Meredith’s Comments (group member since Mar 25, 2010)

Meredith’s comments from the Q&A with Meredith Wood group.

My writing partner Leisa Vincelette conducted an interview that I thought would be something worth sharing. :-)

Meredith and I have been writing partners for four years now and it's been an amazing experience to share her writing journey with her. And now I'm pleased to share some of that with you. So without further ado...

Leisa Vincelette (LV) So your first book, Panthan’s Crucible just came out. I know you’ve worked long and hard to get to this point. Before you sold PC, when you thought about being published, what did you imagine?



Meredith Wood (MW) I don’t remember thinking past the point of landing a publishing deal. It was kind of like crushing on a guy. You imagine romantic walks, handholding, kissing, but you don’t think past those beautiful highlights to the day to day work a relationship brings. With publication it was the same way. I imagined a deal, lots of compliments from my friends and family, and feeling like it was all worth it, finally.



(LV) Now that the day has finally come, how has it lived up to your expectations?



(MW) Since I didn’t set my expectations very high everything that I imagined would come about did come about. But I discovered there is so much more to it. There is that every day job of publishing, which is hard work.



(LV) How has it differed from what you imagined?



(MW) Well, there’s a lot more to it than I expected and the experience has helped me grow as a person so much in such a short time. First there’s that audience I’m building. I feel a great responsibility to them and that’s a strange but very humbling feeling. I have also had to learn how to better cope with stress because deadlines loom, reviews come in, and my family still needs a wife and mom. In a nutshell, I’m a work in progress and still learning new ways to deal with this every day.



(LV) When we first met, you were working on an historical. It’s still among my favorites of your books, btw. Once you finished that, you moved on to YA. While I am still waiting for the day you go back and do more with your historical, I think YA is definitely where you belong. But what made you decide to start writing YA? Was there any particular inspiration that led you down this road?



(MW) I will make you that promise once more that I will return to my historical. :-) But oh boy. LOL. My life as a teenage superstar mess is my inspiration to my YAs. As a teen I was insanely irresponsible. Pretty much a train wreck. How I survived is a mystery, but I’ve come to believe I did survive so that I could write for teens. ;-) The whole do as I say not as I did concept.





(LV) So, the move from historicals to YA was a key step to bringing you closer to writing Panthan’s Crucible, but I recall many a conversation when you claimed that you absolutely could not write fantasy if you tried. Obviously, you were wrong—yes, it does happen. *G* What was it that pushed you to give it a try? How did you first come up with the idea of the panthans?



(MW) My love for vampires was my first inspiration for Panthan’s Crucible. I knew I wanted to give a book with vamps a go at some point in my writing career. It was my need to go my own way that brought about the Panthans though. Well, that and a song by 3 Doors Down called “Citizen/Soldier”. I was on my way to the dentist with my kids when the song came on the radio. An image of a species created to protect humans began to form in my mind as I listened. I was so intent on this shiny new idea that I drove forty-five minutes in the wrong direction on the interstate and my kids missed their appointment. A few days later my husband and I watched “I Am Legend” and the idea of the bad panthans formed.



(LV) Now that you’ve proven you can, in fact, write fantasy, what is your favorite aspect of the genre?



(MW) I love that I am able to do whatever I want. Writing fantasy is like playing at a “no rules” amusement park all day long. No one is there to tell you, “Hey, don’t do that!” It’s freedom to let your imagination soar to any height.



(LV) I know music is key to helping you write. Like me, you create a playlist for your novels/characters and listen to them on endless loops to help you get into the mood for a particular scene. If you had to pick one song to describe PC, what would it be?



(MW) “Near To You” by A Fine Frenzy is the first song that comes to mind here. I’m sure the song is meant to represent a personal relationship between two people, but that’s one of the things that I love about music: the various ways it can be interpreted. To me, and for PC, this song represents Laura’s adjustment as she goes from life as a human to life as a Panthan. I think this is the hardest adjustment my readers will have in the book as well. Laura’s body isn’t the only thing that changes. Her mind does as well. She no longer thinks as a human, yet she still retains all of the memories from that life. This is tough and confusing.



(LV) Which of your Panthan’s Crucible characters do you relate to the most and why?



(MW) Without a doubt I relate to Grayson the most. I can’t say why, really. I just “get” him better than all the others. Laura is confused most of the time and that’s understandable. Vespine is unpredictable. Blake, well, Blake’s brain isn’t always working at full capacity and while I can relate to that problem every now and again, his way of thinking just isn’t my thing. Grayson, though, knows what he wants and goes for it. I love that. It’s also the way I work. I see something. I want it. I don’t stop until I get it.



(LV) What are you working on now? I’m sure your fans want to know if there’ll be more panthans books. Without giving anything away, what can you tell us about the future of Laura, Grayson, and the rest of the panthans?



(MW) Being that I’m not a total fantasy girl, I also write contemporary fiction. Right now I’m working on two books. One is a contemporary titled “Push” and the other is the next book in my panthan series which is called “Panthan’s Abyss.” In “Panthan’s Abyss” we’ll experience Laura’s adjustment to her panthan life on a deeper level. We’ll also see her relationship with Grayson bloom a little more, though it will hit a few missteps along the way. Grayson will finally get his ceremony to become an Eminent and we’ll meet a new character named Ri.



(LV) And finally, what three writers have had the biggest influence on you and your writing? Why?



(MW) This question is the hardest one for me to answer. It always has been. So I guess I’m going to pull a “me” and go my own way here. J I’ve always loved stories and I’ve always loved to read, but I don’t have authors that stand out higher than the rest in my mind. Each writer brings something fantastic to the table and every book I’ve ever read has influenced me in some way. As a child I was never the type to fall head over heels for an actor or singer. Sometimes, I would pretend I was so that I felt like I fit in better. ;-) It’s the same with authors. If they tell a good story they’re on my list of favs. At my age, and with thousands of books read, that list is pretty long.



(LV) Thank you so much, Meredith!

Now, to help celebrate the release of Panthan’s Crucible, I’ll be giving away a free copy. This contest is open to anyone in the US, Canada, or the UK. All you have to do to enter for a chance to win is leave a question in the comments that you’d like to ask Meredith. I’ll leave it open for 1 week (until April 16). Then I’ll gather up all the comments, send them to Meredith, she’ll answer them, and I’ll post the questions and answers no more than 1 week after that (April 23) as a follow-up interview. I’ll also announce the winner—who will be drawn randomly—at that time. Anyone who links to this interview (FB, LJ, Blogger, Twitter, etc.) and lets me know in the comments will get an extra entry. Normally, I screen anonymous comments, but I’m turning that off for this entry. So anonymous commenters are welcome, but please leave a name to make it easier to enter you into the contest. :)

From the conception of my idea to the final edits was 15 months. As to the submission process: it was brutal. I began submitting right before everything went wacko on Wall Street. So for several months and on into the summer I collected rejection letters. Eventually I began getting requests that followed with: this is an excellent premise, fresh, and wonderfully written, but I don't know where it would fit in my list.

The problem: It's certainly not a Christian book and it clearly takes a giant leap from a typical paranormal. lol WCP finally took a chance on me and my not-so-normal panthans. Now we just have to wait and see how the world adjusts to a new creature who, according to me, has obviously been here since before time. ;-)

“I could never write fantasy.”

At least that’s what I said to my crit partner a few years ago. She laughed at me. I explained that I didn’t have the imagination to get it done. At the time I was working on a historical. I’m still working on that historical, but that’s beside the point.

Anyway, I lied. I also learned that world building was a lot of fun.

In my Panthan books my panthans originate from a realm called Pantheon. In truth Pantheon has several meanings, but hey, that’s frequent enough. The definition that called to me defines pantheon as a highly esteemed group of people. This fit my panthans, though they are not people in any way. They are not angels and they are not demons. They are, as best as I can describe them, a sort of foot soldier for God.

When I began to build Pantheon I wanted one thing very badly. That one thing was that my world would not be stuck in medieval times. It would be modern. It would be a place where a species lived that was greater than humans. To me this meant creating a world that was far above the world we live in now.

I found my inspiration for my world in a book written years ago. The book’s title is My Dream of Heaven: A Nineteenth Century Spiritual Classic (Originally Known as Intra Muros.)

From there I put my own spin on things. I opened my mind to every possibility and I created what I thought of as a world that was just one step down from heaven.

It's a pleasure to be in the company of fellow book lovers like myself. I consider myself a writer, but my first love will always be reading. During the following four weeks I'll be around to answer any questions you'd like to ask about my book, my writing habits, where I get inspiration, or anything else you might think to ask. Tell me a little about yourself if you wouldn't mind doing so. :-)