From now until the end of the month, enter the March Mayhem contest
sponsored by Joanne Renaud, Kat Laurange, Donna Thorland, Lynne Connelly
and Kat Parrish. Details and entry form here.
Introducing Kat Laurange, author of Somebody Brave, published this week.
I am in awe of what
you get accomplished. I’m connected to you on Good Reads and every time I log
on, you have read two or three more books and reviewed them. With a freelance
career and a young son, and other commitments—how do you do it? Do you ever sleep?
(I am totally onboard with your petition to have the day extended to 72 hours).
Wow, thanks! I've gotten pretty good at wedging things like
reading into the interstices of daily life and responsibility--you can get a
surprising amount of reading done in little five minute bites.
Do you listen to
music as you work and if so, what was in your playlist for this book?
I try to find music that suits the mood of whatever I'm
working on. A lot of writers use movie soundtracks, but I can't do that--that
music already belongs to a different story, you know? My playlists usually end
up a weird mix of Japanese rock (I love Gackt), bluegrass, and indie music.
AP or Chicago Manual
of Style?
AP ALL THE WAY. And yes, I deplore the Oxford comma
(but I'll still use it if it's truly, absolutely and entirely necessary)!
If you could live
during any era in any place, where would it be, and what is it about that
time/place that attracts you?
I'd like to be a pioneer: so I guess either
back in the 1800s when the American frontier was being explored, or else
sometime in the future when we start colonizing other planets. The adventure
and the hard work really appeal to me, as well as the idea of both being far
away from the parent civilization and starting something new. Interplanetary
colonies probably don't need artists, though, so I'll probably have to learn a
new skill before they let me go to Mars. :D
Which came first,
the pictures or the words? Or did you always write and illustrate your own
stories?
Pretty much for as long as I can remember!
When I was about 7, my parents gave me a laptop (this was in the mid-80's, so
you can imagine this little kid pecking out stories on a huge brick of a
machine), and I wrote stories about my stuffed animals and their adventures,
and drew pictures to go along. When I get stuck for an idea in my writing, I
can usually turn to my sketchbook and knock some things loose from my
backbrain--often, things I hadn't even considered in the forefront of my mind!
So the drawing informs the writing and vice versa.
You’re a comic book
artist. Did you read comics as a child? If so, were there artists who inspired
you?
It was high school when I got into comic books, and
I still have the first issue I bought, purely for the cover art. It was Uncanny X-Men #327, drawn by Joe
Madureira. Fortunately the story was as engrossing as the cover was cool, and I
became an instant X-Men (and Magneto, and Joe Mad) fangirl for life.
DC Universe or
Marvel?
Marvel was my entry point into comics
fandom, but you know what? DC has cool stuff too. You don't have to choose.
It's like saying if you like cake you can never eat pie--have both!
What’s your favorite
fairy tale?
That's a tough question! It's either The Snow Queen or Sleeping Beauty, and I think you can make the argument that they're
really the same story with the genders of the protagonists swapped. After all,
though the boy in TSQ is not literally
asleep, still the heroine has to brave many dangers before she reaches the
castle and reawakens his soul. With a kiss, even, if memory serves! There's
something beautiful and romantic about that.
What blogs/sites do
you regularly read?
My blog reading has definitely fallen off in my
three-ring-circus-juggling-act of life, but I follow The Mary Sue for geek news, and io9, and a few writers' blogs
(Sarah Rees Brennan, NK Jemisin, Tom Simon, and John C Wright, to name a few)
and a couple of Catholic blogs as well. But if you looked at my feedly, you'd
see I'm months behind on all of them!
What’s your favorite
social medium? (Please insert your Twitter, Instagram, FB, pinterest, Snapchat
or whatever tags here so people can follow and adore you.)
I'm addicted to Facebook! I have an art
page here.
Did you have a pet
as a child? Do you have one now?
I've always had cats, always! My very first cat
that was my own and not the family pet was Shawna, a beautiful fluffy tabby,
when I was in third grade. Right now my family has five cats (I know! we have a
fatal cat addiction!), including a three-legged rescue named Mako.
If you weren’t a
writer/artist, is there anything else that would draw your interest? Any other
career you might have followed?
When I was a kid I wanted to be a veterinarian. I
don't think I'm quite made of stern enough stuff to handle that career: seeing
animals suffering is too much for my heart.
Do you have a
writing “process?” Do you have a set
number of pages/words you write every day no matter what?
Not so much a "process" as "sit
backside in chair, don't get distracted, write as much as you can." The
first thing I do when I sit down to write is go over previous material to get
into the headspace. After that it's just a matter of fingers on keyboard. Not
very fancy!
I was a concept artist on a direct-to-video
adaptation of the story of David and Goliath, and I did the initial character
and BG concepts (as well as a bunch of storyboards) for an animated web series
called Bowlopolis. You can see the trailer here.
There's also this
crazy thing I worked on with my animation teacher. I'd say most of the actually
good animation is his, but I did concepts, layouts, backgrounds, boards and
rough animation for it. :D
You have a young
son. Does Vincent have a favorite animated movie?
Well, with young kids they leap from
passion to passion pretty quickly. He loves anything with robots, so for a
while Big Hero Six was THE movie.
Right now he's in a Star Wars phase,
so we've been watching the Clone Wars
animated show together.
Some readers have a
passionate relationship with the POV of the novels they devour and some have
made it clear in reviews that they would have given book X more stars if it had
been in first or third person instead. Do you write third person or first person
exclusively, or do you change it up?
It really depends on how the story needs to be
told, you know? Some stories need
first person, whereas others demand third. My current WIP is third-person
omniscient, which is not a popular POV right now, but it's what the story
demanded.
Do you ever write in
present tense?
I prefer not to! But I admit I have
sometimes done the artsy trick of switching to present tense within a
mostly-past-tense work, in order to up the immediacy.
Optimist or
pessimist?
How about ... a cynical optimist. Things can (and
probably will!) always get worse, but they'll all work out in the end!
Have you ever
written a story from a male point of view, or from the point of view of a
character who is of a different race/culture/religion?
Oh, certainly! Telling stories (and reading them
too) is all about immersing yourself imaginatively in someone who is not you. Since I write mostly fantasy, all of my characters are from a
different culture from myself--even if a made-up culture! As for writing from a
male POV: some of my favorite characters are my boys. In Voyage to Ruin, my indie pirate fantasy, 2/3 of the POV characters
are male, and in my current WIP, the male lead gets several POV chapters.
Coffee or tea?
To quote Miguel and Tulio, the mighty and
powerful gods, "Both! Both is good."
I love that you are
connected to so many of your relatives on FB. And that “Harmony” was your
mother’s maiden name. I would so have kept that name if it was mine. Was your
family supportive of you going the freelance route rather than getting a “real”
job? (To her dying day my grandmother could not wrap her head around the idea
that one of my jobs was doing book reports for a living.)
My family has only ever been supportive; I'm lucky,
happy, and blessed to have them behind me all the way, especially since I know many many artists who do not have their families' support.
What was your first
paying gig as an artist/animator?
I lucked out here as well; my first gig out
of animation school was with Element X Creative, a great little studio here in
Dallas.
As a freelancer, do
you ever have problems with clients who consider invoices “suggestions” rather
than actual demands for payment? If so, how do you handle it?
Getting paid is always a challenge for freelancers--usually
months after the actual work has been completed! However, I've found that if
you politely pester the client, it usually works out in the end. Only a couple
times has a client completely fallen off the map, and that's frustrating, but I
think one sort of develops a sense up-front of which clients are going to be
solid and which are flakes, and one screens out the flakes before starting to work.
You are married to a
writer. Do you ever collaborate? (Except of course in producing your masterwork
Edward Vincent Ignatius!)
Definitely! My Mister and I are in fact working
together on a shared universe project: expect vampires, monsters, demons, and
apocalypses galore!
You were born in
Kansas—did you move to Texas to go to college? And stayed to attend art school?
That's right! Though possibly I might not have
stayed in Texas had I not met my husband-to-be while I was in college for my
Bachelor's degree (in English, not art!). We got married in 2001, and the rest
as they say...
What’s the last good
book you read?
I'm re-reading Laini Taylor's brilliant Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy right
now. Partly because it is brilliant,
and beautifully written, and partly as a palate cleanser and happiness-booster.
I know lots of people don't re-read, but I find it a comfort.
Do you ever sing in
the shower? If so, what?
Usually I'm sneakily showering while my son
is asleep, so I don't get to belt out classic rock ballads as much as I would
like--or excerpts from The Messiah,
you know, whatever's stuck in my head at the time!
What’s your favorite
constellation?
Orion! But my favorite star is Sirius.
Do you have a
favorite color?
Yellow, or sky blue. Those are the
happiest colors I know.
Thanks again for doing this; it was super fun!
ReplyDeleteEntirely my pleasure. It was great getting to know you better.
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