When a ghost-hunting
episode of the popular paranormal web series Othernaturals goes bad, two
cast members quit, and Othernaturals producer, telepathic Rosemary
Sharpe, finds herself carrying the ghost of an axe murderer on her
shoulder. Now she must hire two new members for her team before her show
moves on to investigate a haunted dormitory at a state university, all
the while keeping her angry companion at bay. Disgraced psychic Andrew
Fletcher and renowned healer Kaye Whittington sign on, joining
Rosemary’s team that includes an animal empath and his traveling
companion Vladimir the cat, a psychic vampire who is more cheerleader
than bloodsucker, and a haunted medium who shares head space with his
best friend who died twenty years ago. Even the show’s director can see
ghosts. Rosemary’s philosophy is that the supernatural doesn’t need to
be real, as long as her viewers believe that it is, but her own extra
passenger has other ideas about avenging himself on the team that
abducted him from his haunting grounds – and on any innocent spirit they
may encounter. But Rosemary inherited her famous rock star
grandfather’s powerful telepathic ability to control a room. An evil
spirit has attached itself to her, but exactly which one of them is in
the possession of the other? Passions and paranoia are all part of the
package, when filming an un-reality show. Possessed is the exciting
first book in the new series by Christina Harlin, author of paranormal
thrillers Never Alone and Deck of Cards and the romantic adventures of
legal secretary Carol Frank in the “Boss” series. In addition to the
book itself, the Othernaturals series also has a website that includes
pictures, ghost stories, additional information about the characters,
and some fun things for fans.
If
you could work with any other author, who would it be and why?
Debra,
I have to let you know: this was the toughest question of the bunch.
I considered many names: Frank Herbert, because he created a
detailed, far-distant future for the human race; Ray Bradbury,
because while he could write a truly frightening story, he was
tender-hearted and romantic too; Shirley Jackson, because she is the
author I most closely identify with myself; Daphne du Maurier because
wow, what melodrama that woman could write! I’d even work with the
first human who carved a story on a cave wall—what an amazing trip
that would be. But since this question is open to all possibilities,
I choose work with a very dear friend of mine who died at 35 with a
lot of stories in him. He had the talent to make those stories
happen, and already had a large readership on his pop-culture blog.
In our different-but-compatible styles, we worked together on several
things before he was lost. We had a project in mind for
collaboration: a screenplay about a jigsaw-puzzlers’ convention.
I’d love to know how that would have turned out. He's been gone
for years, and I miss him to this day.
What
would be a typical working day for you? When and where do you write?
I
have a day job at a law firm – writing is my passion but steady
income has its benefits. I have to work writing in around the 9 to 5
schedule. Saturdays and Sundays find me in front of the computer for
hours at a stretch. Weekdays, I write the evenings from 6:30-7:30 or
9:30 to 11:30, with a day off each week for brain rest, unless my
brain informs me that she is fine and wants to keep working. At
least once a year I’ll have a stay-cation so I can write every day
for as long as I like, plus make long-term plans for projects. I sit
before my computer monitor at my battered desk, which bears the scars
of many moves and un-coastered drinks. I have a tall glass of
seltzer water to my left, music playing in my headphones, and a big
grey cat trying to sit on my keyboard.
If
I become stuck in a piece of fiction, I write essays about movies for
my blog The
Movie Orphan.
This blog has been instrumental in keeping me writing over the past
five years, because it is as assignment I gave myself regarding one
of my favorite things. Doing this has actually made me a better
writer. I can see a difference in what I do now and what I did
before The Movie Orphan became part of my life. At one low point,
after a bad experience with a publishing company when I was quite
seriously thinking, “Screw this, I’m never writing anything
again,” blogging movie essays actually pulled me through. I don’t
really know how many steady readers my blog has, but find it matters
very little to me. Movie blogging is something I do for entirely
selfish reasons. I do love to hear from other movie fans and
readers, though; they’re always terrific and often have great
suggestions on what to write about next.
In
the worst-case scenario: i.e., I am stuck in my fiction, and I have
no movies to write about, I actually write fan fiction that will
never, never, never see the light of day. These embarrassing little
vignettes have proven to be quite useful. Sometimes a very good idea
for the “stuck” story will spring from what is basically fan-girl
Mary-Sue-ing.
What
is the hardest part of the writing for you?
Oh,
how I struggle with endings. I learned long ago that I need to have
an ending in mind before I even try starting a story. If I have no
final goal, I will dawdle and meander and wind up with two-thirds of
a story that goes nowhere. Had you met me fifteen years ago, you
would have found a woman with four manuscripts that were pretty solid
all the way to 80% done, and then mysteriously “lost” their last
two chapters. I’m not inflexible, as stories will occasionally
veer off in other directions, but having a basic plan-of-action on
where things will be wrapping up has truly helped me. Once I adopted
that rule, I began to finish writing projects. This was quite an
accomplishment for me!
In
the case of the Othernaturals
series, the individual books are more episodic in nature. I feel the
books’ conclusions pause the story rather than conclude it.
Nevertheless, I have goals in mind for each of the characters, and
I’m always working toward them. For example, when we reach the
conclusion of a plot thread in Book Six, I hope readers can look back
to Book One and see that thread’s beginnings.
When
and why did you first start writing?
This
compulsion to write was apparently something I was born with. My
mother, who has always been so wonderfully supportive, tells me that
before I actually knew how to write, I drew stories in pictures. I
have a suitcase full of things I wrote as a child and teenager. I
wrote my first book, though I use the term loosely, when I was 12, on
a spiral notebook in multi-colored magic markers. There’s another
early effort – an espionage adventure, if you can believe that—that
was my first effort on my best Christmas present ever, a Smith-Corona
typewriter. This was my hysterically bad attempt to be a 14-year-old
Ian Fleming when I didn’t even know how to drive a car. The
terrible typing is the very least of its problems. For all its
faults, however, it is a complete story, so I must have had the awful
ending in mind before I started.
Writing
is one of my favorite things to do. I would continue writing stories
even if they were never to see the light of day. That was the case
for a long time! Simple fear, of criticism, rejection, or exposure,
kept me from making any real efforts to put my writing out in the
world. Age and experience bring perspective, thank goodness.
Eventually I realized that if I did not at least try to share my
stories, I would someday regret it. I made my anal-retentive lists,
gave myself deadlines and assignments, and got serious about the
business of writing books.
How
did you come up with the idea for your book?
I’m
a sucker for paranormal stories and love to write them. Few of these
stories were of sufficient heft to create an entire book, or at least
seemed so to me—which is an evasive way of saying that I was having
trouble with endings again. A couple of these stories actually did
make it as their own books, but as for the rest, I simply didn’t
know what to do with them.
My
son Jake and I are big fans of paranormal investigation shows. As we
watched many episodes of ghost hunting, I realized that my paranormal
story ideas needed that kind of cohesiveness. Why not create series
of stories about paranormal investigators?
All
I needed then was a team. Mentally I made a list of several
supernatural gifts I found intriguing. Seven characters stepped into
those places then proceeded to turn my expectations upside down.
Here are a just a few examples: I thought team leader Rosemary
Sharpe was a gorgeous, gregarious telepath and have since learned she
has a dangerous dark side and a real issue with impulse control. I
wanted a vampire on my team, but a real Nosferatu would be
over-the-top in this context, so here came Sally Friend, a bouncy,
cheerful young woman with a serious sun allergy, who thinks of
herself as a vampire because she feeds on the energy of others. I
expected little Judge Duncan to be a shy, bullied boy, and he
surprised me by being a charming, confident stage actor. I'm
desperate to rescue Stefan, I'm growing to truly respect Andrew's
inner kindness, and the moral opposition of Kaye is going to be
trouble, I can just tell, despite how much I admire her.
Can
you tell that I love these people? They’re like friends of mine
now, and I wouldn’t insult them by saying they were mere fiction.
Since they became real to me, I've had no trouble engaging them in
all the paranormal stories I've imagined through the years.
At
that point, I needed only to go on a few ghost-hunting expeditions
myself to get a real feel for the game, with Jake along as my
photographer and as, to be honest, the guy I can hide behind. That's
been so much fun, as well as being a great learning experience about
human nature and the stories we create. I plan to continue visiting
haunted places for that very reason.
Are
you a big reader? If so, what are you reading now?
I
love to read. I wish I had more time to do it! My preferred genres
are fantasy, thrillers, crime dramas, historical romances, and simply
great novels. Right now I’m reading There’s
No Place Like Here by
Cecelia Ahern and a book my son recommended to me, Yahtzee Croshaw’s
comical apocalypse tale Jam.
I’m
also re-reading Hannibal
by
Thomas Harris. Like most avid readers, I usually have more than one
book going at a time.
Do
you have any advice for other aspiring writers?
In
my own experience, nothing has held me back more than my own fear.
In my case, that’s an ongoing fight. I hope that once I survive
enough battles, I’ll win the war. I am very lucky to have a
terrific husband and son; their combined support and bravery have
helped more than anything else. Therefore, I hope that aspiring
writers have support behind them. Use that support. It’s
priceless.
You
may hit bumps in the road, bad ones that make you reconsider most of
your life’s choices and writing in particular. Remember that after
a time, when the hurt has lessened, you’ll be better equipped than
before. I’ve learned a great deal from experiences that I thought
would crush me – first and foremost, that they failed to crush me.
I
offer this advice whenever I’m asked, and perhaps it is a big
“Well, duh!” moment, but it was something I had to learn for
myself. This is a rather brutal truth: the formal publishing
industry doesn’t care about your talent or dedication as a writer.
Publishers want to know if they can sell your work and make money.
That is the bottom line. Though it feels cold, it’s not personal.
It’s just business. Wonderful, if you can be both talented and
lucrative
– but a lot of writers are out there, in competition for limited
resources. Current publishers are very cautious and only buy what
they consider “sure things.” Once I fully grasped this, I
stopped taking rejection quite so hard and moved beyond the
traditional publishing paradigm.
The
Internet has opened an entirely new world for authors. I used to
feel that self-publication was an amateur conceit, something in which
only bad writers with delusions of grandeur engaged. That is no
longer the case. Yes, easy self-publication has resulted in a
hundred thousand new books every week or so. That’s the downside,
but it’s not a deal-breaker. I personally think the world can use
all the stories it can get. I like to believe that the stories which
deserve recognition will make it there.
Nor
does your writing have to be books. My son Jake creates detailed
plots for role-playing games, and hopes to publish them when they are
perfected. Blogs, at the very least, are great writing practice.
Serial stories or narratives with art can be put on YouTube. You
have a webiverse of opportunity. Go nuts with it!
This
leads me to my final bit of advice. It is always said, “Write what
you know,” but I prefer to say, “Write what you love.” If you
are enjoying what you’re writing, it shows. What’s more, if you
are enjoying yourself, a lot of the pressure goes away. It ceases to
matter so very much, whether you make a book deal or sell 10,000
copies or get reviewed by the New
York Times.
Then, when good things do happen, they're just gravy on your
potatoes. You’re doing what you love, and how can you ever regret
that?
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