Author Genevieve Valentine

Genevieve Valentine’s fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Journal of Mythic Arts, Fantasy Magazine, Lightspeed, and Apex, and in the anthologies Federations, The Living Dead 2, The Way of the Wizard, Running with the Pack, Teeth, and more.

Her nonfiction has appeared in Lightspeed, Tor.com, and Fantasy Magazine, and she is the co-author of Geek Wisdom (out in Summer 2011 from Quirk Books).

Her first novel, Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti, is forthcoming from Prime Books in May 2011. You can learn more about it at the Circus Tresualti website.

What is the current project you are working on?

At the moment I'm playing around with expanding the world of my short "The Nearest Thing", which I feel is a story with more to tell.

How do you handle rejection?

I cry violently, print out and make several photocopies of the rejection, and burn them one at a time in a ceremonial cistern while drinking orange juice straight from the carton. Or, accept it as part of the process and keep going, but the first one sounds better.

Did you always want to be a novelist?

I always wanted to be a storyteller, for sure; novels and short stories are a good medium for storytellers who like to stay inside and work alone.

What is the best thing about being one?

Staying inside and working alone.

What is the worst thing about being one?

The horror of the blank page, when you believe the book could be perfect so long as you don't actually start anything.

What is the estimated number of projects you have worked on?

Professionally, I've written about forty short stories and several novels, including my first published novel, Mechanique [http://www.circus-tresaulti.com]. If we count all those X-Files spec scripts and Star Trek tie-in novels I wrote in high school, the number of projects gets closer to about eight hundred thousand.

How has your life changed since you became a novelist?

I get paid slightly more for my crippling self-doubt than I did before I was published.

What is one piece of advice you can give to someone who also wants to become a novelist?

Learn how to deal with crippling self-doubt.

What do you like to do besides writing books?

Way back in the mists of time, I enjoyed Argentine tango, but that's a pastime that requires serious upkeep, and it's fallen by the wayside in the last year or two. However, I have an obsession with movies and TV (always have), and really good movies and really awful movies each have equal appeal, even if for different reasons. Rare is the night when I don't want to watch a movie or four.

Have you had any other jobs before you decided to become a novelist?

Yes, and I still do! I think quite a few writers have a day job that actually pays their bills. I've temped for film studios, worked in event planning, managed the take-out counter at a restaurant, among other things.

What are some of your favorite American films? Foreign films? Television shows?

This week? (I'm just saying, this is a list that changes with the tides.)

Old and new favorites include The Warriors, The Deep End, the original Prime Suspect (let's not talk about the American remake), Blood and Sand, Homicide: Life on the Street, Downton Abbey, Soapdish, Galaxy Quest, and sometimes Besieged.




What is your writing process like?

It depends on the piece and what I want out of it. I tend to set aside interesting pieces of information and come back to them later if I think there's a story idea, but I've also sat down with a character or a single line of dialogue or a particular image and started from nothing.

I tend not to outline very much on the first draft, which means that there's a lot of outlining and fixes in the second draft. Someday I hope this pattern will self-correct, but I've been waiting a long, long time.

How would you describe the literary "scene" where you live?

Well, I'm lucky enough to live in New York, so the literary scene is plentiful. Like most subcultures, it can sometimes look a little bit like a high school and the various cliques that come with it, but for the most part I think it's one of those subcultures that has something for everyone, and even if it doesn't, you're already in New York and there are ten great restaurants in a three-block radius where you can soothe your sorrows.

How has social media changed the publishing industry?

Vastly. It's put authors front and center with readers, booksellers, and publishers - which is great for some authors, and daunting for others.  However, like any tool, it's only as useful as you make it, and the prevalence and popularity of social media in the publishing industry means that a blog post can start a movement, or a hasty Tweet can sink a book deal. I participate in some aspects of social media (I have a Twitter and a Facebook and the rest), and I enjoy it, but it all moves so fast and does so much that I've gotten used to feeling a little behind the times.

What's your opinion on crowdfunding?

It's definitely an interesting venue for artists and audiences to interact directly, but not having had a lot of experience with it either way, I'd have to withhold any really blistering opinion until I know it better.

How does independent film differ from the mainstream?

Man, that's a loaded question! I'd venture to say that, in general, an independent film has the opportunity to be a more cohesive artistic endeavor, because there's less direct studio involvement, and, presumably, fewer rounds of Focus Group Bingo. However, no one makes an independent movie hoping it won't be seen, so there's always the idea that you have to make a movie the public is willing to see, which is something that a filmmaker has to keep in mind whether they like it or not. Not that independent films can't be challenging and smart, because obviously they can, but we're in an age of the blockbuster, and that makes the field a bit cutthroat for indies, I'd imagine.

(The public, I like to think, is actually fond of smart movies - Winter's Bone got nominated for Oscars! - but The Smurfs still got made and then it topped box office numbers for WEEKS, so I don't know what evidence I could possibly provide to counteract that fact.)

You could have any first edition book. Which would it be and why?

Herodotus, The Histories, one of the most delightful history-books-slash-gossip-columns of them all. How could you turn that down?

What's your favorite quote and why?

I actually had an opportunity recently to examine this, because like most geeks there are a thousand quotes I use daily as shorthand for other things ("Pierre, you shouldn't have come!" from Singing in the Rain is surprisingly handy in the era of bad cell phone reception), but when I had the opportunity to co-author Geek Wisdom, which is all geek quotes all the time, I got to submit a list of favorite quotes and the philosophy that lurks behind them. I still use a thousand quotes a day, but the one in the book I might be fondest of is by Sherman Alexie:  "The world is only broken into two tribes: the people who are assholes and the people who are not."

What is your opinion on movie remakes and sequels?

The thing is, as much as Hollywood grinds sequels into the dust (and does it ever), and as much as it's addicted to remakes, no matter what (and is it ever), if you had asked anyone about the wisdom of remaking Batman after Batman & Robin came out, they would have told you that remaking Batman was absolutely the worst idea anyone on the planet had ever, ever had. Then we got Batman Begins. And in case anyone was still arguing about the value of sequels, we got The Dark Knight, which is the exception that both proves the rule and means that a dozen awful sequels got greenlit that week. (Whoops!)

Though something to keep in mind is that a remake works best when the original is flawed in a way that can be challenged or subverted; a grimmer Batman made more sense than Ridley Scott's rumored remake of Blade Runner does. (Just saying, RIDLEY.)

What is your opinion on book to movie adaptations?

As a vast generalization, I think they're an extremely interesting experiment every time. Beyond that it's a case-by-case basis. I definitely have a soft spot for films that are in dialogue with their source material in addition to just adapting it (think The French Lieutenant's Woman), or movies that stand alone as films with just enough of the source material that audiences get interested in the book.

Direct adaptations can sometimes backfire (the quality of the Harry Potter movies often works in inverse correlation to their fidelity to the books), so there's always a danger in trying to just film the book, rather than truly adapt it for film. But, honestly, there's also a little thrill every time the BBC announces another straight-up, beautifully-cast period piece adapted from a classic novel, so clearly my principle and theories only hold up until you fill it with good thespians with great cheekbones; then it's a free-for-all.

Is there anything you would like to add?

 

I really do have an insatiable appetite for bad movies, which is a tragedy I track on my blog [http://www.genevievevalentine.com].

Thank you for doing the interview Genevieve. If you ever do a book signing in Boston let me know.