Nancy Kilpatrick
Nancy Kilpatrick joins us at Examiner.com in this latest author interview. Her newest release, Evolve, is a collection of short stories that focus on re-imagining the future of vampires. There are special editions available from Vampires Evolve, and you can find Nancy's other work available through Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing.
1. Is there a story you’ve written that will never see the light of day? Why would you deprive us of this genius?
You are not deprived of my genius! I think just about every story and novel I’ve written has been published. There is one fantasy novel I wrote with a collaborator that is heavily outlined and has 7 chapters done. The other writer moved on to different things and I hope to find someone to collaborate with one day who is interested in finishing this project with me, someone who has some knowledge of military hierarchies and tactics. Anybody out there???
Then there’s a novella I wrote as part of the 3-day Novel Contest back in the early 1990s that I expanded. It’s not been published but might yet. Oh yes, and my ‘literary’ novel, which was the second novel I wrote. It too remains unpublished. Hummm… I could haul those out and…
Really, though, I’ve been lucky. I’ve published 18 novels and several of those have been reprinted. Every short story I’ve written has been published and frequently been reprinted in other anthologies or best-of anthologies. I’ve edited 10 anthologies, including the latest, which was a labor of love: EVOLVE. An anthology that takes the vampire to the next step in its evolution. It’s a great anthology and one I’ve wanted to do for…wait for it…an eternity!...so I’m happy that Edge Publishing in Calgary gave me the opportunity. It’s the first all-Canadian vampire anthology, with stories by Tanya Huff, Kelley Armstrong and other names people will recognize. I’m very proud of this book.
2. What’s a story you’ve never written, but always wanted to?
My life story! Ha! Well, I actually would like to write my family history but have no time for that because it’s long and complex and goes back to the 1400s. Maybe when I’m 90, if I have nothing else to do.
3. Is there a character or plot point you’ve wanted to change in retrospect?
No. Everything I’ve written I’m satisfied with. Which doesn’t mean that if someone wants to reprint a story or novel that I don’t spruce it up. I do. Nothing is ever perfect or, rather, perfection is ongoing. But when I finish a project after having rewritten it and going over it and over it, there’s a point where it feels done to me, and that's it. And, in truth, I’m always busy so there’s always something else I have to move onto anyway. Eventually, I let the baby raven fly from the nest and see if the world will accept my little dark creature.
4. Which of your characters would you never want to meet (in a dark alley or otherwise)?
I think I’ve met a few already! Most of the vampire characters are interesting to me, especially in the Power of the Blood world. At points these characters enter one another’s stories and there are times when they have major meetings and that means that they are all pretty much in the same room together. I’d like to be there.
5. Which of your worlds/realities/cities would you never want to visit?
I think the SF worlds where the slasher Jason appears. I wrote two books in New Line Cinema’s Jason world, which took off from the Jason X movie. In my novels Jason X: Planet of the Beast and Jason X: To the Third Power, it’s the future, and he’s in space. Jason is a killing machine, no humanity, and I would not like to be stuck on a spaceship, space station or on a planet alone with him, as are my characters. I’d also not like to be any place where there are mindless zombies. I clarified that because the trend now in writing is to have zombies with some sentience. The thoughtless, brain-dead flesh-eaters are bad news.
6. Are there any real-world locations you’ve written about but have never visited (or never want to)?:
Oh sure, lots. I write about places I’ve been to but also places I haven’t been to. In the latter case, I do a lot of research. For example, the novel Child of the Night is partially set in Bordeaux, France. Now, I was in Bordeaux once, on a bus, at night. I knew nothing about the city. But I’ve always followed my instincts and I wanted to set the start of that novel in Bordeaux for reasons unknown to me. I lived in Toronto at the time I wrote that novel and did a couple of things to research Bordeaux, besides drink plenty of their wine. I spent time at the Toronto Reference Library researching the city, the region, the history, studying maps of the city, etc. I also advertised in one of the daily newspapers and asked if anyone born in Bordeaux would be willing to share their view of the city with me. Three people replied. I spoke by phone with two of them and met one who shared photographs and helped me with the logistics of the story.
7. Is there a piece of writing advice you’ve never followed?
Yes. Don’t quit your day job.
8. What is an aspect of the writing craft you’ve never had a problem with (and why)?
I think characters have been my strength. In my youth, I spent an inordinate amount of time as a shy teenager and early 20-something just sitting and watching people everywhere. I was kind of absorbing how people act, facial expressions, gestures, how they move, how they interact, and how they speak, tones of voice, inflections, accents, etc. Characterization comes naturally to me because I envision the character in my head as a real person fully developed, with a real life and history, involved in A Situation which is forcing them to man up.
9. What’s the one book out there that you wish you’d written (but of course won’t, because it’s already written, and writing it again would be plagiarism, and that’s just mean)?
Perfume, by Patrick Suskind. I love that book. They did an okay job with the film but it came way too late. That movie should have been made when the book came out, not decades later because if you’ve only seen the movie, you probably wouldn’t bother reading the book, which is terribly sad because the writing is amazing. I would also have liked to have written Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lovely House”. And Tanith Lee’s “Fleur de Feu”.
10. What aspect of writing will you never stop working to improve in?
All of it. I’m constantly refining my craft and I think for all writers that’s a lifetime process. You never finish. You never ‘get there’ as it were. There’s always something new to learn.
11. What’s one part of the publishing industry/process you wish you could do without?
No question, the marketing/selling/promo end. This end of the business is a huge machine in the major houses and distributions companies and bookstore chains and also in the media, which is where books are promoted outside bookstores. For most writers, it’s very hard to make a dent in the workings of these machines.
I’ve been lucky and have had lots of good promo and reviews, but it’s always having to push push push, and I’ve done a tremendous amount of work on my own too. The reality is not what the average person imagines it’s like for writers. Rarely are there people in the publishing business who are enthusiastically trying to promote your work—unless you are a best-selling author. And every writer has bookstore horror stories to tell.
Recently I co-edited Tesseracts Thirteen with David Morrell. I went into a chain store and couldn’t find the copies anywhere, although they were listed on the computer as being in the store. This anthology of Horror and Dark Fantasy stories, which genres are clearly marked on the cover, was in the Fantasy section, with Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, etc. I asked the clerk if we could move them to the Horror section and he took the books off the shelf and said he’d have to put in a requisition with head office to move them. I went back two weeks later and couldn’t find them in the Horror section or the Fantasy section and there were still some copies left according to the computer, so I spent time nosing around and lo and behold finally found the books--in the Science Fiction section!
Then there was my non-fiction book The Goth Bible for St. Martin’s Press, which was shoved by this same chain into the Sociology section of the story, where, of course, every young person is sure to be looking for reading material!
So, writers and editors put on a variety of hats, talking independent bookstores and chains into carrying their book, distributing by taking books to launches and signings because the distributor couldn’t get them there in time, advertising the books anywhere and everywhere and in anyway possible, and on and on. It’s a full-time job. Some writers lucky enough to have a wife who works for them doing these sorts of things (I want a wife!!). And there are some writers who have tons of cash to spare and can do major promotion. And often younger or newer writers have energy to spare and can do all sorts of multi-tasking to make sure their books are on the shelves and hopefully getting into the hands of readers. But a lot of writers get jaded quickly. There’s nothing like going to a signing in another city and discovering that a) the signing hasn’t been advertised; b) the staff didn’t know you were coming; c) the books haven’t arrived yet; d) they only brought in six copies. I know many writers who refuse to do much to promote their books because they’ve been so abused in the past. And also, because most of the time it takes a tremendous amount of promotion with big bucks spent to get a spike in sales. This is not the 19th century. Nobody much is helping any writer today but for best-selling authors who are but a mere handful of the authors out there. Mega-seller authors are a self-fulfilling prophesy: if a publisher paid one million dollars to an author for a book, said publisher will sure as hell get behind said author and promote that books in every way they can because they’ve already cut you a check and have to make that million buck advance back, plus pay bills like the printer, cover artist, in-house editors, and then make a profit. Sadly writing has become a widget business with little or no nurturing of writers. The New York Times had a great 7 page article last weekend called “James Patterson, Inc”. Read it. It Tells All.
Personally, I’ve not given up on promotion, etc., but I’m very careful about what I do and with whom. I’ve learned a lot over the years and I won’t waste my time on what I know will bring little or no results. My time is way too precious and I need it for writing and editing. That’s my life, my job, my career. If I wanted to be a saleswoman, I’d sell iPods!
12. What’s the one thing you would never do to shamelessly promote your current release?
Undress in public. I’m a writer, not a visual entertainer. Besides, my craft is about imagination, so use it!
Comments