So today Im thrilled to have author Karen Essex on the blog interviewed by Julianna Baggott, also today I have a fabulous giveaway to my readers thanks to Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours.
Novelist Julianna Baggott, author of The Provence Cure for the Broken-Hearted under the name Bridget Asher, chats with Karen Essex about obsession, criticism, vampires, and Dracula in Love.
Welcome Ladies and thanks for stopping by...with a fun Q&A!
JB: Current obsessions -- literary or otherwise?
KE: London! I moved here temporarily to research Dracula in Love because I wanted to breathe in the atmosphere of late Victorian England, which is very much alive in this city, and I never left! After so many years of living in Los Angeles, which represents everything new, I am having a great awakening living at the intersection of history, of which London has an immense amount, and the very multi-cultural, vital present. I am having the time of my life simply immersing myself in London's many aspects and hope to write about my personal experience here too.
JB: I despise the pervasive myth of inspiration – the idea that an entire book can exist simply because of an accumulation of inspired ideas – but I don’t deny that inspiration exists. There are things that have no other explanation. Was there a singular moment of inspiration for this book?
KE: I'd read Bram Stoker's Dracula when I was fifteen years old, and even at that time, I was sure that the character Mina Harker was dissatisfied with her role as the passive, cooperative Victorian virgin. Then, several decades later, strangely—inexplicably—I was sitting at my computer one night staring into space and the thought popped into my brain: What if I retell the original Dracula myth from Mina Harker's perspective The idea just descended on me. Now that said, I had my "vampire epiphany" long ago. I used to race home from grade school on my bike to catch "Dark Shadows" on TV. I grew up in a family of spooky women in New Orleans, which is a haunted city. I adored Anne Rice's books, and then later, as a screenwriter, adapted Rice's The Mummy or Ramses the Damned for James Cameron and 20th Century Fox (sadly, the film remains unmade!).
So while the idea seemingly just "occurred" to me, I have loved vampire lore for a very long time, and moreover, my novels retell the stories of women in history in an empowering way. So empowering the vampire's "victim" was a natural for me.
JB: Criticism. It’s part of the territory. How do you handle it? Is this the way you’ve always handled it?
KE: This will sound childish and hubristic but when I read a horrible review, I always picture the person who wrote it as morbidly obese and sexually frustrated. I also tell myself that this poor creature, who is generally lambasting me on some point on which they are entirely wrong, usually an historical detail, is not smart enough to understand the complexity of my book or its higher themes! The truth is—and every writer no matter how successful will attest to this—criticism always hurts. It's important to revel in the good comments and minimize thinking on the bad. This actually does not get easier as time goes on, but it is necessary to develop thick skin in order to remain in any sector of the public eye. Now that anyone with access to a computer has a portal for their opinions, we are inundated with criticism. If it doesn’t kill us, it WILL make us stronger.
As far as criticism from the people who support me, such as my agent and my editor, I put my faith in these folks, and I try very hard to listen carefully to their comments. I don't blindly take every suggestion, but I do put my ego aside and try to objectively consider and address everything they bring up. Writers are buried so deeply in the minutia of our stories that we often cannot see the big picture.
JB: What kind of child were you, inside of what kind of childhood, and how did it shape you as a writer?
KE: Like almost every writer throughout history, I was a child who loved to read. My parents used to call me for dinner 100 times before I actually heard their voices because I was so engrossed in a book. "She's come back from the planet Venus," they'd say when I finally showed up at the table. Also, my early years were spent in my grandmother's kitchen, where she, her sister, and their mother, my amazing great-grandmother, told stories all day long while they cooked for the family and for the men who worked in my grandfather's barbershop. They did not censor for the ears of a child, so it was a very rich experience, and I believe, the reason I am a writer today. The Dracula in Love video tells the whole story of how my childhood influenced my tastes and the writing of the novel, so please take a look!
JB: Research. We all have to do it. Sometimes it’s delicious, sometimes brutal. Tell us a tale from the research trenches.
KE: I love research almost as much as I love writing, which is a good thing because research and historical fiction are symbiotic. The most harrowing research I have done was in the archives of Victorian mental hospitals, reading the accounts of the really bizarre treatments given to women in the early days of psychiatry to help "settle them down." A good chunk of Bram Stoker's Dracula takes place in an insane asylum. I wanted to use the same setting in my novel but portray the asylum as it actually was at the time—full of women incarcerated for having what we today would consider normal sexual activity. My conceit for Dracula in Love was that women in the 1890s had a lot more to fear from their own culture than from vampires! I am told that the scariest parts of the book take place in the asylum scenes, which were recreated from painstaking research. People always say to me, "You must have made that stuff up!" But no, everything that happened in those scenes is based on reality. Research will always demonstrate that truth is greater than fiction.
JB: What other jobs have you had -- other than writing or teaching writing? Did one of these help shape you as a writer?
KE: My first career was as a film executive in Hollywood. I am ever grateful that I worked in a real business, albeit a creative one, before I quit and dedicated myself entirely to writing. I write literary novels and have never written anything "for the money," but from day one, I approached writing with an eye to publishing and to earning my income through the endeavor.
Publishing is a business and many writers fail to understand that, which is why many writers fail to publish, or fail to maintain a career as a writer once they are published. I took my "career" as a writer as seriously as I took my career as an executive, which meant learning the mechanics of the industry along with learning the mechanics of the craft. I knew that I had to invest in my writing on every level, including the financial. I made great financial sacrifices for my writing but I considered it an investment in my future, or my "business." Anyone who thinks that publishing is not a business, or that good writers do not think of it that way, is very naive.
To learn more about Karen: http://www.karenessex.com
To learn more about Julianna: http://juliannabaggott.com/books.htm
GIVEAWAY
Today thanks to Historical Book Tours and Anchor Books I have five new paperback novels of Dracula in Love to give to my readers. This giveaway is only open to US residents. To enter please leave a comment and link to info page or email. Thanks and Goodluck!
Dracula in Love by Karen Essex
July 12, 2011 by Anchor Books
From the shadowy banks of the River Thames to the wild and windswept coast of Yorkshire, the quintessential Victorian virgin Mina Murray vividly recounts in the pages of her private diary the intimate details of what transpired between her and Count Dracula—the joys and terrors of a passionate affair and her rebellion against a force of evil that has pursued her through time.
Mina’s version of this timeless Gothic vampire tale is a visceral journey into the dimly lit bedrooms, mist-filled cemeteries, and locked asylum chambers where she led a secret life, far from the chaste and polite lifestyle the defenders of her purity, and even her fiancé, Jonathan Harker, expected of her.
Bram Stoker’s classic novel was only one side of the story. Now, for the first time, Dracula’s eternal muse reveals all. What she has to say is more sensual, more devious, and more enthralling than ever imagined. The result is a scintillating Gothic novel that reinvents the tragic heroine Mina as a modern woman tortured by desire.
Thanks for the great interview and giveaway! I want to read what happens in the insane asylum now...
ReplyDeletesusanna DOT pyatt AT student DOT rcsnc DOT org
That was fantastic. I want to have a London obsession.
ReplyDeleteI ADORE that Dracula picture you included. I still dream of owning that dress.
PS Tina I am LOVING your new 1 sidebar layout.
What an awesome interview!!! Thanks for the giveaway!!!!
ReplyDeleteO and on a side note I picked to be Aphrodite....lol
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Fun interview! I work in an industry where my work is critiqued as well, and no matter how much I tell myself not to let it get to me, it always does. It's impossible to avoid I think:) Thanks so much for the amazing giveaway!
ReplyDeletesupernaturalsnark(at)gmail(dot)com
Vampires are my favorite reads, count me in! [email protected]
ReplyDeleteYou had me at Gothic Vampire
ReplyDeletehawkes(at)citlink.net
I loved that interview, especially the response to the criticism question.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the giveaway!
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What a fabulous interview! I've always been fascinated with Dracula, and I loved all the author's answers! Please enter me!
ReplyDeleteiswimforoceans at gmail dot com
Visiting London is an experience I will never forget. I think writing about your personal experiences sound lovely. I did that for a class assignment while studying abroad and I've always regretting not getting my journal back from my professor.
ReplyDeleteFunny and great way to approach bad reviews.
Thanks so much for the giveaway.
missie at theunreadreader.com
I LOVE the idea of hearing from Mina. Also, can I just say that I adore Karen's outlook on the publishing industry. To pick her brain would be so awesome!
ReplyDeleteinfo (at) tipsyreader (dot) com
I don't know when this giveaway ends, but a winner hasn't been chosen yet as far as I can tell and I'd love to enter!! Thanks for the giveaway!
ReplyDelete[email protected]
Great giveaway! This story sounds interesting!
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