Today best-selling author Jean Rabe talks about her writing.
Name: Jean Rabe
Author of: 31 fantasy and adventure novels, 70 short stories
Her recent book is The Cauldron (It will be coming out in a new version soon.)
Author of: 31 fantasy and adventure novels, 70 short stories
Her recent book is The Cauldron (It will be coming out in a new version soon.)
1. What am I working on?
- A short story set in a 1920s Chicago neighborhood on a moon base
- A fantasy short story with dwarves
- A science fiction novel with female impersonators and horrible weather
- A cozy murder mystery set in Indiana
2. How does my work differ from others in the genre?
Hmmmmmmm … I write in various genres,
currently loving urban fantasy. Plan to write two more urban fantasy novels
after I finish my current projects. I’d say my work differs ‘cause it’s my work,
not another author’s. Actually, that’s a tough question, as I don’t read a lot
of urban fantasy…even though it’s my current favorite genre to write in. So…in
the end…I don’t know the answer. Ask me something else.
3. Why do I write what I do?
I get inspired by an idea, or a person I see
on the street or at a public place, by a news story that I twist into a fantasy
or sci fi aspect. Andre Norton and I used to chat once a month, talking about
where ideas come from. She was always asking … what if … and what if after that
… and what if then? So I’ll here about something like a water shortage in
California, and I’ll think … what if the shortage is caused by demons living in
the San Andreas fault and their sapping water from rivers and lakes and pulling
it from the atmosphere. Or maybe I’ll look at a stack of Christmas cards I’ve
received and say “how could I turn them into a story”…which is what I’m doing
right now.
4.
How does my writing process work?
I outline. For a short story, it’s a few
random thoughts or points. For a novel, its pages and pages, a
chapter-by-chapter outline, sometimes with dialogue thrown in. The more I outline,
the easier it is for the book to write. I start work around 7:30 every morning,
take a 10 a.m. break to toss tennis balls for my big dog, write, take a noon
break to toss tennis balls, write, take a 2 p.m. break to toss tennis balls,
write, then stop for the day about dinner time. I look at it as a regular
full-time job…with tennis ball breaks added for good measure…nice to get out of
the chair, ya know.
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