Interview With Author Lucy A. Snyder via @tdmiller820917

Bram Stoker Award winning writer Lucy A. Snyder is the author of numerous books, including Chimeric Machines, Spellbent, Shotgun Sorceress, Switchblade Goddess, Soft Apocalypses, While the Black Stars Burn, Shooting Yourself in the Head for Fun and Profit: A Writer’s Survival Guide. In addition, her work is in the soon to be released books Scary Out There (August 30th) and Shadowed Souls (November 1st). I recently spoke with her about her writing inspirations, her writing process and what advice she would offer to aspiring writers. Read what she had to say below.

When did you first realize that you wanted to become a writer?

“It was pretty much from the moment that I first started reading fiction. The whole notion that someone could write words on a page and they could create an entire world of characters inside your mind- that struck me as the coolest thing ever. It really made me want to become a story writer. It was when I read Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time that set me on the path of writing fiction and fantasy because I loved that book to bits as a kid.”

What writers inspire you?

“All kinds of writers inspire me. I don’t have one person who inspires me. It’s all different kinds of people. Some people inspire me because of the path that they have taken. I have a lot of writer friends on Facebook and I’ll see people who are producing good work and struggling through even though their lives aren’t going right. For instance, somebody comes down with cancer and they’re still working and writing. I find that really inspirational. I’ve been really impressed with a couple of horror books lately. I just read Victor LaValle’s The Ballad of Black Tom. I thought that was a really fabulous short novel. I admire a lot of what he did in that narrative. Another writer who I’ve been reading for awhile and who I’ve enjoyed is Caitlin O’Kiernan. And I admire people who have a really good work ethic. I admire people who get up every morning and crank out a couple of hundred words without fail. That’s not the kind of writer I am. I’m a binge writer so I have to arrange my life to accommodate that. I have to know that if I have a deadline coming up. I have to clear a couple of days in front of that deadline so I can do a whole lot of writing. That’s what works for me.”

Under what genre would you classify your books?

“I wouldn’t classify them under any particular genre because I write all different kinds of things. I write fiction. I write poetry. I write nonfiction- In terms of the fiction that I’ve written, I’ve written dark urban fantasy. I’ve written steampunk. I’ve written supernatural horror. I’ve written light fantasy. I’ve written humor. I’ve written science fiction. I try to write everything. One of my goals as a writer is to be able to do it all.”

You have written poetry, short stories and novels. Which of these has been the most challenging?

“They’re all differently challenging. Writing a novel is like being in a marathon. You’ve got to run 30 miles or sometimes there’s an ultra-marathon where you’ve got to keep going and keep going and keep going. You really have to plan out your journey. I look at short stories and it’s like a 100 yard dash, a 50 meter dash something. I look at poetry like doing the back flip or a short gymnastics run. So all of these are differently difficult. In terms of the form that I find most intellectually challenging, it would have to be poetry just because you have to do so much layering and you have to think about what every word and every piece of punctuation means in the poem. Oftentimes, you’re making one word mean three or four different things within the context of the poem.”

Is there a character from your books that you feel more closely mirrors your own personality?

“I’m not really sure about that. I’ve used bits and pieces of my personality and bits and pieces of other people’s personalities in my characters. Like there are some things Jessie Shimmer does that resemble me but there are a lot of other things that she does that I would never do. In terms of how I used to be, I think that the main character of the novel that I have in progress right now, her name is Penny Farrell, I think that a lot of her traits are like mine when I was a kid not necessarily how I am now as an adult.”

Are there any routines that you use that you feel help you in your writing process?

“Coffee is really critical. If I’m sitting down to write, I really need to have coffee with me. And music: I make up particular playlists when I’m working on a writing project and I don’t listen to those playlists any other time. So when I first hear the first song on the playlist, it’s telling my brain it’s time to sit down and write. I find that very helpful for getting me into the mode for writing and for getting back into the feel for the particular thing that I’m working on.”

What advice would you give aspiring writers?

“I wrote a nonfiction book a couple of years ago called Shooting Yourself in the Head for Fun and Profit: A Writer’s Survival Guide. That’s pretty much all of my advice for aspiring writers in convenient book form. I gave the subject a lot of thought and that’s exclusively what the book is about- advice for aspiring writers. But the really short nutshell version I’d give people who want to become writers: Read as much as you can, write as much as you can, try different things, and don’t give up because you’ll get a lot of rejections before you get any acceptances.”

Are there any current projects that you are working on that you are able to share with us?

“I’ve got some poetry coming out in Scary Out There, an anthology edited by Jonathan Maberry. It’s got a lot of big names from the young adult world like R.L. Stine. Another anthology that’s coming out right after Halloween is called Shadowed Souls and that’s edited by Jim Butcher and Kerrie Hughes and is full of stories from best selling authors. In terms of works in progress, I’ve got a YA horror novel entitled The Girl With The Star-Stained Soul which I’m doing final edits on. It’s making the rounds with agents.”