Interview with NY Times Bestselling Author, Lynn Kurland

ERIN:
Welcome to Ramblings of a Writer, Lynn. Will you share a little bit about
yourself?

Lynn:
I'm just your average wife/mother/laundress trying to keep up with a family while getting to spend all kinds of times taking notes about the activities of characters in a far different situation and typing them up into books. I love my family, love to laugh, wish I could live on chocolate and sharp cheddar (not together), and am amazed at the really wonderful people I've gotten to "meet" on this journey--like you, Erin! :)


ERIN:
Tell me about your newest release and where it is available:

Lynn:
GIFT OF MAGIC is out right now and is available either through your local bookseller or any online book site. It’s the third book in a trilogy about Ruith of Ceangail and Sarah of Doíre who are off on a rather difficult quest to clean up the mess Ruith’s late father made of quite a few things. Only what they find at the end of the road is not exactly what they were expecting to
find . . .


Erin:
Where do you like to write? Is there a specific place that inspires you?

Lynn:
I'm not very picky about place or time. I spend lots of time working in the car while waiting for kids or surreptitiously scribbling notes on pieces of paper I have in the past resorted to borrowing from others when I had nothing with me.

If I were to write in my dream spot, it would be the Washington coast in a beach house with a fire in the fireplace and glorious views available thanks to big picture windows. I suppose I could, if I had to, make do with a cute little bed and breakfast in the Lake District or in a handy car park near any number of castles in the UK.


Erin:
When/how did you decide you wanted to write for a living?

Lynn:
I had actually planned on being as professional a musician as preferring to be home at night in my pjs would allow, but apparently that wasn't in the master plan. Once I tried my hand at writing, though, I was hooked. I was very blessed to get picked up at just the right time by the right editor at the right publisher. It's been bliss ever since!

Erin:
What inspired you to write time travel and fantasy romance?

Lynn:
I would have to say it was Constance O'Day-Flannery's books that got me hooked on time travels, and Tolkien who gave me my first love of fantasy. Couple all that with not enough romance in Lord of the Rings to suit me and a completely unhealthy relationship with Mad Magazine in high school and I think you pretty much have all my biggest influences right there. I love a good love story, a good laugh, and things that take me away to another place where anything's possible. Time travel and fantasy fit the bill for both.

ERIN:
Are you a plotter or pantser?

Lynn:
A little of both, probably, but not really wedded to either. I find the longer I do this, the less time I have to spend tossing out entire chunks of books and rewriting them, so I try to have some vague idea of where the story is going before I start. Sometimes I'll just create a big synopsis file and jot down ideas for plot points (which sometimes morphs into entire chapters or big chunks of the book if I get inspired), but the real joy of it all for me is starting with a blank page and just watching the story unfold. I don't think I'm a very good writer (you should see my first drafts--no, on second thought, you really shouldn't!!), but I think I'm an okay rewriter, and I do a LOT of rewriting no matter how detailed my big synopsis files get.

ERIN:
How do you develop your characters?

Lynn:
I always feel a little dorky saying this, but I honestly think they're just there. I don't know if Michaelangelo really said this, but he is credited with saying, "I saw the angel in the marble
and carved until I set him free." I'm hardly in his league, but I completely understand what he's saying. The characters are just there, waiting for me to dig around enough, write them and rewrite them enough until they are on the page how they are on my mental stage. I don't do character interviews, but I will sit down and write and rewrite their backstory until I think I know them well enough to either begin or continue on. Most of that stuff just hits the cutting room floor, but it helps me figure out who they are.


ERIN:
What do you do to keep things new and fresh?

Lynn:
If I manage either, it's from the sheer terror of possibly having every review begin with "it's the same old stuff all over again!" I guess there's a point where you could drive yourself crazy trying to keep everything new and different and original. How many variations can you make of the plot line "boy meets girl, stuff happens, boy gets girl and they live happily ever after?" Throw a little time travel in there and you have my stuff in a nutshell.

The saving grace for me is just the characters and how they linger in my mind. I find that with books that were really memorable for me, it's characters who I can call to mind years later, not the plot. My characters are going to fall in love, stuff is going to happen to keep them apart, there's going to be a resolution, but how that all happens for that particular collection of people
is going to be specific to them. Hopefully that's enough originality to make the books worth reading!


ERIN:
Do you have a favorite quote you’d like to share?

Lynn:
I love Coco Channel: "How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something, but to be someone."


ERIN:
Did any music inspire your book? Do you have a playlist?

Lynn:
I've just now been working (in the car, waiting for a kid, as usual) and in the past twenty minutes I've listened to Corinne Bailey Rae, Vladimir Horowitz, Grieg's piano concerto, the Rachmaninoff Vespers, Taxman (the Beatles), Shining Star (Earth Wind and Fire), Take 5 by some quartet I've never heard of, 5-o'clock-world by Hal Ketchum, some Enya, Duran Duran's title song from The Saint, something by Kurt Elling . . . I listen to a lot of classical just because I love it, but there's no rhyme or reason to it. I don't know why, but I write twice as fast and at least twice as smart when I have some sort of instrumental something going on as background noise. I am currently loving Keira Knightley's Pride and Prejudice.


ERIN:
Which of your characters would you most/least like to invite to dinner, and
why?

Lynn:
(Is my husband going to read this?) Um, Patrick MacLeod would be first on my list--if we were both single, I was a little younger, and didn't have dark circles and bags under my eyes--followed closely by Robert Cameron (same caveats) for the men, Jennifer McKinnon, Sunshine Phillips or Peaches Alexander for the women. I think the person I would least like to have dinner with would be Bentley from A Garden in the Rain. I'd probably push his soup off into his lap.


ERIN:
What's next for you?

Lynn:
I'm finishing up the first book of a new fantasy trilogy right now, then turning to the romance for 2013. I don't think I can give away any details about the characters yet . . . too soon for that!


ERIN:
What’s the most challenging aspect of writing? Most rewarding?

Lynn:
The most challenging is probably maintaining an uncluttered enough mental space to create easily--let's not talk about an uncluttered physical space! The most rewarding is definitely the emails I get from people who've found something useful in my books. What a gift!


ERIN:
What’s the most interesting comment you have received about your books?

Lynn:
Early on I got an email from a gal who told me the story of her experience with two of my books. Stardust of Yesterday she had loathed with a white-hot passion and vowed never to read anything I wrote ever, ever, ever again. Fast forward a couple of years, she picks up a book with a cool cover (I think it was This Is All I Ask), starts it, then shoots me a furious email that said, paraphrased, "I was only a couple of pages into it before I realized it was YOU!" Book met wall. I'm imagining there was swearing involved. I was frankly thrilled that someone could pick up my book while obviously forgetting my name yet still be able to recognize my voice. Yippee! It was probably the highest compliment anyone has ever paid me, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't how she meant it! :)


ERIN:
Who are some of your favorite authors and books? What are you reading now?

Lynn:
I loved Elizabeth Peter's Emelia Peabody series, Dorothy Cannell's The Thin Woman, Dick Francis' To The Hilt (well, I own his entire backlist and love them all, but that's my favorite), Anne George's mysteries. John Prebble's Lion in the North is probably my favorite non-fiction historical work. I have an enormous romance and fantasy pile that I’ll get to when I’m not writing either! Right now I'm reading P.G. Wodehouse's Blandings castle series, which I'm liking a little less than the Jeeves books.


ERIN:
What is your favorite color?

Lynn:
Blue. When it's not green.


ERIN:
What is your favorite food?

Lynn:
Chocolate


ERIN:
Who is your favorite author?

Lynn:
Tolkien. He's the master.


Thank you very much, Lynn, for taking the time to do this interview. I know you are a busy woman and fitting me into your schedule means more than you know. I wish you the best and cannot wait to read your next release.

You can find Lynn at www.LynnKurland.com