An Interview with Paranormal Author Maggie Shayne
by Bea Sheftel

Maggie Shayne is a multi-published author of some of the most innovative and creative books I have ever read. I met her when she came to Connecticut to be interviewed on my cable TV show, Author Chat. I was impressed with this young looking mother of adult girls who lives on a farm in upstate New York. Her work schedule alone is one to be admired, but her success with her single title books is phenomenal.

I asked Maggie what inspired her to write her first novel.

" I have always written, beginning when I was very small," replied Maggie. "I wrote stories as soon as I could spell. All through my elementary school years and teens I wrote short stories and poems. The first romance novel, though, started one night when I was up walking a sick baby who wouldn't let me sit still to read. I was up all night that night, and kept myself awake by plotting a romance in my head, thinking what the perfect story would be like. The next day the ideas were still with me, so I started jotting them down, longhand, in a yellow legal pad. The story never sold. I had no intention of doing anything with it. In my mind, I was just writing it for my own pleasure. I chose romance because that was what I had in mind to read that night."

From the beginning, Maggie went on to sell 30 novels and 6 or 7 novellas with four different publishers. Besides the paranormal books, she also does contemporary romances. Her first book was published by Silhouette Intimate Moments. Her second with Silhouette Shadows. She alternated between the two until Silhouette Shadows folded.

She now writes for Silhouette Intimate Moments and Berkley Jove. Most recently she signed a contract with MIRA.

Maggie started writing when her children were young. She has five daughters. Three still live at home and go to school. The other two live in their own homes on the family property. After the younger teens are off to school, Maggie has coffee with her husband. She then goes down to the basement office and checks her email. She calls her second oldest daughter on the phone. After a little chit chat, she starts working on her writing and forgets about everything else, including lunch. She doesn't stop writing until the teens come home from school.

After school, her oldest daughter who is a teacher, stops in for coffee and a chat. Nights are busy with family activities. The girls are all interested in sports and they play basketball, soccer, and softball. Is Maggie bothered by having her family so close when she's writing? Not at all. This talented writer enjoys her family. They enrich her life and she always makes time for them in her busy schedule. Unless Maggie is on a tight deadline, she takes the weekends off to be with her family. She is a mother and a grandmother, though she hardly looks old enough to have teen children.

Maggie has written a number of books, including cowboy contemporaries. Her favorites, though, are her single title paranormals, the Witch series and the Vampire series. She not only enjoys writing books on the dark side, but loves to read other authors in this genre, as well. She prefers books that delve deeply into the psyche, paranomral or not. Her favorite fiction authors are Anne Stuart, Anne Rice and Stephen King. She also reads a great deal of nonfiction.

When Maggie reads a book she wants one with a story that grabs her from the very first page. She hates to wade through pages and pages of background and setup before the action starts. In her own writing she has trained herself not to give into this type of writing. She considers it lazy to ramble on in the beginning before getting into the actual story. She strives to create great opening lines and gripping opening scenes to attract and hold the reader. In her own writing, and in others, she enjoys powerful conflicts and major obstacles to be overcome. She likes to have her characters take risks. Through her novels the characters evolve. Even though she writes paranormals she creates reasonable people and believable plots.

"In convincing your character, you convince the reader," Maggie explained. She lives up to her expectations by writing with authority and authenticity. To do this she prepares with research.

Since she writes more than one type of book I asked her to explain the difference between straight time-travel and paranormal books.

"There's a huge difference in my mind between a paranormal and a time travel," she explained. "In a time travel, there's a paranormal premise. The rest of the book is either historical or contemporary. In a paranormal, the magic and otherworldly elements are present throughout the entire story and are not simply the hook at the beginning. This is a major difference, in my opinion."

Maggie writes more than one book a year. I asked her how long it takes to write a short contemporary romance.

"About three months per book, sometimes I need less time," she replied.

The age-old question every writer is asked is, "Where do you get your ideas from."

"I don't have a list of ideas," she commented. "I come up with one idea, write some of it, present it to the editor, and she either offers to buy it or declines. The only time ideas are editor-generated is in the continuity series such as Fortune's Children. In those the editors outline an entire series and then invite authors to participate. These are far more difficult to write because the ideas are not the authors' own, and often make little sense to us. We usually wind up doing major tweaking on the plots of these--at least I do. The characters' motivations for doing what they do have to make sense to me, or I can't write them with any authenticity. So I often add to that end of things."

She is a successful writer with one of the top agents in the business, Eileen Fallon, and contracts for major publishers. But money isn't the only reason she enjoys writing novels.

"My greatest reward is being able to do what I love for a living, and being able to do it at home, so I'm available to my kids," she stated.

Maggie enjoys hearing from her readers. She can be reached at: maggie@maggieshayne.com
Snail mail: Maggie Shayne, PO Box 180, South Otselic NY13155-0180

"Email gets answered right away," she stated. "Snail mail gets added to the mailing list, and will receive newsletters and bookmarks as available. I love to hear from readers, but advise them to remember that if I answered every letter individually, I'd have no time left to write the books they want to read."

Maggie's latest book is in a two-novel collection: Witch Moon Rising, Witch Moon Waning: Two Novels by Maggie Shayne, Lorna Tedder

An Interview with Jon F. Merz
conducted by Cindy Lynn Speer
 
    Looking at Jon F. Merz’s website, you secretly wonder how he‘s able to fit in the minor details of life - you know, like sleep, maybe eating once or twice a day. His first publication credit was for "I, the Courier" in Rictus Magazine. The check from that first real break “still hangs above my computer, uncashed - as beautiful today as it was back in November 1996 when I got it in the mail.” He has several books in the works, and sample chapters up so you can get a taste of his intriguing style. His debut novel, The Fixer, has just hit the shelves, with a second book, The Invoker to follow next October. He is also the co-founder and co-editor of Planet Pulp, an e-mail magazine that interviews key figures in the publishing world, runs his own web forum, and writes free articles for writers that are featured on his web site. I recently had the pleasure of asking him a few questions about his work and life.

Cindy: You mention on your site that Stephen King was an inspiration for you. Who else has inspired you?

Jon: I've always enjoyed reading, but I think my influences might strike some people as odd. The reason I say "odd" is because I haven't read "the greats of literature" all that much. Tell people you write and inevitably they expect you to name off Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Shakespeare, or countless other folks as inspiration. For me, it's always been the opposite. I've learned all my technique through what I love to read. Stephen King's excellent short stories really got me going. I loved David Morrell's Brotherhood of the Rose, Fraternity of the Stone, and League of Night & Fog and used them as models when I started trying to write novels. Elmore Leonard writes the most incredible dialogue and characters around today. Robert B. Parker's plots deserve special study - they're simple in so many ways, but they're multi-leveled in others. I learned a helluva lot from reading Spenser. I groove on the pulp fiction detective stories from the 30's through the 50's, most especially Robert Leslie Bellem, Mickey Spillane, and others. Robert Bloch's stories are fantastic. Growing up I read Tolkien's The Hobbit in a single afternoon. Fantasy novels like the Belgariad and Shannara series also shaped some of what I write. Probably the most "literary" influences I could point to would be anything by Poe. There's a guy who knew how to shake people up. 


Cindy: A lot of writers find themselves turning away from fiction, and reading more and more nonfiction. Have you found this to be the case with yourself? What reference books do you find indispensable?

Jon: I probably read an equal amount of both. My non-fiction tastes tend to be pretty small: military history, martial arts, a lot of East Asian history, and biographies. For fiction, it can get tough. The fear is that you will read something that will end up in what you write. I'm not so sure that happens to me, but I love good scary novels, action adventure brain candy, mysteries, a little SF, and graphic novels. I'm also on a quest to buy up every Calvin & Hobbes cartoon book I can find - I really miss those guys! Finding the time to read is the toughest thing, I suppose. But when you get a few minutes alone with a really good book, the world just seems to disappear.    

    As far as reference books go - I wouldn't be caught dead without a dictionary, a thesaurus, and Sol Stein's "Stein on Writing." 

Cindy: There are so many different takes on the vampire mythos. What makes Lawson different, and what inspired you to use vampires as characters?

Jon: I suppose you should know how the idea even came about. The Fixer was originally a short story I sat down one evening and cranked out in one go. It was one of those rare times when the planets must have been aligned just right or my muse had just had a hit of speed. It came out intact and ready to go. The blend of espionage and horror seemed weirdly correct. I'd been trying to write an espionage thriller and also had been selling horror shorts. The sudden fusion must have been inevitable and looking back it reminds me of that old Reese's Peanut Butter Cup commercial - to paraphrase, "you got your espionage in my horror - you got your horror in my espionage." But it worked so who am I to argue? Anyway, I submitted the short to the Zoetrope.com writer's website where everyone who read it thought it should be turned into a novel. I thought, why not? But I also realized that if it became a novel, the tendency would be for it to become just *another* vampire novel. I wanted something different. So I brainstormed and discovered no one (at least I didn't discover any other writers doing this) had supposed vampires as being a living evolving race that somehow got splintered off the main line of humanity so many thousands of years ago. So vamps in my series aren't undead - they live. They live longer because they ingest blood which contains the life-force of their hosts, but they live just the same. Before I knew it, I'd tied in concepts of Asian philosophy (the life-force, or "ki" in Japanese is what vampires need) as well as a host of other slants that really made the mythos seem almost new again. 

    I used vampires as characters because they've always fascinated (read "scared the holy crap outa me") since I was a young child. Believe it or not, the very first nightmare I can recall is being sick as a child and being convinced the Count from Sesame Street was out to get me! So vampires and I have always had an affinity for one another. 

Cindy: Selling a whole series to a publisher is a really impressive achievement - how did you do it?

Jon: I didn't. My agent did, heh heh. Seriously, when I wrote The Fixer it was a one-shot deal. Then I fell upon the Harry Potter books and devoured them. I thought about how cool it would be to have a series. I landed an agent who wanted a series as well, so while she was trying to sell The Fixer, I started writing book 2, The Invoker. And then she got a two-book deal. A few months later, she managed to sell two more unwritten books in the series, bringing it up to four. My editor is supposed to be considering buying books 5 & 6 this summer some time. 

Cindy: What are your future plans for the Lawson Vampire series? What other projects are you working on? 

Jon: Oh, Lawson will never ever get much of a break, I fear. I like telling people that every day is Monday for Lawson. The poor dude will be battling lycanthropes in book 3, The Destructor (due out May 2003) and going up against vampires engaged in organized crime in book 4, The Syndicate (due out in October 2003). Future plans are to have him over in Japan for a bit, but I don't want to say too much about that. 

    I've got some other projects as well. I'm trying to get a short story collection out through a small press publisher. And Parallax is the latest paranormal/espionage thriller I'm working on. I hope to have the first draft done some time over the next few months. I'm still trying to get Vicarious and Danger-Close sold as well. 

Cindy: What is Vicarious? Do you think your fans will get to see it at the movies soon?

Jon: Vicarious is a true horror novel. While the Lawson Vampire series got branded as horror since it has vampires in it, I don't consider it horror. It's more of a thriller. But Vicarious is definitely a horror novel. It tells the story of Steve Curran, a former FBI agent who got kicked out of the Bureau for failing to capture a serial killer known as the Soul Eater. The corpses the Soul Eater left behind bear no evidence of murder, but they're dead just the same. The killer shows up in Boston, where Curran is now working as a homicide detective. Before he realizes it, he's back on the case, this time paired up with a soon-to-be nun named Lauren. Together they figure out the true quest of the Soul Eater - something that will change the course of destiny itself. 

    I'd love to say, yes - you'll see it at the movie soon. But then again, this is the entertainment world. Things move as fast as frozen molasses on a perfectly level surface. Dimension Films via Miramax is looking at it right now (it's been with them since January). It's also being considered at Pocket Books. I'm not sure if it will even make it to the gate. Some editors have said it's too long and others thought the storyline felt too familiar. But we'll see. Anything's possible. 

Cindy: Your web site has some interesting marketing strategies. Where did you come up with the idea to use posters? Do you think it's helped?

Jon: Well, I don't think it's hurt matters any. In truth, the flier campaign was initially supposed to be an every week thing. I did it the first week. My wife was pregnant at the time. Then the weather was bad for two weeks straight. Then my son decided he wanted to hit the ground running five weeks ahead of his due date. So - heh heh - while the flier idea had merit, it really didn't take off the way I'd hoped. 
    A lot of authors hate marketing their work. They think it's a dirty word. I don't. You can write the best book in the world but if people don't know it's out there, it won't really matter, will it? There are 40,000 books published every year supposedly - I need to do a lot to stand out in a crowd like that! So, personally, I like hearing new ideas and trying them out. I'm trying to make a TV commercial with a furniture company upon whose sofas I wrote a lot of the novel! You never know unless you try - and I try a lot. 


Cindy: Please tell us about Planet Pulp. What inspired you to do an e-mail magazine?

Jon: When I started writing seriously - at the point I knew I'd need an agent eventually, I started looking around for contacts and friendly faces who could help. What I found depressed the hell out of me. Writers who had enjoyed some degree of success had, by and large, turned away from those of us still "in the trenches." That kind of caste system disgusts me. I can't stand people who forget where they came from, what the struggle was like. I vowed back then to always try to help fellow writers out as best I could. Planet Pulp is part of that realization for me. I launched it with fellow author Joe Nassise - a truly great guy who feels the same way I do about helping other writers - and our goal is to interview as many top industry pros as possible. Our subscribers get the kind of information they need to further their own careers. Our first issue interviewed top agent Donald Maass and horror publisher John Turi of Medium Rare Books. Issue 2 will feature spots with Mindstorm Creative producer Shannon Fitzgerald who will talk all about the ins and outs of movie deals for authors, as well as author Karen Taylor who will talk about writing a series. Issue 3 will be a SF spectacular - 4 interviews with some incredible guests: Jack McDevitt, Ellen Datlow, Gordon Van Gelder and John Joseph Adams. The mag is shaping up to be fantastic! 

Cindy: When you're not writing, what do you like to do? 

Jon: I'm a martial arts junkie. I've been studying various systems for almost seventeen years - twelve in the system I study now. So I work out quite a bit. It helps relieve the pressures, lets me think, that kind of thing. I also read as much as possible. And right now, most of my time is devoted to helping care for my newborn son. Interestingly enough, he seems to require a lot of attention ;-) 

Cindy: If someone where to describe you as a writer using only one word, what would it be? 

Jon: Unpredictable. First of all, *I* never know what I'm going to write. I also never know what sort of weird ways I'll try to market my work. If something isn't working I change it and try something new. I don't care about convention. If it looks like it'll work, I'm all over it. 

Cindy: What do you think is the most important thing for a new writer to possess? 

Jon: Absolute perseverance. If you want this, you cannot stop trying for one second. You can't stop believing in yourself. I've seen plenty of writers tell aspiring folks "forget it, it's too much work, blah blah blah." Hell with that! If you've got a dream, get out there and live it! Remember the motto of the British Special Air Service Regiment: "Who Dares Wins"!
    To order your copy of Jon F. Merz’s The Fixer, you can call 1-888-345-BOOK, or check out your favorite on or off line book retailer. You can find more information about Jon F. Merz at http://www.zrem.com/, or take a look at Pulp Planet at http://www.planetpulpmagazine.com