For this week’s interview, the third in the Writers on the Rise series, please welcome Leah Clifford and check out her blog here. I’m having great fun talking with these authors, and I hope you are, too. Comment away!
Hello, Leah! Can you tell us a little about yourself?
I’m twenty-seven years old. I love music, especially remixes that sound nothing like the original. I’ve worked as an extreme cave guide (helmet, headlamp, mud), flight attendant, waitress, pizza delivery girl and for a few months I sold my belongings on Ebay to pay my bills. All of my worldly possessions used to fit in the back of a 2004 Chevy Impala, but now I have too many books.
What are you currently writing?
In first place right now is the sequel to Reapers, which is the YA urban fantasy that I’m about start sending queries for. There are a few other shinies that keep popping up though, so we’ll see what happens!
What else have you written?
Growing up, I was a short story kind of girl. There were a half dozen or so attempts at novels (and one very odd screenplay for some reason) but I never finished any of them. I was twenty-five when I wrote my first novel, which was a pretty safe haunting-type story, and horribly overwritten. The more I queried it, the more I knew I could do better. It now rests in peace, safely trunked.
Have your experiences on the job inspired your writing? I’m particularly curious about extreme cave guide.
Haha! The caving job was the best. I was living in Colorado and I had to walk alone through a canyon and up a mountain to get to work. I carried Bear Spray, which is like supercharged pepper spray and comes with a disclaimer in bold that sometimes not only does it NOT work, but pisses off the bears. Good times. So, I was always on the lookout. Of course, your mind tends to play tricks on you, and one day I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was following me (for all I know something was…) but instead of thinking about mountain lions or chipmunks, I latched onto the idea that what was back there, just behind the rocks, was Death. I wondered what would happen if it caught up. I also wondered what would happen if what came around the corner was only a person (in my head I was picturing a smiling teenager), and if that would be more or less frightening. This was about three years before Reapers was written, but it was one of many seeds.
Where are you at on your path to publication?
I’ve got my toes curled around the edge of the Query Pool, and will be jumping in sometime in the next few weeks!
I remember being daunted before I first jumped into the Query Pool. How are you writing your query letter and researching agents?
I’m actually really excited to query this time around. That said, it usually takes me about five minutes of trying before I can press send on queries.
I’m REALLY bad at query letters. The first draft is usually something like… There’s this character, see, and they have issues and stuff, but then they have more issues and CLIFFHANGER OF AWESOME! (You know, to leave the agent wanting more) Then I elaborate. Then I cut. Then I rewrite it. Again. And again. Then it gets posted for other writers to critique, which is a really important phase. This isn’t your mom telling you it’s great. Or your friends (unless they’re like mine and will tell you (in graphic detail) how bad it sucks, rather than send you out with crap). These should be people that haven’t read your story so they won’t be able to fill in gaps themselves. It will help you see what sections need more or less detail so that your story is coming across in the best way possible. There are quite a few forums out there for query review. I use Querytracker.net because not only do they have a really supportive forum, but the main site is also the best tool for researching agents. Check it out. Seriously.
What advice do you have for writers?
I’m gonna skip the read and write, because that seems to be the ‘go to’ answer and say “Try harder.” I really believe that writing is something you have to work at to get better. Look at each chapter or even sentence and ask yourself if you can improve it, and then do! Also, lots of coffee.
I think it can be easy to forget the importance of trying harder and growing as a writer, particularly if you are comfortable with one genre, point of view, or voice. How have you grown as a writer over the years?
It’s easy to slip into a rut and develop patterns, but this is almost always harmful. Let me put it this way: If you’re comfortable, you’re not pushing yourself. If you’re not pushing yourself, you’re not trying harder and so you aren’t going to get any better. Writing in third person has always been really difficult for me, but that’s the POV that Reapers needed to be told in. Trying to write in third person was really tough. Everything felt flat at first, and I almost stopped writing a few times. But it challenged me and I think (hope!) it worked and that I’ve grown.
What are your inspirations?
My dad has been my biggest inspiration so far. I’d been saying for years that I wanted to be a writer, and one day while we were in the car he asked me what I planned to do for a career. When I said I was going to try writing (again) he grumbled something about how I’d been saying that forever and if I really wanted it I would have done it already. At first I was really angry, but then I realized he was right. So I sat my butt in the chair and proved him wrong. My dad is REALLY good at reverse psychology.
When I started querying my first novel, I found a site called Query Tracker that has a great forum, and another of my huge inspirations has been watching so many of my friends snag agents and even publishing deals over the past year.
What has been the best part of writing?
The little bits of magic! The moments of realization where tiny details that didn’t seem important they were first written ended up being crucial later on. I’ve loved getting to know new characters and finding out what happens next (I’m a seat of the pantser so I never know how it’s going to end). One of the best side effects of writing that I wasn’t expecting has been all of the friends I’ve met through Livejournal, Query Tracker, and Facebook.
I used to be more of a seat of the pantser writer, but now I outline more and more. What advice do you have for writers wondering whether to plot first or wing it?
I think everyone is different in terms of their method. There are some writers who have to know their ending before they put down the first sentence. I know of another who has to have a title. Some have pages and pages of outline and just fill in the details. One of the most important things to learn is that your way, whatever that way might be, is right. As long as it works, you’re doing it right. Do what you need to do to get the words on the page.
Personally, I can’t outline, because most of my drive is in finding out the rest of the story. My secret fear is that an agent will ask me for a synopsis of the next two books, because I have absolutely NO clue how the second story is going to end, let alone the third.
And what has been the worst part of writing?
Learning to kill my darlings! LOL! I have a file of lines and sections I’ve had to cut because they didn’t move the story along in the right way or just didn’t work. Most of them are awful, but some of them I wish I could have kept.
I also keep all my murdered darlings a file that often grows several times longer than the manuscript itself, embarrassingly enough. How do you decide which of your darlings to kill or keep?
Cutting your favorite bits is always the worst, isn’t it? Unfortunately, it’s simple to decide. If it doesn’t work or doesn’t move the plot forward, it’s gotta go. Great in theory right? Not so easy in the real world.
Where do you hope do be in a year?
Signed with a major deal, of course! (Hey! It could happen!) But honestly, I’d be happy to be where I am now…at the computer with my story file open and the itch to write.
And here’s a teaser from Leah’s Reapers:
Eden peered through the little window beside the security door, keeping herself just out of view as she watched them. Outside, on the stairs of the apartment building, five reapers were already waiting for her.
They wore their glamours well. Every trace of death was polished over with flesh, pierced and tattooed to fit in with the mortals. To the morning rush of pedestrians, they would have been chalked up as street kids. Eden knew better. It would only take a swipe of her fingertips on their skin to drop their façade and show the truth. After all, she was one of them.
Five today. It had never been so many.
“Time to greet the fan club,” Eden scoffed as she twisted the knob.
The security door clicked shut behind her. She tucked the key into the pocket of her black pea coat and turned to face them. As usual, they were all boys. Their whispers, snippets of “has to be the one” and “right where she was supposed to be”, intensified as they caught sight of her.
“Where who said I’d be?” she demanded. “Who sent you?”
“It’s true isn’t it?” The one who spoke up couldn’t have been more than twelve. “That you breathe death?” Eden rolled her eyes as he stared at her, taking her in like some kind of urban legend come to life. She didn’t need Touch to tell they were new, all of them.
Bonus: Check out Leah’s book trailer here!
