02.12.10
Author Interview: Kelly Meding
Today, ladies and gentleman, we have a new feature on the blog! I’ll be periodically doing interviews of authors and artists. In the future, you’ll be getting the inside scoop from Jill Myles, C.T. Adams, Stacia Kane, Brad Fraunfelter, and more! The schedule of these upcoming interviews? Who knows!
For now, my thanks to the incomparably awesome Kelly Meding, author of the Dreg City Series, for agreeing to swing by and allow me to interview her here today. Let’s get this party started!
AUTHOR: Kelly Meding
OFFICIAL WEBSITE: http://www.kellymeding.com
MOST RECENT PUBLISHED WORK: Three Days to Dead (available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powells)
First and foremost, what drew you to your genre?
Everything about it draws me to it. I was raised on horror, from movies with such titles as “Slaughter High,” to R.L. Stine books. One of the inescapable tropes of horror is the female victim/hero. She’s always there, but until the mid-nineties, she was a played-out stereotype (and made fun of perfectly in Wes Craven’s “Scream”). My first introduction to the strong, kick-ass heroine was Buffy Summers (thank you, Joss Whedon!) on “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.” We finally had a teenage girl who acted like a teenage girl, and who could still kick a demon’s ass from here to Sunday. I loved it!
But urban fantasy as a book genre hadn’t quite explored yet, and I didn’t discover it until late 2006/early 2007 (*hangs head in shame*). Once I did, though, I began devouring books. It felt like someone had invented a genre just for me. As I read and absorbed what was out there, I began developing my own ideas. And the genre is constantly expanding to accommodate more and more supernatural creatures, and a great variety of heroes/heroines and anti-heroes/anti-heroines. It’s always in flux, and it’s a great genre to be a part of.
Who was your biggest inspiration?
I don’t really have an inspiration in the writing world, persay. Does my huge crush of Joss Whedon’s brilliant mind count? *grin* I admire anyone who can write a book that I can’t put down, anyone who can draw me into their story and keep me there until I finish the last page. If I’m truly inspired by anyone, it’s those writers who don’t give up no matter how many rejections they receive. Not everyone writes and sells their first book, and it’s hard to take rejection after rejection, year after year. Knowing I wasn’t the only author who didn’t sell their first project helped keep me going (THREE DAYS TO DEAD was my seventh novel), and I hope that letting others know it can take several books helps others get through it, too.
Three favorite authors/books?
My absolute favorite novel is WATERSHIP DOWN, by Richard Adams. It’s been my favorite since I discovered it in seventh grade. Stephen King is one of my favorite authors. I’ve read a good chunk of his work, and so far I love most of it. He has such a unique, creative mind and can spin amazing tales in so many genres. Also Joss Whedon, for the same reasons—he may write scripts instead of novels, but he has created a phenomenon with the Buffy-verse and “Firefly” is one of the best things ever put on television. His shows are examples of storytelling at its finest.
What does your family think about you being an author?
The vast majority of my family members love it. I’ve been writing for so long, and it was amazing to see all that hard work finally bear fruit. My immediate family is super-supportive. My dad is like a one-man publicity machine and tells everyone about my book. There are, of course, a few family members who object to my chosen genre (vampires, shifters, and trolls, Oh My!) for their own “moral” reasons, but that’s okay. I’m happy where I am and I have support where I need it most.
Are you a do-it-yourself-er or did you have a writer’s group or beta readers pushing and helping you to pursue publication?
The choice to pursue publication was my own, although the confidence to do so came from a few well-placed compliments from college professors and friends. I do have three amazing betas who have helped me on several projects, and I can’t imagine doing this without them. So I suppose I’m somewhere in between.
What did you have to do to get published? Any specific obstacles or windfalls you want to share?
Well, first I had to write six other novels. Hehe. It was all part of my learning process, I think, and of finding my niche. While almost everything I write has some sort of supernatural bent, THREE DAYS TO DEAD was my first actual urban fantasy novel. But I don’t think I could have written it without having written those other novels first. I don’t want to call them practice novels, exactly, but even my agent commented once on the difference between an older manuscript and what I’m writing now. Improving is part of the craft.
But I went about publication the traditional way—I queried agents, signed with one, and went out on submission to publishers. While the agent-to-deal process happened very quickly (about three months total), it was a result of years of querying other projects and learning with each one. Even an “overnight success” can be years in the making.
What can you tell us about your latest work?
The second book in the Dreg City series, AS LIE THE DEAD, releases July 27 from Dell.
It picks up where the first book leaves off, and Evy Stone is once again on a tight deadline to both save a friend’s life and protect the last members of a nearly-extinct species. Plus bird-shifters, two large explosions, a shady lawyer, a magic diner, and a (literal) cat fight.
Your debut, THREE DAYS TO DEAD, was awesome. Evy is one kick-ass heroine, with a strong drive to help others (in other words, not as “me”-centric as some heroes/heroines I’ve seen). You write how she handles waking up in someone else’s body remarkably well. Who or what was the inspiration behind her personality?
Thank you! Evy was such a difficult character to find a balance for, because of the way her personality shifts from the girl you see in the flashbacks to the woman she is by the climax of the novel. She’s influenced not only by her old life and personality, but also by her new circumstances, her current choices, and by the new body she’s inhabiting.
I don’t know that I ever made a conscious decision about her personality; a lot of it developed as I wrote the book. You can’t be a Dreg Hunter without some strong desire to help others, because at the end of the day, that’s what the job boils down to—protecting humans from non-humans. It isn’t very different from what drives, say, a police officer or a doctor. It’s a desire to help. She just does it in a slightly more violent way. And it was a struggle to find that middle ground between a heroine who makes no apologies for indiscriminant killing and a heroine with enough heart to make her sympathetic. Even though her body is now older, Evy’s only twenty-two. She’s still maturing and learning, and in AS LIE THE DEAD, you see her continue to struggle between the warring sides of her personality—the trained killer versus the more open-minded defender.
There are a number of interesting world-building tidbits you threw into this story. For instance, your take on gargoyles as being somewhat neutral as to which side of the supernatural fence they’re on, the different types of vampires (and the hints as to their hierarchies), etc. What do you feel was the most difficult aspect of this to portray?
Finding a good balance between information gathering and info-dumping was pretty difficult. Early on, I made the decision that this was going to be my “kitchen sink” book. I wanted a variety of creatures and I wanted to use some of the lesser-known supernaturals (goblins, gremlins, gargoyles, etc…), as well as try something unique with the better knowns (vamps, shifters), and I wanted the different races to have their own internal and external hierarchies in the city. Goblins are the bottom-feeders, Halfies are the roving street gangs, vampires are the mobsters, etc… . I needed to have enough information on these various species to keep the reader clued in, without bashing them over the head with it. Based on feedback, I think I did the best I could—some folks follow fine, others have commented on being overwhelmed/confused.
Researching was a lot of fun, as was picking and choosing the traits I wanted to use. And even though some species, such as gargoyles, choose to remain neutral, they are all divided between the Light Races and the Dark Races in my little Story Binder. And it may surprise you, in the future, who is really on which side
How do you keep track of who is backstabbing who and how Supernatural Critter A has an alliance/feud with Supernatural Critter B, C, and D? Are you a plotter (charts, diagrams, a synopsis or outline, Excel spreadsheets, etc, etc), or does it just come straight from your head down on paper?
When it comes to actually writing the book, I’m very much a pantser. I’ve tried outlining in the past, but end up discarding or rewriting the thing about halfway through. I do, however, have this wonderful thing I mentioned above called a Story Binder, where I keep track of those little details. I have sections for the different races—who’s cousin to who, who hates who, traits and physical descriptions, and major players. I did a lot of this planning ahead of time, but a good bit accumulated as I wrote.
For instance, the choice to make vampires a completely separate species and not even remotely human, was a decision from the get-go, before I wrote a word. However, making vampires and gargoyles cousin races occurred on the page—I didn’t know it until I wrote it. I have the Binder to reference if I think I’m contradicting myself, and new tidbits go in whenever I discover them.
Will you be exploring more about Evy’s background in your next book, AS LIE THE DEAD (coming July 2010 from Dell)? Totally aside, but I’d love to learn more about the Triads and her relationship with her Handler, Wyatt, before the circumstances that put Evy in Chalice’s body!
All of the above! AS LIE THE DEAD will answer a lot of questions folks have, especially about Wyatt and the history of the Triads. I hope some of the revelations help readers understand Wyatt a little more. He’s such a wonderfully polarizing character. Some readers love him, and some just don’t trust him. I don’t know if book two will help or hurt his case, but it will definitely shed light on his motivations. Evy’s personal history comes into play, as well—not only with Wyatt, but also her work with Jesse and Ash. And you get to see another Triad in action—Handler Gina Kismet and her boys have become some of my favorite secondary characters in this universe. I’m so excited for you guys to get your hands on this book!
Now, for my favorite part of the interview! Everything You Never Expected Me To Ask. Favorite Saturday morning cartoon?
Since “Saved by the Bell” isn’t technically a cartoon, I’ll have to go with a childhood favorite—”The Care Bears.”
Haagen Daaz or Ben & Jerry’s?
Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, please! *drool*
MST3K or do-it-yourself (with friends, of course)?
Do-it-myself-with-best-friend! I think one of our best beer-fueled MST3K was for “Twilight.” We should have video-taped ourselves.
Double-decaf soy non-fat zebra latte no foam or coffee?
Decaf? Ew! Give me plain coffee over decaf/soy anything.
Thanks for putting up with my wacky side. *g* Lastly, anything you’d like to pimp to the readers (such as an existing/upcoming book or short story, graphic novel, TV show, movie deal, etc?
We’ve both pimped AS LIE THE DEAD, July 27th, 2010. At the moment, that’s all I have in the pipeline, but this is a crazy business. Things change at the drop of a hat, and I have my fingers crossed for the future of Dreg City, as well as a few other projects.
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There you have it, folks! We’ll be exploring the intricacies of inter-office stapler politics with another author or artist in the near future, so check back soon.
Thanks again to Kelly for stopping by!
