The number one question. Well, I write fiction. They’re “about” Ivy. Mostly when people ask me this—especially in person—I give them the short version and say that it’s about an unusual girl named Ivy who’s trying to find where she belongs in the world. If I have a little more space or time, I explain that she’s led a sheltered life and has unusual looks and abilities, and spends the first book learning about the world while making observations about society and trying to figure out where her place is in the whole mess.

Most notably, the name—“Ivy” is one of my nicknames, also part of “SwankiVY,” my online alias. I got the name from the Piers Anthony novels; my friend Meghan and I took on the names of the twin princesses Ida and Ivy. As for other elements I gave her, physically it would be the long blonde hair—everyone seems to notice that we both have it. I have the braid obsession too, and the goofy jewelry thing going on. Ivy and I both have light skin, and I have in the past bitten my nails and grown my bangs too long too. We can both sing and are musical. And we like a lot of the same food and have some of the same ideals. Not to mention we’re both non-sexual.

Physically, almost every way except the long blonde hair and light skin. She’s tall, I’m short. She’s skinny, I’m . . . um, average. And I have boobs. We look nothing alike but people seem to latch onto that long blonde hair thing and think we’re the same. As for other stuff, she likes onions—urgh, the devil!—and can’t type and spells badly (ugh!) and knows nothing about computers, and she likes the cold and I like the heat. And she has been into theater and basketball, neither of which have ever captured my interest. She’s not vegetarian or Pagan like me either.

Doubt it. Except Weaver’s. You’ll see. Wait for Book 6, you impatient fans you!

Jesus. There are some stupid assumptions people make. Like that Ivy is supposed to be me. Or that Zeke wears glasses just because he’s smart. Or that Ivy and her “family” are on some kind of quest. Or that there needs to be some kind of epic plot, some sexual garbage, or a bunch of violence for it to sell. Or if people say they “can tell” that I have some influence I’ve never heard of. Or when people assume it’s a children’s book for some ungodly reason, then criticize me for using bad language in a kids’ book when I never said it was a kids’ book goddamn it.

It took me forever to think of one. I was throwing out invitations for suggestions on my favorite talker MuMu Land, and this drunken weirdo named Ibanez kept tossing me suggestions. One of them was “The House That Ivy Built.” He kept going after that, but Laura and I were in the room going “OMG, that’s a really good one. That fits. COOL!” Ibanez had no idea he’d just made personal history for me. I told him later and he was like “Huh? Don’t remember. Oh well.”

Probably eventually. I suck at titles. See above. Umm, I want them to have individual titles but for now they’re just Book 1, etc.

The characters who appear in the first few chapters were all named on a whim DIRECTLY OUT OF MY ASSHOLE. I wrote what came into my head. Don’t read anything into it. Beyond that, I just like names. I like giving people interesting ones.

Fantasy. Contemporary fantasy, I guess (since I’d really like to separate it from sword and sorcery). I also call it “speculative fiction.” It’s all in that geeky realm of sci-fi. That’s where I’ll be shelved.

Adults! This stuff is for grown-ups! But some teens might like it too, because of all the “OMG who am I?” crap in it.

Ever heard of the plot type “Man vs. Self”? Well, that’s kind of what I was going for. The books are Ivy’s personal struggles. Key word: Personal. So there’s not a lot of blood, sex, or . . . stuff happening. Stuff happens, yes, I promise, but the books aren’t ABOUT the stuff that happens.

Some of the ideas and junk are discussed in the following “Inspirations” section, but yeah, occasionally incidents are based on my life. Not incredibly often, though. There was no bottom line idea for Ivy.

To tell you the truth, it’s as batshit as it is because I was rebelling. I was trying my very best to make something so totally original that no one could say it was derivative. This was partly in response to having been force-fed large amounts of perverted X-Men fan-fic (which made me think “Some of these people can WRITE, and now they can’t do anything with it because they did it with OTHER PEOPLE’S CHARACTERS!”) and partly in response to having written a crazy story called “Bruce the Duck” in high school and being sad that I couldn’t publish any part of it because it was on the whole EXTREMELY derivative.

Longhand. For some reason I can’t write Ivy sitting up.

Nope. The most I ever have starting an Ivy novel is a vague idea of where to dig. I sometimes have key elements of “what’s gonna happen” in my head but they don’t get outlined. I start a chapter with a basic idea of how it begins, and often I’m just as surprised as the reader at the end. It’s because the characters are so much their own people that they really CAN have a conversation.

Characters. (Duh.) My characters are very real. I think I write dialogue well. And I can describe well, but tend to omit a lot of description because I don’t like to baby readers or give them an onslaught of visual.

Plot. If only more interesting things would happen. THTIB isn’t action-oriented, but once in a while it’d be nice to get out of Ivy’s head.

July 31st, 1996. And yes, that is the significance of Ivy’s birthday being July 31st. I was eighteen.

That’s totally variable. I wrote Book 1’s first draft in exactly two weeks. But then the first draft for Book 5 was begun in 2002, and it is still unfinished.

Not usually. There have been times when I had to though. I don’t know a lot about Tarot and palm-reading, so naturally when I had a character who used it a lot and wanted to give Ivy a reading, I had to study up. And when Ivy went rock-climbing in Book 5, I suddenly found myself looking at books about mountain climbing just so I could be realistic when I talked about her shoes being too tight. I know very little about weight lifting and theater and basketball, so all of those things have had to be researched a little. Otherwise, it’s mostly just turning Ivy loose and watching her run. Or fly. Whatever. Sometimes I “do research” by writing in another character’s point of view.

Hey moms, which kid is your favorite? Okay, if I step back and evaluate them qualitatively, I would say Book 4 is the best one. Its writing style is the most accomplished, and also the most stuff happens in it. It changes Ivy the most and probably has the most intense scenes.

That’s not worth asking since it’s obvious that it’s IVY, but beyond that I really enjoy writing about Ruben, Weaver, Nina, and Bailey. They’re compelling.

That’s easy! Joan D. Vinge. If you read her books Psion, Catspaw, or Dreamfall you’ll see writing style, character, and plot similarities. Just because SHE ROCKS. I’m also a little influenced by Octavia E. Butler, Lois Duncan, and Stephen King.

’Til I’m sick of writing ’em.

Not really. I try really hard to make sure they are complete stories in and of themselves, but they are more satisfying if you are following Ivy through all of her struggles from the beginning. That way when she finally comes to an agreement with Carl in Book 4, you know how cathartic it feels when you’ve been watching them bark at each other since Book 1, you know?

Books that end on cliffhangers. Sorry, I prefer not to torture people. Wrap it up, please. Also, I hate hollow characters—people who are obviously there to serve a purpose or act a role as a tool of the author. When you can see the stitching, the character is not a person, he/she is a creation. No good! I also hate sensationalistic sex or violence that does nothing to increase the characters’ realism or growth but is thrown in just to make fans drool. Bleh. I also hate gratuitous descriptions, like “her blood-red hair was strewn across the satiny pillowcase, shining in the moonlight as he moved his well-muscled, tanned body into a crouched position above her.” I have read books in which just about every noun is modified with an adjective. It just gets tiresome.

Several things actually! One: I no longer panic at the prospect of having a work in progress. I used to be frantic to get books out of my head. I’ve realized they keep, and that if I don’t have something in progress I feel empty anyway. Two: People actually like what I write. Somehow I managed to get “fans.” Three: I’m not just a person who writes; I’m a writer. And god is it sweet.

Umkay. Book 0: How did THTIB come to be? Book 1: There’s a whole WORLD out there; where do I fit? Book 2: Am I a talking bird or a flying human? Book 3: What does love mean to me? Book 4: What is the meaning of family? Book 5: What exactly do I want from my life?

Self-discovery.

It makes me have to go to the bathroom. Ugh. When I edit, the first step is typing it into the computer from the manuscript. Sentences get cleaned up in that process, and lovely typos added. Those are culled in the first read-through. Usually I’ll read it over after typing it and sit there and hug myself and tell myself how awesome I am for a while. Then I’ll start reading it and clarifying things and it will become monstrously longer. And I’ll always read chapters out loud and make sure the dialogue doesn’t suck. I have trouble cutting things out.

Since I could hold a pen. Pencil. Crayon. Whatever.

Don’t laugh: Realistic characters. Okay, so one of my characters looks like a bat, another like a fairy, another like an angel. Okay, so a nice portion of them have special powers. Doesn’t matter. They act how real people would act if they existed like this. It is actually quite rare for me to read a book and encounter characters who are wholly believable—people who do things that don’t make sense in a realistic way, people who follow their feelings and make mistakes when they should, people who aren’t epic heroes. There’s a time and a place for those, but I don’t personally find hero quests compelling.

Yeah. I think the amazing convenient pool that teleports people to many exotic locations is really frigging cheesy. I kind of regret putting it in there. I also kind of regret some of the goofy situations I created in the beginning and then had to stretch around to explain (even though it worked out).

Probably not. You’d need too many special effects and Ivy and her flying and everything would have to look really subtle and natural. I don’t think it could be done. And who would play Ivy? Not happening. If anything, it could be a cartoon, but if anyone makes things glow or makes funny sound effects when Ivy uses her energy, I will put them in an oven and become a carnivore again.

I fear the future covers. There is an overwhelming tendency of fantasy publishers to put sexy chicks on the cover, and Ivy is cute and exotic but she is NOT sexy. She HAS NO BOOBS. There would be a great pressure for them to put her in a metal bikini—and give her something to hold it up!—and probably to make her look all cool and fantasy-ish, with a nice physique and crazy ElfQuest ears. Nonono. And I don’t think the books will be illustrated, but if they were I’d think it’d just be maybe one on the top of the first page of each chapter, kinda like the Harry Potter books have, that’s kinda cool. It wouldn’t be necessary, but it’d be interesting.

Yeah. This series is fantasy. Bad Fairy is also fantasy. Finding Mulligan is sort of imaginative fiction, probably Young Adult. Joint Custody is juvenile fiction, and I’ve written vaguely inspirational stories, science fiction, plain old fiction, young adult. . . .

First off, screenplays and stage productions. Not interested. But I also don’t ever intend to write a mystery, a horror, or a romance. And I can safely say I will never write a Christian fiction book. Thank you!

I have NO training, outside of high school English. I took AP English in high school and got a 5 on the exam so I didn’t even have to take any college English classes—I have absolutely NOTHING on the résumé for that. Though I am also somehow a professional editor. I’m a writer and an editor—damn good as far as I can tell—because I READ. And I have ALWAYS read. That is the BEST and probably the ONLY way to find a voice.

You wish. I wish. Umm, I’ll send you a disk for a quattah. If you help me edit them.

I could. I don’t know if they could use them. I would suggest to new writers to focus on character. Good, well-rounded characters WILL carry your novel. If you have something for them to do—a plot—fine, that’s great. But if your people stink, no one’s gonna care what they’re doing. Know everything about your characters. If you feel too detached, try first person. Get in their heads. Talk with their voices. If you want to see them doing something but it doesn’t fit in the plot, do it as an exercise. It will help you get to know them. I promise. You will love your characters and then others will too. Also, don’t try to get too grand and don’t underestimate the reader or try to trick them with stupid obvious red herrings or whatever. And . . . again . . . READ, you bastards!

I’ve heard lots of pro writers say stuff like “Write EVERY DAY!” and “MAKE yourself write seven pages even if it’s junk!” or whatever. I don’t buy it. Maybe only if you don’t have any ideas and you need to jump start the process. I personally don’t even have time to write what’s already built up in my head, so I don’t need any creativity aids, thank you. I do not write seven pages a day; my writing comes in binges. When I have a block of time and I’ve decided to spend it writing, I hold my breath and go under, and come up hours later with sometimes more than fifty pages under my belt and a serious case of writer’s cramp. I write when I WANT to, and I stop when I can’t write any more.

I’ll let you know if I ever suffer from it.