VP: What
is your inspiration? What helps you get through writer's block?
Selah: First,
thanks for having me on your blog! I’m so happy to be able to talk about Olde School
here for the tour. It probably sounds geeky, but I really love ideas. It’s rare
that I’m at a loss for them, and hopefully I never will be. I love walking down
the street, looking at things, and wondering what would happen if one little
aspect was changed. I wonder about what the people I pass are going through,
and if I’m in a writing mood I go on to wonder what would happen if one of them
was actually from a different time or not quite human. To me, there’s magic in
the everyday, mundane world. There’s possibility everywhere we look. It may not
be world-altering, but it’s there, and it has its own kind of beauty. That’s
amazing to me. I also find myself moved by a lot of classic archetypes,
creatures, and story forms. There are some things that are just so classic for
a reason: the hero’s quest, the characters of the crone or the fool, the search
for love or fortune, good versus evil. The only difference is that I like to
mix them all up and turn them on their heads.
With
writer’s block, it depends. If it’s an issue with the story, I like getting
quiet and letting the characters do their thing. That may mean I write little
things that will never make it into the actual story. I may let the characters
chatter at me in my own headspace. Sometimes music helps, sometimes watching
certain TV shows or films helps relax me enough for my brain to work. I tend to
hit the gym or go walking if I’m really blocked, especially if it’s because I’m
in a mood. Moving, getting up and doing something, or even working on some
mundane task really tends to help me get out of my own way.
VP: Do
you listen to music when you write? Have a completely silent space?
Selah: I
am a huge music geek, so I love having it! It depends on the book, but I like a
little bit of everything: classical stuff like Handel, Purcell, Mozart, David
Garrett. Classic rock stuff like The Who, Led Zeppelin, Velvet Underground,
David Bowie (ALWAYS David Bowie), Motley Crue, Aerosmith, and other stuff like
Sixx:AM, Seether, G Tom Mac, Counting Crowes, Blessed Union of Souls, NKOTB, Patti
Smith, Alanis Morissette, whatever. Sometimes I just put on one of those radio
stations that claim to play anything and let it go. If I’m working in silence,
it’s usually because I’m frustrated or I really need to focus. PBS is also a
good, pretty safe source of inspirational white noise. With Olde School, I actually found myself
writing to a lot of British shows like Doc
Martin and Call the Midwife, or a
lot of actor interviews. A lot of my characters have those sorts of rural or
interesting dialects. They kept me…maybe not honest, but they kept me more on
target.
VP: Who
inspires you? What authors do you look up to? Why?
Selah: I
feel like I get inspired by all kinds of people: my family, my friends, people
I grew up around, artists I get into, even people I observe in my everyday
life. There’s something so beautiful to me about all of us going along having
different life experiences, and it’s sad that most of us don’t realize that all
of those stories are going on at the same time. Maybe it’s growing up in small
towns as a kid, maybe I just have a very particular way of looking at the
world, but that fascinates me.
VP: When
did you first start writing? What genre do you prefer?
Selah: I’ve
been writing for a long, long time. I grew up around some great rural
storytellers, and was fortunate to be exposed to local access shows that
featured storytelling elements, plus there was Reading Rainbow, as well. I was really into playing pretend as a
kid (It was the eighties so we were way too enabled with weird ideas. I
remember games of pioneers, Ghostbusters, and space dogs vs. astronaut dog
catchers. My Barbies had evil twins at some point). Writing became an extension
of acting out those (occasionally on my blog I’ll feature little stories that I
wrote from when I was like five or six, or ten or twelve. I have yet to be
brave enough to post bits of my teen angst journal period). All are hilarious and cringe-worthy and I want
to go back in time and hug Kid! Selah for being such a beautiful mutant.
I got away from it in high school, but took it
up again in my late teens and early twenties as a coping mechanism when things
got stressful. I really started trying to polish and craft my original fiction
in my mid-twenties, got frustrated by the rejections I was getting, and stopped
submitting. In the meantime I was developing a few longer ideas, but hesitated
doing anything about it. Around 2010 I had a little bit of a health scare. It
turned out to be nowhere near as bad as I’d been prepared for, but it took
nearly a year and many different diagnoses, some scarier than others, before
the actual problem was identified. It was then I realized that life is short. I
could spend it worrying about being told “thanks but no thanks” or I could suck
it up and give writing a real try. I didn’t want to miss out on something that
could make me really, really happy. So (in true folklore style) I gave myself a
year and a day once I started feeling better and had my energy back. I
submitted shorts every single week, and I figured if I didn’t get a single acceptance
within that time, I’d reassess if I wanted to continue. I hit every market book
and website, dug out all my old manuscripts, and just went for it. I got a few
acceptances, enough to give me encouragement, I made some connections, and
eventually that lead to working with Seventh Star Press, who has The Kingdom City Chronicles series.
I don’t
see myself as a definite writer of any specific genre. I go where the idea is.
I want to be true to the story in my head. I do like writing magic realism,
urban fantasy, and I definitely love working with elements and archetypes of
folk and fairy tales, but that’s not all I do. I love horror, I like writing
historical stuff from time to time (usually involving pioneer America), and
I’ve even written literary drama and a cozy Christmas e-book. I feel like I
really stretch my wings when I get to combine genres and don’t try to play to a
certain formula or any sort of set genre expectations. I think it’s important
to keep playing with ideas and what people think genres are. They may be
established and work for marketing, but I don’t find the need to keep hard and
fast to their borders.
VP: If
you had to choose another genre to write, what would it be? Why?
Selah: Probably
horror, I guess, but as I pretty much write a little bit of everything, I’d be
willing to try most anything. I haven’t done a lot of Sci-Fi because I tend to
gravitate to more of the Bradbury style than the hard tech Sci-Fi, but I enjoy
it. I really love dystopian worlds and post-apocalyptic settings, and I feel
there are a lot of possibilities there, too, so possibly that. Pretty much, my general
answer is: yes.
VP: What
is your favorite book (or who is your favorite author) and why?
Selah: Probably
Dandelion Wine. I grew up in Illinois
until I was nine years old, and although the book takes place upstate from
where I was and in a time period far before mine, I feel a huge connection to
it. I love the detail and romance that the everyday activities are given.
Little things like buying new shoes, playing tag before a friend moves away, or
following local news become epic events in that book. There’s also an
undercurrent of magic realism and some horror elements, as well, but it’s all
very restrained and handled masterfully. To me, that book is what life is or can
be. I may be something of a realist, but I think there’s room for optimism and
beauty in that outlook, and this book shows that there can be something special
in the little, everyday things.
VP: Do
you have another job and if so what is it?
Selah: I’ve
done a lot of different things through the years, and it depends on any given
year. I do a lot of work with costumes and have for about 14 years, give or
take: I’ve been blessed to work in wardrobe and as a stitcher with some
fantastic directors and designers, some really top-notch theatres and operas.
Currently the work I do is build and design work for events and companies, but
I enjoy it a lot. I’ve also done some theatre administration work and event
work, and I’ve done performance and puppeteering work, as well.
VP: Tell
about your first book and how long it took you to write the first draft?
Selah: Olde School is the first book in The
Kingdom City Chronicles, a cross-genre series that combines elements of
fantasy, fairy and folktales (some obscure), urban fantasy, the paranormal, and
even some Lovecraft-style horror here and there. I started writing it with no clear
path and just a few scenes in my head, and I liked the idea so much that I kept
it going and found that I was throwing a lot of things in just to entertain
myself. I definitely wrote this because it was something I’d want to read.
Kingdom City and The Land in general are a fantasy/fairy tale-based society,
but it’s developed and modernized. No one really believes in magic, and they
treat the stories we know as fairy tales as either history or historical
fiction and old wives tales. It’s fun because I can have trolls with laptops,
princesses resorting to dating sites because princes have started to court
career women more. I can turn things like Rumplestiltskin into a long-running
horror franchise. I combine a fantasy world with modern technology and it
really, really amuses me. Plus, it gave me an opportunity to do things like
invent my own slang and throw in a lot of little fairy tale references that
people may not catch at first glance. I worked so hard to make it a
well-rounded, believable world.
Paddlelump
Stonemonger is a troll who’s had some success with his toll bridge, but he’s
young, reactionary, and probably too nice for his own good. His friends get
frustrated with him because he’s hired a human maid, but she’s taking total
advantage of his good heart (and by taking advantage I mean she may have hired
assassins to take him out). He has to deal with her and politicians that are
trying to re-zone the city and get his land and bridge. And in the middle of
all of this, it turns out magic DOES exist, and it’s not the sparkly, happily
ever after kind. It’s been fun to combine all those elements and put all the
characters through a bunch of little twists and turns. It’s definitely a unique
title, and one that I think a lot of people can find enjoyment in.
In terms
of writing time, it’s a unique example because I started writing the idea
before I really had a clue what it was going to become. I anticipated it as a
short story in 2006, but didn’t like the ending I had in mind, so I put it
away. I picked it back up in 2011 with the thought process that I needed to be
working on something longer while I was shopping short fiction. It grew to a
novella, then a short novel, and changed and grew drastically in terms of
world-building and content. I still had trouble with the end, though. I was
approached by Seventh Star Press for a series idea, and after some discussion I
realized that the reason I couldn’t end the thing was because it was supposed
to be more than one book! I signed the series on with them in early 2013 and
got to work on finishing and fixing the manuscript. I probably had it turned in
around September, and then started on edits around December. I wasn’t happy
with the last fourth of the book, so I took some time to rework quite a bit of
that section and finesse a few other things all the way through. I can be a bit
of a perfectionist, and I was definitely fiddling with things right up until I
was checking the proofs before the book came out at the end of March.
VP: List
all of your titles with a one sentence synopsis of each.
Selah: Olde
School – A troll deals with con artists, politicians, a bird who may be more
than he seems, and has to save the world.
Mooner –
A vampire haunts a lumber camp saloon.
Lost in
the Shadows – Forty-seven stories by myself and SH Roddey exploring the edges
of ideas and the spaces between genres.
The Other
Man – A disenchanted father comes home from work, hears his wife playing rock
music, and after a dinner conversation their lives will never be the same.
Holly and
Ivy – Holly’s life is changing so she moves back to her parents’ Christmas tree
farm and reconnects with her childhood dryad friend and makes a strange
bargain.
VP: Who
is your favorite character? Why?
Selah: It’s
really, really hard to choose one in Olde School. Clyde the bird is probably
the most fun to write because he can be so outrageous. I can get away with
things with him that I’d never be able to do with another character. His speech
patterns can be a pain to write and sometimes I feel like he’s overtaking my
brain a little bit, but I adore him. It would probably be a tie between him and
Ippick the troll, because with Ippick I can let out my cranky, crotchety side
that says inappropriate things and totally get away with it.
VP: Who
is your least favorite character? Why?
Selah: I
actually don’t really have a least favorite character in this book. There’s no
one that I hate writing. They all have their fun aspects, even the characters
that only show up here and there. The only one that might qualify is Addlebaum,
because he doesn’t show up a ton, but he has a lot of influence in what happens
in this book. I’ll feel better about him when I get the chance to do more with
him, I think, but it’s not really that I dislike him.
All we
really get to see of him in this book is that he’s a pixie, he’s the Lord Mayor
of Kingdom City, and he’s here and there doing his political thing.
VP: Which
character was most difficult to write?
Selah: Paddlelump.
Absolutely Paddlelump. I really like his character, and when I started the story
I think I felt very much how he feels in the first half of the book. I was in a
place in life where it felt like every little thing was raining down on me, and
I was overwhelmed and taking it personally. By the time I was writing the book
in earnest, I’d matured a lot and had much more of a positive outlook on my
place in the world. Unfortunately, he was still reactionary and wishy washy.
The problems with the first draft ending came from him trying to be something
he wasn’t – trying to be all action-hero when that’s not a believable
progression for him. I was really frustrated because what worked in the first
half wasn’t going to fly for the ending, and he just seemed so “nice.” I have a
personal thing about not loving the description of “nice” to define a person or
character. To me nice can apply to anything: a couch, a person, the weather. It’s
a word that tells me absolutely nothing about a person except that they can
behave in public and probably won’t murder me.
I
actually happened upon a link or was sent a link of Tom Hiddleston doing a
Q&A at Comic Con a while back while I was doing edits. Now, I knew nothing
about this guy at all. I tend to be a year or two behind in movies because I
get so busy juggling work, writing, and freelancing, so I hadn’t seen The Avengers, hadn’t seen Thor, and since I wasn’t familiar with
him I hadn’t been trying to see his other work. All I knew was that he had
apparently cast some sort of bizarre spell of seduction over the entire
internet and everyone thought he was nice. That told me nothing about him as an
actor, and only half appeased any thought that if I passed him in the street he
probably wouldn’t come up and punch me in the face (I promise I’m coming to the
point. No, I don’t really think Tom Hiddleston is a violent weirdo. From what I
can tell he is a lovely person and besides, random face-punching would be bad
for his career).
I was
impressed at how articulate and intelligent he was, and because I was in the
habit at that point of finding interviews on youtube for voice references in
the book, I started using him as a vocal reference for Paddlelump. I quickly
became really, really impressed at not only how articulate he was, but the fact
that he wasn’t just “nice.” I’m all for a person being kind, generous,
compassionate, quirky, etc, but the whole be social one-dimensional type of
nice doesn’t immediately qualify a person as authentic or genuine in my eyes. It
was refreshing to see that there looked to be an actual person under the
surface, someone who was comfortable talking about all sorts of things. He
wasn’t trying to “be” any particular type of person. Plus, he’s just a hell of
an actor. The work he does is incredible.
Let it be
said that I’m uncomfortable using avatars when I’m writing. I don’t like the
“this character is based on this person” model. I don’t think that’s fair,
because you’re writing the character based on who you think a person is, not who they actually are. Paddlelump is
absolutely not based on him, or any one person or thing. The problem with
trying to develop a nonhuman, well-rounded creature, though, is that at some
point I just plain needed a reference point to keep things believable. I tend
to use references more for actual physical quirks, or in the case of performers,
to see how they play certain emotions and qualities. That’s where I feel my
theatre training does come in handy – I’ve gotten decent at developing
characters because I’ve had to learn to do that sort of work to a certain
degree. The more I listened to Hiddleston’s voice, the easier Paddlelump was
for me to write. That helped me get a better grip on how my troll lead talked
(I swear I’m not being creepy. This is the product of many years of vocal study
and voice and diction classes). I also realized that I’d been doing the same
thing I accused others of: I was totally pre-judging someone based on popular
assumption and the fact that he was being pre-sold as “nice”…just as Paddlelump
was in my book.
Amazing
how things link up, right? So I went back to Paddlelump and began to find ways
to show that there was something under the surface waiting to be tapped, that his
shortcomings and quirks could be turned into strengths. It’s his wit and
compassion that help to save the day, and that’s totally believable for his
character. So while I still say Paddlelump was spawned by my own frustrations,
he grew to be exactly what I wanted: a character who has the potential to be
more than what he starts out as; someone who can be a hero. That’s important to
me. I want to believe that people can be good. I want to believe that despite
the things going on in the world, despite how we treat each other, despite the
vitriol we fling out of the desire to be “right”, if put under pressure, any
random person could grow to be more than what they start out as. Anyone could
become someone who acts outside of their own interests and insecurities to do
amazing things.
This
still does not lessen my embarrassment over this admission one bit.
VP: What
scenes are most difficult to write?
Selah: I
still feel uncomfortable doing complicated action sequences. I like them, but
they take me longer and I get worried that I’m going to drop focus on a
character or forget to tie things together. For this book there were a lot of
subplots and little things that factored into other elements later in the book.
Some of the bigger sequences dealt with a lot of characters interacting at
once, so I was very nervous about juggling all. I was lucky to have a
detail-oriented editor there to help me keep track of things and point out ways
to tighten those sequences up.
VP: Do
you see yourself in any of your characters?
Selah: At
the risk of sounding like the self-insertion queen of the world, I think I
definitely put parts of myself into a lot of my characters. They’re coming from
me, so it’s hard not to have that happen. The way I approach character
development, I like to try to find a place where I can identify where they’re
coming from or why they’re feeling the way they do. It’s not quite sense
memory, but there’s still a decent amount of thought process and analyzing
going on, because it’s important that this cast is more than a gimmick, more
than just weird-looking creatures carrying around modern gadgets.
I’ve
already talked about Paddlelump to death. Flora probably reflects my desire to
be a strong woman, but she’s definitely more cynical than I am. There’s
probably some of my insecurities in her, but I think she’s got more walls up
than I do at this point. Plus, I’m a better crafter than she is. Ippick is what
happens if I don’t eat enough and I’m in a foul mood. He’s a little more “get
off my lawn” than I am, but I very much have the capability for that
irreverent, inappropriate sort of humor, though most people don’t see that side
of me. Uljah tends to reflect my protective nature toward people, but also how
frustrated I get when those I care about and want to see succeed lock
themselves into a rut. He’s way more laid back than I can be, though. Clyde is
probably the little devil on my shoulder in a lot of ways.
VP: Indie
pub or trad pub?
Selah: There
are pros and cons to both. I’ve always said that I’m open to both, but
small/Indie press is what’s been good to me so far. It really depends on the
publisher and what they’re offering. I’ve been lucky that Seventh Star is very
author oriented and is open to answering my questions and working through
concerns with me. I’m very hands on, and I like that they allow and encourage me
to be that way. Any more, though, I think you have to realize that if you want
to be an author, whatever route you go you’re going to have to work harder than
you’ve ever expected to. You really have to take part in the process, keep an
eye on things, and take a huge part in marketing and promotion. That’s just the
way the business is now. I love the Seventh Star Press model, and I’ve really
learned a lot by working with them.
VP: What
is your favorite scene? Why?
Selah: I
really, really love a fight that takes place in Trip Trap’s diner. I don’t want
to give too much away, but it’s a very unconventional battle that involves a
lot of princes and my main cast, and may reflect my disenchantment with online
dating. I just lost my mind writing it – it’s one of the few times I’ve had to
stop because I was laughing so hard. I remember when I originally got the scene
on paper, I kept thinking “Oh, man, this is hilarious and I know I’m going to
be made to take it out because it’s too out there!” Thankfully, that scene was fully
embraced by my publisher and my editor. And since every other part of the book
is just as weird, that’s definitely a good thing.
VP: Give
a one sentence summary.
Selah: In a modernized fantasy society, magic still
lingers and even a nice-guy, progressive troll can save the world.
VP: If you could meet anyone, living or dead, who
would it be and why?
Selah: Oh, I hate questions like this! The answer
for me changes daily. At this moment, probably either David Bowie or Jim Henson
because they’ve been on my mind a lot lately. Both have had a huge impact on me
personally and creatively. With Henson, I’d love to talk stories and just ask a
lot of questions about his thoughts on the world and what he thinks about how
puppeteering and storytelling have progressed. I’d love to know about the
projects that he’d wanted to do that didn’t get done, and his take on his
fantasy projects. With Bowie, I’d probably just be happy to be around him or be
working on anything he was doing. When I was in my teens growing up in a small
town, I felt like I was so out of place for having a lot of different interests
and just being really ambitious and creative. When I got turned on to his music
it was like I finally realized that there was someone else in the world who was
smart, extremely talented, but who also had a lot of interests and combined
them well…and he succeeded at it. At the time it appeared that he wasn’t afraid
to just go out there and be who he was, and that really helped me move forward
and get over some of the shyness that had clung to me at that point. That meant
a lot to me, to have him exist as a reminder of what was possible.
VP: If you could take the place of one of your
characters, which one would you choose and why?
Selah: Absolutely no one. No. Not on a bet, not for
all the money in the realm! I know all too much about the ins and outs of
Kingdom City and I would rather just have my own little time share there than
take the place of one of the characters. Or maybe I’d take Brindle or Clyde’s
job on a whim, because that would be hilarious.
VP: If you could vacation anywhere in the world,
where would you go and what would you do?
Selah: I’ve not been to the UK yet, or Ireland, and
I’d really like to explore them. I also missed a chance to go to Florence right
out of college because I’d accepted a job offer, and I’d love to have that
chance again. I studied Renaissance art a little in school, and I just love the
hidden symbolism and movement in it. I would love to be able to see all that
architecture and sculpture and the rest in person. I personally love Krakow,
Poland, and would love to go back. I had such a great time there when I was in
Eastern Europe in college.
VP: What is your favorite TV show/movie from your
childhood? What is it now?
Selah: I feel like those changed for me every other
week as a kid. In general, I think people don’t give the 80s enough credit for
influencing kids beyond the nostalgia and materialistic factor. The thing is,
even for girls, some of those cartoons were freakin’ bold. Care Bears had an
evil book that was like a cartoon Necronomicon, their second movie had Dark
Heart acting in demon possession mode. My Little Ponies had this ooze that was
taking over Ponyland and weird, inter-dimensional portals, The Real
Ghostbusters just plain existed, Jem, Lady Lovelylocks, and a lot of other
shows had characters nearly dying or losing their souls every other week, the
Duloks wanted to enslave the Ewoks, He-Man and She-Ra featured galactic
wars…and yet no one ever questioned these plot elements on TV because they were
in sparkly packages. I grew up with a lot that combined really cute elements
with some really dark story elements. I can’t help but think this wrecked my
personality early and I’m pretty happy about it. In the 90s, my mind just
exploded over Batman: The Animated Series. I watched the show so much, just
absorbing every detail. Movies like Labyrinth
and The Dark Crystal and shows like Jim Henson’s The Storyteller definitely
influenced me, and I was a huge Star Wars
fan growing up, as well.
My favorite movie now is probably It’s a Wonderful Life. I get that a lot
of people think it’s cheesy, but I think its message of hope and decency is so
important. How many people that you pass on the street are at the end of their
rope and just need a little validation? How many people help you out that you
aren’t even aware of? It’s such a powerful story and I become an emotional
wreck every time I watch it. With TV, I love NCIS – their character arcs have become so good, and it’s one of
the few shows where I can turn my mind off and not feel the need to guess all
the twists and turns ahead of time. I’ve also been in the cult of Downton Abbey from the beginning, I love
Sherlock, and I’ve really gotten into
Call the Midwife, as well.
Curious about her work? Check out Olde School....
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