Author Interview: Taylor Stevens

© Alyssa Skyes

Last week I posted my review of THE INNOCENT, the second novel by New York Times best selling author Taylor Stevens. And this week, as promised, here is my interview with this most intriguing author.

HB: In my first interview with you, you mentioned initially writing THE INFORMATIONIST as a way to bring the exotic worlds of Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon to life for readers. What was your impetus for writing THE INNOCENT?

TS: It was pretty much the same impetus, just a different exotic world. I am so often asked if I’d be willing to talk a little about my life growing up in the Children of God, but it was such a bizarre and often-changing environment that it’s impossible to accurately summarize in even a couple of paragraphs or even one article. So basically, in THE INNOCENT, my intent was to do what I did in THE INFORMATIONIST, which was to take the readers hand and say, come let me show you a world you’ll hopefully never experience, and I will try to do it in a way that is also thrilling and entertaining.

HB: I know you were able to rely somewhat on memory and personal experience while writing THE INNOCENT. But when research is required, how do you handle it?

TS: Much of what I write involves foreign locations and although I can get a general idea of what I’m working with by utilizing the Internet, mostly what I get is anxiety while I wonder how much I’m getting wrong. My solution so far has been to visit the places in question and to interview and talk to people who are experts in subjects with which I’m unfamiliar, but considering the ideas that I have for Munroe number four, I may soon have to cross my fingers and settle for the anxiety.

HB: It’s totally awesome the way Munroe kicks butt! How do you go about crafting those page-turning action scenes? Are you trained in martial arts or fighting techniques?

TS: One day I’d like to learn Krav Maga (which is the closest to the way Munroe fights) but I’m still very much a scaredy-cat in real life. Many readers do comment on the vividness and intensity of the action sequences, but I think the credit is theirs, not mine. I try to avoid over-explaining every single move that each character makes, instead focusing on what they are thinking/ feeling while the action is occurring, and I believe this allows the readers’ own imagination to fill in the blanks and create the intensity and visual sharpness.

HB: How big a factor do you feel social media has played in your success?

TS: I spend a lot of time on Facebook and a little bit on Twitter, but I do it for the purpose of interacting with my readers and fans, not necessarily to promote my books. I’ve never really put a lot of effort into social media for the purpose of promotion as that feels so much like screaming into the wind. I do think that social media has played a role, but more as a byproduct of how people communicate in this day and age—one person to the next in a word-of-mouth sort of way. I’m very grateful that my readers have felt this series is worth talking about!

HB: I understand you're in the process of editing your third Vanessa Michael Munroe novel, THE DOLL. Can you give us any hints as to what it’s about?

TS: In THE DOLL, Vanessa Michael Munroe is thrust into a world of human trafficking and sexual slavery, forced to deliver a missing Hollywood starlet to a client in order to protect the ones she loves. If she succeeds, she'll guarantee the young girl's demise, and if she fails, seal the fate of others. Win or lose, Munroe will pay her dues in the only currency she values: innocent life, and so must choose who lives, who dies, or find a way to outthink and outsmart a man who holds all the cards.

HB: Is there a question which no interviewer ever asks that you wish they did?

TS: Only once have I ever been asked by an interviewer how much of what’s already in print about me is accurate. I wish people would ask that more because I have rarely read an article or interview about me or my work that is 100% factual. I have been lied to, and about, and deliberately misquoted, but most of the time the errors aren’t malicious—just mistakes and/or misunderstandings on the part of the interviewer. But the thing is, when people read stuff in print they assume that a quote is something I really said, in context, word for word. Half the time, it’s not.


Thanks so very much, Taylor! (Uh…hopefully, I didn’t get any quotes wrong, but please let me know if I did!)

Author Interview: Taylor Stevens

"She closed her eyes and relaxed, ready for what she sensed coming. Adrenaline flowed, and euphoria followed. Irregular footsteps. Metal on metal. A hand reached for her shoulder, and with celerity she grabbed the owner's wrist and forced his arm backward until she felt the snap, and in that same second slammed a fist into his abdomen. When he doubled over, she picked up his knife from the ground.

'That was a warning,' she said, and fought the urge to pummel him."

Excerpted from THE INFORMATIONIST by Taylor Stevens, Published by Crown, Copyright 2011 Taylor Stevens (c)

I recently had the honor of interviewing Taylor Stevens, author of the debut thriller, THE INFORMATIONIST. (If you missed the review, click HERE.)

HB: All right, Taylor, I know this interview is about your new book, THE INFORMATIONIST, but your background is fascinating so I've got to start with this question: How long were you in the Children of God cult?

TS: The Children of God/The Family International was the cult into which I was born and raised. My issues with the lifestyle, and with its leadership and beliefs, started when I turned fourteen. It took another twelve years before I was able to internally process my experiences to the point that I was able to separate what I had been taught my entire life from what I felt inside. It took another few years before the desire for something—anything—other than the world I knew, became stronger than the fear of what living on the outside would bring. I was finally able to cut ties permanently when I was 29.

HB: Did you write any novels before THE INFORMATIONIST?

TS: I wrote a bit when I was a young teenager, but those handwritten notebooks were eventually confiscated and burned by cult leaders and I was told to never write again. THE INFORMATIONIST is my first completed work of fiction of any size.

HB: You are really effective in evoking the heat, the smells, the feel of Central Africa, as well as its political scene. Was this the result of research or personal experience?

TS: I actually lived in Africa for four years during my adulthood, so the memories were very vivid. I was in Equatorial Guinea for a little over two years and also spent several months in Cameroon. My initial desire in writing THE INFORMATIONIST, even before I had characters or a plot, or any idea really of what I would write, was to bring these foreign and exotic worlds alive for readers who’d never and might never have the opportunity to visit.

HB: How long did it take you to write this story? How many revisions?

TS: Too many revisions to count. When I first started, I had no idea what I was doing. I’d never taken a writing course, never even got through sixth-grade English. I didn’t know how to plot, how to build characters, and learned everything as I went, which meant a lot of re-writes just to keep the first parts of the book consistent with the latter parts as the quality improved. In all, it took about two years, while I juggled being a full time mom.

HB: I understand THE INFORMATIONIST is going to be the first in a trilogy, was that your original intent?

TS: Well, again, when I first started, I had no clue as to what I was doing, and getting published wasn’t even on my radar of possibilities. I was writing in order to take back what was taken from me, to prove that I could do it, and so that I wouldn’t get to the end of my life wondering what might have been if I’d only tried. I think it was about half-way through THE INFORMATIONIST, when the characters had pretty much developed into who they are now, that I first realized that they were destined to live on in other stories.

HB: Clearly Munroe is a beautiful woman, yet can effectively pass for a man. What inspired you to make your main character so androgynous?

TS: Unfortunately, a large part of our world is still very much a man’s world. I’ve experienced many of the cultures through which Munroe navigates, and it made no sense to me that a woman, who is blatantly a woman, accomplishes what she does. Therefore, who she is and her characteristics are a direct response to the environments she has been thrown into.

HB: Do you create an outline before you start writing?

TS: I do now! I learned the hard way that I benefit from at least having a general idea of where the story is going before setting out to write it. The second book, The Innocent was complete in six months.

HB: Would you describe your social networking platform?

TS: It wasn’t until I’d sold THE INFORMATIONIST that I began building an online presence, and I still don’t really have much of a “platform” per se. I have a website (www.taylorstevensbooks.com) and a Facebook page (www.facebook.com/taylorstevens) and that’s about it. I believe most of the excitement surrounding THE INFORMATIONIST has come from word of mouth by those who’ve caught glimpses of it, or have read it.

HB: Any advice for new writers?

TS: Don’t listen to the people who say you have to know someone or have connections in order to get published. I wasn’t in a position to attend writers’ conferences or meet agents in person to pitch a book. Neither was I well read enough to track down the agents of authors whose books I liked, and my one favorite author was already dead. I couldn’t even afford the postage to SASE. My only option, really, was to cold query agents by email, which, if you believe the naysayers, is impossible.

Thanks, Taylor!

Click the title to purchase a copy of THE INFORMATIONIST.

Author Interview: Heidi Willis

As many of you know I posted a review of the book, Some Kind of Normal on my blog last week--I just loved it! The book was written by debut author Heidi Willis who kindly consented to an interview. So now, curious readers and aspiring authors want to know…

1. Was Some Kind Of Normal the first novel you ever wrote?

No. Right before I wrote Some Kind of Normal I wrote my first real novel, a book I titled Ocean Deep. It took over two years to finish it. I queried and got three immediate requests for partials, and then three immediate rejections. I realized it still needed a lot of work and I might have worked on trying to revise it but then I'd gotten the idea for Some Kind of Normal, and that just took over.

2. How long did it take to finish Some Kind of Normal?

It ended up being about seven months, but I worked much harder and longer on it than I had the previous book I'd written. Instead of writing when I had time, I made a decision to view myself as a writer instead of a mom who sometimes wrote. That made a huge difference in helping me make priorities and sacrifices. Also, that year all three of my kids were finally in school. :)

3. To outline or not to outline?

I'm firmly of the belief that every writer should do what works for them. I was a pantser on my first book and discovered that it absolutely doesn't work for me. I combine two different outlining approaches. I divide the story into three acts, and also divide it by percentages. At each point, I know something has to be happening to move the story forward, so I have those basic events in place. After that, I just let my characters take over. Even though I have some idea about where I'm going, I still face tons of surprises as I write! For a better description of my "outlining" process, you can check out my blog: http://heidiwillis.blogspot.com/2009/05/methodology.html

4. I understand you're part of a writing group. How did you find them?

My writing group is fantabulous! I think Heidi Bailey is the first person I met online, and that was through Nathan Bransford's blog back in early 2008 or late 2007. Then Jen Blom found the two of us through blogs and that started the core of our group. Erin Halm and Brit Lary were in another online writing group I'd joined in 2008. They were by far the two most dedicated and talented writers in that group, so when Heidi and Jen and I decided to start our own group, I asked Erin and Brit to come with. Jen had two other fantastic writer friends, Kerri and Marsh, she brought along, and there we were! We span three continents, but we write each other every day and have become close friends as well as colleagues.

5. Your characters and their relationships are so authentic. Where did the voice of Babs come from?

I have no idea where Babs came from. She just showed up the day I sat to write. She is unlike me in almost every way, and unlike anyone I know. I have to admit that for a while, I was a bit afraid of her. She'd say things and I'd delete them, thinking "You can't write that! Do you know how many people you'd offend with that?" And then I'd realize it wasn't me writing and talking, it was her, and I needed to just let her tell the story.

6. Did you use an agent?

I did not end up with an agent. I queried over a hundred of them. I had a fair amount of agents request partials and then fulls, and almost all of them gave me personalized rejections, most explaining they loved the writing but just didn't know who to submit to, or they just weren't taking on new literary fiction authors. It was tough.

7. How many rejections did you get before your story was accepted by NorLights Press?

Over a hundred. Ouch. The querying and waiting were like a festering sore. I finally decided it wasn't going to happen for me. I stopped sending out queries and when I received the rejection on the last request I had out, I figured the boat had sailed on this book. Less than a week later I got an email from a friend I'd met on Twitter whose publisher had seen my blurb on his blog and was intrigued. They wanted to see the book. The rest is history.

8. Did you have a platform established before you were published?

I've been blogging for about three years and developed a pretty good network of people through that, although I like to think of those people as friends rather than just contacts. I Tweet, I Facebook. I'm a diabetic myself and am involved in groups that fight for cures, and so that was a natural in with this book. I also belong to a couple online book groups, writers groups, and Christian groups.

9. What are you working on now?

I've just finished my latest novel tentatively titled PRODIGAL. It's the story of a runaway girl who comes home at the begging of her younger brother and ends up eyewitness to the murder of her parents, which leaves her as the sole caretaker of her brother in the town she'd tried so hard to escape. It takes place in the same town as Some Kind of Normal with some of the same peripheral characters, but it has a completely different feel to it. It's really the story of forgiveness and hope and defining what family means.

10. What advice do you have for aspiring novelists?

First of all, surround yourself with other writers who will encourage you and be positive, and yet be honest about your work... people you trust and like. Find them in your book club, or library, or online. The road to publication is bumpy and often discouraging. You need other people who are going through it with you and can help KEEP you from jumping off the ledge.

Read books in the genre you write, and read books about writing. And write. A lot. The only way to truly get better is to keep writing.

And take to heart that just because you've been rejected doesn't mean you don't write well or you don't have a good story. Rejection just means that book wasn't for that agent. Or the timing just isn't right. It's not personal. Keep sending out your work, and keep writing, because if not this one, maybe the next one.

Visit Heidi's Blog: www.heidiwillis.blogspot.com
Purchase Some Kind of Normal: HERE