Shooting the Shit with Derrolyn Anderson

Derrolyn Anderson is the awesome author of both The Athena Effect and the Marina's Tales series. Indie Angie talked to Derrolyn earlier in the week about her writing. Now, let's learn more about her as a person...

Favorite food and drink
High end sushi and red wine, but not together.

Favorite Books
*Cop Out Alert* I like a little bit of EVERYTHING. Recently, I’ve been trying to read older fiction and the classics. I may write YA fiction, but I want to avoid being subconsciously influenced, so I generally try to avoid my contemporaries.

Favorite Music
I was a punk rock kid, shared a crazy house with a wannabe eighties hair-band, and have been to so many live shows I have high-frequency hearing loss. I like rock, pop, classical, reggae, alternative– just about everything but hardcore rap & new country– Although my daughters are slowly turning me on to that stuff. I love my iPod.

Favorite Movies
I was WAY ahead of the curve on zombie flicks. I remember tormenting my poor husband with all of the classics on videotape back in the stone age when we were dating.

Favorite TV
Breaking Bad. Hands down. Never predictable - always amazing.

Best memory from childhood
Curled up in bed reading. I did a lot of that as a child.

 

Best memory from adulthood
Oh, that’s definitely yet to be made.

Life of the party or stand back and observe?

I vacillate wildly between being a “leave me the hell alone” hermit and a gregarious extrovert. My husband is the same way– when we entertain, we ENTERTAIN, but when we’re done socializing, we prefer a quiet house and each other’s company. My idea of a perfect evening? Good wine and something dramatic to watch on TV with one eye while I surf the net with the other.

What makes you rage?

Big government.

What makes you giggle?

Silly cats on the internet.

Find Derrolyn's books at Amazon.

Follow Derrolyn at Goodreads, Pinterest, and her website.

Interview with Author Derrolyn Anderson

Derrolyn Anderson is the indie writer behind The Athena Effect and Marina’s Tales series. She’s written a half dozen young adult paranormal novels. Let’s learn more about Derrolyn and her writing…

Q: How long have you been writing and when did you decide to indie publish? What was the biggest hurdle in going it alone?

A: I was a bookwormy kid who mowed through every dog and horse story in the library. There wasn’t much in the way of YA fiction back then, so I ended up reading Judith Krantz, Gore Vidal, and Jacqueline Susann at a tender age. Once I discovered sex & drugs and rock & roll my education came to a screeching halt, and I only came back to books through vetting what my daughters were reading. I was charmed by “Harry Potter” and “A Series of Unfortunate Events”, but a little freaked out by the creepy stalkerish aspects of “Twilight”.

The massive popularity of that book made me think… I CAN DO THAT! I knew I was a decent writer, and I had the ability to craft a persuasive essay. I’d won concert tickets and workout equipment with my writing, and even penned a poignant letter that got me enrolled in a University armed with only a high school Equivalency and kick-ass SAT scores.

So, my first book poured out of me in a few short weeks in 2010, and I sent out dozens of queries to literary agents, sitting back to wait for them to recognize my brilliance. I seriously expected the phone to start ringing off the hook… Boy was I a naive idiot! All I got was one request for a partial that went nowhere, and to add insult to injury, Snookie got a book deal.

I was crapped out and dispirited, but my brilliant visionary husband urged me to self-pub, and in going through that whole process I’ve learned SO MUCH about writing & editing. The hardest part of going it alone is getting book bloggers and reviewers to give you the time of day, and this sorry state of affairs is not helped out by all the dumbshit indies picking fights over bad reviews. Boo :(.

I wouldn’t take a second of the past few years back, and even though I’m not getting rich, I’m having the time of my life. The writing bug has grabbed me by the throat and doesn’t look to be letting go anytime soon.

Q: Your first series was Marina’s Tales. Can you explain the idea behind the series?

A: For the first decade of our marriage my husband and I rented a little cottage in the charming seaside town of Aptos. There really is a mysterious old shipwreck with hidden stairs leading down to an often foggy beach. Once I decided to try my hand at writing a Paranormal Romance, the setting seemed obvious, and just screamed mermaids!

Q: Do you plan to write more in the series?

A: I may re-visit it someday. I have an idea to write a book from a baby mermaid’s POV.

Q: Marina is the MC in the series. Can you tell us more about her?

A: I saw her as a bookish loner, educated and well-traveled but inexperienced. I think she’s a good girl, but many people really love to hate her.

Q: Your second series is The Athena Effect. Where did you get the inspiration? Do you plan to write more in the series?  A: I saw a “Nova Science Now” on the brain. It mentioned synesthesia and got me to thinking… I think the series will end up being three books, but that’s what I thought about Marina’s Tales.

Q: Both your chick and dude leads in The Athena Effect are named “Cal.” Can you describe how you decided upon this quirky choice? Also can you describe both Cals and what drives them?

A: I have no idea what possessed me to do something so stupid as to have the two MCs share a name. It was an idea that just took hold and wouldn’t let me go. I guess I love a writing challenge.

Girl Cal is a completely ignorant of the modern world, but book-smart and possessed of killer back-woods skills. Boy Cal is being raised without discipline in a chaotic house, chasing skirts & partying along with his biker brother. Both Cals are dealing with loss, but in completely different ways.

Q: What drew you to paranormal young adult as a genre? Do you plan to branch out to other genres as your career progresses?

A: I want to thank Stephanie Meyer for writing the books that launched a thousand authors. Everyone loves to hate her, but I sincerely hope that she’s laughing all the way to the bank.

I’ll definitely be branching out in the future. I’m just getting my chops as a writer, and I want to be prepared when that “big idea” finally occurs to me. I have plans for an adult murder-mystery, and I’d also like to try my hand at high fantasy someday.

Q: How do you come up with the names for your characters?

A: Caledonia came from a Robin Trower song of the same name, and I just pulled Calvin out of the proverbial hat. I know that Marina is blatantly obvious, but I was looking at all of JK’s personifications (Lovegood? Malfoy?, Lupin? Voldemort?) and said, “Why the hell not?”. Stripper names are always fun to come up with ;).

Q: Chicken or the egg question. Do you create a character and build around him/her? Or do you imagine a concept and create characters which fit the idea?

A: Concept first. Characters second. Until they start talking– I’m easy, and they can always have their way with me.

Q: How do you avoid writing a Mary Sue or Marty Stu when most writers can’t help falling desperately in love with their creations?

A: I didn’t even know what those terms meant when I started writing, and you could make an argument that I’m guilty of it in my first book. I mean, Marina’s main flaw is her “stubborn independence”, and Ethan is a humble hottie & hard-working surfer boy (not super realistic, huh?). I was writing these characters with my daughters in mind, keeping the romance sweet, and showing girls what I thought were admirable traits in a boy (besides abs!). Ethan does get more than a little insecure and jealous later in the series, but HELLO, has anyone ever been in love before? It’s programmed to make you crazy, and sexual jealousy is a human instinct!

I’m sure I’ll be adding some grittier characters in the future. After all, I did work my way through art school as an airport bartender, and boy oh boy do I have a plethora of interesting peeps lurking in the back of my mind! In the immortal words of Madonna, “experience has made me rich…”

Q: Do you use anything to inspire you while you’re writing? Music, visual aids, etc? Also have you found ideas come to you more freely in particular places or at certain times of the day?

A: My husband and I have a small business manufacturing cat collars & toys out of our garage (YAY for Beastie Bands!). My day to day work consists of boring assembly and shipping work. When I get irritated with the boob tube, I put music on and take my mind to the playground, brainstorming plot lines and dialogue while I mindlessly drudge away.

Q: When an idea hits you, do you start writing immediately or plot it out first?

A: I’m a pantser. I dive right in, and edit later.

Q: When you read less than fawning reviews, how do you know when to use the critique to improve your future writing and when do you chalk up the criticism as different strokes for different folks?

A: I cringe when someone accurately critiques my writing style and/or points out typos. The worst things anyone ever called me out for were “tense inconsistencies” and “the archaic use of language”. The horror! As much as it pains, I appreciate this immensely, because I’m always striving to improve my mechanics.

It’s funny, but what critics love or hate about my characters & plot speaks volumes about them, in the same way that the characters I create probably say a fair bit about me.
For example, taking note of my twin daughter’s obsession with fashion & designer labels, (they pasted a huge collage of magazine tear-outs on their bedroom wall) I included a wish-fulfilling fairy-godmother type character in Marina’s Tales – The rich and famous Aunt Evie. Boy was Aunt Evie polarizing! Some people wished that they had an Aunt Evie of their very own, while others HATED her wealth and materialism with a passion. You could really tell who was aspirational and who resented the fuck out of the “haves”.

Q: I’ve read criticism from particular bloggers (Fangs for the Fantasy being one) about the lack of people of color and different sexual orientations in fiction. Do you take this lack of diversity into consideration when creating plots and characters?

A: The times I came up in were very different. I watched my dear friend grapple with his sexuality in the seventies, harboring him in my backyard playhouse when he was forced to run away from home. I hitchhiked with him to the local gay bar, hanging out with the under-aged runaways who sold themselves while the chicken hawks circled. I know about the brutality of the bathhouses, and I lost friends and co-workers in the first wave of the plague. I’ve handed my newborn infant over to a dying friend and watched him kiss her for the last time.

BUT GUESS WHAT? I’m a straight white woman and I don’t feel the need to apologize for my POV! I have a gay character in my Marina’s Tales series, but his gayness is incidental, and although I wrote his coming out and acceptance (that one’s for you, Jesse) his sexual orientation was never a main plot line. I don’t write preachy after-school specials, and I don’t want to include racial or sexual “types” just for the sake of including them. I do model characters on combinations of people I’ve known, and I’ve known lots of different kinds of people.

Semi-comically, half of my young girl readers fell harder for my emo gay character than they did for the hard working and earnest love interest. I don’t think a lot of young girls have very good gay-dar, LOL.

Q: Do word counts mean anything to you? Do you find your books top out at around the same lengths?

A: No, but my books do seem to be getting shorter, so maybe I’m just getting better at getting my point across.

Q: How big a deal is writer’s block for you and what do you do to shake it off?

A: Sometimes I’m so cock-blocked by my business that writing is all I can think about doing. Then, when I actually have the time, I waste it farting around on Pinterest and Goodreads :P. This is why I eschew Facebook & Twitter. The last thing I need is another time-sink, or to have my checkered past coming back to haunt me.

Q: What books did you enjoy most in 2012?

A: I liked Wallace Stegner’s “All the Little Live Things”, and I read a short-story compilation featuring John Galsworthy, Ring Lardner & Pearl Buck, among others. I recently caved and had to read Monica Murphy‘s NA romance, “One Week Girlfriend” because of all the buzz about it. I really liked it. Short, sexy, sappy, and sweet.

Q: What trends do you hope die in 2013? Are there any you hope take off?

A: I try to avoid thinking about trends. I just want to tell a good story.

Q: What are you plans for 2013 as an indie writer?

A: I'm working on the third book in The Athena Effect series, and I hope to keep on keepin’ on. I pray I don’t lose my writing mojo, but who knows? I haven’t been motivated to paint for a while now. Maybe I’ll get a wild hair and start goat farming next year… Mmmm, I do like me some goat cheese.
Life is a marathon, not a sprint, and the muse is capricious. Gotta go with the flow.

Find Derrolyn's books at Amazon.

Follow Derrolyn at Goodreads and Pinterest.