Frequently Asked Questions
1. Where do you get your ideas?
2. How did you come up with the concept for your detective, Nan Vining?
4. How did you come up with the name Nan Vining?
5. When will the next book come out? Can you divulge anything about the plot?
7. What is your writing schedule?
8. When you keep such a disciplined writing schedule, how do you force yourself to be creative?
10. You seem like such a nice person. How can you write these scary, gruesome things?
11. Do you have any tips for new writers?
12. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
13. Would you…?
1. Where do you get your ideas?
Every fiction writer gets asked this a lot. It’s a tough question to answer because one is being asked to explain the creative process. Frankly, I don’t have a good answer for why I write what I write.
The best answer I heard on this subject came from the great singer/songwriter Willie Nelson. When asked where he got the ideas for his songs, he said (and
I paraphrase): “The air. The air is full of music.”
The air is not full of music for me, but it is full of characters, story threads, dialogue, and dilemmas. I always have a small pad and pen handy to jot down ideas. I love to eavesdrop and people watch. I read the newspapers with a pair of scissors. Somehow, it gets stirred around and comes out the ends of my fingers onto the computer keyboard.
2. How did you come up with the concept for your detective, Nan Vining?
I’d been toying with writing a paranormal-influenced book, but I didn’t want the protagonist to be a classic psychic who “sees” detailed events. I wanted the occurrences to be more subtle. More realistic. Many people have had uncanny experiences. A common one is having on your mind a friend with whom you haven’t been in contact for long time, and then that friend calls you out of the blue. Is that the result of psychic communication or mere coincidence? You decide. I wanted the issues of the book to be acceptable to both skeptics and believers.
During the same time, the world of police was opened to me when my husband and I took the Citizen’s Police Academy offered by the Pasadena Police Department. This thirteen week course covered every aspect of the PPD. We went to the gun range, where among other weapons, we fired sniper rifles. We did the crime simulator. Talk about nerve-wracking… Shoot the bank robber. Oh no, I hit the old lady putting groceries into her car. And we did ride alongs.
Previously, I’d had hardly any contact with the police. Of course, I’d been a fan of police T.V. shows and movies, but this course was a revelation for me. I found police work and life fascinating to an extent that surprised me. It’s especially tough work for a woman.
These two thought processes collided and Nan Vining was born.
3. Vining has uncanny things happen to her in The First Cut. Have you had any para- normal experiences yourself?
I have. I’ve had curious experiences that some might view as supernatural but skeptics could interpret as products of my fevered imagination.
I’ve spoken in an interview about an incident concerning an old friend I’d known since we were children. We saw each other less as years went on, but kept in touch. One day, I received a phone call and learned that after a brief illness, at age thirty-eight, my friend had died.
My friend’s death really turned me inside out. I felt such profound emptiness. One sleepless night, I arose from bed and went into the bathroom. While drying my hands, I angrily ripped the hand towel from the rack and threw it onto the bedroom floor. After, I leaned against the sink. In the dim light, I caught my face in the mirror. I saw my image speaking, although I was not. Then I realized that reflected back to me was my friend’s face and she was speaking. She was telling me not to be so sad, that she was fine, she was happy. The illusion faded and her face morphed into mine and I was again looking at my own reflection.
In the morning, I thought, “That was a weird dream.” But then I got up and saw the towel on the floor. So… ghost or dream?
4. How did you come up with the name Nan Vining?
I spend a lot of time thinking about names for my character. The more critical the character, the more important it is for me to get the name just right. I often change a character’s name several times while I’m writing a book until it feels right. Consequently, the name of the protagonist in my new series was an important decision.
There’s a small town in the eastern Sierras of California, near Yosemite National Park, called Lee Vining. I don’t know the origin of the town’s name, but it struck me as the perfect surname for my new protagonist. Nan Vining is tenacious, like a vine, sending out tendrils that can eventually force through a wall. She’s also a thread that links the past and present, this life and beyond.
Vining’s surname provides the genesis for one of the two monikers, or nicknames, she has at the station: Poison Ivy. Her other nickname, Quick Draw, was well-earned and very apt.
For her first name, I wanted something old fashioned and uncommon. Nanette is also her grandmother’s name. Family is important to Vining and carrying her grandmother’s name reinforces that. Her nickname, Nan, seems no-nonsense to me.
5. When will the next book come out? Can you divulge anything about the plot?
The next book in the series, Cut to the Quick, will be out in 2007. Nan Vining and the Pasadena Police detectives are called out to the scene of a horrific, Charles Manson-style double murder of a local man-about-town and his socialite girlfriend. While Vining attempts to unravel a devious murder plot before the next victim falls, a mysterious stranger who knows too much about the man whom attacked Vining, the man she calls T.B. Mann, enters her life.
6. Does Vining catch T.B. Mann in the next book? You’ve left such a cliff-hanger at the end of the first book!
You’ll have to read it to find out. All I’ll say is that T.B. Mann is much closer than Vining realizes.
7. What is your writing schedule?
I write in the mornings, the earlier the better. I love sitting at my computer before dawn and watching the sun rise through my office windows. It’s so quiet. I write until I’m done for the day. What that means depends on the phase of the book. When I’m first starting a book, sometimes it’s a struggle to eek out two hours. When I’m revising a completed book (which I’ll do several times before I submit the manuscript), I can work ten, even twelve hours a day.
Most days, I work until noon, take a lunch break, work until 2:00 or 3:00, then I go to the gym. I work on administrative tasks after the writing is done. I avoid working on Sundays. I don’t turn on the computer if I can help it. I avoid working on vacation. I avoid checking emails frequently while I’m working.
Taking a break and sticking to it is its own sort of discipline. I once had an instructor for an exercise class who used to say, “Take a break and come back stronger.” I believe that’s true.
8. When you keep such a disciplined writing schedule, how do you force yourself to be creative?
Jack London said, “You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” Sometimes I sit down to work feeling uninspired. Usually once I get started, I get wrapped up into the story and away I go. If the writing is truly not working that day, I’ll make a deal with myself to write just a bit and then I’ll do something else. Take a break and come back stronger.
I outline in a fashion. I craft a general idea of what happens when and who does what, ending up with a chapter-by-chapter synopsis of about 100 double-spaced pages. If dialogue or descriptions occur to me, I’ll put it in. I hone the synopsis until I feel it’s right. This can take a couple of months. Once I begin writing in earnest, the story and characters continue to evolve as the book finds its path.
I still rewrite, no getting around that, but my first draft is more on target because of the early work I’ve invested. The synopsis also helps me focus on any research I need to do. I don’t waste time tracking down details that won’t end up in the book. It also alerts me to items I need to research before I can move forward.
10. You seem like such a nice person. How can you write these scary, gruesome things?
I can just about guarantee that male writers are rarely asked this question. I’ve always loved suspense, mystery, and horror more than any other genres. I don’t have a better explanation than that. It’s just what comes out. You are not alone with your query. My friends and family often look at me askance.
11. Do you have any tips for new writers?
Write consistently. Writing a novel is like embarking upon a diet, an academic degree, or an athletic endeavor. Success is measured in increments. The day-to-day dogged effort, even if small, is what shows results in the end. Embrace that it’s not about the writing, it’s about the rewriting. Heed William Faulkner’s words: “Kill your darlings.”
12. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
I like to garden, cook, go to the movies, watch movies at home with my husband, have friends over for dinner or go out, listen to live music, go to the beach and flip through a food or fashion magazine or simply look at the horizon. I find it centering to stand on the sand and look at that line between sea and sky.
Write a book based on an idea I have?
Read and comment on my manuscript/query letter/outline?
Kill off a character based on my Ex in one of your books?
While I’m flattered by your interest, for various and sound legal and personal reasons, I must decline. But thank you for thinking of me!
© 2006 Dianne Emley All Rights Reserved