Lynn Hightower Interview

Lynn Hightower’s Elaki series is soon to be released as e-books by Open Road Media. You can also win a copy of the first book in the series in our current Alien Blues Giveaway.

First of all for those not familiar with your Elaki series, can you tell us a bit about it?

The Elaki are archly superior to humans, in attitude and ability, with a patronizing yearning to beef up their own economy while using/ helping the human race along, even if they feel we have a rather nauseating scent like strong cheese.  They are an interesting mix of superior intellect and abilities, balanced with a rather ruthless habit of imposing their will.  In some ways they are like an entire race of beings with Asperger tendencies and it gives them great advantages. And disadvantages. With Elaki emigrating to earth, and the crime rate rising, they cannot resist sticking their noses into law enforcement.

David Silver and his partner Mel Burnett are homicide cops in Saigo City, and they are not thrilled to be giving an Elaki partner, particularly since the Elaki, String, has a lot of opinions. And a sense of moral superiority that is not always convenient.

What are you expectations now that Open Road Media are re-releasing the series as eBooks?

It makes me incredibly happy to have these books re released and  I love the cover art.  These stories are near and dear to my heart.  If readers find them entertaining, and enjoy curling up with them, then I will do the happy writer dance.  I only do that in private, so don’t even ask what it looks like.  

Speaking of the new cover art. How involved were you in the process?

They sent me the art, and I was thrilled.

A Sci-Fi detective series in a world where humans and aliens coexist, how did you come up with the idea?

Ha.  You are thinking how this is so much like the movie ALIEN NATION, right?  I started this novel six months before the movie came out.  I had sold my first novel, and had it axed when Random House took over the publishing house.  So I was in a bad mood for about a year.  I got very sulky and decided that I was going to write a novel just for me and put everything in it that I loved.  A definitive kitchen sink approach. So I mixed up homicide cops and murders, aliens, a kick ass human rights activist warrior who also happens to be David Silver’s very difficult wife, Rose (I adore her but she’s a handful).  There were underground cities, secret passageways and ghosts.  I had planned on a happy marriage there but Rose and David refuse to get along.  I put in a lot of smart ass dialog that entertained me.  I figured that no matter what happened in the publishing world, I was going to have a hell of a good time.  And I did.  I wrote six chapters, sent it to my agent, and he liked them better than the novel he was flogging.  So he sent the six chapters to the editor who was looking at that novel that never sold, and she hated the novel but loved those six scenes.  By then the movie had come out and I thought that was going to kill me in the marketplace. But she loved the movie and she loved the novel and we got a two book deal on those six chapters. So ALIEN NATION, bless your heart — and who wouldn’t love a movie that starred Mandy Patinkin as an alien anyway?  And Berkley let me keep all my kitchen sink ideas except the ghosts. They made me take those out.  That’s why I wrote THE PIPER, years later.  Those ghosts would not go away.

So would you say this changed the way you’re writing? That you still focus more on writing what you like than what the markets latest hype is?

I focus on writing a kick ass story that people want to read — myself included.  A writer is taking a reader to world they create — it has to be a place the reader wants to spend time in.  So hype, trends, I’m aware, but it alwayscomes down to once upon a time.  No writer should impose story riffing, despair, and dreary stories that take one hundred pages to launch on their readers. No writer should give readers a trail of scenes where characters ponder things and nothing ever happens.  You betray a reader when you bore them and you are not doing your job.  People have long hard days, plenty of ways to spend their time and money.  A writer is obliged to tell a story people want to read.

Can you tell us a bit about your main characters and what is important for you when you create your characters?  

David is a good guy, he is a rather attractive mix of toughness and compassion and a sort of everyman stoic.  He loves his kids, he works long hours, and his wife drives him insane.  He loves her.  He wants to have sex with her. And he wants to strangle her.  Pretty much on a regular basis.  Rose is an extreme animal rights activist and up to her neck in illegal activities that don’t bode well for David’s career.  She has a partner, strong, handsome, a big lug of a warrior who David loathes.  She brings a lot of animals home, and David often returns to his house to find various dogs, cats, and once an ostrich, have joined his family.  He has no say in this. If Rose wants to give an animal sanctuary she’s going to.  Rose does not argue, Rose does what she wants.

She is also the sister of David’s best friend and partner, Mel Burnett.  Mel is funny, crude, practical and kind of a jerk.  I love Mel.  

Characters have to be engaging, they need attitude, they need opinions.  And they need to have really interesting things to say and do.

Sometimes my characters come to me like a miracle, I look up, and there they are standing right by my chair waiting for me to notice them.  They have an attitude and a voice and it’s easy.  Other times I have to think, ponder, and sort of lure them out of the shadows, getting to know them better and better as I work through the scenes.

Thinking back, how did you start writing? Was there a particular book or moment in your life that spurred you on?  

I started school when I was five, utterly desperate to learn to read, to get away from home, and hopefully have big adventures out in the wide world.  I could not get away fast enough, and I was always the kid who wanted to grow up fast.  I spent many hours up in my favorite tree reading, for two reasons.  One is I was engrossed in the a book, and the other because though I could climb up I could not climb down. I am afraid of heights.  I usually took a sandwich and a book and if I did not show up for dinner my mother sent my big brother out to find me and bring me in.  He usually did this by pushing on the bottoms of my feet while I screamed and told him to stop, and he did this until I fell out of the tree.  He was a good big brother though, and always caught me before I hit the ground.  He was very practical.  My brother and sister and I all had our very own tree and no one was allowed in it without our permission.  I don’t have a reading tree, but I spend a lot of time in my porch swing, or pretty much curled up anywhere reading.  I read fast and I constantly ran out of books so I decided to write my own.  I started my first novel in the fifth grade, and have been writing novels since.  I write the stories I wish someone would write for me.

What is your favorite and least favorite part of the writing process, and why?   Writing is a job and a passion and some days you feel like it and some days you don’t, and that isn’t the point. You get the page quota done and no excuses.  Though believe me I am creative about excuses.  I don’t love the nitty gritty plan and structure work, and yet I know very much how crucial it is, that if I take the time to know the story, it will free up my creativity and the story will have more texture and depth and bethat much better. Planning is agrind.  I do it anyway. I’ve done seat of the pants and I’ve done planning and the novel is a hell of a lot better if you do the plan work.  It’s basic logic.  You have to know what the story is to tell it.  It is fine if you want to do what I call ‘plan writing’ where you write to plan but it’s time consuming, and I’m lazy and I just want to cut to the chase. It cuts out about two to three drafts if I do the plan work, and the final product is better because there’s not so much combat fatigue where you just get sick of it.

I love writing first drafts of well planned scenes because you can just write the hell out of it and you don’t bring in the writing police until later in revision. And a plan is never set in concrete, so you can make a conscious creative decision to take it somewhere unexpected, but you do it wisely, because you know where you’re going.

What sort of challenges, as a writer, might you have faced over the years? Any insights you would be able to share for those aspiring writers seeking advice?

There are two sides to writing. The creative actual writing, planning — the real work of it.  This I love. And the business side.  Keep that in mind and be smart. You have to write the book.  That’s job one.  Don’t get snarled up in social media, platforms, panicking over the worries that ten minutes on the Internet are going to unleash.  Just write the damn book.

Basically you have to work hard and hope, but never hope harder than you work.  We are all writing in real life.  So my advice is — don’t wait for huge chunks of time all alone in a cabin in the woods.  You won’t have any momentum built up and it will be like pulling the story out with your teeth.  Fold it into your real life. Set yourself up for success.  If you can get up early and write two pages five times a week you are golden. If getting up early makes you want to jump off a cliff find a time you do want to work. But small, regular writing times, with  small easy page quotas are what is going to get the job done. You will build up a creative momentum, so break the process down into one baby step after another, and you will have a novel.  And everyone in your life is going to find a reason to take up your writing time and you have to say NO.  Just no.  Unless maybe they are bleeding.  A serious amount of blood.

Aslo, give yourself permission to write crap every day and take the pressure off.  Be sure and tell a great story.  People will forgive you any mistake as long as you pay attention to once upon a time. And be very careful who you listen to. There are a million people with opinions on how a writer should write. Only listen to the ones who do it for a living.  And only if it resonates with you.  If you’re not sure, try it both ways.  But you cannot write a novel by committee and sometimes you just have to do it without all the noise in your head.  Success in writing is about stubborness as well as talent.

What kind of books do you read, any favorite authors?

I will read any novel that tells a good story — I don’t care what genre it is and all books are one genre or another.  I will give the author one chapter.  If they don’t entertain me or they piss me off I throw the book across the room.  I will  likely curse.  My dog Leo refuses to duck.  He tries to catch the book.  He gets hit in the head sometimes and I feel really bad.  But he is a big bucket head Belgian Shepherd and he thinks that throwing books across the room is incredibly fun.  So here are some people I am reading this month — Lee Child.  Wendell Berry.  Robert Goddard.  Pat Conroy.  Daniel Silva.  Those are the books spread around my tables right now.  I hold grudges.  If a writer fails me I don’t forget.  And if my book does not grab your interest in three sentences, throw it across the room.

So with the throwing of books across the room in mind, how do you (and Leo) find the ebook revolution?

I welcome it.  I welcome any way anybody wants to read.  Now Leo is not big on computers. He does not read books, he only catches them in his teeth.  He is more interested in balls.  If I try to read a scene to him, and I admit I have, he roots through his basket of toys and puts one in my lap.  It’s a pretty clear message.

When I read for pleasure I want the tactile pleasure and familiar comfort of an actual physical book. But if you want a screen I don’t care.  I just want you reading my story.  Anywhere and anyway you like.

How do you go about the marketing aspect and especially related to your online presence? Anything you’ve seen work better than other things?

I like the access online presence gives to readers and writers — more ways to connect.  Fewer barriers.  On the other hand, it is time consuming.  And there is so much noise out there.  And I admit that social media makes me want to put a blanket over my head.  I think it can be useful.  I’m not good at it.

So what do you do when you’re not writing, any hobbies? Ha. I wish.  I write half the day and teach the other half — writing courses through UCLA Extension Writer’s Program. I like their program because it is taught by actual writers.  Who actually publish books.  Something many writing programs seem to find unnecessary.  So my daily schedule is aggressive.  I would like to tell you that I am out working on my Tango, canoeing level zero rivers and streams, and throwing paint on a canvas while music plays in the background. But it would be a damn lie.  I am toast by the end of the day.  I put on a pair of ancient worn out Levis, pile my hair on my head, and take Leo for a long rambling walk. Then I open a bottle of wine and cook and curl up with the Frenchman.  I will be binging Netflix or reading a book until I fall asleep.  On the weekends I don’t like a schedule but it usually comes down to brunch, farmer’s market,antiquing, movies, and an extraordinary time spent with the Frenchman at gardening centers.  And I love every minute of it.

We also have to talk about the future. What plans do you have, any upcoming projects?

I am working on something high concept and ambitious and that gives me that tingly feeling at the base of my spine that means I have my teeth in something  I’m going to love.  When it’s done I’ll be on to the next.  Writing is what I do, and I don’t know how people survive without a novel going on in their head.  Who wants to live in the real world 24 hours a day? Not me.

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Interview by Dag Rambraut – SFFWorld.com © 2015

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