Author Interviews: Janice Lane Frasier
First, thank you for this opportunity to talk a little
about my writing life. A certain amount of what we writers do is based on our
willingness to reflect. We all need to pull ourselves out of our books
periodically and check our process and progress.
1. You don’t
consider yourself a young adult author, but your book, The Opposite of
a Cowboy, is of the Y.A. genre. How do you think people see young adult
books, and does that hurt or help your story?
My friend Rachel Hamilton, The Case of the Exploding
Loo, said that she had written books all over the genre spectrum
before she sold her phenomenal book in the Y.A. genre. This information was an
epiphany really and freed me from the trap of my ego when I first started to
write. “Oh, I'm this kind of person, so I should write these kinds of books.”
Instead, I let myself write for fun, whatever my mood and wherever my ideas
came from. Early on I discovered that the enjoyment of the creative process
kept me writing – a much better motivation – a carrot instead of a stick.
People should ignore genres. Read good stories like The
City and The City and The Invention of Wings. Two
books that take you out of this world, completely different genres.
2. What's the
spectrum of your writing style? Do you stick to specific genres or mediums?
(Novels, short stories, screenplays...) How much unpublished work do you have
lying around?
I rarely leave work unfinished, but I usually leave it
for a while to peculate before I do the editing. I do have one book, a detective
novel, I love picking up at odd moments. I'll read some tips in an interview or
twitter and think, “Oh, I should include that in Bereavement Group.” It's also the only work
that I have written out of sequence. I drop in and write a scene here or there,
and then return to it later to write the transitions.
3. You have been
writing for about six years, you’ve said. What is one opinion about writing
you’ve had that’s changed over your career?
Six years, hmmm, I was a teacher for 30 years, and I
remained a teacher because I loved it. Although I played around with writing,
and I had a few poems published, it was a hobby.
When I retired from teaching, I didn't consider any other
pastime. I've always wanted to write a book, but I never viewed writing as an
easy career any more than teaching. I knew it would be time-consuming, lonely
and taxing, but I didn't know it would be so much fun.
4. Is there any
terrible advice you’ve received for your book or career? Bad advice you’ve
overheard someone else be told? (If not, are there any common writing rules you
don’t agree with?)
No, I can't remember any at the moment. I'm the kind of
person that listens to every bit of advice I hear but apply it to the appropriate
situation.
My husband tells me to take a break when I get
frustrated. That was hard advice to follow – I would stay up all night
finishing a scene that was giving me trouble. Now I do take breaks when I am
not producing what I think is the caliber of writing I want to achieve. Because
I love creating stories, with obstacles, dialog, description, flashbacks, love
scenes, fight scenes, I take a break until I think of a scene I want to write,
and go back to the difficult scene when I'm energized again.
5. What are your
biggest concerns about the current literary world?
I wish I could tell you that I am up-to-speed on Sad
Puppies and the Hugo, trad pub vs. self, but I am only peripherally, only what
I read on twitter. I am more involved in the controversy in Y.A.: swearing,
smoking and drinking, references to sex. Okay, that's a bit of advice I have
had to ignore. Many parents want to protect their kids from these issues
thinking their kids will swear etc. if they read these books. Sorry, but they
are already out there swearing, smoking and thinking about sex. Let them read
books that give them ideas about coping with peer pressure and hormones. Those
were the kinds of books I was drawn to at that age.
6. What trends,
tactics, styles, or genres would you like to see become popular in modern
writing?
Keep it coming, whatever you are writing. Good writing
will find an audience. I would like someone to write another Sector General, James White type series
though.
7. What trends
would you like to see disappear?
Nada, see above. P.S. loved Twilight. It was
a perfect series for young people - to read about a couple in love who
literally couldn't have sex under pain of death. No pressure.
8. Where do you
find yourself getting stuck most often—beginning, middle, or end?
I am an outliner, although I don't always stick to it, so
it is done before I start writing.
9. If you could
hire someone to do any of the writing work for you, what jobs would you assign
to them?
Formatting. I have an evil elf who comes to my computer
at night and changes all my formatting instructions, even on my templates. I
need someone to do the night shift and kill him. Preferably someone with
insomnia and mean line-editing skills.
10. What is an
assumption people make about your career that bothers you?
That I am wasting my time.
11. Tell us a
little about The Opposite of a Cowboy:
I wrote this book initially for a friend of my daughter
who is a reluctant reader. I wanted him to discover there are books with
characters he could identify with. Unfortunately, Cowboy is
Y.A. and he is a young adult. Next book, kiddo!
Cowboy is about fourteen-year-old Riley whose
mother is dead. His father, a war vet who abandoned them, comes home to take
her place. Paul is awkward, anxious and more than a little neurotic.
Riley doesn't want to end up like his father, crazy and
alone.
He figures if he can get Bridget, the most beautiful girl
in his class to go out with him, he won't be lonely anymore, and everyone will
stop feeling sorry for him.
Nothing goes the way he plans.
I am putting part of my query synopsis here because it
took me a year to write. That kind of effort for one page of writing demands I
use it whenever I can (and memorize it for those elevator pitch opportunities.)
12. How fast do
you tend to write?
First draft, fast, redrafting and editing takes at least
a year.
13. You are from
Dubai, but your book is set in Cody, Wyoming. Have you been there before? Were
there any challenges in the setting choice you had to overcome?
Charley, you were born and raised in Wyoming, weren't
you? I am curious – what part? I have never lived in the West (California
doesn't count), but I have a close friend who lives in Cody, and when I visited
her there I was mesmerized by the history, the landscape, and the people. I did
a lot of research on the net, but my friend read and critiqued the book which
was a tremendous boost. She also helped me with the gun scenes. It's one
subject I know nothing about.
(Interviewer: In
answer to your question, I am from Jackson Hole, which is about a four hour
drive from Cody. Keeping in mind that we are the least populated state—under a
million people—and have a lot of space, this actually isn’t that far. I’ve been
there a few times for Speech and Debate meets, though I don’t remember much
about it. Jackson, though, is very different. We’re right next to Yellowstone
National Park, so we’re a tourist town and most of our “cowboy” things are
pretty fake, though my grandfather was a cowboy. We have some of the richest
people in the world living here, like Dick Cheney and Harrison Ford. And we
have great ski areas, so there’s a lot of ski bums. Cody is much more of the
genuine west.)
14. If you met
people like your characters, would you get along?
Absolutely, I love all my characters, perhaps because all
of them have some redeeming quality. After I finished Cowboy, I
outlined another book from the point of view of the antagonist, Zero, the
bully. It gave me tremendous insight into all the characters in Cowboy,
so much so I had to rewrite parts of it. It probably wasn't the most efficient
way to do it, but it helped just the same.
15. What was the
hardest part in writing it?
I farm-out line-editing after I finish all the drafts and
my own passes at editing. By that time, I can barely stand to read the thing.
If you have friends that will line-edit, treat them like gold because they are
that valuable.
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