Hey Kira! Thanks
for stopping by my blog! :D
Thank you so much for having me!
Let’s start this
interview off nice and easy. Can you share a bit about yourself with us?
I live in Los Angeles with my husband. We just bought a
house and consequently are spending way more time at hardware stores than I
ever thought possible (who knew one house could have so many light bulbs to
replace?). My day job is writing for TV, pretty much the best job ever. I’m
grateful every day. Some of the shows I’ve written for are the cult hit vampire
detective show “Moonlight” and “Eureka” and “Alphas” for the Syfy Channel. I
also worked in computer game design for a number of years – you can see
glimpses of this in the Parish Mail interactive ebooks – and enjoy playing Xbox
or PS3 when I can find the time.
Could you describe
the first book in your Parish Mail series, Dead Letter Office, for those not
familiar with the series yet?
In Dead Letter Office we meet the series heroine Celia, a
teenager who’s just lost her father. She’s newly arrived in New Orleans with
her mom and has a thousand things to adjust to: a family she’s never met, a new
city, new school, new friends. On Halloween a massive supernatural disturbance rocks
the city, and Celia finds a letter, over a hundred years old, apparently
addressed to her and pleading for her help. Celia becomes convinced that the
letter holds the key to solving the present-day death of a homeless veteran.
Helping her are Tilly, a quirky witch, Donovan, the son of a cop, and the
enigmatic Luc, who is much more than he first appears. The mystery deepens in
Post Mortem, the second Parish Mail book, when one of Celia’s friends goes
missing right before Homecoming.
Dead Letter Office
is described as an “active” title. What does that means and how does it
influence your writing process?
Dead Letter Office and all the Parish Mail books are
interactive, sort of a next generation/2.0 version of Choose Your Own
Adventure. At key points you get to make decisions for Celia, and those
decisions have consequences. Some of the choices are personal: does Celia
accept the popular Peyton’s invitation to attend a swanky Halloween party, or
does she hang out with Tilly in the French Quarter? Does Celia choose Donovan
or Luc to help her solve the mystery? Other decision points let you play
detective along with Celia. Which clue should she follow? Which suspect should
she chase? The choices you make determine the story for the rest of the book
and also unlock clues to the overarching series mystery. The writing process
involves not just a chapter by chapter outline but also a detailed flowchart
like I used to make as a game designer, mapping out all the paths, decision
points, and clues. Writing an interactive book is creatively very challenging,
but a lot of fun.
In the description
for Dead Letter Office on Goodreads, it also says that you wrote it like a TV
series. What’s that process like and how do you weave all of those over-arching
aspects into one story?
As the first book in the Parish Mail series, Dead Letter
Office is like the pilot (first) episode of a TV show. It sets up the world
including the characters and the overarching mystery, while having a specific
case for Celia to solve by the end of the book. Post Mortem and the other books
to come also have their own single mystery that wraps up by the end, but also
further advance both the long-term story and the emotional development of the
characters.
Where do you get
your inspiration while writing from?
From all over, really. The city of New Orleans and its
astonishingly rich history is the primary inspiration for the entire Parish
Mail series. Celia herself was inspired by the strong and smart teen heroines
of “Veronica Mars” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” two TV shows I’m a big fan
of. But I also find creative sparks from music – I listened to Dixieland jazz
and blues while writing Dead Letter Office – and books and movies.
And my final
question: I’m always curious about authors as readers, so do you have any
favourite authors or books that you’d recommend?
My favorite book about writing is Anne Lamott’s Bird by
Bird, with Stephen King’s On Writing a close second. For recent YA, I loved Daughter
of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. I’m currently reading Gone Girl by Gillian
Flynn and can hardly can put it down, it’s so compelling and poignant with
wonderfully grounded and specific character details. And I’m biased of course,
but Coliloquy’s entire catalog of interactive ebooks is terrific.
About Kira Snyder:
So, what do you think?
Does Dead Letter Office sound like something you'd like to read?
I can definitely see where being a game designer could help with writing these active ebooks!
ReplyDelete