RainbowReviews Interview with Rosalyn Wraight
Rosalyn Wraight is the author of two Detective Laura McCallister lesbian mysteries: Woman Justice (erotic) and Secrets and Sins (boxy, non-erotic). She also writes the Lesbian Adventure Club series, which chronicles the monthly exploits of five lesbian couples. She lives in the Midwest.
You have written eight books in the Lesbian Adventure Club series which is a personal favorite of mine. Did you have the stories mapped out when you started the series or is each one a surprise?
Actually, I never intended to write a series. Scavengers was merely a book. I simply wanted to write a story where plot was secondary to characters, and I wanted the challenge of first-person narration. I knew drawing ten distinct characters would a difficult task so I spent a great deal of time on character sketches before I ever began the story. I sent Scavengers off to my publisher, and it was very near the publication date when I decided I liked the characters enough to want to write a sequel -- not second in a series, just a sequel. Scavengers got "Book 1" attached to it while I wrote its sequel, still oblivious to what I had in front of me. Apparently, I'm a little slow, huh? In the midst of writing the third book, Savages, I finally caught on. The characters were so very much alive that I knew I had to (and wanted to) follow their character arcs, wherever those took me.
So, yes, each new one is a surprise story-wise, but the characters have a course.
What can readers expect in the future for the Dykes Who Dare?
Oddly, "more of the same" is the appropriate response here. I plan to keep going with them, and I pray I will know before I go too far.
Each of the Lesbian Adventure Club characters is quite unique. Are they based on people within your own life or amalgamations of people you know? Which character do you identify with the most?
They are not based on people in my life. Yet, life has a way of horning in, doesn't it? When I started the first book, I made a conscious choice not to let Kate speak for me. She needed to be completely unique, not my soapbox; she needed to truly speak for herself. To that end, I spread around my own crap, knowing it would probably end up in there anyway. Doling it out seemed the best way to remove myself. I can be as insecure as Kate and as bristly as Laura, as fearful as Claudia and as demonstrative as Ginny, as psychoanalytical as Kris and as lost in childlike wonder as Holly, as introverted as Alison and as mouthy as Janice, as unsure as Susan and as idealistic as Maggie. But if I did it correctly, if I met my goals, readers should be able to say the same or similar. The DWD are people with flaws, strengths, dreams, fears, and crap that sometimes has the power to bury. That's life, those ties that bind us all together.
Lesbian Adventure Club Book 6: Leakers Ignited is unique from all the other LAC titles in that it is written backwards. How did you come up for the idea to provide the backwards version? How did your writing process change in order to make sure that the story would read well both beginning to end and end to beginning?
How did I come up with the idea to write it backward? What the hell was I thinking? In many ways I figured it was literary suicide, but I honestly could not let go of the notion that it needed to be written exactly that way. Why write a backward adventure in linear form? Yet, I was a leaker in my own right: by offering the forward version, by letting the reader decide to jump or not.
The process of writing it proved strange indeed. I wrote forward, but it felt as though I was sitting at the end of the book with my keyboard, if that makes any sense. What I wrote had a direct impact not only on plot but also on the backward reading experience. I had to make sure the chapters were more self-contained, more like short stories that formed a big picture, both backward and forward. Some things were only funny forward; some things were only funny backward, i.e., "the sound of nipples hitting the floor" is a jarring statement only in the backward version. And what is Smut Pumpkin, a thing that shows up in the first few pages and lurks throughout the book but isn't explained until nearly the end? Really, what the hell was I thinking?
And... As long as I'm talking a backward book with Rainbow Reviews, I absolutely have to say that, Emily, your backward review of a backward book was incredibly gutsy and creative. The DWD would high-five you for 'stooping to their level.'
Laura McCallister is featured in a series of stories. Have you considered any more spinoffs of Lesbian Adventure Club characters?
Laura has her mysteries. The DWD have their series. Most days that keeps too much on my plate. I am not considering any more spin-offs. However, I would like to write the whole "nerd gets the cheerleader" romance between Kate and Claudia when they met. The backstory on this crew could fill another plate, but thus far, Father Time has not been willing to give me another plate.
What is your favorite published story? What is your most popular published story?
My LAC favorite is Savages because there is an encompassing theme beyond the usual adventure theme. It was one of the hardest to write, but it was also the most fun.
I honestly don't know which LAC is the most popular. There are ten characters, plus two lovable gay guys, plus a straight could-be-a-couple. Oh, and we mustn't forget Lover Doll. Readers identify with or become fond of different ones. Some are partial to stories that center on their favorite characters. Some seem partial to stories that hit closest to home. Some like the books better when Sam and Charles show up. And there are probably some who are only in it for wrap-around Lover Doll. You know who you are!
BTW: There's a poll on DykesWhoDare.com asking which book is your favorite. Vote!
What is your least popular published story? Why do you think readers don't like or 'get' the story?
I think my second mystery, Secrets and Sins, is the least popular, and I think the reason is that it's such a contrast to the first. Woman Justice is nowhere near a typical mystery; whereas, I wrote Secrets and Sins to prove to myself that I could be a good little writer and stay inside the box. So ... it's ... um ... boxy. In and of itself, I think it's good, but along side the first one, it's & um & boxy.
Which of your stories would make a great movie? Who'd play the lead roles?
Calling all screenwriters! Calling all screenwriters! I think the whole LAC crew should hit the silver screen or satellite dish.
Who'd play them? Hmm & I think I'd have a hard time with that. They are who they are in my mind, and to cast people for parts seems impossible. I intentionally made them physically vague so readers could form images of them in their own minds. I figured lesbian fiction readers are more sophisticated than straight women who so easily believe that every hunk in a romance novel looks like coverboy Fabio. I had someone get rather irate with me after I informed her --upon request, mind you -- which silhouettes on the book covers represented which characters. "That is not so-and-so!" she spat. "She does not stand like that!"
When you start writing, do you already have the story plotted out or do you let the characters dictate what will happen?
The mysteries are definitely plotted out before I start writing. The LAC series is completely different because it's character driven. I decide on an overall adventure and basically work scene to scene. I tell Kate, "Here is Point A. Get to Point B." Most of the time, she does so in her own way, and the rest of them jump right in. I give them parameters and simply let them be who they are. However, Laura says something in Sisters that sums up my writing this series with this crew, "Besides, we couldn't go from Point A to Point B even if we tried. Somebody would just have to run in a goddamn circle or something."
Do you draw inspiration for your characters from real life?
Sure, I do. I have to if they're truly going to have depth and dimension. As an example, Kate is a newspaper reporter. To not have her be touched by the drastic changes the newspaper industry is facing right now would be an insult to both her as a character and the intelligence of readers.
Do you have a system for writing? Do you track work count or write a certain number of hours per day? Do you use music and playlists for inspiration?
I do not have a system, but I am obsessed with my word counts, daily and yearly and cumulative. I make sure I write every day, even if it's an off day and it feels like torture.
Music... The DWD seem to thrive on Heart and old blues, and Laura likes 70s rock. I have a playlist for whichever I'm working on. I also think the DWD have a thing for my bathtub. If I get stuck or need a little extra inspiration, I can very easily find them in a bubble bath. There's something kind of scary in that, but there they are, in my bathtub.
When did you start writing? Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?
As soon as I cracked open a Mark Twain when I was little, I knew I found something of myself there. I started writing on a regular basis before I even hit my teens. I focused on poetry until I was in my late 20s when some romance author in my lesbian writers' group told me I was 'merely' a poet and couldn't write a love scene if my life depended on it. Oh?
Name one thing that your readers would be surprised to know about you.
I'm not sure if this would surprise them or if it just does that to me, but... After dropping out of high school 30 years ago, I am about to graduate summa cum laude from college. Yep, anything is possible.
Do you have a guilty pleasure?
Jumping in puddles.
What is your favorite curse word?
Hands down: Shit!
It's a feel-good, versatile word, suitable for anger (shit!), disappointment (aw shit!), surprise (oh shit!), joy (no shit!), pointing out the obvious to the oblivious (no frickin' shit!), frustration (shit, shit, shit!). It works well as a noun, a verb, an adjective, an interjection, and with a "for" it becomes a lovely adverb. You can be lauded for getting it together and ridiculed for not knowing it. You can give it, not give it, have it scared out of you, scare it out of others, look like it, feel like it, have it for brains, or it can be your whole head. You can be deep in it or be in a creek of it looking for a missing paddle. You can earn a living shoveling it or turn it into a jack. You can expel it in brick form or simply throw it at a fan. You can beat it out of something/someone, eat it and die, not be worth it. Why, it can even be holy.
Seriously, do you know a better one?
What are you currently working on?
I am three-quarters done with the third Laura McCallister mystery. LAC 9 is halfway there. LAC 10 is already germinating in my head, as is "the nerd gets the cheerleader."
Where can readers find you?
Readers can find me on my website: LesbianWriter.com. The DWD characters also have a blog: DykesWhoDare.com. There are excerpts and sneak peeks on both sites.
Any other tidbits you would like to share?
Since I don't get too many opportunities to say thank you directly for what I view from afar, I'll offer that as my other tidbits. Thanks, Emily, for taking the time to review my books and for this interview opportunity. Thanks to the faithful readers who have allowed the Dykes Who Dare to get up off their pages and walk and talk and run in goddamn circles. I could be arrogant enough to think it's my fingers on a keyboard that does it, but I know that merely puts them on the page. Your reading is truly what makes them rise.
As the author, how would you describe your books?
I currently have two series in the works: Detective Laura McCallister lesbian mysteries and the Lesbian Adventure Club series.
Woman Justice is lesbian mystery that contains three storylines: a murder mystery, erotic tales, and a love story. It does not follow the typical mystery format.
Secrets and Sins, my second mystery, is more the typical format. It follows the investigation from start to finish.
The Lesbian Adventure Club series follows five lesbian couples who get together one weekend a month to participate in an adventure concocted by one of the couples. I tried to write it on two levels: 1) a quick, humorous read, and 2) a deeper emotional level of character growth, trust, life, friendship, and love between partners.
Can you tell us the behind-the-scenes story about how your books came into being? What was the germ? How did the characters come to life? Is there a character who still lives inside of you?
My stubborn streak has always caused me to cringe at and then confront the words "I can't!"
Woman Justice is a novel because I was a poet and couldn't write prose very fluidly. Just to up the ante, I gave it three storylines. it is is a murder mystery because I couldn't imagine developing the mentality needed to concoct and carry out a murder—even as a writer on paper. It is filled with erotic short stories because writing them was a definite "I can't!" I had been called a prude once too often.
The main thrust of Woman Justice centers around a writer's character coming back to its author and demanding a more fulfilling existence. What is incredible is that this is precisely what the characters in this book did. They seemingly took on lives of their own, with enough power to wake me in the middle of the night with stories ideas, with enough power to allow me to see through their eyes.
Secrets and Sins was my attempt to stay inside the box and write a mystery more akin to what someone would expect when reading one. The linear nature of that, however, got very boring for me. To combat that, I added an additional voice, that being the victim. I prefer writing on different levels, flexing my characters' vocal cords.
The Lesbian Adventure Club series was my attempt to create characters that were strong enough to make the plot secondary. It was pure character study. When I wrote the first book, Scavengers, I did not have it in my mind that it was going to be a series. By the time I got to the end of it, however, I liked the characters so much that I decided to write a sequel, Ledge Walkers. By the time, I got to the end of that sequel, I decided to write another, etc. As this moment in time, there are eight books in the series. In essence, I became the victim of my own ploy: strong, likeable characters. They are so much that to me that I got and remain hooked on them. I knew (and had been told) that attempting to develop ten characters in one book was a formidable task, but I undertook it nonetheless. I'm not at all sure how I managed it, but I think I succeeded. I think they are all distinct, each with a character arc that spans the entire series, each with a distinct voice and a necessary place within the series. So if there will ever be characters who still live inside of me, it's this crew -- so much so that I 'simply' layout my inane plot and say, "Do it. In your own way, get from Point A to Point B." My boisterous crew jumps at the chance to do so. Although, I must admit that sometimes they get so boisterous in my head that they are all the way to Point Z while I'm still writing Point B. Again, I am the victim of my own ploy. I lucked out.
Can you tell us something about you as a writer, i.e. when you started writing, what's your creative process is like, what inspires you, etc.?
By the time I was a teen, I was writing poetry in a very disciplined manner. I have had my poetry published many times, both separately and as a collection. I started concentrating on prose quite a few years ago and find this realm very consuming.
Sometimes I think I am more a voyeur of life than a participant. I notice and study everything and everybody. It would probably be pretty scary to take a look at all I keep in my head. Things aren't filed very neatly; rather, they all live together and become tangled into characters and scenarios and poems and aspirations and dreams. Life itself is inspiration—if you look.
How do you keep a balance between family, work, and your writing?
For me, this is a continual battle. I am very "responsibility" driven and have a tendency to put "responsibility to myself" much lower on the list than it should be. My family will always come first, my work is a necessity in terms of both finance and self-fulfillment, and my writing becomes something I end up running back to like a long lost friend. I believe that writing is not just the act of putting pen on paper, but one of observing life, incubating thoughts, allowing characters to develop.
I make a point of writing each day, whether it flows or whether it feels like torture. I can always go back and smooth out the torturous parts, but I don't want to miss those things that flow.
Can you tell us something about you as a person?
I have an obsession with rapid movement, meaning that I have to be doing something, I have to be learning something, I have to be one iota better as a person than I was yesterday. Life is search/research, and I find great joy in it.
If you had a chance to be mentored by one author (living or dead), who would you choose and why?
For me, that's a tough question.
I would pick Shakespeare or Twain or Dickinson or Woolfe or Plath or Proust or...the big guns that will be with us forever. How come nobody writes anything nowadays that will end up being a classic? I think we dropped something important along the way.
And...I'd love to pick Agatha Christie's brain—but not so much because I like her style of writing. I am in awe at how she seemed to have a bottomless well of stories inside of her. She is still only outsold by the Bible and Shakespeare. I want one of those bottomless wells!
Despite the wisdom that says you can't take it with you, if you could take four things with you when you leave this world, what would they be?
1) A fire extinguisher
2) My sense of humor
3) My insatiable curiosity
4) The love I feel for and from the important people in my life
What is your view of epublishing? What opportunities does it provide for you and for other authors? What do you think is the future of epublishing?
I first imagined the possibilities of epublishing when I stumbled upon the Guttenberg Project on the internet. There were all the classics...Shakespeare, Harding, Cather...all suddenly accessible to me without a trip to the library or the bookstore. Words are words...whether on paper or computer screens or bathroom walls...they provide a glimpse into another's soul, another world.
I think there is still the stigma attached to reading on screen, but a lot of people don't stop to consider how much time they stare at a screen anyway—in chat rooms, on blogs, social networks, email, etc. They come away with what? A gender check? An unsavory chunk of spam? I would much rather turn the screen off after having delved into a book that gives me something enduring!
I also think that epublishing will attain its respected place in the world. For a long time, the big publishers belittled e-authors and e-publishers. Now, they promote their own ebooks. This wasn't their idea (although they'd like you to think so); they were forced to see it for what it is: a legitimate form of expression.
What projects are you currently working on?
I am currently nearing the completion of my third Detective Laura McCallister lesbian mystery. I am well into the ninth book in the Lesbian Adventure Club series.