{"id":95,"date":"2012-09-05T10:19:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T10:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/a-conversation-with-the-first-ladies-of-fantasy\/"},"modified":"2019-07-29T04:24:32","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T04:24:32","slug":"a-conversation-with-the-first-ladies-of-fantasy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/?p=95","title":{"rendered":"A Conversation with the First Ladies of Fantasy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<style><!-- st1\\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } --><\/style>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<table cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" align=\"center\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/blogger\/-q9OJHJ5nh4Y\/UEZdDGaco6I\/AAAAAAAABEk\/RSdAlTkbx-g\/s1600\/FirstLadiesofFantasy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/blogger\/-q9OJHJ5nh4Y\/UEZdDGaco6I\/AAAAAAAABEk\/RSdAlTkbx-g\/s400\/FirstLadiesofFantasy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Standing L-R, Nancy Knight, Laurell K. Hamilton, Sherrilyn Kenyon and Mercedes Lackey. Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, sitting.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<div>Four groundbreaking <i>New York Times&#8217; <\/i>bestselling authors \u2013 Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Mercedes Lackey, Laurell K. Hamilton and Sherrilyn Kenyon &#8212; gathered this past weekend at <a href=\"http:\/\/dragoncon.org\/index.php\">DragonCon<\/a> to talk about their craft and journey as novelists in a genre historically dominated by men. Insightful and funny, these talented women spoke candidly about their trials on the road to literary acceptance.<\/div>\n<div>\n<h4>Fighting for Acceptance<\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/blogger\/-OEUkZpDFoC0\/UEZkWRERbYI\/AAAAAAAABFg\/mTvusDQ3sgs\/s1600\/YarbroBook.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/blogger\/-OEUkZpDFoC0\/UEZkWRERbYI\/AAAAAAAABFg\/mTvusDQ3sgs\/s200\/YarbroBook.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"133\" height=\"200\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>Yarbro, a multi-faceted writer best known for creating the heroic vampire, Count Saint-Germain, sold her first mystery in 1968. At the time, the \u201cclimate for women writers was chilly.\u201d<\/div>\n<p>Female fantasy writers began to get a better reception after <i>Anne <\/i>McCaffrey&#8217;s won her first Hugo, but even then many male writing counterparts called it a \u201cfluke,&#8221; Yarbro added.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The first woman to be named a Living Legend by the International Horror Guild (2006), Yarbro spoke highly of her mentor,\u00a0 Robert Bloch, who penned <i>Psycho<\/i>, which Alfred Hitchcock later made into a cult film classic.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cIf you were a beginning writer, he was very helpful \u2013 he would talk with you. If you published something, he would read it and send you a note. I adored the man,\u201d she recalled.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<h4>Riding the Romance Boon<\/h4>\n<p>In the 1980s the publishing field started to open up for women \u2013 and several panelists said they were pressured to write romance \u2013 and many did &#8211;under pseudonyms &#8212; to pay bills (one panelist said writing a romance helped pay for her divorce).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/blogger\/-u1-xDgz-4lI\/UEZkxtEXelI\/AAAAAAAABFo\/djaLMd2sJ0Y\/s1600\/TimeUntime.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/blogger\/-u1-xDgz-4lI\/UEZkxtEXelI\/AAAAAAAABFo\/djaLMd2sJ0Y\/s200\/TimeUntime.JPG\" alt=\"\" width=\"131\" height=\"200\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>Kenyon, who published her first novel in 1978, still experienced rejections from book publishers even after six <i>New York Times<\/i>bestselling books.\u00a0 The mother of three sons added that there are two things with which she can terrify people\u00a0 \u2013 \u201cpregnancy and publishing &#8212; I will scare you off both.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThank God I\u2019m a southern Cherokee \u2013 we don\u2019t give up, ever. My whole philosophy is there\u2019s always a way around any obstacle \u2013 over, under and around,\u201d said the 16-time\u00a0<i>New York Times&#8217;<\/i> #1 bestseller, who has more than 25 million copies of her books in print.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/blogger\/-HXXoOqe3Z3s\/UEZhewgtzVI\/AAAAAAAABFQ\/aiaamlMnFpQ\/s1600\/Guilty-Pleasures-Hamilton-Laurell-K-9780425187562.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/blogger\/-HXXoOqe3Z3s\/UEZhewgtzVI\/AAAAAAAABFQ\/aiaamlMnFpQ\/s200\/Guilty-Pleasures-Hamilton-Laurell-K-9780425187562.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"131\" height=\"200\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Hamilton said that her publisher waited four years before publishing her first novel, <i>Guilty Pleasures<\/i>, in 1991, because the bottom had fallen out of the fantasy market. Before then, it had been rejected more than 200 times. When she first envisioned the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series, paranormal fiction and paranormal romance as genres didn\u2019t exist.<\/div>\n<p>\u201cMy editors told me that the vampire market is dead. What they didn\u2019t realize is that the monster always comes back,\u201d Hamilton quipped.\u00a0 Hers was a steady climb up \u2013 with each book sold, she gained more readers. Now Hamilton has transcended genre, according to her publisher, meaning she\u2019s sold enough that she can write whatever she wants.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<h4>Finding Your Voice<\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>The panelists shared insights on how their distinctive voices evolved as well as those who influenced their writing voice.<\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/blogger\/-O4lM4hy9dFA\/UEZyfAaw2sI\/AAAAAAAABGY\/84o1NqFpoUY\/s1600\/magics-pawn-mercedes-lackey.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/blogger\/-O4lM4hy9dFA\/UEZyfAaw2sI\/AAAAAAAABGY\/84o1NqFpoUY\/s200\/magics-pawn-mercedes-lackey.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"120\" height=\"200\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;Writing a lot was essential. I came to writing out of the theater,&#8221; said Yarbro, explaining that you can do anything with dialogue and punctuation in dialogue if that tells your reader how a character sounds.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The thing about narration is it has to support everything that&#8217;s going on without participating in it. You are not a character in your own book &#8212; you are a support for the characters who are.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>For Kenyon, inspiration came early from her mother, who was a huge horror fan. She\u00a0 explained that her father was the kind of man \u201cwho dressed up as a zombie and tapped on my window and scream, \u2018Ah!\u2019\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cTo me, any book is a two-way experience.\u201d When advising her 17-year-old son, who is working on his first novel, Kenyon tells him to leverage the internal dialogue in his head \u2013 the comments that you never say out loud.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s almost like method acting \u2013 it\u2019s like, \u2018What would Acheron do?\u2019 \u2018What would Simi do?\u2019 You sit there and let that flow and that\u2019s what should end up on paper.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The other advice she gave him was that \u201cyou can fix a bad page but you can\u2019t fix a blank one.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Hamilton loves the clean language of E.B. White\u2019s <i>Charlotte\u2019s Web<\/i>, her favorite book growing up, and the dialogue of Robert Parker\u2019s Spenser series. \u00a0The Anita Blake series author writes exclusively in first-person narration. To get into character, she often will pull out her penguin mugs or wear weaponry while writing.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cDo not pick a day when I\u2019m writing Anita to break into the house,\u201d she told her fans, laughing.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Lackey said after 80+ books in print, she has developed her own voice.\u201d Writers she admires include Charles de Lint and Judy Tarr &#8212; \u201camazing craftspeople and writers.\u201d<\/div>\n<p>All the authors agree that there is no magic formula to finding your voice. \u201cWhat I think you cannot learn \u2013 except by practice and almost by accident &#8212; is your voice and an idea that is fresh and speaks to you and is something that only you can write. That is the hardest to come by,\u201d Hamilton said.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<h4>Writing Anywhere<\/h4>\n<p>Once you find your voice, you can write anywhere. In Kenyon\u2019s case, she wrote through chemo treatments with her mother, during her sons&#8217; soccer games, and while pregnant and hooked to an IV.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<table cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/blogger\/-l1xQjEyfEYc\/UEZjCY4PNrI\/AAAAAAAABFY\/NBZuE9BYrU8\/s1600\/Louis_L%27Amour.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/blogger\/-l1xQjEyfEYc\/UEZjCY4PNrI\/AAAAAAAABFY\/NBZuE9BYrU8\/s200\/Louis_L%27Amour.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Louis L&#8217;Amour.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<div>Lackey loves to recount a story about Louis L&#8217;Amour, who once was challenged to write in the middle of a highway intersection to prove he could write anywhere.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cHis agent and publisher set him up with a table and folding chair and stuck him on an island in an intersection in New York City. He\u2019s typing away and <i>LIFE<\/i> comes and takes pictures. In 15 minutes, everyone has gone away and his editor came over and said, &#8216;Louis, everyone is gone.\u2019 And he said, \u201cShut up and let me finish this page.\u2019\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Looking to today\u2019s current publishing environment, the panelists had differing views on the way forward and the merits of e-publishing.<\/div>\n<h4>Debating Merits of E-Publishing, Podcasting<\/h4>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>E-publishing your work was the kiss of death two years ago, they say.\u00a0 Not so anymore. \u201cIf I was starting out now, I would be e-publishing,\u201d said Lackey.She believes creating podcasts of your book is an even smarter strategy because there are a lot fewer writers using that platform to get their stories out. \u201cPutting (an excerpt) up as a podcast for free will winnow down 95 percent of the people you are competing with.\u201d<\/div>\n<div>While acknowledging that e-publishing has changed the landscape, Hamilton said first-time authors should still pursue traditional publishing first.\u00a0 &#8220;Before you say, &#8216;I can&#8217;t take the rejection&#8217; and go that route, suck it up and try it first. Study the markets &#8211; don&#8217;t send your manuscript to someone who doesn&#8217;t accept your genre. You have to be tough, otherwise, they (publishing industry) will crush your soul.&#8221;Thanks to Facebook and Twitter, authors are closer than ever to their audience and the first to receive feedback &#8212; good and bad.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cWe get it first. Technology is a mixed blessing,\u201d Hamilton said.The panelists&#8217; universal advice to writers is to read \u2013 constantly. \u201cDon\u2019t just read fiction \u2013 read non-fiction; read widely; read words because they\u2019re your tools,\u201d added Hamilton, who even advocates studying dictionaries and encyclopedias to increase your vocabulary.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; Standing L-R, Nancy Knight, Laurell K. Hamilton, Sherrilyn Kenyon and Mercedes Lackey. Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, sitting. Four groundbreaking New York Times&#8217; bestselling authors \u2013 Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Mercedes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1126,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,7],"tags":[80,74,358,82,356,81,357],"class_list":["post-95","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing-conferences","category-writing-tips","tag-chelsea-quinn-yarbro","tag-dragoncon","tag-laurel-k-hamilton","tag-mercedes-lackey","tag-new-york-times-bestelling-authors","tag-sherrilyn-kenyon","tag-writing-advice-from-women-fantasy-authors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3753,"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions\/3753"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}