#AtoZChallenge - S is for Victoria Strauss #giveaway

 

Victoria Strauss

 

Victoria Strauss is the author of nine novels for adults and young adults, including the Way of Arata fantasy duology (The Burning Land and The Awakened City) and Passion Blue and Color Song, a pair of historical novels for teens. In addition, she has written a handful of short stories, hundreds of book reviews, and a number of articles on writing and publishing that have appeared in Writer’s Digest, among others. She’s co-founder, with Ann Crispin, of Writer Beware, a publishing industry watchdog group that provides information and warnings about the many scams and schemes that threaten writers. She received the Service to SFWA Award in 2009 for her work with Writer Beware.

1- What made you decide you wanted to be an author?

I enjoyed writing stories when I was young (and illustrating them too, with really embarrassing results), but it never occurred to me to think of writing as more than a hobby. I didn't discover my writing vocation until I was 17, and started writing a novel more or less on impulse (I wanted an excuse to take a gap year between high school and college). I never expected to finish it--but I did, and by the time I was done I knew that writing was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

I sent out a lot of queries (to publishers--this was back when most publishers accepted submissions directly from writers, and agents weren’t as powerful as they are now), and got a lot of rejections. Eventually, my manuscript landed on the desk of an editor who was planning to start a literary agency. She offered to represent me, and after several years and a lot more rejections, sold it to a wonderful publisher.

2- In what category/genre do you write? Why?

Fantasy and history have always been my reading loves, and they're my writing loves as well. I enjoy the world building--which you must do in a historical novel as much as in a fantasy novel, because both genres are set in worlds you can't directly experience, and imagination is necessary to flesh them out and make them real. Research, too: I do as much research for my fantasy novels as I do for my historicals.

I write for both adults and teens. For YA, I love coming-of-age themes: discovering yourself, searching for your place in the world, falling in love for the first time. Those experiences are so urgent and immediate, and writing about them is just as intense. My adult fiction is more elaborate stylistically than my YA fiction; my adult books are also a lot longer, which allows me to build more complicated themes and multi-stranded plots. Other than that, there's really no difference in the way I plan and write my YA and adult books, or in the craft and involvement I bring to them.

3- What part of one of your stories was the most fun to write? The most challenging? (And which book/s are those in?)

Most fun: all the lore I collected about Renaissance painting techniques for my Passion Blue YA duology (Passion Blue and Color Song), including how to make blue pigment out of lapis lazuli and create charcoal for sketching by baking twigs in an oven. Also bringing Renaissance Venice to life in all its splendor, mystery, and squalor.

Most challenging: this is embarrassing, but one of the biggest challenges for me was writing my first sex scene. This was in The Arm of the Stone, Book 1 of my Stone duology, my first book for the adult market after three YAs. I didn't want to cop out with a "fade to black", but I also had no idea how much--or how little--to show. I did figure it out, but it took quite a few drafts! What helped was realizing that it wasn't so much about the physical details as it was about the characters' emotions and personalities. 

4- Would you please, in 160 characters or less, give a #WriteTip ?

Be an educated writer. Learn about the publishing/self-publishing industry before you start trying to get published. Trying to learn as you go is the best way to get trapped by scams or sidelined by bad advice.

5- Do you work on more than one book at a time? Why or why not?

I'm generally working on fiction and non-fiction simultaneously (I write a lot of blog posts for Writer Beware), but I can only work on one book at once. Writing a novel for me is like hacking my way through a jungle: I know where I am and where I'm going, but there's a lot of underbrush and the journey is all-consuming. I also edit as I write, because every scene builds on the one before it, and if there's to be a sequel, I can't usually see it until I'm nearly done with the first book. Which is why, unlike many fantasy writers, I've never written a trilogy.

6- What do you love and hate most about being a published author?

What I love: interacting with readers. Finding my books in libraries or bookstores and knowing they're being read.

What I hate: marketing and self-promotion. That is absolutely the toughest part for me. 

7- Do you publish traditional, self, hybrid, other? Why?

All my books have been traditionally published. I do prefer trad pub for new releases--I'm not an entrepreneurial person, and I value the partnership on editing and marketing, as well as the distribution that trad pub provides. For backlist books, I've re-sold rights to some of them, but increasingly, I think self-pub makes more sense because it gives you more control. I'm planning to self-pub my Stone duology, which has been out of print for a while.

8- What question are you dying to answer?

Q: Are you a planner or a pantser?

A: When I first started writing, I was a pantser—I never did any planning. I’d have a strong idea for the beginning and the ending and some vague notions of the middle, but apart from that it was all a blank canvas. I worked like that for three books, but I wrote myself into so many dead ends that I realized something had to change.

These days I write a detailed synopsis, covering the main story arc, themes, plot points, and characters. This ensures that I can get all the way from start to finish without getting lost in the middle. Then I put the synopsis away and don’t look at it again. Not slavishly referring to a plan gives me room for improvisation, for those “aha” moments that are the most exciting thing about writing (my finished books always differ, sometimes significantly, from my initial plans). But because I do have a plan, I don’t go too far off track, and where I do diverge, it’s productive rather than destructive.

9- Would you please ask our audience an intriguing question to answer in the comments?

What's the one book--not necessarily your favorite or the one you most disliked--that lives rent-free inside your head? (My answer: The Descent by Jeff Long. Horrifying and unforgettable.)

10- For our blog readers who haven't read anything by you, which of your books would you suggest they start with? 

If you like YA,  Passion Blue and its sequel, Color Song, are a good place to start. In Renaissance Italy, behind the high walls of a convent and in the shadowed streets and canals of Venice, an orphan girl struggles against the prejudices and restrictions of the time to follow her genius for painting.