Inside The Mind Of A Living Dead Girl: Part Two
The second part of the interview with Tamsin Silver, author of The Betrayal, A Living Dead Girl Novel
Inside The Mind Of A Living Dead Girl: Part One
How do you think your writing has changed over the years?
I suck less? [Laughs] Um... I think that I’m long winded - obviously [Laughs] - I think I’ve really learned how to take what I’m thinking of telling you and shortening it. Which you’ll find hard to believe because the book is long! But... it was longer! [Laughs] I think I’ve really learned about using my words better. We went through a whole edit on verbs! No joke! If I have to look at another verb list I’m going to shoot myself! [Laughs]
But, I think the biggest difference is learning how to find a way to take the person who is reading the story on a ride. I used to just write and it was like “Oh we’re just going to write this little story... It’s going to be fun... We’ll put some funny lines in there... These people are hot... They’re attractive...” And I think the more that I wrote, the more that I thought it was important that - like with my theatre company - my theatre company was very much based on how it should teach you something; you should learn something; it should make you think about something. And I think the more I started writing and the older I got, I realised that this needs to be in my writing too. And I think that’s why this story went from being a love story to becoming this whole moral political mix of stuff. So yeah, I think that’s where the biggest change came from...
That and sucking less! [Laughs] You get better as you go
You seem to be very visual in your work. You have done several photo shoots to support the book and you have a great sense of visual description. What are those images inspired by?
What’s funny is that I’ve always wanted to be taller with long dark hair and green eyes...
Hence the..? [Points out Tamsin’s green eyes]
Hence my tinted contact lenses and why I dye my hair black... I will never be tall! [Laughs] But when I started this book I had blonde hair and then, when I started rewriting it, I had red hair; but I always wanted to look like my lead character. So that’s why my lead character became how I always wanted to be: tall, long dark, beautiful hair, green eyes...
But some people are based... a lot of people [authors] say they don’t base characters on people they know. Oh I did! I sure as hell did! [Laughs] Hunter and Josh, two of my best friends here in NY; they are both rappers (white boy rappers from North Carolina) and they’re excellent and they’re both also amazingly talented actors and they have a really great rapport between the two of them. This back-and-forth and I thought how great it would be - because I put a lot of music into my stories too - wouldn’t it be great if I used them. So, I asked their permission if I could use them in the book and I asked “Can I base two characters on you guys and name them your names? Or similar spellings?” and they were like, “I don’t care if you spell it the same way!” So Josh and Hunter, you meet them halfway through the story and then they become the main focus of Book Two. Josh has been my biggest cheerleader throughout this whole project, he’s been just amazing!
The werewolf pack: the Clandestine Protection Agency guys - they’re a bunch of guys I used to LARP (Live Action Role Play) with when I was a nerd in North Carolina. They were the werewolves and I said to them, “You know what, in my book I need some werewolves can I use you guys?” and they’re like, “Sure!” So it’s just based on them, so I kind of go from that.
I never have a question about what these characters look like, they’re always in my head, they’re always very definite. I’ve never really questioned exactly... You know when it’s someone you know? You just know this is who they are - it's what they look like. I get my names from the internet and the phone book. The main family who are the Royal Family, the Keziah family... that’s my dog's name. Um, I named him that after I wrote the book though, so lets make that clear. [Laughs]
The photo shoots... I was writing the sequel called Moon Over Manhattan; not because it was time for a sequel, but because it wouldn’t let me alone! I woke up and I had a dream... This character was bothering me in the shower! I was like, “Leave me alone! I’m not writing that story right now!” So I give in and I’m like, “Fine! What’s your name?” And I just heard ‘Denika’ and I’m like “Seriously?! Fine, I’ll write it!” And I just started working on it and I got halfway through and I used NaNoWriMo to finish it. I was like, “How fast can I write 50,000 words? How fast can I do it?” I did it in two weeks! Because I was really pushing. Because I was like, “I can do this!” And then I thought... “Do you know what would be cool? What if we did a photo shoot for this? Because everyone who likes fantasy likes a bit of visual so let's do that!”
So I thought it would be easy... [Laughs] I got 15 actors and we did it and it went really well and so, since that went well, I figured that when the summer hit - Josh is coming back to town - let’s do The Living Dead Girl photo shoot... “Wait how many characters are in the five books... 33?!? Oh c***!” So, I cast 33 actors and got two hair stylists; make-up artists; two photographers and two PAs and we did a two day photo-shoot. Because I really thought it would be neat and different. I think it’s really fun. I think it's creative. I think it gives you something extra if you’re interested.
Anyone can self-publish now, which I think is so great; and there is so much out there to read right now especially with e-reading. I just think that even before I was found and published, I just kinda thought that, “Why be the same as everyone else?” If I’m going to be different; if I’m going to stand out; why not give something to the reader that no one else gives them? Why not give them photos? And they don’t have to go look at them. I have so many people tell me that they like to picture them themselves... then don’t look at the photos! So you know, it’s your choice, but I thought it was kinda fun.
We also decided to video tape it. Including videos of both photo-shoots to music and the Living Dead Girl one ends with a 30 second fight which we choreographed because my friend is a fight choreographer. So I just thought that would give something a little bit extra for readers and get them a little bit more involved in the series, because unfortunately I have decided now that Sean needs his own story. So he’s going to have The Cameron Chronicles; which is a prequel series.
The Living Dead Girl series is five books for the five points of the Pentagram and then finally there’s Moon Over Manhattan and after that is Black Sunshine and that’s all in the Living Dead Girl saga ‘world’. It spans from its start in 1997 to Black Sunshine, which is in 2178. So it’s a world that... I mean once you’ve set up a world you can do anything you want,
What other writers inspire you?
Okay this is going to be a strange answer. Nora Roberts (Vision In White, Chasing Fire) is bloody brilliant! I only just started reading romance novels in the past year, so, I think it’s my age! She is so detailed; so visual. She’s so definite on these characters and I don’t mean just the sex scenes [Laughs]. I mean like her characters in general are really well fleshed out. She takes chances. Like, one of the books that I just read; the girl has really negative qualities about her. These are really real people and I like that.
In the fantasy genre: I first got hooked with LJ Smith. Her Secret Circle and her Vampire Diaries series... there are now TV shows on them that I refuse to watch, because I feel like it’ll ruin my love of the books. Is that sad? That’s sad, right? I think when I saw that the lead had brown hair and I was like it’s supposed to be blonde, then I was ruined... But also Christopher Pike (Remember Me, The Last Vampire series); Cassandra Clare. Her work just blows me away. Her new Infernal Devices series... she’s just really got a knack for storytelling and characters. So, yeah, I think those would be some of my biggest ones.
And finally, after everything you’ve learned throughout the process of getting published, have you got any advice for young writers?
Write every day. Literally write every day. If you want to be a writer the best thing you can do is train. If you want to be a runner, you run; if you want to be a swimmer, you swim; if you’re an athlete, you work out. You can’t be a writer unless you are working your brain out. One of my best friends wants to be a writer and only recently I told her she needs to be writing every day.
If you don’t write every day you don’t work out your imagination. Your imagination needs time to play. If I don’t get a chance to write every day - at least four days a week - I have the most whacked out dreams! I will call my friend and be like, “I was running down 52nd Street with a llama and a horse... and we were chasing the llama me and this horse... my horse... I don’t know why I wasn’t riding the horse [Laughs]... but we were running down the West Side of 52nd Street... and there were people wondering what I was doing”, but... yeah this is what I mean! [Laughs] I have the most whacked out dreams, so I need to write as often as possible or my dreams are like, “Hey! We haven’t had enough time to play! We’re going to mess with you!”
I would also encourage young writers to join a writing group. Unlike doing theatre, where there’s lots of people for you to work with, writing is a solo sport. And I was getting lonely. Once I joined that writing group it made a whole lotta difference! You finally have people who will support you and help you and I think it’s really important that you find a good writing group. Do NaNoWriMo! See how fast you can get those words out there.
And write. Just write. It doesn’t have to be Shakespeare. It doesn’t have to be the best thing ever! It doesn’t have to be what’s going to sell. Just write. See what comes out of it. A lot of people talk about having an outline - you don’t need to have an outline! You can just write. If that works for you. It doesn’t work for me. Most women don’t write with outlines, whereas most men do. So you don’t need one unless you want it.
Find somebody who proofs your work. Find someone who doesn’t mind reading your stuff and giving you an honest opinion and constructive criticism. I think those are the big things: Write; Get someone to help you do it and just do it as often as you possibly can and get a team to support you. I think that makes a huge difference. I think that’s why I’m published now. Don’t be afraid to meet new people. I mean, I met the girl who taught me how to send my stuff out there in Borders, you know that bookstore that used to exist [Laughs] and she took me on as a client. Just because she was standing in the aisle with me and we got talking! So, I mean, that makes a huge difference. She helped me write my query letter and that is hard. It’s really hard.
Read your stuff out loud. Get people to read it. I think that’s one of the best things you can do because, that way, you can really know if you’ve nailed it and it’s what you want.
Tamsin Silver’s book The Betrayal, A Living Dead Girl Novel is available now to buy as an E-Book through Eirelander Publishing for $6.99 (approximately £4.50). It is also available through Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble’s Nook Book and Book Strand.
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