Debut Author Interviews

Tiffany Trent is the author of In the Serpent’s Coils, the first book in the young adult fantasy Hallowmere series (Mirrorstone/Wizards of the Coast, Fall 2007)

• Tiffany Trent on...Critique Groups
• Tiffany Trent on...The Call
• Tiffany Trent on...Writing Schedule
• Tiffany Trent on...Other Careers
• Tiffany Trent on...Prior Research
• Tiffany Trent on...Promotion
• Tiffany Trent on...Ideas
• Tiffany Trent on...Training
• Tiffany Trent on...Setting
• Tiffany Trent on...Celebrations
• Tiffany Trent on...Character and Self
• Tiffany Trent on...What's Next?
• Tiffany Trent on...Outlines
• Tiffany Trent on...Impact on Readers
• Tiffany Trent on...Why Write?
• Tiffany Trent on...Favorite Teacher
• Tiffany Trent on...Book Memory
• Tiffany Trent on...Website
• Tiffany Trent on...Favorite Library
• Tiffany Trent on...Favorite Book
• Tiffany Trent on...Cover Art
• Tiffany Trent on...First Novels
• Tiffany Trent on...Character's Conflict

Do you belong to a writing group?

Yes and no. I’ve longed for a writers’ group, but it just has never really happened for me. What has worked for me really well, though, is exchanging crits w/ close writer friends I’ve made along the way. Thus, my communities have always been small. In my MFA, I belonged to a writing community of 2 (me and a friend) because we both secretly wrote genre fiction. We challenged each other to write a book in our first summer of grad school. She went on to win the Newbery Honor, and I am *finally* getting my first book published (though it’s not the first novel I’ve written). I’m selective about crit partners to be certain we’re aesthetically compatible, but it’s wonderful to have such an excellent small circle of fellow writers.

What happened when you received ‘The Call’ that your book would be published?

My situation was perhaps a bit different than most. I had been working with Mirrorstone on a proposal for the Hallowmere series since late July 2005. I sent them outlines, a sample chapter, and various other requested stuff throughout that fall. From what I understand, there was a good deal of competition for this series, since it will be an entirely new brand for Wizards, like Dragonlance, only…not. :) So, I waited and hoped. Meanwhile, I was also waiting to hear from a senior editor at another house regarding my adult series, which had been five years in the making. In November, I received my rejection for that series. The Mirrorstone project became my Obi wan Kenobi. On a Friday, my editrix-to-be sent me a cryptic email saying she had “good news”. On Monday of Christmas week, I finally got the email saying the contract was mine. My first feeling was relief. Followed with not a little disbelief. I think I let loose a few barbaric yawps while driving in the car here and there that week. I was certainly glowing for many days—I think someone joked that I would make a great nightlight or the star on top of the local Christmas tree.

After all was said and done, I had to write an entire novel in 8 weeks while teaching a full load of classes at Virginia Tech. I did it, barely. And now I get to do it again with book 2. :)

What is your writing schedule?

Right now, my schedule is a bit more fluid than I would like. I have very tight deadlines, so I really need to write about 10 pages a day to stay on top of it. Some days, I get 14, some I’m lucky to get 2. My process is very organic, which can be somewhat problematic. I like to write by scene, so it’s sometimes hard to push myself on to the next scene if I’ve completed one. The other problem is that I also have a full-time job (teaching at Virginia Tech) which requires much of my attention and energy during the regular school year. So, usually, I feel that I’m doing well if I can just write *something* every day.

What career would you pursue if you weren’t a writer?

I’ve been so many things already while wanting to be a writer all along—technical editor, grant proposal writer, museum curator, environmental educator, senior editor for a wildlife conservation organization, bookseller, university instructor—that all I really just want to be right now (as I have since age 9) is a full-time writer.

If I had chosen to fully pursue any of those other career paths, I would probably be a biologist or environmental educator; I enjoyed those jobs when I worked them and loved giving programs once upon a time at the Roanoke Island Aquarium. I especially loved taking care of animals and learning to build exhibits that made animals more comfortable by mimicking their native habitats. And, it was always fun to see people’s expressions when I walked around the museum with a snake wrapped around my waist… ;)

How much research and/or meditation about your subject did you do before you began your first draft?

In addition to writing historical dark fantasy about fiesty fairies and the girls who fight them ;), I also write nonfiction. I love to research! For IN THE SERPENT’S COILS, I set myself quite the research task. First, I had to figure out what life would have been like for a young girl living around DC at the time of Reconstruction, just after the Civil War. Then, I had to think about what reform schools—most of which were just getting founded at this time—must have been like in that era. Not to mention that I had to develop the mythos, which spanned a large chunk of Scottish history/Celtic myth. And there are also these pesky letters that my main character finds, written between a monk and nun in the 14th century….Got a headache yet?

For Book 2, I’m researching steamships, specifically the world’s largest (at the time) steamship, The Great Eastern. I’m having so much fun learning about it that I’m tempted to write a nonfiction piece about it, too. If only I had the time…

I guess you get the drift, though. Research=authenticity for me. The closer I can get to giving my readers a “real” experience, the better!

What is your plan to get the word out to the public about your book?

Good question. A colleague asked me the other day if I planned to have a reading/signing at our university bookstore, and I was like…Me? Why? And then—Oh. I’m still new to all this stuff.

My publisher and I have plans to hit some of the big conferences—Book Expo America, American Library Association, National Council of Teachers of English, and so on. Because I’m also writing genre, I plan to attend several genre conferences, including Dragon*Con and Comic-Con next year.

I also have thought about donning an antebellum costume and visiting schools to talk about the books and some of the historical/cultural aspects of the novels. But that may be going a bit far. I can just imagine a teenager telling his mother about his day at school…”Yeah and there was this crazy lady in a big skirt talking about all this weird stuff in the Civil War. Like, did you know they had vampires back then?”

So, those are some of my preliminary plans, which I hope to whip into some kind of shape over the next few months.

Where did you get the idea for your book?

I got the idea for my book from Hans Christian Andersen. I read Andersen and the Grimm Brothers ad infinitum until I discovered Madeleine L’Engle. One Andersen tale, “The Marsh King’s Daughter”, has always haunted me with its brutal beauty. I had started a story about a priest finding a baby in a strange giant flower in a swamp, and that baby grew into a character named Mara who was a Gullah slave and hoodoo root doctor’s apprentice in the South Carolina Low Country during the Civil War. And then, the more I thought about it, there was a school where Mara had been brought by this priest and there were three girls there named Corrine, Ilona, and Christina…See where this is going? This led to the books that became the Hallowmere series. Interestingly, Corrine’s story became the founding trilogy; Mara’s will appear later on. Usually, I just form a string of associations, keep asking questions, keep letting the images boil up until I have a very different animal than what I saw in the beginning.

What writing training have you had?

Let’s see. I majored in English, much to my parents’ chagrin, at Virginia Tech. (I was supposed to be scientist or a business owner or something important like that). Went straight to my MA in English there. I’d wanted to be a writer since I was nine, so for me it was only a matter of figuring out what to do next. At the time, I was heavily focused on writing nonfiction, so I went for my MFA in Creative Writing (Nonfiction) at the University of Montana. I was writing about environmental issues, so I decided to also get an MS at the same time (!) in Environmental Studies. I had always written genre on the side, but had been dismayed when people discouraged me from writing it because it wasn’t “literary”. The best things that happened to me at the University of Montana were not necessarily my creative writing teachers, but two very special people: Don Snow and Shannon Hale. Don was the editor of my dreams; he helped me take my nonfiction to the next level. Shannon encouraged me to get back to writing genre; we were the only two doing it in our program. She went on to write several novels, one of which (Princess Academy) won the Newbery Honor this year.

I think it’s crucial to remember that writing and publishing are two very different things that require similar motivational skills. Writing requires persistence, dedication, and a certain amount of joy and playfulness. Publishing also needs persistence and joy, but it also requires you to be public in a way that writing alone never will. When I thought I was ready to pursue publishing, I started going to conferences and I learned more from meeting authors, editors, and agents than I could ever have learned in a class about the same. The best gift I think you can give yourself as a writer is time. There’s no need to hurry. Realize that you have a lot more to learn than you thought. And give yourself permission to learn it. That’s really the best kind of training.

Where is your novel set, and why there?

In the Serpent’s Coils is set in a real Northern Virginia town—Culpeper. Although the school itself is false, the places mentioned are real. I chose Culpeper because I had visited a friend there several times and the feel of her old, worn farmhouse, the stories she told, the land itself stayed in my mind. Culpeper saw many interesting engagements during the Civil War, so it seemed a good place to have lots of ghosts cruising around!

How did you celebrate your book sale?

This will sound odd, but I went to feed bears at the research station where my husband works when he’s in the country. Well, it wasn’t so much feeding as watering… Bears are asleep during the winter, but we make sure there’s water just in case they wake up thirsty. And we check on them to make sure they’re comfortable and cozy, etc. I don’t remember doing anything else except working on a memoir manuscript. I must have just been too stunned to comprehend what had happened. :)

Is your main character like yourself?

Corrine probably has little bits of me somewhere—her curiosity, her stubbornness, and, I hope, her generosity and loyalty to her friends. But we grew up in completely different time periods in different cultures, so I feel quite sure that Corrine is her own person.

What’s next after your debut novel?

I’ve already turned in the first draft of the second book in the Hallowmere series, titled By Venom’s Sweet Sting. Next is Book 3, Between Golden Jaws, and then I’m slated to write Book 7, Daughter of the Marsh King. (Other writers will fill in for the books in between). And then I return to close off the series with Book 10…

After Hallowmere, I have a couple of other YA ideas swimming around—one I call the Chinatown Death Squad novel…We’ll see how everything pans out!

Do you outline before writing?

For the Hallowmere series, I have to outline the books to make sure we’re on track with the series story arc. When I write, though, some crazy magic happens. What I expected in the outline is only the shadow of what happens when I come to the page. Sometimes I veer so far off-track that I wonder how I’ll ever find my way back to the outline. But somehow I usually do.

When I’m writing on my own, scenes just appear like bright little shards in my head. Sometimes I know how they fit together, but many times I don’t. What’s lovely is when I’ve been holding a scene in my head, knowing where it goes, and I finally get a chance to write it. There’s nothing quite like that feeling.

What should readers get from your book?

I don’t want to lead anyone into feeling that s/he must take some very specific and hallowed nugget from my books. But…one thing that became important to me as I wrote was to use history as a lens to understand how war can affect us at the deepest levels. It’s such an overwhelming thing these days, but war even now is still very personal and difficult and affects everyone whether we realize it or not. The ramifications of a war like the Civil War still reverberate today. What we do with it, how we live in the aftermath, are important issues to confront.

Also, I want readers to realize how much fun history can be, how much you can learn about yourself, your life, your ancestors…It’s all there for us to access any time we want, and it doesn’t have to be dull or boring or obligatory.

Why do you write?

What Sarah Beth Durst said.

Describe your favorite teacher when you were your protagonist’s age.

When I was Corrine’s age (15), I think my favorite teacher was Ms. Arnold, who was our high school creative writing teacher. I think she probably had Parkinson’s or some other type of palsy that made her shake a lot, but as insensitive kids will do, many rumors were circulated as to the reason for her mannerisms and quirkiness. I don’t remember anything specific about her methods or any exercises we did in her class. I just remember being encouraged and made to feel as though my writing was worthwhile, no matter what I wrote. She always give me fabulous books as Christmas presents—poetry anthologies, Taoist philosophy, whatever my flighty fancy was taken with at the moment. The nicest thing she did for us, though, was to allow us to eat lunch in her classroom. Our high school was pretty scary; I narrowly avoided being beaten up several times by roving gangs of girls. So, she offered us a safe haven in the storm. She didn’t have to do that, but it was so nice to have a peaceful lunch with close friends. We still send Christmas cards to each other with annual updates. It was really fun to send her a Hallowmere postcard!

What is your earliest book memory?

This is hard, because I have so many great early book memories. My mother and aunt were obsessed with getting good books in my hands. My mother read me such greats as Uncle Wiggily and all the Thornton W. Burgess Mother West Wind stories. From my aunt, I got a red leather-bound set of Andersen’s and Grimm’s fairytales, illustrated with old ink drawings. Those books had this wonderful, musty parchment smell, as well as that crinkly parchment feel. Whenever I think about any of those tales—“The Little Mermaid” or “Faithful John”—I still see those illustrations and feel the paper in my hands.

Do you have a website for your book? How did you handle setting it up?

My Web site is under construction at www.tiffany-trent.com. Theo Black, the amazingly talented illustrator and graphic designer (and husband of Holly Black) is my Webmaster.

Mirrorstone will also be building a Hallowmere Web site for the book series, which will include all kinds of goodies that I can hopefully discuss in more detail later. Right now, we’re just brainstorming, but I have to say—the ideas are pretty darn cool. :)

Describe your favorite library.

My favorite library is the new Hollins University Library. It has beautiful round picture windows that rise for two stories. There are columns and leather wing chairs. The walls are a soft yellow. There is silence. It’s a place that simply invites daydreaming and writing.

What was your favorite book when you were your protagonist’s age?

It may have been THE MISTS OF AVALON by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Then and again, it might also have been TEST OF THE TWINS by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. I doubt I had only one favorite. :)

Did the art director read your entire book to get inspiration for the cover?

Honestly, I don’t know. But I think she pegged the cover pretty well. I can’t wait to see all the covers for all the books in the series!

Was this the first full-length novel you wrote, or rather the first that you sold?

In the Serpent’s Coils is the second novel I’ve written, but the first YA novel I’ve written. The first novel, an adult Asian-inspired fantasy, took five years and still sits on the bottom shelf of my bookcase.

What drew you to the conflict you created for your main character?

When my main character Corrine showed up, I have to admit I was a little flummoxed. Like a lot of people in her life, I hadn’t noticed Corrine at all. She was very quiet, almost mousy. As I got to know her, though, I saw her be defiant, willful, even a little bad. And I thought, hmmm…she’s really quite interesting. What draws me to her is that she has to make choices which often have terrible consequences without foreknowlege of the situation—a lot like real life. I like seeing what’s going to happen when she chooses, especially when she chooses…poorly.