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Louise Marley
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That was SINGER IN THE SNOW. I
revisited the world of Nevya, which was the home for my first three novels.
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Mary Rosenblum
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And that was as Louise Marley,
right?
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(I love that book by the way).
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Louise Marley
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Right. I wrote all my books as
Louise Marley until these last three. (And thanks for the kind words.)
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Mary Rosenblum
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So why the switch to Toby
Bishop?
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Louise Marley
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There are a couple of reasons.
First, THE HORSEMISTRESS SAGA is completely different fare from anything
I'd done before . . .
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Also, it's often good for a
writer to have different names to acquire a different readership. . .
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And I chose Toby Bishop
because I like it, and because it's androgynous.
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Mary Rosenblum
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I figured that you selected an
androgynous name on purpose. Alas, it does matter.
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Louise Marley
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Isn't it amazing that it still
matters? But there's a prejudice toward male names. Slight, but real.
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sailor
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What are the main differences
between writing for adult and YA?
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Louise Marley
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Hi, sailor! The principal
difference is the age of the protagonists.
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I can elaborate on that .
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My editor asked for "the
kind of book I write", simply with younger characters. YA publishers
don't worry about
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language, sexual content
(except that it's offstage) or mature subject matter.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Did you find yourself
addressing issues that a person that age would be dealing with?
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Louise Marley
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Yes. It wasn't hard to
remember the things that were important to me when I was a teenager. Of
course, my characters
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have other issues to worry
about, because they become professional Singers with enormous
responsibilities at a very young age.
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Mary Rosenblum
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What about the main character
in your horse mistress series?
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Louise Marley
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Oh, my darling Larkyn! She's
very, very young when the book starts, only fourteen. And this great
challenge is thrust on her,
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to learn to fly a winged
horse, and to keep the Duke from taking him away from her.
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Mary Rosenblum
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So you are indeed addressing
something that will engage readers of that age
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that determination to do
something adults tell you you shouldn't do. J
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Or can't do!
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Louise Marley
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Yes! Because we want our
characters, and particularly our protagonists, to be active in determining
what happens .
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Not to be passive. We want
them to act independently, not be acted upon by external forces. Kids do
that instinctively!
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janecj333
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How did your publisher react to
the male pen name?
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Louise Marley
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My editor knows all about the
issues with bias in the book buyers toward male names. And actually
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Toby could be either a woman's
or a man's name.
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k c morlock
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Where was the photo at the top
of the page taken?
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Mary Rosenblum
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I love that picture!
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Louise Marley
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I was in Corona, in Tuscany,
Italy, on a lovely trip with my husband. I adore Italy, and especially the
eastern hills of Tuscany.
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Lucky me, I know!
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lottiemae
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Do you think it is easier to
write fantasy for adults or YA?
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Louise Marley
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Ha, lottiemae! I think writing
is hard no matter WHO you write for!
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But I think it goes better if
you write what you love, and worry about finding the audience after you've
created your world.
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I didn't really intend for THE
HORSEMISTRESS SAGA to by YA, but there you are. That's the audience it
found.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Was it marketed as a YA by the
publisher? Or did they decide it was YA after they found out who was buying
it?
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Louise Marley
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So interesting, because the
latter is what happened. After the covers were created (and they REALLY
look YA)
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it turned out younger readers
were the principal audience. By younger, I mean teens, not children. So I
ended up
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with adult and young adult
readers, both, but principally young adults.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Let's see, you have two books
out in that series now, right?
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Louise Marley
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Yes. AIRS BENEATH THE MOON and
AIRS AND GRACES. AIRS OF NIGHT AND SEA comes in December. I'm done writing
it!
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Mary Rosenblum
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Oh, wonderful! Are you planning
for number four?
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Louise Marley
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Some of my fans (bless them
all) have asked for stories of Larkyn when she's grown up, so I'm
considering that.
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rae
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About how many pages are each of
your books?
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Louise Marley
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This is a good question! My
young adult contract for SINGER IN THE SNOW actually specified a word
count, which was
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a new thing for me. it was
60,000 words, which is about 300 properly formatted manuscript pages. (See
how I snuck
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that in there?) My
HORSEMISTRESS SAGA manuscripts are longer, about 425 pages each.
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Mary Rosenblum
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And those are manuscript pages.
Book pages depend on the page design and font size used.
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Louise Marley
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Right. The usual thing for me
is a book of about 350 pages, published. But there's a wide range.
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charie'
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Did you have to edit quite a bit
out to transform it from Fantasy to YA?
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Louise Marley
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Well, technically these books
are called YA Fantasy, so they're both. I'm glad you asked this, though
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because so many writers think
they have to take out anything offensive in order to market books as YA. I
had quite a discussion
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with my YA editor about this,
and she was quite specific that she didn't censor her YA books. The proviso
was that any
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violence or sexual content had
to be necessary to the plot, not egregious (over the top), and that active
sexual scenes
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take place offstage.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Did you or your editor have
concerns about the book being banned from, say, middle school libraries
because of content?
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Louise Marley
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Oh, I would LOVE to have a
banned book! But no, we never did. I don't write a lot of violence or sex
or foul language, anyway
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although lots of YA novels
have all of those things.
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rae
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It sounds like you write some
really cute stories. Was it difficult to go to adult stories after writing
for YA audiences?
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Mary Rosenblum
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You started with adult, right?
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Louise Marley
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Yes, actually I started with
adult. I have to say, it doesn't really feel different to me. I just write
about younger characters
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but their feelings and the
risks and rewards are just as great to them as to older protagonists.
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barbiq
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What do you think of the recent
explosion of great fantasy YA books that have been released in the last
couple of years?
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Louise Marley
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I think it's wonderful,
because I know from visiting schools and libraries that these are the books
younger readers love.
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And I also think there is some
great literature in the fantasy field (and science fiction field) and it's
finally being recognized.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Are you doing a lot of school
visits?
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Louise Marley
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I did a lot last year. This
year it seems to be libraries! I don't know why these things go in cycles.
I love doing YA workshops.
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I just did a marvelous one in
Boise, Idaho, and the kids were amazing.
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stevewingo
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Speaking of SINGER IN THE SNOW Anymore
books to be written about Mreen?
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Louise Marley
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Oh, aren't you a darling to
ask! I would love to go on with that story. I can tell you that
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the original trilogy is being
republished in an omnibus edition in 2009. Maybe that will do well, and I
can write more Nevya stories.
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h.p. lovesauce
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Does 'feminist social science
fiction' have a built-in audience, provided one gets the word out?
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Louise Marley
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I think this subgenre had an
audience in the '80's and '90's. I'm not so sure now. It's my favorite
genre by far, but
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since 2001, audiences have
preferred lighter works, and they buy much more fantasy than science fiction.
This sort of thing
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also goes in cycles, and a
writer has to decide how much to simply write what she wants, or when to
write something someone will
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actually buy! There's a fine
line here somewhere.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Or a personal decision at
least. J
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Louise Marley
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Yes!
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charie'
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Is there a favorite
"age" for your YA characters to be? Why that age?
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Louise Marley
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Mine are usually a little bit
older, in their late teens. I think that's because I have more serious plot
lines in mind .
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Larkyn, in HORSEMISTRESS SAGA,
was my youngest character ever except for Oa, in THE CHILD GODDESS. Well
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Oa was actually really, really
old, but her bio age was about eleven.
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janecj333
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When writing YA, I find myself
thinking, Would I want my kids to read this (for issues of violence and
sexuality)? Usually, it's no. It's a very thin line, I think. How do you
deal with it?
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Louise Marley
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That's a hard one. I think you
have to decide what fits your story .
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If you're writing about sexual
abuse, which is an issue kids have to deal with, or at least be aware of
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then you can't get around it.
I have to say, though, I never censored my son's reading, and he did fine.
If they come to something
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that makes them uncomfortable,
kids usually just skip past it and go to the stuff they like!
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Mary Rosenblum
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Speaking of kids
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you were collaborating with
your son on a book for awhile. How did that turn out?
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Louise Marley
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I'm still working on that
book! it's the work-in-progress. Zack is my plot adviser, but he's very
busy with his band and his job at the moment.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Is that one a YA or adult?
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Louise Marley
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It's very, very adult. J
A stretch for me!
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andipandi10
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What advice do you have for
someone just breaking into YA fiction?
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Louise Marley
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Write a great book! That
sounds so patronizing, but that's always the best way to break in and stay
in.
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leave no stone unturned! I
work with a writer's group, I confer with my agent, I study and get advice
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all the things you're doing
right here on this rather wonderful website.
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Mary Rosenblum
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From what I see, the YA market
is predominantly a novel market. Is that your perception, too?
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Louise Marley
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It does seem to be. There's a
small market for short YA fiction, but most of the stories seem to come
from novelists.
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gail
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Are plot-lines and themes any
less complex for YA fiction?
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Louise Marley
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I think they are, a bit, but
it's determined more by length than by a wish to simplify for the sake of
younger readers. A novel of
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60,000 words can't have too
many subplots. It should have some, though!
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Themes are different, I think,
but not less complex.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Did you make any conscious
stylistic choices when you were writing YA rather than adult? Less internal
narrative, less description, anything like that?
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Louise Marley
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I really didn't.
Stylistically, my style is probably recognizable from book to book, whether
adult or YA. I think I don't
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do a lot of internal narrative
in any case, and I like my prose "lean and mean"--that works well
for shorter novels.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Your Toby Bishop novels involve
flying horses as major characters. And I was really pleased with your
'horse verisimilitude'. How much research did you do to get your horses
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right and especially, the
flying part!
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Louise Marley
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I'm glad an animal expert like
you found them believable! And yes, my flying horses are characters in
themselves, with
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personalities and
characteristics all their own. I know a lot about horses, but I read
everything I could find to refresh and expand
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my knowledge. For flying, I
combined a knowledge of birds (from my mom) and airplanes (from my husband)
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and then I worked with my
niece, who rode jumpers, to figure out a believable way for a horse to take
off and land. It was
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a lot of information to
combine into something more or less straightforward. I had to reach a point
where
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I believed it myself, and then
it seemed to work.
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Mary Rosenblum
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And your horses don’t
have feathered wings, do they? Isn’t that what I remember?
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Louise Marley
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They have membranous wings,
like bats. I'll tell you all a secret, that's not in the books:
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the winged horses of Oc are
actually descended from dinosaurs. Think pterodactyls!
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Mary Rosenblum
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Must have made the cover artist
reach for the antacids!
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Louise Marley
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He did a nice job of the
wings. Funny story there
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at the last minute Zack said,
"Be sure to remind your editor there are no feathers, so she can tell
the artist"
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and when I did, she said, OMG,
I'm glad you reminded me!
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Mary Rosenblum
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Had he already sketched out
feathery wings?
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Louise Marley
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I'm not sure, but my editor
thought that could have happened. They don't always read our manuscripts,
Mary, do they?
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Mary Rosenblum
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I wish! Actually, I HAVE been
lucky, but I sure know those who were not!
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Louise Marley
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Even with the good job Allen
Douglas did
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it's hard to picture how a
rider would sit on his winged horse.
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Mary Rosenblum
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So Louise, can we talk a bit
about the process of writing a book how YOU do it?
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Louise Marley
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Sure! It would be interesting
to know how we differ.
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Mary Rosenblum
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Where do you start?
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Idea?
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Character
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Louise Marley
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Image!
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Mary Rosenblum
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Oh, cool! Always?
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Louise Marley
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Usually I have a picture in my
mind--say a winged horse--and I start thinking about what the story is
behind it. Then I just jump in. I write three chapters--what
Madeleine L'Engle called "writing myself into the book" and then
I stop, ponder everything, and write a synopsis. I would hate to set off on
a whole book without knowing the ending.
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rae
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What do you mean
"image"?
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Louise Marley
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Rae, the image can be
something as vague as a setting--the ice world of Nevya, for example--or
something really specific.
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Mary Rosenblum
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How thorough is your synopsis?
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Louise Marley
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My synopses are not too long
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they tend to run twelve to
eighteen pages, just a rough outline of what might happen. I often don't
refer to them while I'm writing,
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but they do help me to
structure a book. It's a big project to hold in your mind all at one time!
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Well, my mind, in any case.
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rae
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I am an artist, and sometimes I
will draw a character, then come back and write a story to go with that
character. Is that what you mean?
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Louise Marley
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That would work really well
for me--if I could draw at all!
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For example
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when I wrote my first novel,
SING THE LIGHT, I had this picture in my mind of a young Singer in a
Conservatory, with nothing but snow and ice and
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deadly cold all around . I
just had to figure out how she got there, what was going on, what the
backstory was
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and what her problem was!
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Mary Rosenblum
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This is like starting with the
book cover. JCool way to begin.
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Louise Marley
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I've heard some people start
with an intriguing sentence that gets them thinking.
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Once I started with a title!
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lottiemae
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How much of the synopsis is
about the book?
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Mary Rosenblum
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And how much is about the
world?
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Louise Marley
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The synopsis is entirely about
the book. I write mine as if I were telling a friend a story--nothing
fancy, no elaboration, just
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this happens and then this
happens, and then this
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World building and character
development happen for me as I write more than in the synopsis. That's
because
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for me those are the easier
parts. Plot is hard. Really, really, really hard. Sigh.
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Mary Rosenblum
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What about the world building
for your SF and fantasy worlds. You do it as you write the story? Not
ahead?
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Louise Marley
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I do some of it ahead, but
some of it only comes to me as I realize what I need to know to go forward.
That's probably
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not the best way to do it, but
it's the way my mind works. Before that, everything is visual. Usually!
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charie'
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How do you organize your
research notes? Details about the world you've created?
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Louise Marley
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I create files on my computer,
and copy everything there. I also have a completely disorganized
"Notes" file, in which I just
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write everything I think of
that I need to include, or want to think about. Other people are better
organized, I think.
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I also have a Chapter Map so I
can go back to certain places without having to search through the entire
novel.
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Mary Rosenblum
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What do you include in your
chapter map?
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Louise Marley
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It's pretty simple: Chapter
One: character X gets on the ship and flies to Mars. Chapter Two: character
Y leaves Mars and flies to Earth .
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It's just what happens in what
order so I can keep the structure in my mind.
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rae
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Please, be sure to print copies
of what you have on the computer. Crashes are very bad things. :-(
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Louise Marley
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Oh. Good reminder. I lost a
hard drive once, and lost several days of work. These days I copy onto a
flash drive
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and onto a thumb drive, and
whenever I travel, I leave one of those safely at home!
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charie'
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Do you have the Chapter Map
based on your synopsis?
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Louise Marley
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No, my synopsis is
straightforward narrative, in the present tense, and usually not separated
into sections at all. It's really
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not a very sophisticated
document! Although when I sell a book on proposal, I try to polish it up a
bit so it won't offend my editor.
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The important thing about the
synopsis is knowing where I'm going at the end of the book.
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sundale
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Any advice on making sure your
world isn't using things too advanced for them? (i.e. Medieval guys wielding
swords they'd never be able to make back then)
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Louise Marley
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This is a research question,
and yes, I've learned a lot about finding sources for information! . . .
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The internet is a great tool,
of course, and there are forums where people who know stuff are eager to
share. (You just have to
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double-check in case they're
wrong.) I also have a fabulous book I use called
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ENGLISH THROUGH THE AGES. This
book tells me when certain words came into use. It's great for.
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using the right words for
historical stories, but also for knowing when certain things became
available. There's actually
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tons of information to be
found on the Medieval Period. The public library is the greatest resource
ever.
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I once found a book of
Medieval recipes!
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andipandi10
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Any suggestions on researching a
first-time fantasy story?
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Louise Marley
|
First, you'll need to decide
if you need research. Fantasy can take place in a completely invented
world, of course. Not all fantasies
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take place in a medieval
Earth-like world. But if you do need to do research
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I would start at the library. Find
the section you want, and if you can't, ask the librarians there. They love
to help, and they
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usually know just what you
need. The thing about research is
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that you can spend all your
time doing that, and none writing the story! My rule is
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I look it up when I need it,
and not before. And when I've found what I need, I STOP, and go back to the
book.
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info
|
In writing out chapter maps and
deciding what you want in each chapter, do you find that something sometimes
needs to be in a previous chapter or in a later chapter?
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Mary Rosenblum
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Do you shuffle things around
much during revision?
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Louise Marley
|
Actually, my chapter map comes
after I've written the chapter. And yes, sometimes things do need to be
moved around, but usually
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I have the sequence pretty
firmly in my mind. Rules are different for every project! I think that's
one reason writing is hard
|
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especially novels, because of
the length and the scope.
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Mary Rosenblum
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But you have that early
synopsis, right? That probably helps you get the basic plot arc down.
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Louise Marley
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That's the purpose it serves. If
you know where you're going, even though your path might diverge here and
there, you save a
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lot of backtracking and
tossing out of material. It's kind of like a trip across country . . . you
may take side trips, but
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your destination is clear.
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The thing about synopses is
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if you feel you have to stick
to it exactly, you might miss out on a really interesting bit of plot
development!
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sundale
|
When your story does something
you didn't plan, do you usually go with the flow, or change it back?
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Louise Marley
|
I subscribe to the Connie
Willis rule, that my characters do what I tell them to do. However
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sometimes a really great idea
comes along that I didn't plan. What a waste not to use it! As long as
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it isn't such a huge side trip
that I can't get back on track, I can indulge myself.
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Mary Rosenblum
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As long as it serves the story?
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Louise Marley
|
Exactly. Once, for example
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I hadn
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hadn't intended
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for a character to die, but
his death made the story so intense, and the stakes so much higher, that
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I just had to do it. it was
the right choice for the story. (Hard on him, though.)
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gail
|
Did you write your first novel
with thoughts of its place in a series, or did that come later?
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Louise Marley
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I'm afraid with my first novel
I hadn't a clue what I was doing! I learned on the fly, as it were. And
then.
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I looked around and realized
that fantasies like the one I had written were being sold in threes, so I
proposed a trilogy
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to my agent, and he sold it
that way. One finished book, two not yet written.
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It's great if you know ahead
of time, because you can sow the seeds
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of a really interesting and
more complex uber-plot that will cover the whole series. I did that with THE
HORSEMISTRESS SAGA. I knew it would be a trilogy, so I had three shorter
story arcs and one long, three-book one.
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Mary Rosenblum
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And often publishers will ask
you to do proposals for more books if they think it will work as a series.
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zave
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Do you have a series you'd like
to continue for a while?
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Louise Marley
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Yes, I'd love to write more in
THE HORSEMISTRESS SAGA. And also THE SINGERS OF NEVYA! You know how it is
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you fall in love with your
characters and your world and you keep wanting to go back there.
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I'd also love to write another
novel in the world of THE TERRORISTS OF IRUSTAN and THE CHILD GODDESS.
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freda
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What drew you into writing or
have you always wanted to?
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Louise Marley
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I wanted to write when I was
younger, but then my musical career occupied me for a long time! It was
great to revisit an early ambition.
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stevewingo
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Any suggestions for me..er those
of us who have a hard time staying with the same tense when we write?
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Louise Marley
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It's okay to decide you've
chosen the wrong tense! If you thought it should be a past tense story and
then you decide
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it should be present, you just
have to be careful to change all the verbs. If you sort of waffle in and
out, catch it on rewrite!
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Mary Rosenblum
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How many revisions do you
normally do for a project?
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Louise Marley
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I'm a big fan of reading work
aloud, too. That exposes a lot of faults we don't see on the page.
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I rewrite a bazillion times.
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It's my favorite part of the
job.
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So I guess I would say, one
big revision, but many, many small ones.
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Mary Rosenblum
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On your 'big revision' you
focus on ?
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Louise Marley
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The big revision is the one
for errors in logic, facts, consistency, and --erg--timelines, a big
problem for me. I try to begin
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at the beginning of the novel
and go straight through so I have a good sense of structure, pace, and
tension. All along I've been
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polishing and changing and
rewriting this and that. After the big revision, I usually do at least one
more complete pass, or maybe
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more if something doesn't feel
right to me. it's a lot! none of this write it fast and send it out stuff
for me!
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lottiemae
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How long does it take you to
write a novel?
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Louise Marley
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It's funny that I can actually
answer that question! I've normally taken about eighteen months to write a
big novel, as in a science
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fiction novel. I wrote my YA
in a year, and each of the Toby Bishop books took a year. But the
work-in-progress is back on that
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eighteen-month schedule. Some
people write much, much faster, of course. And I know one or two who are
slower.
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Mary Rosenblum
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You have a regular writers
group, right?
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Louise Marley
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I have a wonderful writers'
group. All of us are actively publishing fantasy and science fiction, and
the level of critique
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is incredible. I wish you
lived closer to us, Mary!
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Mary Rosenblum
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Ah, me, too!
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So you feel that a writers
group or good readers are a good thing, I take it?
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Louise Marley
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for me, essential. My first
reader is my son, who's so very good at it. And then I try to have at least
two other
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writer friends read a
manuscript before I send it out. One of them is great at technical details,
and the other reads for the big picture.
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Mary Rosenblum
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And you take their comments
seriously, I take it?
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Louise Marley
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Now, that's a good question. I
take them seriously, yes. But every bit of input, even from an editor, in
my opinion must be filtered
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through my own viewpoint. In
the end, of course, it's my book, and I have to decide what's the best way
to go with it. Don't you think so?
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Mary Rosenblum
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Absolutely.
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Critiques are informed
opinions.
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Louise Marley
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Right!
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Mary Rosenblum
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Sometimes very 'right on'.
Sometimes the critiquer reads a different story.
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As you say, it's your book.
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Louise Marley
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And my editor says the same.
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charie'
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Is it better to have all three
books in a series written and then try to get them published?
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Louise Marley
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That's a hard one. For me, in
planning a trilogy, I'd rather sell it after writing the first book. It's a
lot of work--and emotional energy--
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to write a whole series and
then possibly not sell it!
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But we do whatever we have to
do. There's no blueprint, unfortunately.
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Mary Rosenblum
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If a publisher likes the first
book, even if you're a novice writer
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they'll take proposals for the
next two.
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Louise Marley
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Right. That's what happened
for me. They do want to know you can at least finish one novel, though.
Surprising how many people
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find that impossible.
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k c morlock
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Do you experience lags in
writing, you know what you are writing to, but don't know how to get there
and keep the reader engaged? Do you write through the bridge work or do you
have another technique?
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Louise Marley
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Of course I do. I hope that's
normal! (if there is a normal) I find the middles of books the hardest, and
then I remember
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Connie Willis's brilliant
advice. Reversals are great ways to get your plot going if it has lagged a
bit! . . .
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That means, cause more trouble
for your characters!
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kard
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How soon after writing do you
have critiquers read what you've written?
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Louise Marley
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I always rewrite before
submitting to critiquers. First draft stuff is just too rough.
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Actually, in my group we read
aloud, and I love that. it reveals so much.
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Mary Rosenblum
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That's very nice if you have
the time. You REALLY hear rough spots that way.
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Louise Marley
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Yes. There's an immediacy to
it that I find helpful.
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sundale
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I too go through long term
lulls. I find the best way to get through them is to keep thinking about
the story, and let the blockage dissolve.
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Louise Marley
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Seat of the pants to the seat
of the chair. For me, the biggest thing is to eliminate distractions . . .
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when things get tough, it's
easy to go do something else, and I have to resist that tendency.
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k c morlock
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Who is Connie Willis?
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Louise Marley
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Connie Willis may be the
greatest living sf writer. Okay, maybe that's a bit excessive, but she's a
fabulous novelist and also
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brilliant at the short form.
She does hard science, history, and humor. And she's the best teacher of writing
I've ever met.
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Can you tell I like her? I've
read everything--and I mean EVERYTHING--she's written.
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Mary Rosenblum
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And an hysterically funny
speaker! I have injured myself laughing!
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Louise Marley
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Me, too. I never miss a chance
to hear her or talk to her.
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rae
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She is with Random House. Would
you say they are the best?
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Louise Marley
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She's published with several
different publishers. Random House is good, of course, and big. At the
moment
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I'm finding some of the
"best" publishers are midsize houses, like Pyr.
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It's all about the editors and
the art departments--and then the sales departments--and then
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there's just no way to
quantify which publishers are the best, I guess!
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rae
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How many years have you been a
writer?
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Louise Marley
|
My first book came out in
1995, and I began writing about four years before that. So, let's see . . .
seventeen years!
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lottiemae
|
So after writing the novel, what
is next? Publisher, copyright..?
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Louise Marley
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When your book is finished,
you have to decide whether to submit to publishers yourself
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or get an agent first. These
days, I think it works better to find an agent. You don't need to worry
about
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copyright. When your book is
sold, the copyright is established under your contract. And there are lots
of ways to find
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good agents, beginning with
the Assoc. of Authors Representatives.
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Mary Rosenblum
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(And ALWAYS make sure the agent
is a member of AAR!!!)
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Louise Marley
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Oh, good. I should have said
that!
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Lots of scammers out there,
sadly.
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And please remember
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money comes TO the author. Not
FROM. Never.
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Mary Rosenblum
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http://www.aar-online.org/index.html
Association of Authors' Representative homepage
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Louise Marley
|
They don't allow fee-charging
agents. Agents make money by selling your work.
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Mary Rosenblum
|
So, Louise, before we run out
of time, let's hear about what you're doing! What's out what will be out
when what are you working on that we can watch for?
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Louise Marley
|
The work-in-progress is still
only half done, so I can't even give an idea about that. But AIRS OF NIGHT
AND SEA will be coming in
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December, and then the omnibus
edition of THE SINGERS OF NEVYA will be out in 2009. AIRS is Toby Bishop,
of course
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and NEVYA is Louise Marley. I
recently published a short story collection, too, called ABSALOM'S MOTHER.
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And I'm still promoting SINGER
IN THE SNOW, in paperback.
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Mary Rosenblum
|
Isn't Absalom's Mother out from
Fairwood Press?
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Louise Marley
|
Yes! You have books with
Fairwood, too, don't you?
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Mary Rosenblum
|
Yes, Water Rites.
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Louise Marley
|
Great book. I could hardly put
it down.
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Mary Rosenblum
|
Thanks. J
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Louise Marley
|
Fairwood is a small press in
Washington State
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and they're doing wonderful
work, high quality stuff in smaller quantities.
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Mary Rosenblum
|
Do you have any new images that
might turn into books? Or will that happen after you finish with the AIRS
series?
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And Patrick Swenson of
Fairwood Press was my last guest here.
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Louise Marley
|
I'm so deep into the
work-in-progress that there's hardly room in my mind for anything else. I
can't wait to be able to talk about it .
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|
I feel a little superstitious!
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Mary Rosenblum
|
We won' t pry!
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Ah, Zave has a great final
question for you!
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Louise Marley
|
Hey, Zave. Let's have it.
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zave
|
What to you is the most
important thing about writing?
|
|
Louise Marley
|
Gosh. A hard final question. You
know, I think the most important thing is the work itself. I love . . .
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Louise Marley
|
actually writing. I love it
when words come together well, I love that flow when everything's working
well, and I love
|
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Louise Marley
|
making characters and worlds
come to life. It's good to be business-like, of course
|
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Louise Marley
|
but when all's said and done,
this is art. And art has to be its own reward. IMHO.
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Mary Rosenblum
|
I think that's very well said,
Louise!
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Louise Marley
|
Not everyone agrees with me.
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Mary Rosenblum
|
Thank you so much for being a
great guest and sharing a LOT of very useful insights into fantasy,
YA, and writing with us.
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Louise Marley
|
It was great fun, and great
questions!
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Mary Rosenblum
|
So how are you enjoying being a
LR instructor?
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Louise Marley
|
I love it. I have such
talented students, and they're so full of energy. I'm proud of the course,
too.
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Mary Rosenblum
|
Thanks so much for being here
tonight! I know you're busy and I know you have writing to do!
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We'll let you go and I'll
certainly ask you back again! Maybe when the final AIRS is published.
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Louise Marley
|
We all do. Everyone get to
work! :J
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Mary Rosenblum
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Good advice!
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Louise Marley
|
That would be lovely.
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Mary Rosenblum
|
Thank you all for coming
tonight and I hope you all have a lovely spring weekend!
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Good night, Louise, and thanks!
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Louise Marley
|
'Bye all!'
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Mary Rosenblum
|
Good night, all!
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Write well!
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