Rebecca York talks to BYS about her release Elemental Magic.

What went Between the Sheets of this book?  Either what was happening in your life when you wrote it, or what was happening with the book as you wrote it. 

I love writing novellas.  Once I know what the story is about, the words come pouring out of me.  And Huntress Moon, in Elemental Magic, is no exception.  Although my stories are basically plot driven, I need to understand my characters before I start.  Things happen, but the way the characters react to them is the most important element in the story.  In Huntress Moon, the heroine, Zarah, is put into a frightening situation where she's forced to cope with unknown dangers.  She agrees to be sold into sexual slavery to save her mother's life.  Yet she retains her dignity. And when she realizes she's been tricked, she hatches a desperate plan to right a terrible wrong.  Griffin, the hero, is also in an impossible position.  He's a man who wields tremendous power, yet he's hiding a secret that can destroy him.  And, in the end, he's got to trust Zarah and surrender his power to her in order to save her life-and his sanity. 

When did you decide to sit down and write your first novel and what led up to the publication of your first book?

It blows my mind to think that anyone can believe, "I've never written anything for publication.  I think I'll start with a 100,000-word novel."   I had to work up to it.  I started off writing articles for my local paper.  But I also took a course at the local community college, where people read what they were working on.  Some people were reading chapters of novels, and I wanted to try one.  But I was still worried about length, so I decided to write a kid's book.  Not because it was easier but because it was only 35,000 words.  I'd read science fiction since I was ten, so I started with a story about two space aliens who land in the woods across the street from my house.  One of them is evil.  The other has come to earth to protect us.   They meet three of the local boys--kids a lot like my son.  The boys team up with the good alien to defeat the bad one.  I read the chapters to the class, edited them, edited some more, and finally started sending the book out.  Three publishers rejected it with form letters.  An editor at Scholastic held it for nine months--then wrote me a two-page revision letter.  I was smart enough to know that was a good letter.  I did what the editor told me to do and sent the book back to her.  She bought it.  I looked at the contract and knew I didn't understand the legalese at all.  So I contacted an agent, and she agreed to negotiate the contract.  After that she represented me for about fifteen years.  That first novel is called The Invasion of the Blue Lights.  And it had a beautiful blue cover, which you can see on my website in the “Children & Young Adult Books” section.

Where did you find the idea to write this novel?

My current release, Huntress Moon, in Elemental Magic, is a novella.  I always look for strong conflict in a novella, because I want to tell a compelling story, but I only have a limited amount of space.  (Yes, I got over my fear of length.  But I'm still good at designing plots for novellas.  I think I do have a talent for writing short.)  To digress for a moment, I created a parallel universe for my last Moon book, New Moon.  I knew in that book that I had to bring readers into this new universe by starting the story in familiar territory and having them move to my strange new world.  But I decided a novella would be an excellent place to experiment with setting a whole story in that other world.  I'd built a milieu that's very different from our own.  For one thing, many people have psychic powers, and slavery is a fact of life.    So I thought--what would happen if a highborn woman in that world was forced into slavery to save the life of someone she loves?  That was the germ of the idea for Huntress Moon.

How long did it take to develop your characters for this book? 

The characters came to me very quickly.  Once I had the basic idea, I started thinking about what kind of woman I wanted to play the heroine.  Since Zarah is  being sold into sexual slavery, I wanted her to be a virgin.  For me, having the masterful hero initiate her is part of the fun of writing the story.  But the sexual component is only part of the plot.  Zarah's on a dangerous mission so she has to be courageous.  She has to be smart.  And she has to take risks that scare her. And she has to learn to operate in an environment totally outside her experience.

All my previous Moon books have heroes who are members of the Marshall family of werewolves, here in our universe.  But I'd already introduced a character from my parallel universe in New Moon.  One of them is my first female werewolf, Rinna.  I decided to use her male counterpart, a werewolf named Griffin, for the hero of Huntress Moon.  He's a man with a dangerous secret, which Zarah has been sent to discover--and to report back to her real masters, using her psychic abilities.  As she spies on Griffin, the two of them fall in love, although he can't admit that to himself.  And the readers know there's going to be a terrible conflict when he discovers her mission. 

Are you a visual writer?   Do you see scenes and characters in your head?   Or do you hear the characters voices? 

Good question.  I envy writers who can see the scenes in their books.  I'm not visual in that way.  Really, when I write, I tell myself a story.  I hear myself talking the narrative and the dialogue.

What are your thoughts on First Person versus Third Person?  Which is your preference?

Well, that first book I wrote, The Invasion of the Blue Lights, was written in first person, so I had the fun of getting to BE an eleven-year-old boy.  That was a comfortable way for me to learn to write a book.  But all my adult novels and novellas have been in third person. 

What is your re-writing and editing process?  Do you let anyone read your work in progress before it goes to your editor? 

It's taken me years to settle down to the process that works best for me now.  I start by writing a synopsis of my book.  I can't get all the details, but I do want a good idea of what kind of book it will be.  Then I start writing--as fast as I can.  I aim for ten pages a day.  Some days I can't do that many.  Other days, I can do more.  And I always start each day by editing what I wrote the day before.   After I get a draft, I edit the whole thing.  When I have what I consider a half-polished draft, I put it away for a couple of months while I work on something else.  When I get it out again, it's like someone else wrote it, and I can be very objective about what works and what doesn't.  Mostly I don’t ask anyone else to read a manuscript.  But if I'm having trouble with a book, I may ask a friend or mine I trust or my librarian daughter to read the book and comment.

What is your opinion of critique groups?  Do you find them helpful?

I think a good critique group is worth its weight in chocolate bars.  I've been running one for the past 25 years, and I learned a lot from listening to other people's chapters and listening to the comments.  I don't read a lot in the group anymore.  But if I'm having trouble with a chapter or a scene, I'll read it to get an opinion.  And I might talk about an idea I have for a book or read a synopsis to get opinions of how it’s working.   We also sometimes send scenes and chapters to each other through e-mail.  We're as much a writers’ support group as a critique group.   

What keeps you going and motivated when life throws you a curveball?
 
I have an iron will to succeed.  It comes from my early life.  I had a lot of trouble learning to read because I’m dyslexic.  And I can't spell.  So I used to get a lot of flack from teachers.  I had a tremendous drive to prove that I wasn't the dumb kid they thought I was.  And I'm still trying to prove it.

Were you an avid reader as a child?  What did you like to read? 

My mom saved my life by reading to me.  She read books that were way above my own reading level.  I think my love of fiction comes from those early experiences, sitting next to my mom while she read to me.  In fifth grade, reading clicked for me.  And after that I started gobbling up books on my own.  Mom liked fantasy and science fiction, so those were some of my early favorites--like the Freddy the Pig books.  We also read Little House books.  And I loved a book called Mistress Masham's Repose, about a group of Lilliputians living in the summer house of a crumbling English manor.

© 2007 Interview by BetweenYourSheets.com

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