We
recently announced our January Barnes
& Noble Spotlight, author,
Lilith Saintcrow, whose phenomenal first
book in the Jill Kismet series, Night
Shift, is available for
$.99 this month only. Today, Lilith
joins us to discuss everything from her writing influences, to the
importance of butt-kicking heroines in fiction, to how she’s able
to create such a despicable character in her villain Perry—“If my flesh isn't crawling while I'm writing him, I stop and I go
back and I dig deeper and do it again.”
B&N: Who were some of your earliest writing influences?
Mark
Twain, Shakespeare, Anne McCaffrey, Mary O'Hara, Stephen King--I have
always read omnivorously, but these are the authors I remember being
most transported by as a child. I found a great deal of comfort in
Twain and the Bard, and McCaffrey and King gave me complete and utter
thrills. They were reliable authors. I remember O'Hara's Thunderhead
and Green
Grass of Wyoming
trilogies very fondly and intensely too, as well as Ursula le Guin. I
can still quote passages from some of the Earthsea books from
memory.
B&N: How did you derive the idea for the Jill Kismet series?
I
was tired of paranormal or urban fantasy novels where the main
character had an adversarial relationship with law enforcement. I
thought it was a little unfair, and that seriously, if there were
things that went bump in the night that the cops couldn't deal with,
they would be more than happy to have someone working on it. So Jill
grew very naturally out of that desire--it is
law enforcement she's doing, basically.
B&N: Perry is an incredibly complex villain, one who veers between contempt and fascination. How do you as an author keep that balance and not turn your villain into a caricature?
While
I'm writing Perry, I don't stop until I've hit a scene that makes me,
personally
feel a shiver of loathing. If my flesh isn't crawling while I'm
writing him, I stop and I go back and I dig deeper and do it again.
Each time I finish writing him, I want to go take a hot shower and
scrub it away, or I haven't done it right.
I've encountered
manipulative, hurtful people before--who hasn't? And in writing
Perry, I tap that part of myself that isn't very nice, that
recognizes when I'm facing a hurtful, manipulative, or sociopathic
person, and sets to work anticipating
and playing the game so I don't get hurt. It makes one feel that
loathing shiver, because it's not a happy place to be in, and nobody
reasonable, compassionate, or well-adjusted wants
to be in that place. But it is a great defense against those types of
people, a suit of armor. Perry exercises that, for me--and I suppose
you could say he exorcises it as well.
B&N: What do you feel are some of the major differences between the Jill Kismet and Dante Valentine series?
I
get asked this a lot. The difference is ontological, I think--Danny
Valentine endures.
It's what she's good at. Jill, however, is out to even the score.
Jill arrogates to herself the power of judge, jury, and executioner.
She's also less "broken" than Dante. Dante's a very broken
character, a very intense character who has to smack her head against
the brick wall several times before she even admits there's something
in her way. It was exhausting to write her for that reason; when I
write Jill I tend to get an adrenaline rush and sympathetic body
aches from all the damage she takes.
B&N: A slightly unfair question, but if you had to choose between your characters, would Jill or Dante be your favorite?
Well,
I think I'd most like to have long philosophical conversations with
Dante, because she's very well informed and well-read. In an alley
fight, however, I think I'd like to have Jill at my back.
B&N: Why do you think butt-kicking heroines continue to be so important in popular culture?
I
think it's the utter transgressiveness of it. There's a very real
expectation of passivity placed on women in our culture, in a
thousand little ways from birth onward. The incredible strides we've
made in feminism and breaking glass ceilings are wonderful, but there
is certainly plenty more to be done; as long as the double standards,
the expectation of passivity, and the violence against women endure,
we will still have work to do.
Angry, or even just aggressive,
heroines are transgressive characters. They are appropriating a right
to self-defense we don't think of as traditionally female.
"Butt-kicking" heroines do not
behave the way a great deal of cultural pressure and assumptions tell
women it's OK to behave. In that transgressive space lies a great
deal of their appeal. Of course, a female character has to be
"butt-kicking" in exactly the right way, or accusations of
her being "cold" and "unfeminine" (just to pick
two of the most mild unflattering epithets) rise like mushrooms. So,
these heroines are great, they're busting down walls and
expectations, but I'm always looking at what's coming next, how much
work there still is to do.
B&N: When you aren’t writing, what do you like to do for fun?
Fun?
What's that? Just kidding. Well, I read, I watch movies, I hang out
with my children. I go indoor rock-climbing; I'm not brave enough for
the outdoor version yet. I write poetry, I take pictures of gas
meters at night. I study Latin or the Eastern Front in WWII, or
whatever other subject currently holds my fancy. I have fun doing
just about anything, really. The world is a garden of delights.
B&N: What should readers, new and old alike, expect overall from the Jill Kismet series?
Silver-coated ammunition. Bullwhips. Questions about the nature of Hell and human beings, questions about violence and the ethics of violence (if there are any). Snarky humor, gallons of bloodspatter, and a cracking good story. Always, first and foremost, it's about the cracking good story.
NOOK owners: go to shop, and search “Lilith Saintcrow” to download her books.
