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Clover Autrey and Louis L'Amour...and more
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Clover Autrey writes “high fantasy with powerful elements of romance”, but she grew up on Louis L’Amour westerns.
Welcome to The Examiner, Clover. What was it about Louis L’Amour’s stories that drew you?
The heroes of course. Louis L’Amour wrote about men that are tough as nails, stand up for their own codes and values, and cherish their women in a way that every woman wants to be cherished.
So you loved Mr. L’Amour’s works, but you chose to write fantasy or paranormal stories. How did that happen?
As alien and hostile as the frontier can be in westerns, I adore creating my own worlds and inhabiting them with unique peoples and creatures, especially when I can endow a character with a magical ability and see what they can do with it. However, I think my characters do have the same ethics, toughness, and tenderness of L’Amour’s heroes somewhere in them. In fact I named my latest book’s hero Kinalan (Kin for short) as a nod to one of L’Amour’s heroes Kin Ring Sackett.
Are you a self-taught writer or have you taken formal classes?
I took a few writing classes in college and figured I was ready to write. That was a wrong assumption. I definitely had to self-teach myself for many years, writing, studying and learning as I went.
That’s a path that most successful authors follow. Now that you’ve become a published novelist, is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
Carving out the time to actually plant myself in the chair and do it. Once I have the time the writing generally flows until I’m begrudgingly interrupted.
Have you noticed any particular theme in your work—something that
carries over from book to book?
There is always a love story complete with the couple’s conflict, tame enough for young adult readers, which is woven within a life or death crisis that forces the hero and heroine to grow, change, and make sacrifices in order to solve it.
Please tell us about your most recent published story.
Chase the Wind follows Kinalan, an elite horseman, as he races across the plains to find a cure for his brother. He has to rely on an Eaglekin woman who he distrusts as his guide. This is my second Eaglekin novel. Eaglekins (a race of people who bond with eagles) were first introduced in Upon Eagle’s Light.
Are you a plotter or a pantser?
Plotter. I pretty much know where a novel is going beginning to end, though it’s loose enough that I can change things around if better ideas come to me.
Is there anything of you in the characters you create?
Sure, they’re all fairly determined or pretend to be when they aren’t. My characters are far more witty than I ever am though. I’m forever that person replaying what I wish I would have said.
Do you play music when you write or do you need quiet?
I prefer to write in total quiet, but that is rarely possible. Louis L’Amour said he could write on the curb of a busy street. Just give him a typewriter. I’ve had to learn to either be flexible like that or not write. I’ve written entire chapters on airplanes, in waiting rooms, and at several McDonald’s playplaces.
Flexibility is a trait that would benefit most writers. Do you have any advice for other writers?
Take every opportunity to hone your craft and just do it. Which really shouldn’t have to be said. If you love it, you’ll write. You just have to.
Do you have a message for your readers?
I love my readers, anyone with the kind of mind that enjoys adventures in unique ways are people I like hanging out with.
Photo courtesy of Clover Autrey
Clover Autrey: www.eaglekinseyrie.com
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