Hello Beautiful People,
I was first introduced to Lyndsay Faye by my colleague, friend, and Write Teacher(s) Team member, Anna Ty Bergman. You may even remember her from our Artist(s) of New York Column – (it’s amazing, trust me!) So, when Lyndsay was able to do an interview for our Author Q&A Series, I was ELATED.
MM: First things first, did you ever envision yourself as an author?
LF: Absolutely not–it came as a huge surprise. I was an actress for about a decade, working pretty steadily in fact, but I’m not cut out for it. The constant unemployment, always wondering if you were going to be somehow good enough to nail the audition when you were working till three am the night before–the smart ones make their own projects as well as landing gigs, whereas I felt I had no autonomy. When my first book was finished, let alone published, no one was more surprised than I was.
MM: When you were a teenager, what was your favorite book?
LF: Oh, that’s pretty easy for me. The Sherlock Holmes mysteries have been my constant companions since I was around ten. When I started reading them, I just never stopped. I still haven’t.
MM: Of all the character’s you’ve created, is there one in particular that is your favorite?
LF: Interesting. I think authors love all their characters in a way, even the hateful ones, because there’s nothing more mind-numbing than accidentally writing a flat character. You think reading about a two-dimensional character is boring? Seriously, try writing one. When a character has no real hook, it’s somehow both demoralizing and excruciatingly dull at the same time. Characters really have to live and breathe, whether they’re heroes or villains or a little of both, or as a writer you just want to throw in the towel and bartend on an island somewhere. If you get a kick out of a character, if you enjoy their quirks and foibles and talents and voice, then coming back to the computer is easy instead of horrible.
That being said, I have a particular fondness for the Wilde brothers. Not either of them alone, but them as siblings, both Timothy and Valentine, because they’re very yin and yang, oil and water, while still having the same priorities. Family, justice, courage. There’s so much conflict and tragic history there that the pair are a real joy to write.
MM: Just for fun, if you were stranded on a desert island, what movies would you want to have with you?
LF: Oh, all the classic comedies–The Jerk, Caddyshack, The Blues Brothers, L.A. Story, that sort of thing.
MM: Just for fun, if you had to choose five musicians to listen to for the rest of your life, who would they be?
LF: I don’t think I could survive without The Beatles and The Police, and The National are my more contemporary favorite (huh, these are eerily similar band names). After that I’d have to go with Queen and probably old school Elton John.
MM: Just for fun, what books are permanently on your bookshelf?
LF: There are tons of those, actually. Pretty much everything by Toni Morrison, Michael Chabon, Vladimir Nabokov, William Faulkner, T. S. Eliot, Agatha Christie, Tana French, lots of single titles like The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber and Little, Big by John Crowley, etc. I don’t always read people’s entire catalogs, but when I really like a book, it stays.
MM: Do you write at a particular time of day and/or at a particular place?
LF: We’re still renovating my office, so it’s most often in my striped comfy chair in the living room, surrounded by research materials. I can work during the day, I’m capable, but I’m easily distracted and my husband is a bartender, so we keep late hours. Part of my creative brain really clicks on when the sun sets. Then, once I’ve started, I just go until I cannot possibly go any more, until my brain is fried like an egg, and then I watch Star Trek or something Sherlockian and pass out.
MM: Can you describe your writing process for our readers?
LF: I do about six months of research per book, and when I feel I’m saturated enough in the language and subject, I start writing. Depending on whether I’m creating a whole new cast of characters, that can be either very simple (as was the case with Dust and Shadow) or very difficult (as was the case with The Gods of Gotham). I often know key turning points, and I usually know what magicians call the “prestige,” which is essentially the plot hat trick on which the narrative hangs. The rest is filling in the gaps and figuring out whodunnit, because I have literally no idea myself. It’s as much a mystery to me as it is to you–I just try to put my characters in situations where they’ll really be challenged, where their hearts and brains will be tested in ways they’ve never experienced.
MM: What’s next for Lyndsay Faye? (In terms of new and upcoming projects.)
LF: I’m working on a standalone now, and I’m very nearly through the first draft. It’s exciting because it’s all new people, and getting to know them has been difficult and rewarding in equal measure. And I’ve been guest writing for the Eisner-nominated comic Watson and Holmes, which is a joy.
MM: In today’s economy, arts programs are being cut. What reasons would you give to a politician for preserving the arts?
LF: Without the arts, what’s the point of the rest of it? Everyone has dreams, heartaches, contradictions, aspirations, lost loves–if there aren’t books and songs and paintings to explain us to ourselves, how can we live fully?
MM: Who is/was your greatest teacher?
LF: My high school English teacher, Jim LeMonds; my first novel is dedicated to him. He taught an AP English class he called Five Easy Pieces, in which there were no due dates–we had to turn in five finished works by the end of the semester, and they each were done when he said they were done, generally between six and eight drafts later. He taught me everything Sir Arthur Conan Doyle didn’t.
Thank you, Lyndsay!
And, Write Teacher(s) Readers, be sure to check out her novels on LyndsayFaye.com!
Live, Love, Learn,