Sherry Gottlieb

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

What genres do you write?

Both of my novels are cross-genre: a little mystery and investigation, some vampirism, a lot on the relationships between men and women, more sex than violence. I refer to LOVE BITE as "an erotic police procedural with fangs"; to WORSE THAN DEATH as "an erotic dark mystery".

What genres would you like to write?

I always wished I had the mental discipline to plot and carry-out a full-fledged time travel novel with all its intertwining paradoxes. Robert Silverberg's UP THE LINE was a classic I've always admired. Historicals also, sort of the other side of the coin; but I'd be overwhelmed by the amount of research necessary.

Where do you get your ideas?

Unlike virtually every other professional writer I know, getting new ideas has always been the hardest part of writing for me. I have no problems developing the characters, plotting, pacing and writing a saleable novel – once I have an initial concept which excites me -- but for some reason, that frequently eludes me. I knew I wanted to explore what happened next to Jace after LOVE BITE, so I began WORSE THAN DEATH almost immediately, but I feel that I’ve now "done" those characters and that cross-genre and don’t plan to revisit it again. Hey, I promise to use as a character anyone who gives me an idea which manages to trigger my next novel!

Do you pattern your characters after any real people?

Some, yes, but many of my characters are entirely fictional -- the first time I'd met them was when they walked into my novel and took up residence for a while. Obviously, some of Risha – in fact, some of each of my major characters – is me, but not as much as one might think. I made a point in LOVE BITE of making sure that the only people who might recognize the "real people" behind the characters were those people, themselves – sort of a non-actionable private comment, shall we say?

What authors do you admire?

Dorothy Dunnett, Henrik Ibsen, Walter Tevis, Walter M. Miller, Jr., to name a few.

What authors do you read?

I’m currently reading THE BURNING TIMES by Jeanne Kalogridis. The authors I read most faithfully are Michael Connelly, Jonathan Kellerman, Andrew Vachss, Donald Westlake, John Sandford.

What genres do you read?

Mostly crime novels, police procedurals and other hardboiled mysteries. I used to read a lot of horror; I occasionally read historical novels. Characterization is more important to me than plot. I almost never read nonfiction.

What other genres do you see yourself writing?

Mainstream mystery -- which I'll attempt the very moment I can come up with a new concept.

What do you see yourself doing in 10 years?

I have never been into projecting more than a few months into the future – why limit myself when I never know what will happen? People who plan too far in advance are almost invariably disappointed when reality goes at odds with their plan; I’d rather leave myself open for whatever looks good at the time.

Do you see yourself ever not writing?

Yes. I go years without writing. Once it was 20 years. Then, the spirit moves me and I write. I’m not exactly Driven.

How did you get started writing?

I’d always wanted to be a writer, even when I was a kid. However, I got sidetracked after college and ended up owning a bookstore instead. I paid attention to what made a successful book, artistically and commercially; I learned to be a critical reader. I didn’t write my first book until I was in my late ‘30s. When I sold it right away, I decided to try my hand at a novel. That was a lot better "high" than the nonfiction book had been, so when that sold, too, I wrote another. Meanwhile, I started editing other writers’ novels, so I learned there, also, what worked and what didn’t and why.

What age were you when you started to write?

I wrote my first "novel" at 12 – it was called "Taffy" and was a handful of pages long, took place in Paris (a locale I didn’t visit in person for another decade). That was before I heard about "write what you know".

When is your next book due?

PUP FICTION: THE SAM SPAYED MYSTERIES will be out on CD-ROM from Waltsan Books sometime in the next year. They’ll also be doing all my other books on CD-ROM eventually.

Was there any author or authors that helped you get your in start writing, or helped you break into the field?

Frank M. Robinson, author of THE POWER, THE DARK BEYOND THE STARS and WAITING, among others. Frank taught me a lot about story structure, pacing, point-of-view – the mechanics of good novel writing. I still consider him my mentor.

What do you feel makes your books unique or stand out from others in your genre?

I haven’t read other writers who write in my particular set of cross-genres, although I hear there are some, like Laurel K. Hamilton and Tanya Huff. I haven't read any other vampire novels since I began writing them a decade ago; I don’t want to get involved with someone else’s vision. By the way, I didn’t set out to write a vampire novel which also had a crime element; I deliberately wrote a crime novel which had vampirism as an element. What sets my work off from other crime novels is the supernatural element, but I don’t really consider my novels to be vampire novels – what they’re really about, when you get down to it, is the relationship between the sexes.

What made you choose the genres you write?

Like most writers, I write a book I’d like to read.

Do you have a favorite place you like to write?

At my desk in my home office with my dog nearby.

In what order do you write? For example starting beginning to end, combining parts, in random order or in development cycle? Beginning to end. Although I’ll sometimes write a scene for one place and later move it elsewhere in the book. What do you feel is, or isn’’t being done to promote authors?

Like most mid-list authors, I’d love to see my books published to great fanfare and widespread advertisements saved for bestselling writers, but I must settle for decent distribution and word-of-mouth for the most part. Forge/Tor sent out lots of review copies when WORSE THAN DEATH came out in hardcover and got great quotes to put on the paperback edition. I also went on a mini-tour of California for the hardcover -- although I know from being a bookseller that signing parties don’t do much for a book’s overall sales (what they mostly do is help the local bookseller push a few copies). Only widespread advertising and good reviews have any significant impact on a book’s early sales; the former costs too much for mid-list books, the latter is not available for purchase. My publisher takes out advertisements for their month’s releases in most of the genre publications, so I expect my book is being promoted to a core market.

Through what venues do you feel most of your books are being sold?

LOVE BITE sold in supermarkets and airports, as well as in traditional bookstores. How diverse is the distribution of the paperback edition of WORSE THAN DEATH remains to be seen, as it’s just now coming out. The hardcover sold best in speculative fiction/horror specialty stores and did respectably at the online merchants, like bn.com and amazon.com. It was an Editor's Pick at bn.com.

What do you feel needs to be changed about the industry?

I liked the industry a lot more 15-20 years ago. As all the independent publishers have been bought up by a few multi-national conglomerates, the quest for profit has ruined what was once, at least partially, a labor of love for all concerned. There’s much less a sense of adventure; it’s all business now – Art is an occasional byproduct. Editors don't have time to edit -- they just acquire -- so if a book isn't virtually ready for publication when they read it, they pass on it. It used to be that publishers would take a chance, grow a new author, build them to their potential with each additional book. Now, one must hit it out of the park – or at least not strike out – the first time. Also, because there are fewer publishers, there are fewer venues for new writers, for new genres, for books that fall outside of the Pale. It's much harder for a new novelist to break in than every before in history.

Do you think small press and e-books will be the wave of the future?

Unfortunately, yes. And I say "unfortunately" because they don’t have the money to promote their books, nor do they have the distribution network to get their books noticed without it. But at least those books and authors not found to be commercially viable by the major print publishers will have a chance to be read.

Please tell us about your book that was made into a movie.

The first of my novels with Jace Levy, LOVE BITE, was purchased and filmed for a Lifetime TV movie called "Deadly Love". Bearing very little relation to my novel, it starred Susan Dey and Stephen McHattie and showed 8 times in October of 1995, twice the following Halloween, and to my knowledge, has not been broadcast since. A search of Lifetime’s online library of movies reveals it is not even in the vaults. It was that bad. Everyplace where I avoided a cliché in the novel, the screenwriter put it in the script. Everyplace where I had humor, he removed it. The setting was changed, the characters were changed. It was so badly paced and dull that my own father turned it off 10 minutes after the credit "based on the novel Love Bite by Sherry Gottlieb" rolled past. I consoled myself that my vision was safe between the covers of my novel, and that since they changed the title, perhaps I wouldn’t get blamed for what the film turned into. For an entire year -- from the time I read the first draft of the script -- I had a sign on my bathroom mirror which read: TELEVISION IS NOT ART. JUST SHUT UP AND TAKE THE MONEY. And no, I had absolutely no control over any aspect of the movie. Perhaps one day it’ll be done right. (Meanwhile, if someone came to me and said, "We want to ruin your second novel. Here’s a bunch of money; take it or leave it", I’d still say, "Gimme the dough." I can’t afford not to...yet.)