Tell us about yourself.
I was born and raised in California. After graduating from UCLA, i became an actress, and later worked as a location casting director on feature films. When I became an English teacher, there was little time for anything creative, so I used my free time to write my first novel, The Demon Rift. After that, I wrote another novel, Babylon Dreams, a speculative science fiction set in an “after-death” mind upload VR community. Currently I am finishing the sequel, The Dark Side of Dreams.
Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
When I was eleven, our class read an article on the discovery of a Stone age grave. I learned what was included, the dried flowers, ancient ornaments and other gifts that meant to say goodbye, by custom and with love, thousands of years ago. What else could I learn about them? I decided I would become an archeologist. It was fleeting ambition, with no set plan. I think what I felt was curiosity and a desire to connect with people who once lived and loved in the distant past. As time went on, my interest in our common humanity resulted in the coursework I did at UCLA as a theater major.
Decades later, I worked as a casting director for film productions and then as an English teacher, until I became a writer.
What was your journey to getting published like?
As society changes, tastes change. For example, a well-known author, Polish American Jerzy Kozinski, won the National Book award in 1968 for his book, Steps. In 1975, writer Chuck Ross retyped Steps and sent excerpts to four prominent publishers. None recognized it and all four rejected it, including Random House who had published it nine years earlier. Be aware how quickly the market sands can shift. That YA post-apocalypse novel? Look before you leap. I self-published.
What’s the best piece of feedback you’ve ever received?
Without a doubt, the Kirkus review of Babylon Dreams.
" . . . approaches the techniques of experimental fiction (or Max Headroom getting buggy), with abrupt "memory breaches" and a Citizen Kane-type mosaic of the tormented antihero. The result is a challenging but compelling vision of a privatized, synthetic heaven slowly eaten away by ungodly capitalism, cupidity, and the sins of its founder. . . . A keen and absorbing what-if tale about VR and a digital afterlife." Kirkus Reviews
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Be open to criticism. Find people to read your work. Friends and family members may shy away. There are places like Goodreads and Fiverr where you can find readers (betas) who will read your work and tell you what they liked and the parts that didn’t work. Be prepared to rewrite and rewrite again.
Master the art of shameless self-promotion. I had a hard time with this one. It conflicted with the survival skills I learned growing up. We moved frequently and as the new kid, I kept a low profile to avoid trouble. Self-promotion is what my midwestern grandmother called “puttin’ on airs” and “tootin’ your own horn.” Believe in your work and promote it like the door-to-door salesman who sold my mother a set of encyclopedias.
What’s a fun fact about you that your readers might not know?
When I was nine, I read The Black Stallion. I loved it and read all its sequels. In my imagination, I was on the island where the boy and the wild stallion survived by trusting each other. When the stallion flew around on the track, Alec gripped the “Black’s” mane and I rode with him, the flush of adventure on my little girl face as I read. Walter Farley’s The Black Stallion took me someplace else. Although I never did learn to ride a horse, I have read and loved countless novels.
Decades later while living in Los Angeles and working as a casting director, I was asked to find a young girl who could ride well for the lead in the movie, The Young Black Stallion. We auditioned actresses in LA and contacted riding schools across the country. A casting company in Europe did the same. I created a simple audition process for anyone to record and submit and we sent out flyers. Sometimes your life becomes a movie and part of your childhood pays you a visit. It was bittersweet. A little girl in Texas sent us her audition tape and soon she was in Namibia, and she was riding the Black Stallion.
What’s your guilty pleasure book or genre?
The Expanse Books.
What’s your favorite quote about writing?
'Make them laugh, make them cry, make them wait.'
Charles Dickens
"You asked me once, what was in Room 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world."
1984 by George Orwell
When you’re not writing, how do you like to spend your time?
Bingeing on UFO/UPO series, taking care of two chihuahuas and an old tuxedo cat and keeping four gardenia plants alive for yet another year. Discussing the nature of dreams with my husband, Daniel Oldis who has supported research and written extensively on the scientific aspect of dreams, including dream recording.
Do you remember the first story you ever read, and the impact it had on you?
Again, Walter Farley's The Black Stallion. I still remember the day I checked out of the library. It opened up the world.
What has inspired you and your writing style?
When I was twelve, I decided to read books that were more grownup. I read two novels by Charles Dickens: Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities. Because I was so young, much of what Dickens wrote escaped my understanding and appreciation. Still, I identified with Pip, his loyalties and his romantic yearning. Although the guillotine scenes made me squeamish, I was impressed by the way Dickens laced dark humor into the Reign of Terror and his observation that Old Bailey’s hangings were entertainment for the locals. Dickens created characters—portraits of people I imagined I knew. Like Dickens, I often use dark humor and social commentary in my work.
How do you deal with negative reviews?
It's part of the process. Keep writing.
I fill my stories with lots of characters and they all have names. My husband, also a writer, insisted there were too many characters in my early drafts of The Demon Rift. Of course, this was followed by beta readers agreeing with him. The more I resist his feedback, the more often he is right.
How do you connect with your readers?
Gladly.
What’s next for you as a writer?
The Dark Side of Dreams is the sequel to my novel Babylon Dreams. I’m fascinated by the nature of identity—what makes us who we are. Several years ago, I read an article in Psychology Today by Ray Kurzweil on the potential of mind-uploading into a virtual reality environment. He said we could copy our minds, upload them to a computer and meet friends for lunch in VR. Even better, we could customize our appearance, for example "raspberry eyes." I was working on a film at the time, and I mentioned the article to the writer/director, along with a story idea: a love triangle that continues in virtual reality after all three are dead and mind-uploaded into the same VR program. He liked it and suggested I write it. At the time, I didn't write, and later, when I did, it was another novel. Still, I kept the thought. Being someone who loves films, I thought of a Citizen Kane-like character who tells his story long after his death. Gunter Holden is a murderer and an impossible narcissist who finds redemption in Babylon Dreams.
Are there any Easter eggs or hidden messages in your work?
Yes. Hidden in The Demon Rift are connections between events and the characters. As the climax approaches they discover them. Any messages are centered on the nature of reality and of course, Christmas shopping.
In Babylon Dreams, what's hidden from Gunter Holden waits in childhood dreams.
How do you approach writing dialogue for your characters?
I studied theater in college, so I start with an actor’s question: What do I want? When I have an answer, I place myself in the character’s head and look around. He or she will tell you if you listen.
Assuming I’ve researched the setting, what do I see and hear? Are there other characters? Do I know them? Are they a threat? There are countless questions and as the storyteller, you must decide which answers are important in terms of structure and pacing, and what readers may want to know.
If you could share one thing with your fans, what would that be?
Success is doing what you love.
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All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
