Welcome Author Lynn Townsend

 

Lynn Townsend is a geek, a dreamer and an inveterate punster. When not reading, writing, or editing, she can usually be found drinking coffee or killing video game villains. Lynn's interests include filk music, octopuses, and movies with more FX than plot. She has one husband, one child, one murder-death-cat, a turtle, and two chinchillas.

 

Interview

Me: What inspired you as you wrote this book?

 

Lynn Townsend: Blood Sight was originally a throw away line from a friend, we were talking about the recent upswing of romance novels containing creatures formally reserved for the horror genre and she said, “Dating vampires was soooo last year.”

 

I've always liked vampires – back in high school, I wrote my senior thesis on the vampire myth. This was for my Advanced Composition class, so it was a 10+ page paper, involving at least 12 original sources. Back in the days before Wikipedia! I spent a ton of time in the library and found a lot of interesting – and grotesque! - stories.

 

It was also somewhat inspired by a friend of mine's profile picture – he is a photographer and costumed performer – and I thought he looked more like that I thought a modern day vampire should be. (Not sparkly! Although I'll confess to liking Twilight rather a lot...) Double plus fun fact; the person who inspired my vampire character is also the cover model! And he's going to sign posters of the book cover as promotional giveaways for me!

Me: Were any characters based off of real people and if so- which character?
 

Lynn Townsend: All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living, dead, or undead, is purely coincidental. That being said, there's a sign at the entrance to my office (usually called “The Turret” by my family and friends) that reads: Warning: Novelist at work. Bystanders may be written into the story.

Characters rarely spring to life out of nothing; a phrase, a nervous tick, clothing, relationships. All of the things from my life come into my stories at some point or another. I've seldom flat-out based a character on a real person; even Hector (from my novel, Roll), who is, in fact, based on someone named Hector... isn't exactly the original. True Fact: I've never met Hector. He's one of those friends of a friend... but I've heard many, many, MANY Hector stories... so I guess you could say that Hector is based on the image I created in my head based on the stories my friends told me. That being said, I have spoken with him via Facebook and email after the novel was complete and he's read it. He thinks I'm scary and accurate. And he loves me. So he says, so I believe him.

 
Me: Was there any part of the book you had a hard time writing?
 

Lynn Townsend: I wrote this novel as a NaNoWriMo project (National Novel Writing in a Month) [link http://nanowrimo.org/ ] so I really didn't have time to fuck around. I skipped the weekends, which meant I had to write 2,400 words per weekday. And November has the disadvantage of Big American Holiday at the end of it, for which I was going out of the state!

I did have a bad moment, in March, the following year, when a novel came out by one of my favorite romance writers, Thea Harrison. Oracle Moon is also about the last oracle of Delphi. Yikes! At this point, I was up to my eyeballs in edits for Blood Sight. The similarities are pretty faint, though, and usually consists of a bit of research that it's obvious both of us did on Delphi. But I did freak out a bit when I first read her book.

 
Me: What one song would sum up this book?
 

Lynn Townsend: I talk about music. A lot. The first thing you need to understand about me is covered here http://ohgetagrip.blogspot.com/2012/06/noise-in-universe.html (In the 18 months since that post was written, I have collected another 2,000+ songs. Which doesn't include the stack of Cd's on my desk that need to be ripped. I bought them yesterday when I went to the Goodwill to pick up a sheet for my husband's Sherlock cos play.) And you must understand that I originally wrote Blood Sight in 2011....

Although, I was obviously going through a Daft Punk phase, since Rachael uses one of their songs as a weapon.

<excerpt>

Harder Better Faster Stronger blared from the front yard, shaking the ground underfoot. The animalcules, which had charged forward as soon as I opened the door, stopped in their tracks. Several of them howled and collapsed, covering lantern-like eyes with clawed, over sized paws. Whoever had created these monstrosities had a sick sense of humor. Ug. Fully four feet tall at the shoulder, the poodle-strocities were white with pink fluff-balls, their fur neatly shaped in the French style. You know, if the French believed in protruding metallic spikes and razor-sharp tails.

Marcus’s face was twisted with loathing, although I couldn’t tell if it was caused by the poodle-strocities or the music. He certainly wouldn’t have called it that. Pumped through the speakers at ear-splitting decibels, any music would have caused any paranormal in the area extreme pain; topped that with the fact that Daft Punk is primarily made up from synthetic instruments and computerized vocal effects. Most paranormals are allergic, to some degree, to technology. Forget silver, which was a highly refined ore when most of the myths and legends started; you want to hurt a vampire, cut him with a plastic knife.

Which presents its own difficulties, generally that you’re now entirely too close to a pissed off vampire.  In my work as consultant to the paracops, I’ve seen a young vampire restrained by the same plastic cat-ties that people use to strap down their unruly computer cables. Keep in mind that any vampire is generally capable of throwing a VW micro-bus at your head and you start to get an idea of the human advantage. We surround ourselves with synthetics, and it’s not entirely out of a sense of how clever we are in making them in the first place.

Me: How do you deal with writers block?
 

Lynn Townsend: I don't have writer's block. I sometimes have “I fucking hate this sentence” syndrome where I'll write and re-write the same paragraph eight times. I also have “holy shit, my house is a mess” disease.

I used to, though. I got over it. First off, I discovered that I cannot now, nor will I ever be, a successful pantser. I cannot just “start writing.” When starting a new project, I write up an outline. This can be as elaborate as a stack of note cards with scenes jotted down on them, to as simple as a one paragraph summary, depending on the project.

I'm a huge fan of notebooks; I almost always have one near me if I'm going to be out of the house for more than six hours. (for shorter trips, I take notes on my phone. The last thing I need is inspiration to strike when I'm without a means of recording it and “I'll remember it later” never actually happens.)  So, I almost always know where I'm going before I get started.

Secondly, I'm really, really good with lists. I love lists. (see above obsession with notebooks). If I have a thing on my list, it usually gets done.

Third, I do word sprints. (I have a small word count every day that I'm actively pursuing a project, usually 600 words or thereabouts. I know that it's a LOT less than a lot of people do, but I'm happy with it. 25 publications – or acceptances – in three years is pretty good... so I must be doing something right, eh?) 600 words isn't very many. If I'm having a bad time of it, I'll say “okay, write 100 words, and then you can read a chapter in your pleasure read. Or watch til the first commercial break in your DVR'd show.”

You can do just about anything for 15 minutes. (except maybe fall...) I use that logic to get housework done, to get through tedious tasks, to put up with my stepmother... and sometimes, to get my writing done.

Links:

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