An Interview with Linnea Sinclair

Recently Team Doom's very own Sandra Tuttle had a chance to grill SF Romance author, Linnea Sinclair. Linnea’s books include, Finders Keepers, Gabriel’s Ghost, and An Accidental Goddess, among others. Here’s what Linnea had to say:



ST: How did you know you were supposed to be a writer?

LS: Actually, I was a writer before I knew I was supposed to be anything. I would be crafting stories and illustrating them with crayons when I was supposed to be cleaning my room. Or I’d be inventing character backgrounds when I was supposed to be doing my homework. I’m also an avid reader. And since my childhood took place long before iPods and Gameboys and portable DVD players, I often entertained myself by continuing in my head stories I’d just finished reading.

ST: Take us through the adventure of your first sale, how long did the book take to write? Edit? How was the first editing process for you?

LS: There’s rather a two-fold answer to that. My first sale in 2004 to Bantam was a three-book contract for books I’d previously published in small press and ebook formats. My first sale in 1999 to a small press was a fantasy novel, WINTERTIDE, which LTDBooks (a Canadian small press publisher) put out first in e-formats and then in trade paperback. I’d written WINTERTIDE about ten years prior but I’d been running a detective agency at the time and the book basically just sat. When I sold the investigative agency, I unearthed the disks (those big ol’ floppy ones) and looked the manuscript over. My basic research lead me to believe the larger NY houses weren’t buying fantasy romance, so I took a chance on the very new field of e-publishing. LTDBooks bought WINTERTIDE about a week after I queried them (it went on to win an EPPIE award). The editing process wasn’t bad at all because I’m trained as a journalist (in my pre-PI days…). I write very cleanly and pretty much first draft, minus the usual finger-fart typos.

My first books with Bantam—FINDERS KEEPERS, GABRIEL’S GHOST (RITA-award winner) and AN ACCIDENTAL GODDESS also had a fairly painless edit process. For one thing, they’d been through edits with LTDBooks. The changes Bantam wanted—being I was with the Spectra imprint which is their science fiction division—was a ramping up of the political and technical aspects of the stories.

The biggest edit I’ve been through with Bantam involved GABRIEL’S GHOST and the main character of Gabriel Ross Sullivan. I can’t get into exactly what those changes were or I’d be getting into spoiler territory. So let’s just say they involved a major component of what made Sully Sully, and the change wasn’t easy for me to write. It took a total rewrite of the last three chapters and lots of big chunks of rewriting throughout the manuscript. I have fans who think the “new version” is just super. But I also have fans who’ve read the old LTDBooks version and feel the edits shouldn’t have been done.

GABRIEL’S in its original version won a number of significant awards; in its new version it won the RITA. So I can’t really say which version is better. I can say it’s a really intense, gripping book. So maybe that’s all that needs to be said.

ST: Where did your love of Sci-Fi come from?

LS: Another thing that surfaced in my childhood. I really don’t remember not being fascinated by the stars, outer space, the possibility of life on other planets and what the future might be like. It’s not that my parents read SF. They didn’t. But I did read a lot of fairy tales—the kinds with talking animals and magic wands and flying dragons. So the appeal of the unreal hit me very early.

I was glued to the TV set for old reruns of Flash Gordon. I saw the originals of Lost In Space, Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica. I watched Buck Rogers and Astro Boy and anything that had anything to do with space.

ST: If you could be any fictional character, who would it be and why?

LS: Oh, probably Trilby Elliot in my FINDERS KEEPERS. No, I did not supply the cover artist, Dave Seeley, with an old photo of myself but dang, yeah, the cover gal looks like me when I was in my thirties. I can get you photos if you want to compare. Except I never had a gun quite that large.

Or maybe Tasha Sebastian in GAMES OF COMMAND. She has the furzels, too. And one of her furzels looks exactly like my cat, Daiquri. Hmm, wonder how that happened?

ST: What is a typical day in the Sinclair household? How do you manage your time to meet your deadlines?

LS: Feed cats, scoop litter, kiss husband (who is a Bernadino, not a Sinclair, by the way) goodbye as he leaves for the golf course (that’s his job. Golf, not kissing me goodbye). Park my patootie in front of the computer, write, answer emails, write, scream at the computer when it freezes and gives me the Blue Screen of Death, get another cup of coffee, write, answer emails, push cat tail off keyboard, write, start the laundry, write, answer emails, comb cat, write, get more coffee, look at computer screen clock. It’s 2AM. Stumble to bed. Sleep. Get up. Feed cats, scoop litter…

I’m usually a better time manager than I have been this year. Meeting deadlines has been a real struggle sine February due to three book deadlines, my car accident, my parents’ illnesses, my father’s death, five out of state writer conferences, two bouts with chronic bronchitis and two weeks in Ohio for a book tour and family visit (husband’s side). I’m really hoping 2008 will be better because quite honestly it couldn’t be much worse.

Generally I write seven days a week, holidays, birthdays and all. I even bring my laptop on cruises and write onboard (parts of FINDERS KEEPERS and GAMES OF COMMAND were written on Holland America cruise ships). I easily spend ten to twelve hours a day at the computer, mostly writing but like now, when I’m a month out of a new book being released, I’m also heavily into promoting. I design my own print ads (I can do CMYK color separations and the whole shebang), animated banner ads, website, flyers, bookmarks… you name it. But when I’m doing that I’m not writing. I do seriously need to clone myself. However I’ll make sure my clone has thinner thighs…

ST: Your books are very visual and the character blocking is spot on. How do you manage to create such vivid worlds?

LS: Well, gee, thank you! I’d like to say it’s something I slave over but it’s really not. I’m not saying it just rolls off my keyboard but I don’t have to struggle over imagery or characterizations. For settings, I type what I see, hear and smell. I “see” my books as movies—or perhaps like MTV-videos—before they ever get on the page. And I spend a lot of time with my characters when I’m folding laundry. Honest. I’d never get through laundry without their help.

A lot of the fluffing, though, is added on my second pass. I write eight or ten pages, go back, reread and fluff out. Write eight or ten more. About every three chapters or so, I go back and reread the whole chunk, by this time seeing or feeling things more clearly. If I’m not sure when I’m writing, I’ll leave myself a little note of [need more description here]. I do ask myself in each scene if I’ve done all I can to bring the reader in. But as to where these things come from—no clue.

I will diagram key rooms, apartments, ships’ bridges, space station levels and so on because I need to know where I am when I turn right instead of left. And I have clipped out magazine photos or saved images from the net that remind me of something in my book.

I had great fun with THE DOWN HOME ZOMBIE BLUES because it was set in St. Petersburg FL (even though I called it Bahia Vista). So I spent a few days driving around, taking photographs (since I don’t live there any longer). And it was nice to have a ready-made city map to work with!

ST: Your heroines all seem to be captains or pilots and one of the romantic pair is involved in smuggling. Any reason for this?

LS: Probably because I write military-based space opera? The civilizations I write about are space-faring. That means to get characters from Point A to Point B, we’re going to need a ship. And I’m just someone who finds the journey far more fascinating than the destination.

Plus, it’s tough to run away from your problems on a ship. Put two people on a planet and one can walk away and keep walking and walking and walking… Put them on a ship or a space station (it’s called the Pressure Cooker Environment) and they can’t escape their problems or each other. Nice little plot device.

And as for smuggling, hmm, no one in AN ACCIDENTAL GODDESS was a smuggler. In GAMES OF COMMAND, Jace Serafino was a mercenary with various illegal sidelines but I wouldn’t say he was primarily a smuggler. And no one in THE DOWN HOME ZOMBIE BLUES is a smuggler. But yes, very often one of my key characters has a bit of a shady background. Fiction usually isn’t written about nice people. For one thing, conflict is the fuel of any fiction story and if you write about nice, kind people doing nice, kind things, you’d not have much with which to create conflict.

ST: Your upcoming book The Down Home Zombie Blues is coming out next month, in November. This one is a bit different from your previous novels, it’s set on Earth correct? Is it a modern day Earth or a futuristic one? What prompted this new location?

LS: THE DOWN HOME ZOMBIE BLUES is set in relatively present-day Florida. I say “relatively” because in my mind it’s set, oh, 2015 or 2020 or so. But I don’t detail that because I don’t want to definitively date the book. So it’s now with a touch more tech and some minor political/cultural changes.

What prompted me to set the story in Florida was that’s where Jorie beamed down. Honest. As I said, my books start out as movies in my head. And suddenly there was this buffed-out space babe with all sorts of neat gizmos and she’s standing in a darkened alley…and I recognized the alley as being a block off Central Avenue. In St. Petersburg, Florida. That’s downtown, a couple blocks from the Pier.

And I said, okay, what’s going on here? And she told me she had a missing undercover operative in that area and it was her job to find him. And off we went.

Of course, about the same time there was this really hunky cop—I knew he was a detective because he was in plain clothes—poking around in a bungalow in the Crescent Lake area just north of downtown because of a mummified body the landlord found on the floor. And I said, hmm. Because those kinds of things tend to make me go hmm.

And I said, “What if that body was…?”

And off we went.

What was terrifically fun (you’d asked about world building) was seeing Florida through Jorie’s eyes. She’s from another star system. She has no idea what traffic lights are (think about it: if you weren’t from the planet, what would YOU think was the purpose of multi colored lights strung across open areas?). She can barely read and speak English (and only because it’s somewhat similar to another galactic language, but it’s different enough that lots of errors and misinterpretations abound!). She’s so high-tech that a gas-powered vehicle to her is like a horse-drawn carriage to us. And she’s never had peanut butter.

I had to let go of everything I took for granted about my world when I wrote Jorie. It was quite an experience.

And Theo—well, getting in to the law enforcement mindset was another alien experience. So it was fun putting the two “aliens” together and letting them fall in love. (And save the galaxy as well.)

ST: I also hear you’re creating a sequel to Gabriel’s Ghost. What can we expect?

LS: SHADES OF DARK will be the sequel to GABRIEL’S and it’s going to be another intense ride. Like GABRIEL’S, it’s first person point of view through Chaz Bergren. It picks up about three months after GABRIEL’S ends and will bring in a few new characters—and kill off a few old ones.

Here’s the working back cover blurb (not yet final) Bantam just sent me:

For two fugitive lovers, space has no haven,
no mercy, no light—only...
SHADES OF DARK

Award-winning science fiction author Linnea Sinclair returns with this sexy new interstellar thriller of romance and adventure so hot it makes the stars sizzle with excitement…
SHADES OF DARK

Before her court-martial, Captain Chasidah “Chaz” Bergren was the pride of the Sixth Fleet. Now she’s a fugitive from the “justice” of a corrupt Empire. Along with her lover, the former monk, mercenary, and telepath Gabriel Ross Sullivan, Chaz hoped to leave the past light-years behind—until the news of her brother Thad’s arrest and upcoming execution for treason. It’s a ploy by Sully’s cousin Hayden Burke to force them out of hiding and it works.

With a killer targeting human females and a renegade gen lab breeding jukor war machines, Chaz and Sully already had their hands full of treachery, betrayal—not to mention each other. Throw in Chaz’s Imperial ex Admiral Philip Guthrie and a Kyi-Ragkiril mentor out to seduce Sully and not just loyalties but lives are at stake. For when Sully makes a fateful choice changing their relationship forever, Chaz must also choose—between what duty demands and what her heart tells her she must do.

Visit our website at www.bantamdell.com.

ST: I contacted a few of your fans and they had some questions for you as well.

Wow! I love your stuff! I always say that I can completely visualize your books as I'm reading them - that they come across as excellent movies. Has anyone ever approached you about adapting your books for the screen (big or small)?

LS: My agent has talked to several “Hollywood people” as well as a major cable channel, but to date, nothing has been put to bed. The main problems we’re hearing is the expense of producing science fiction shows. The special effects are costly. The response to my plots and characters has been very positive. It’s those dang special effects.
And thanks for your kind words on my books! I’m tickled you enjoy them.

What qualities do you try and emphasize in your books? They manage to balance the science fiction and romance portions so well; do you usually start off with characters or plot? How do the two affect each other?

LS: I’m a character-driven writer. I’m also a pantser though I’m learning to be more of a plotter (deadlines have that effect…). But it’s the characters and their fears and flaws and hopes and dreams I meet first.

As to what qualities I try to emphasize, belief in self or self-worth is a huge one. That’s probably the core of a lot of my characters’ conflicts because I think it’s the core of most of our conflicts. The adjuncts to that are being true to yourself and doing what’s ethically right.

How plot and character affect each other is through external and internal conflict. Conflict is the essence of plot (I’m quoting author Jacqueline Lichtenberg, who I find to be totally brilliant). So my plots evolve out of my main characters goals (internal and external) and what prevents them from getting those goals.

For example, in FINDERS KEEPERS Trilby Elliot had an issue with money (lack of it) and authority (her lack of money often put her on the wrong side of authority). So I plopped her up against someone wealthy and in a position of authority and forced them not only to work together but to fall in love.

Trilby actually admits these issues and how knowing Rhis helped her get through them in Chapter Twenty-Five:

A grin spread slowly across his face. A corresponding warmth grew inside her. "So now you’re not afraid."

"Of you? No."

"Of us?"

She had concerns. Normal, relationship concerns. But she didn’t feel anymore she’d be facing them alone. "No. I’m not afraid of us."

His thumb traced her jaw. "You should never have been."

"I had to figure that out for myself." Which was true. She didn’t know that until she saw the Rhis she hated was the same person as the Rhis she loved. She was the one who’d changed, placing labels on him, interpreting his actions because of a lack she thought was inside herself. A lack he didn’t know about, and didn’t care about.

So by knowing your characters’ internal and external conflicts, you put them up against or in situations that are most likely to trigger those deepest fears, wrenching problems. You put their backs against the wall and then drop the floor out from under them. That’s what creates the action. But the action is based on who and what they are, what they want to be and what they believe they can never be.

I always like to know what my favorite authors are reading - what and who do you like to read?

LS: CJ Cherryh’s FOREIGNER series is probably my all-time favorite, along with her Merchanter and Alliance books (yeah, a lot of space captains and pilots). But I also love JD Robb’s IN DEATH series (Roarke! Ah, Roarke!) and am totally tickled by the fun stuff Susan Grant is penning now (though I’ve gotten a peek at her new series and it’s awesome and much grittier. She can do both well). I love Robin D Owen’s HEART series—it has this fantastical feel and, of course, cats. Her characters—human and fam—are amazing. I’m also a long time Barbara Hambly fan—THE SILICON MAGE is another keeper—and was blessed to spend time with her recently at an SF con. She has an extraordinary new illustrated series coming up. I saw a sneak preview and it knocked my socks off. It’s not out yet but google “Anne Steelyard” and you’ll find some early info.

In mystery I love PD James, Anne Perry and Laurie R King. I started reading Sherlock Holmes as a child and still love to read the stories.

Oh, Suzanne Brockmann. Great kick-butt characters. Lisa Shearin—her MAGIC LOST, TROUBLE FOUND is a hoot! And Elaine Corvidae pens some awesome Industrial-era fae novels. Stacey Klemstein, Isabo Kelly, Anne Aguirre…shall I go on? The list is long.

ST: And now a completely random question we like to throw in to mix it up…

If you could eliminate any food from the face of the planet, what would it be and why?

LS: Iceberg lettuce. It has no taste and even less nutritional value. I love organic spring greens and kale and spinach and romaine and arugula and radicchio. Hell, I even love okra and turnips. Iceberg lettuce bores me to tears.

Thanks a lot Linnea!

Be sure to check out Linnea on her home site at www.linneasinclair.com or for you MySpace users www.myspace.com/linneasinclair And be sure to keep an eye out for The Down Home Zombie Blues to be released in November 2007.