Ask the Author: Lucy Taylor
Answered Questions (13)
Lucy Taylor
When the Queen gave birth to a baby daughter, she was delighted, saying girls are so much sweeter than boys.
Then she ate her.
Then she ate her.
Lucy Taylor
When he was twenty-eight, my younger half-brother, whom I'd met only once, killed himself somewhere in Florida. I never knew how or why, although I'd heard he was troubled and had offered my phone number to a mutual acquaintance in case he eve wanted to talk. He never did. I found out about his death three or four months after the fact, informed by that same friend. My father's family never thought it necessary to even tell me, which was sad but not surprising.
So that's one thing that comes to mind. There are many others.
So that's one thing that comes to mind. There are many others.
Lucy Taylor
No contest, Dennis Lehane's Kenzie and Gennaro. Why? In part because the books are just so damn good, but also because I like how they are portrayed. They love each other but fight bitterly over the resolution that takes place in Gone Baby, Gone. (For the record, I sided with Gennaro). Then finally, in another book, they reunite. I admire them both as people.
Lucy Taylor
"Moth Frenzy" appears in the Grey Matter Press anthology PEEL BACK THE SKIN and also features work by Nancy A. Collins, James Lowder, Ray Garton, Jonathan Maberry, Yvonne Navarro, Erik Williams and many others. It can be purchased on Amazon or from Grey Matter Press at
http://grey-matter-press-bookstore.my....
PEEL BACK THE SKIN
http://grey-matter-press-bookstore.my....
PEEL BACK THE SKIN
Lucy Taylor
Steven King has said that, "We make up horrors to help us deal with the real ones," and I think that's very true. The horror writer controls and manages what she/he creates; the reader can pick and choose what to read and can always just shut the book or turn off the Kindle. It's "theme park style" fear, not the real thing. I also think people who've had early trauma are sometimes drawn to horror as a way to make sense of or to safely explore things similar to what they've actually lived through.
Of course, the reverse is true also. There are a lot of people who won't even pick up a horror novel or anthology because they don't want to read something that has the potential to upset them or activate old terrors, and I can understand this. I think individual personality has a lot to do with it. Does reading horror intrigue and thrill me or does it cut too close to be enjoyable? What is my threshold for intensity, my level of craving for the bizarre and to what extent, if any, do I enjoy the link between the erotic and the perverse and terrifying? For many people, I believe such questions don't even make sense. For others, it's kind of hard-wired.
Of course, the reverse is true also. There are a lot of people who won't even pick up a horror novel or anthology because they don't want to read something that has the potential to upset them or activate old terrors, and I can understand this. I think individual personality has a lot to do with it. Does reading horror intrigue and thrill me or does it cut too close to be enjoyable? What is my threshold for intensity, my level of craving for the bizarre and to what extent, if any, do I enjoy the link between the erotic and the perverse and terrifying? For many people, I believe such questions don't even make sense. For others, it's kind of hard-wired.
Lucy Taylor
The longer I write, the less control I find I try to impose. That can be a challenge, though, because what I really want is to have everything mapped out or at least a rough idea of beginning, middle, and end. This is easier to do with a short story than with a novel, and at the moment I seem to be devoting more time to shorter forms. And yes, I have at times completely upended my initial plan for something else that emerged during the writing--nothing is ever set in stone.
An example: in my story "Moth Frenzy" which appears in the anthology PEEL BACK THE SKIN, the way that ended came as a complete surprise to me. I reached what I had thought would be the ending and realized, this doesn't work, and I rewrote it in a way I found much more satisfying.
An example: in my story "Moth Frenzy" which appears in the anthology PEEL BACK THE SKIN, the way that ended came as a complete surprise to me. I reached what I had thought would be the ending and realized, this doesn't work, and I rewrote it in a way I found much more satisfying.
Lucy Taylor
Read the very best writers you can find and try to figure why what they do works. Be curious about everything--in writing and in life.
Don't take that old adage "write what you know" too literally. In other words, just because your own life is fascinating to you, it may not be to your readers.
Listen to how people actually talk and then create a believable version of that. I've read work that was really beautifully written, but the characters talk as if they're in an English manor i.e. perfect diction and genteel appeals for mercy while the character is being kidnapped by a madman.
Don't take that old adage "write what you know" too literally. In other words, just because your own life is fascinating to you, it may not be to your readers.
Listen to how people actually talk and then create a believable version of that. I've read work that was really beautifully written, but the characters talk as if they're in an English manor i.e. perfect diction and genteel appeals for mercy while the character is being kidnapped by a madman.
Lucy Taylor
I try different things--sometimes I switch to a different project altogether, sometimes I write in my journal. Often I just leave the house, stroll around downtown Santa Fe for a while, or go for a hike. Probably the best thing I can do, though, is to just give myself a pep talk--you can do this!--because ultimately for me, writer's block is about fear and performance anxiety.
Lucy Taylor
For both questions, it depends. If I'm at the writing stage of a project, I try to do a thousand words a day (about four pages), but often I'm still in the planning, let's-see-if-this-works stage. As far as drafts, sometimes three or four, sometimes more. I'm always revising as I go along, making changes, trying a new ending or a different pov. That's the thing about writing, it's constant choices, endless little decisions that, one hopes, will add up to something that works.
Lucy Taylor
I have a July 4 deadline for an anthology. Actually I should be working on that right now!
Lucy Taylor
The best thing is that absolutely everything is grist for the mill. So no experience, even the worst thing or the most trivial thing, is ever really wasted, because it can become a scene or a character in a story. Life itself is the research for writing fiction.
Another 'best thing' is that you get to work alone. Now I know that does not appeal to everyone, but I enjoy solitude. I've worked in an office a few times in my life and believe me, it does not agree with me.
Another 'best thing' is that you get to work alone. Now I know that does not appeal to everyone, but I enjoy solitude. I've worked in an office a few times in my life and believe me, it does not agree with me.
Lucy Taylor
Sometimes I see or hear something that just grabs me, and I know it would make a good story. For example, the idea for the story "The High and Mighty and Me" (Fatal Journeys) came from talking to a friend in Longmont, CO, who runs a fireworks stand for a month, 24/7, before the 4th of July. He was telling me about the strange people who show up at 3 a.m. to buy fireworks like the one called 'The High and Mighty'. I thought how lonely and maybe a little creepy it would be in that fireworks tent all night long. That turned out to be my story.
Lucy Taylor
The idea for "A Respite for the Dead" came from seeing the many descansos here by the roads in New Mexico. Descansos mark the place where someone has died (the word comes from descansar--to rest--in Spanish). I found the descansos both haunting and heartbreaking and knew I wanted to write something about them.
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