Guest Blogger Linnea Sinclair: Pondering the Paranormal

Thin threads connect the events of our lives. Last year I wrote several articles for an online magazine and just adored my editor, Carla. Well... she told me my articles were brilliant, so what else was I supposed to do but adore her? She left the magazine and began doing author PR. When one of her authors had a book nominated for a Rita I emailed my congratulations.

Fast forward to July 29, the Rita awards are in full swing, La Nora is doing a great job of emceeing, fellow Alabamian and RWA President Gayle Wilson is charming the pantyhose off every attendee and then they announce the finalists for Best Paranormal Romance. And the winner is...

Carla's author! I sent congratulations again. Meanwhile she's checked out the Playground, loves our swingset and says "Can my authors come over and dig in the sandbox?"

We were thrilled at the prospect and since our contest theme at the Writing Playground for the past month has been "Paranormal Pleasures," we decided to shoot for the moon.

The 2006 Rita winner for paranormal romance is blogging with us today and we're delighted. Linnea will be popping in during the day to answer questions, so fire away.

Prizes! Prizes! Linnea is offering two prizes to randomly selected commenters. First prize is an ARC of Gabriel's Ghost and a tote bag. Second prize is a t-shirt and mug. The winners will be posted tomorrow afternoon so check back to see if you won!




WHERE DO YOUR STORIES COME FROM?

I’m sure every author gets asked that question. A lot. But most questioners probably ask it with the usual kindly, somewhat knowing smile.

When I get asked, however, it’s posed with eyes wide open. And more often than not, the questioner takes a step or two back.

See, I write science fiction and science fiction romance. Not your usual kind of story or your usual kind of characters. Starships, seedy spaceports, and odd aliens populate my pages. Matter transporters are normal accoutrements. Loquacious ’droids, renegade space pirates and feisty starfreighter captains flicker in and out of the shadows. Battles rage. Passions are high. Stakes can be galactic in scope.

Rather flies in the face of “write what you know,” you know?

So when readers ask me where my stories come from, the wide-eyed wondering or the quizzical furrowed brow is right there along with the words: where do your stories come from?

I wish I could answer that I had some whiz-bang intergalactic portal transmitting ideas to me, or that I’d unearthed an outer-space alien’s PDA and day planner during one of my forays as a private detective (which is, yes, another story…). But the plain truth of the matter is, I get my stories from the same place every other writer does: from somewhere inside me. From the emotions and experiences I’ve lived through. Not in a galaxy far, far away. But right here.

You see, science fiction romance is no more about tech than regency romance is about reticules. I get a lot of that kind of misidentification from women who come to my table at a book signing, only to back away with, “Oh, I’m not smart enough to read all that technical stuff.” As if one needs a PhD to understand love, jealousy, fear or loyalty.

Because that’s what my books are about: love, jealousy, fear, loyalty. Pride, passion, resentment, determination and hope.

They just happen to be set—for the most part—someplace you’ll likely never go. (But then, I’ve never been to 13th century Scotland, either. Or to Phoenix, Arizona for that matter And there are certainly enough books set in both places.)

So, yes, while a science fiction setting molds my characters, what drives them are the same things that drive characters in books set in Phoenix. Or Caerlaverock Castle in Dumfries, Scotland. Love, jealousy, fear, loyalty and the rest.

Let’s talk about love and fear and loyalty. Chasidah “Chaz” Bergren is a military brat, now a patrol ship captain in a galactic fleet. After years of dedicated service, she finds herself—inexplicably—court-martialed and sent to a prison world to die. A mercenary, her former nemesis shows up—equally as inexplicably. I won’t say “to rescue Chaz” because if you’ve met her (or intend to read her story, and I hope you do), you know she’s fully capable of protecting herself. But show up inexplicably—this enigmatic man, this ghost from her past—does. And Chaz finds her loyalties torn, her fears coming forward. And love…well, that’s perhaps her greatest challenge of all.



Gabriel’s Ghost—Chaz’s story—won the RITA award last July, not, I’d like to think, because it was so chock full of high tech. But because it was chock full of love and loyalty and fear.


So where did Gabriel’s Ghost come from? Specifically two things: a creative writing class assignment to craft an opening scene about fear, and a song off Santana’s Supernatural album, entitled “Put Your Lights On.”

But where it really came from was deeper than that. It came from my own experiences with being wrongly accused (and haven’t we all been, at some point). It came from my own experiences of dealing with prejudice. It came from my own experiences of learning to extend blind trust in someone. It came from my own experiences of loss. It came from my own experiences of love.

The settings—the cold, foreboding planet of Moabar, the sterile environment of Moabar Station, the sleek opulence of a ship called the Boru Karn—are simply the canvas on which those emotions are presented.

But these otherworldly settings, readers often note. If you’re never been on a starship or a space station, how can you write about them?

Because I’ve been on a cruise ship, in a jet, in a shopping mall, in the interior stairs of a high-rise building. Exactly the same? No. But a stairwell is a stairwell and—unless you want to factor in a change in gravity, which I didn’t in that scene in Gabriel’s Ghost—Chaz and Sully desperately running down tight corridors and up several flights of stairs (okay, they were ladders but you get the point) still results in an exhaustion factor. One I’ve experienced and one—if you’ve ever taken a gym class as a kid or a step class as an adult—you’re familiar with as well.

Do I research these things we’ve yet to invent, these starships and stations I write about? Of course, though my research is probably more speculative in nature than the author who writes a murder mystery on a cruise ship. But it’s not dissimilar.

And it’s not—in my books—the most important thing. Yes, I want to be as accurate as I can, just as the mystery author wants to be. The key elements, however, are still the characters and their emotions. Love. Fear. Loyalty.

My February 2007 release, Games of Command, involves a galactic fleet captain with a dark secret, a half-man, half-machine (bio-cybernetic) admiral, talking furzels (overgrown cats) and an evil alien energy source. No, not things you’d likely encounter at your neighborhood grocery store. But the issues my characters face are ones that, yes, you may have encountered: the fear that you might lose your job if someone finds out something in your past; the fear that someone you care deeply about might not care at all about you; the regret of never telling someone you loved them; and, the recognition of the innocent, unconditional love of a companion animal.

My current science fiction romance work-in-progress is—rare for me—set here, on this planet. In Florida, in fact. Fictitious city but one that Floridians (and many tourists) will easily recognize. Jorie Mikkalah, the intergalactic zombie hunter, her Hazer micro-rifle and her mech-organic data scanner will be new to them. But her emotions, her motivation to save this nil-tech planet aptly—in her view—named after dirt (Earth) are very common: dedication to a cause, loyalty to her profession. A strong sense of duty. Her reaction to her unexpected partner on this mission—Florida homicide detective Theo Petrakos—should also be familiar: initial exasperation that changes to reluctant admiration that changes to… well, I guess you’ll just have to wait for The Down Home Zombie Blues to be released by Bantam to find out.

I guarantee that my stories will be both exciting and yet familiar. Because where my stories come from is the same place most other authors’ stories come from: from the heart.


Linnea Sinclair is a former journalist turned private investigator turned science fiction-fantasy novelist. Her award winning novels include Finders Keepers, Gabriel's Ghost, and An Accidental Goddess (all from Bantam Spectra) with Games of Command, The Down Home Zombie Blues and Chasidah's Choice due out in 2007-08. She’s also a Pushcart Literary Award and John W. Campbell Award nominee.

For more information on her books, visit her website at: www.linneasinclair.com