Lexie Dunne has just released the third book in her Superheroes Anonymous series and we have talked to her about the series as well as her inspiration.
First of all, can you tell us a bit about How to Save the World?
How to Save the World is my third book in my Superheroes Anonymous series, which is the tale of a Lois Lane-type becoming Supergirl. My mom calls it “Lois Lane gets even,” which makes me want a Die Hard where Lois Lane and John McLane get up to shenanigans together. (With Lois’s terrible spelling, the sign would say “Ho Ho Ho Now I Have a Masheen Gunn.”) But I don’t have license to use any DC properties, so all of my superheroes are homegrown. Gail, once kidnapped so frequently that everybody calls her Hostage Girl, winds up with superpowers of her own. Even with the newfound ability to fight back, something she could never do before, life isn’t easy for her. This book in particular covers what happens when Gail tries to leave the superhero community behind and live a normal life (spoiler: it doesn’t go well).
This is the third installment in your series. What new goals did you set for yourself with How to Save the World?
Each book presents its own unique goals that I discover at the worst possible time. I don’t know if I sat down and thought I’m going to make things really difficult for myself by attempting this new trick. No, the ability to shoot myself in the foot comes naturally! One challenge I faced was walking the line between building on previous storylines and welcoming new readers. I like to throw Gail in over her head right away, but my editor frowns when I do the same thing to readers. This is also the first time I’ve been able to tag along with characters into a third book, so it was important to me to keep the characters both consistent and growing in ways that made sense.
What do you feel is unique about your take on the whole superhero theme?
As I’ve learned from listing the powers of every character I have and immediately receiving “Oh, like such and such superhero?” in reply, the answer to this is NOT their powers. And I’m okay with that. Ten people could have the same power and use it in ten different ways. I subvert a lot of the typical tropes (damsel in distress, I must keep my identity secret to protect you). It keeps things fresh, and I get to poke fun at a thing I love. I wouldn’t write superheroes if I didn’t absolutely adore them with every fiber of my being, but as a genre, some things are seriously broken. So I’m going to shine a very loving light on those things.
How do you feel your main character Gail Godwin has evolved throughout the series?
Gail’s had quite a journey to get to where she is at the start of How to Save the World. In the beginning of the first book, she’s stuck in a feedback loop: she works a job she hates for health insurance she needs to because the villains are convinced her 6’4 green-eyed boyfriend Jeremy is the 6’4 green-eyed hero Blaze. Her ways of coping require developing a passiveness that’s frustrating to wrangle as an author. Her first reaction is usually “I’m going to stay right here and see if it fixes itself.” While this is admittedly my instinct in most situations, it’s not as exciting in a character who’s supposed to be out there punching bad guys in the face. Mercifully, as her powers have matured and she’s sorted out her place in the superhero world, she’s become much more reactive. Proactive even, sometimes! Her appetite has evolved as well, which is fun because the amount of food consumed at a hot dog eating contest is probably a normal dinner for her. Right now I think her metabolism is about four times that of an active, full-grown human male. I get so hungry writing these books, you don’t even know.
What are your future plans for the series?
It’s a series I have to take from book to book, so I can’t make any promises there will be more! But the Gailverse, as I call it, has such potential. I have ideas! And I’d love to write short stories about Angélica, Vicki, and Gail’s coworker Portia, as I think all three of them have wonderful, rich lives that we don’t get to explore much while I’m pitting Gail against people way more powerful than her.
How did you start writing? Was there a particular book or moment in your life that spurred you on?
I’ve been writing since I was eleven years old, so I don’t know if there was one specific book. The first book was a school assignment. I got an A. Absolutely nobody who knows me now is surprised by that. But ever since then, the act of writing, thinking about writing, fretting over writing, and loving writing has been embedded in my DNA.
How do you go about the marketing aspect and especially related to your online presence? Anything you’ve seen work better than other things?
Marketing is such a weird thing for me. I don’t like flooding timelines and dashboards with self-promotion. It makes me feel self-conscious and kind of icky, to use the technical term. I try to follow the rule of thirds: one third industry news, one third about me, and one third book promotion. And it’s important that the promotion isn’t boring, so I’ll spice it up with terrible jokes, behind the scenes tidbits, and the occasional bad photoshop. My experiments have taught me that people respond to authenticity, so I try to be as genuine as possible. Even though sometimes it can come across as sarcastic.
What books inspired your career as an author, and what authors do you enjoy now?
One author I don’t talk about much because she doesn’t write a large amount in the same genre is Meg Cabot. In high school, my dream was to be Meg Cabot. Her chatty style, the use of first person, all of her heroines with their insecurities and their ability to still kick ass, all it’s always been wonderful to me. Anne McCaffrey, Brian Jacques, Gail Carson Levine, Bruce Coville, Michael A. Stackpole, Madeleine L’Engle, Tanya Huff, all of these authors pushed me gently through high school. Authors I like now include Brandon Sanderson, Claudia Gray, Terry Pratchett (I know, I jumped on that bandwagon super late). Last week, I finished Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst, and I’m still thinking about that book.
What’s next? Any new and exciting projects you are working on at the moment?
Because I don’t believe in doing things the easy way, I’m sprinting away from my comfort zone and giving the superheroes a tiny break so I can focus on magical alt-history. Because you know what Prohibition really needed? Magic and sword fights. *sage nod*
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Interview by Dag Rambraut – SFFWorld.com © 2016
