Welcome to the blog, Lindsey. Could you
tell us something about yourself, and what you do when you're not writing?
Glad to be
here! I’m currently a culinary student –
I just finished a diploma in baking and pastry, and am continuing to complete
an associates degree in culinary arts – and a professional harp performer
living near Cincinnati, Ohio. I also
teach beginning harp.
Right now, the
combination of work, school (and writing, of course!) keeps me hopping: I think if I did the math, it would come out
to roughly two full-time jobs! When I do
have a bit of free time, I enjoy reading, both the expected fantasy and science
fiction and historical or cozy mysteries.
Non-fiction, too, though I tend to classify that as research …
That's certainly a lot. How long have you been writing, and how
did you start?
I can’t ever
remember not writing; I would say that by process of elimination, it would have
to have been after learned to read, but then I remember dictating stories about
talking multi-colored sheep to my mother.
When I was very young, my family had an old typewriter, and I diligently
pecked out tales, bedeviled by typos – the texts would include such gems as
“swrod, I mean sword” – before I encountered my first computer. Apart from required cursive practice, I’ve
never looked back.
I know the feeling. My early efforts included words like "parashootist" and "obtikal illooshan".
I never did
learn how to type properly, though: I’ve
developed my own typing system that has my left (dominant) hand doing the
majority of the typing, with the sequence determined by the neighboring
letters. My parents used to call this
the Columbus Method: pick a key and land
on it.
It’s always
been fantasy, too. Even when I did a
“real world” project, as I did for my cursive practice, I went straight to
knights and castles. And, of course,
those talking sheep …
You also play the Celtic harp, which is
an instrument I've always loved. Can you tell us about it, and how you got into
playing it?
The Celtic harp
is the “original” harp – in Ireland, they have found carvings of this style of
harp dating back to the seventh century.
Obviously, the modern harp has some further evolutions, in particular
the levers: tiny switches above each
string that adjust the pitch of the note a half-step. This allows the harp to get sharps and flats
or change keys without retuning the whole instrument. Ancient harps were strung with gut or wire –
wire harps are played with a completely different technique, but that’s a whole
other topic. You’ll still see gut-strung
harps nowadays, but most use nylon instead, as mine does.
(I do
educational programs now and again, and I love nothing more than to call kids
up to touch the strings … and *then* ask them what they think the strings are
made of. This always gets a few good
“ewws.”)
I first “met”
the harp at the Cincinnati Celtic Festival.
There was an event on the schedule called, “I’ve Always Wanted to Play the
Harp.” It was an informal thing, just a
few harpers (harpers play the traditional harp; harpists play the orchestral
harp) helping interested parties try out the instruments. As soon as I got my hands on a harp, that was
it: I was in love.
I always associate harpers with smoke-filled halls where they play and sing ancient heroic lays. So does your writing and music interact at all,
or do you keep the two art-forms separate?
I find that
music and musical themes sneak into my writing, whether I intend them to or
not. I enjoy writing about musicians and
their misadventures. Thanks to a writing
prompt, I even wrote a story loosely inspired by one of my more trying gigs … loosely.
Since starting
culinary school, as I’ve pulled out older stories to edit them, I’ve noticed a
surprising number that involve pastry, chocolates and cooks. Life has a tendency to find its way into
fiction.
As a harper, I
arrange almost all the music I play, and I’ve even written a few sets of lyrics
to traditional tunes. I’ve never had
much luck composing my own music, though, and this has always frustrated
me. It feels like a gap I should be able
to bridge.
Earlier this
year, a local conductor sat down to talk to me at a gig, and we discussed
various musical topics. Somehow,
composing came up, and I mentioned my feeling.
He quoted a famous musician: “God
composes. I arrange.” (Alas, I can’t for the life of me remember
who, nor can I find the quote online.
Pipe up if you happen to know!)
I’m not a religious person, but this idea – that the raw, creative
essence is part of the universe, and that what the human creator does is
express it – really appeals to me.
Your story in Unburied Treasures, Stone
Unturned, is a haunting tale. Can you remember what your inspiration for it
was?
Stone Unturned was originally written for a monthly
challenge at fantasy-writers.org. The
challenge was to take five elements and write a story where each was an integral
part. In the spirit of making things
unnecessarily difficult for myself, I always try to add another layer to the
challenge topic. In this case, I knew I
wanted to write about history and myth, so I decided to construct the story so
each element appeared both in the present and in the past.
The concept of
being able to sense the past of an object by touch is one that has always
fascinated me. I decided to give my main
character this ability. (And the magic
used in Stone Unturned has a
tangential musical element, too.) It is
this talent that unfolds the story in the past … and gradually reveals its
connection to the present.
You've been published all over the
place. Can you tell us about some of your publications? What's currently
available?
My contemporary
fantasy novel, Flow, is available
both as an ebook or in print from Double Dragon: http://www.double-dragon-ebooks.com/single.php?ISBN=1-55404-936-9
Flow follows
two very different characters: teenaged
Kit, bitter in the wake of the death of her mother and unable to control her
budding powers; and Chailyn, a water-witch raised in the underwater Vale and
only now sent to the surface for her first mission. The pair team up to uncover her mother’s
killer and find more than they bargained for:
predatory fairies, a rival organization to the water-witches known as
the Borderwatch, and secrets buried in both their pasts. They also meet Hadrian, a bizarre young man
with hyper-accelerated perceptions who invites himself along on the journey.
If you just
want a taste of this contentious world, check out Xmas Wishes, a short story in the same setting –
only a dollar, too! Also available from
Gypsy Shadow is Taming The Weald, which was one of my favorite stories
to write and does some blissful blurring of the lines between science fiction
and fantasy. I have to say that “strange
children” is another element I’m drawn to a lot in writing.
For freebies,
my most recent publication, Polestar, is
in the June/July issue of Plasma Frequency. My first publication there, Mythocraft (all the way back in Issue 2)
was nominated for that year’s Preditors & Editors Readers’ Poll.
Abyss and Apex
has been wonderful to me – they’ve published three of my short stories, with
another coming out sometime next year; the first story (HourBy Hour) was in
their first Best Of anthology, and I got the chance not only to read from it at
the World Fantasy Convention in Calgary, but to meet the magazine’s editor,
Wendy Delmater.
My most recent
story there was Dancing Day, which was another fantasy-writers.org
monthly challenge involving five elements – this time five elements that were
distinctly Christmas-themed, the challenge being to apply them in a new
way. There’s still a hint in the title,
which is derived from one of my favorite period carols
to play.
Could you tell us something about what
you're writing at the moment, and any future plans?
The novel I’m
working on right now is Unnatural Causes,
a fantasy-mystery cross. When a
controversial enchanter is murdered, her familiar and her apprentice team up to
find out who killed her. I’ve been
deliberately taking the writing of this one slow: it’s from the first-person perspective of the
familiar, and since in this setting, familiars are otherworldly beings, I want
to make sure that I consider the way I’m framing her thoughts. In this world, magic is performed by creating phantasmal thought-machines,
visible only to the enchanter and others with the talent. These machines
execute the spell.
I haven’t
firmly chosen a future project. Most of
the novel-length works I’ve considered are rewrites, reimaginings, or new
adventures for previous characters, including the idea of a sequel for Flow.
One shorter (comparatively)
work I know I want to write is a – wait for it – zombie novella. Of course, I know that zombies have been done
to my death; my hope is that my take on the origins and themes of reincarnation
will get past an editor’s groans. In fact, the idea would have never come to me
if we weren’t saturated in zombie culture.
Here’s how it came about:
I dabble in
photography, and the flutist I played with in White Orchid – a much more
serious photographer – invited me to a quirky northern Ohio town that was also
hosting its annual Zombie Walk.
Wandering around town as the attendees prepared to walk was
amazing: we saw costumes from the very
simple to the elaborate, from the hilarious to the impressive. (And the disturbing in a non-zombified
context: the teen who, when asked how he
had costumed his arm to look like it was broken, demonstrated it wasn’t a
costume – he was double-jointed.
Oww.) The “CDC” walked around in
hazmat suits.
In any case, to
make a long story short (too late!), I got some great photographs. Most people were happy to mug for the camera,
but I did get some candid shots as well, and that’s where the story comes
in. Among those pictures of people being
themselves amongst the pseudo-gore and dishevel were a few images that
illustrated a story in an eyeblink. Some
day, I hope you’ll be able to read it.
Sounds intriguing, and I hope I do get a chance to read it.
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