Post by ecsmith on May 19, 2009 21:06:42 GMT -5
Hi - I originally posted this on MikeJer's Whedonverse board on Saturday, but didn't see any recap mentioned here, so here you go...
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Hi All – Went to Amber Benson’s book Q&A for “Death’s Daughter” today at 3pm PST at the Santa Monica Public Library. She was interviewed by Tom Lenk, which made for an entertaining panel. She was stuck on the 10 freeway, so it started a bit late – there were 30 or so attendees and Amber and Tom sat in chairs onstage, but close to the audience. They were dressed nice-casual, and Amber often sat cross-legged on the chair. She had just returned from NYC the previous day, and said she was jet-lagged and hadn’t yet had any coffee.
I’m going to try to put down what I remember from the interview – although this will by no means be in order and will be somewhat stream-of-consciousness. Tom spent about 45 minutes asking questions that he had prepared and brought with him after reading the book, but asking follow-up or random questions at moments. Then there were about 7-8 questions from the audience. All in all, a good time, with some very funny moments.
• She wanted to write about a female heroine, and she wanted to do a fun-fantasy type book of the kind that she likes reading. She has always enjoyed young adult fantasy novels, even today. She referred to Joseph Campbell’s “hero” journey, which influenced her character Calliope’s journey. She mentioned that Buffy was of the same type – reluctant to take on the hero’s journey, flawed character, etc, and she really liked that idea. She also mentioned Lara Croft.
• Originally, she had plotted out the idea for one book, but her editor suggested that it be three books. They represent to her a microcosm of Dante’s layers of hell – with the first book being hell, the second purgatory and the third heaven. Currently, her second book is finished and with the editor. She has the whole journey outlined.
• Tom asked what her writing style is and she said she goes to a coffee shop and writes daily – her goal is 1500-2000 words, to which Tom was impressed. She has to listen to music when she writes. It lets her conscious mind be occupied so her subconscious can write. For the first book, she listened nonstop to a local Southern California singer-songwriter, Angela Correa, who she references in the book notes and says provided the sound track for the book. For the second book, she made a mix with music from films like “Sleepy Hollow” and “Suspiria.” She offered to send it to Tom, who said he’s gets scared at horror films.
• Writing comes pretty easy to her. Since she has the outline, she can sit down and type away. She does go back and edit and rewrite things. She said the first chapter was rewritten about four times. She joked that she gets fat when rewriting because she goes to her favorite bakery.
• The publishing company came up with the cover and the cover model. She said that she thought that the girl was too masculine and looked older than she had pictured. They went back and airbrushed her face, which she said then looked odd. Tom asked whether it was a good idea to have a picture of the girl on the front, because audience’s often have their own idea of what the character looks like. He said that the cover girl looked kind of like Carla Gugino and Amber said she had pictured Calliope as a Zooey Deschanel – type. Tom then had a funny aside where he said when he first read “The Da Vinci Code” he had pictured Robert Langdon as a Harrison Ford type. Then when he saw the movie and then read “Angels and Demons” he was disappointed because he could only see Tom Hanks in his mind which ruined it, haha.
• Amber has written a book for elementary-age kids, and she would like to do another one. Her and Adam Busch (by the way, I did not know they were dating, which I find awesome) have finished shooting a film and it is in the sound editing and color correction stage. They will take it to film festivals this year. She also plans to keep touring her book and would like to do Comic-Con in San Diego.
• She is very familiar with myths and mythology and found that part of the book easy. Pop culture references are also easy for her. The hard part, she said, is fashion – she had to do the most research for the fashion parts of the book, such as what someone would buy at Barney’s, etc.
• She is excited to be writing on her own. It is different from writing with Christopher Golden in that when she writes with someone else, you don’t have as much flexibility to change up the story. She would tell him that she didn’t like where a character is going, for example, and they would talk about it.
• Her characters definitely have a mind of their own and often don’t want to go where she wants to lead them. It’s like the book is being inspired by something else – coming through her, sometimes. Her characters are real to her, like friends, and have different voices (although she says you can definitely hear her voice through them). Tom mentioned a video online of a talk with Elizabeth Gilbert who wrote “Eat Pray Love” that is very interesting and talks about this concept.
• Tom joked about Amber’s quest to get (85 I think?) reviews of her book on Amazon.com and said there is a video out there of her doing the Macarena. He joked, “why that and not the chicken dance?” and she seemed embarrassed. They talked about reviews in general. She is more inclined to read and take things out of her book reviews and comments, than her acting. One reason is that the book series is still going, and she can use constructive feedback in her future books. Another reason is that she feels that her books are more of a living art and therefore discussion of that is more relevant. But a big part is that a lot of reviews of her acting go towards the physical aspects (i.e. body image) and can be hateful. (Author aside: she is gorgeous and very svelte, people are crazy.) She doesn’t want to get too caught up in those comments because if good comments can make you feel good, bad comments can make you feel bad, and she doesn’t want to let them effect her like that. Also, women have enough body image issues. Tom mentioned that when he was first on Buffy he would google himself, but some of the hateful comments put him off.
• As has been noted many times, Amber considers herself a Renaissance Woman and does not consider herself first and foremost an actor, writer, etc. She is a Type A personality and has to always be doing something or she gets restless. Tom joked that he is just lazy.
• She said that it would be cool to write a musical. She had been approached (along with Emma Caulfield) to do a Broadway musical version of Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion, but has not heard what is going on with that right now. There was a tangent about Communist Musicals, which was amusing.
• There is not one religion that informs her ideas of heaven and hell. She is interested in how there are many different ideas about religion, afterlife, etc and doesn’t think one should be “right” or “better.” Her dad was Jewish and her mom Southern Baptist (“fire and brimstone”) so that contrast was interesting growing up. She mentioned that Indian religion and myths influenced her book.
• Someone asked how she gets paid for these books and she says the advance and usually that’s it – unless a book sells quite a bit. She contrasted that to acting and residuals.
• She mentioned that sometimes in movies or TV, there are so many voices and people involved that there is not just one vision – it gets jumbled. With her book, it was nice because her editor does not have an MBA, just a literature background and only gives her good feedback, not geared towards commerce, etc.
• She rarely has anyone mention her books to her – she would be flattered if that happened, in an audition for example. She said that Danny Strong gets that a lot because of “Recount”. Tom joked that Amber does fantasy and he writes “glitter desk” (a running joke) and Danny writes meaningful, political stuff.
• “Glitter desk” – I don’t know if this was a joke, but Tom kept talking about writing about this – I guess he was doing a serious play, and the desk used as a prop had glitter on it that they couldn’t get off – and that make him laugh so he wanted to use that concept.
• Amber likes the idea of her book being out there – a finished product, tangible. Tom said he was in London last week with Felicia Day and they went into a bookstore and Felicia wanted to go to the sci-fi section and Tom found Amber’s book, which she was happy to hear.
• Speaking of Tom – some funny stories. He has been up in Vancouver filming “Cabin in the Woods” (a “horror – comedy”). They are staying at the Sutton Place (he called “Slutton”), which I guess everybody stays when they make films in Toronto. He said he was always excited going onto the elevator, who he’d see next (he mentioned Sandra Oh, Christine Baranski and Brooke Shields). Apparently the Twilight actors were staying there. He told this hilarious story about walking to the convenience store and he did this voice and said “have you seen the vampires?” and then mimed someone not understanding and then picked up a fake magazine and pointed to it, saying “have you seen these people?” and at this point Amber is confused and then says, “Oh, this is YOU asking? YOU’RE asking the people at the store about the Twilight actors?” (I’m paraphrasing) and Tom was like, “Yah, I’m doing my voice” and said he does enjoy Twilight. He didn’t see them but said the convenience store people had.
• Tom mentioned that Amber was recently named to AfterEllen.com’s hot list and she looked embarrassed. He said that is was flattering and she agreed, adding that it is better than Maxim. He asked if she had ever posed for one of those lad mags and she said once she did. She said they trick you because they put you in a room with all these gay guys who are like “girl, you look fabulous” and they have all these costumes and you get comfortable and as the day goes on clothes start disappearing. But she maintains that hers was tasteful. She says that she didn’t even know what the magazine was – it was Stuff and she hadn’t heard of it, so she agreed. She was in a convenience store with a friend and told them about the upcoming shoot and mentioned it was Stuff magazine and they grabbed a magazine and said “THIS magazine?” and she saw a half naked girl on the cover and was like “uh oh”. Tom said, that yah, any magazine you can get at a convenience store is probably bad. Then she said that there are not really any counterpart magazines with scantily clad men. Tom joked – except every other month Ryan Reynolds is on some magazine half naked, haha. Amber said that women tend to not care as much about naked men – they want the whole, “I love you, can’t live without you, but I must stay away from you” Twilight type thing.
• Amber hilariously described her Stuff shoot. It took place at a castle-type house outside of LA, with a moat and turrets and everything. Apparently, a lot of porn is shot there, which she didn’t know. She was taking pictures on the spiral staircase that had a shag carpet. She texted her friend, who said “where are you shooting?” and when she told him the staircase, he said “I hope you’re wearing clothes” because they had recently shot a “train” porn scene on the staircase. Tom mentioned (and Amber agreed) that he would have thought the moat would be the most likely porn location. Then oil was mentioned, and the absorbent properties of shag, and then they changed the subject quickly.
• Tom asked her whether she was a fan of something to the extent that she would go to conventions, etc. He said that he would go to a “30 Rock” convention – he’s obsessed with Tina Fey. She said no, she never has. She used to go to see bands a lot with her friend (or sister?) but it was more their thing than hers.
• She has the humor of a horny 10-year-old boy, she said (mimed covering her mouth and giggling at inappropriate words). Apparently, Adam agrees. Her favorite curse word “is a four letter word that starts with a C and ends with a T”. She’s “reclaiming” it for females.
• She’s enjoying spending time in NYC for the book – any new place is inspirational for writing.
• Both she and Tom agree that they enjoy the tactile experience of books, and are not interested in the Kindle experience - Amber said she likes to crack the spine of her books. They mentioned the read aloud function of Kindle as being bad for audio books, which she loves and listens to all the time.
• Tom is recently on Twitter (TomLenk). He joked that he has four friends and she said, pointing the crowd, “now you have 20 more.”
After the Q&A, she signed autographs for everyone, very gracious, talking with everyone. She mentioned to me that she is enjoying the Charlaine Harris Sookie Stackhouse books and Patricia Briggs. She said she feels very lucky to have been a part of Buffy.
Anyway, that’s all I can think of for now. If anything else comes up in my head I’ll put it down. Probably someone will come out with a video and this will be moot.
----
Hi All – Went to Amber Benson’s book Q&A for “Death’s Daughter” today at 3pm PST at the Santa Monica Public Library. She was interviewed by Tom Lenk, which made for an entertaining panel. She was stuck on the 10 freeway, so it started a bit late – there were 30 or so attendees and Amber and Tom sat in chairs onstage, but close to the audience. They were dressed nice-casual, and Amber often sat cross-legged on the chair. She had just returned from NYC the previous day, and said she was jet-lagged and hadn’t yet had any coffee.
I’m going to try to put down what I remember from the interview – although this will by no means be in order and will be somewhat stream-of-consciousness. Tom spent about 45 minutes asking questions that he had prepared and brought with him after reading the book, but asking follow-up or random questions at moments. Then there were about 7-8 questions from the audience. All in all, a good time, with some very funny moments.
• She wanted to write about a female heroine, and she wanted to do a fun-fantasy type book of the kind that she likes reading. She has always enjoyed young adult fantasy novels, even today. She referred to Joseph Campbell’s “hero” journey, which influenced her character Calliope’s journey. She mentioned that Buffy was of the same type – reluctant to take on the hero’s journey, flawed character, etc, and she really liked that idea. She also mentioned Lara Croft.
• Originally, she had plotted out the idea for one book, but her editor suggested that it be three books. They represent to her a microcosm of Dante’s layers of hell – with the first book being hell, the second purgatory and the third heaven. Currently, her second book is finished and with the editor. She has the whole journey outlined.
• Tom asked what her writing style is and she said she goes to a coffee shop and writes daily – her goal is 1500-2000 words, to which Tom was impressed. She has to listen to music when she writes. It lets her conscious mind be occupied so her subconscious can write. For the first book, she listened nonstop to a local Southern California singer-songwriter, Angela Correa, who she references in the book notes and says provided the sound track for the book. For the second book, she made a mix with music from films like “Sleepy Hollow” and “Suspiria.” She offered to send it to Tom, who said he’s gets scared at horror films.
• Writing comes pretty easy to her. Since she has the outline, she can sit down and type away. She does go back and edit and rewrite things. She said the first chapter was rewritten about four times. She joked that she gets fat when rewriting because she goes to her favorite bakery.
• The publishing company came up with the cover and the cover model. She said that she thought that the girl was too masculine and looked older than she had pictured. They went back and airbrushed her face, which she said then looked odd. Tom asked whether it was a good idea to have a picture of the girl on the front, because audience’s often have their own idea of what the character looks like. He said that the cover girl looked kind of like Carla Gugino and Amber said she had pictured Calliope as a Zooey Deschanel – type. Tom then had a funny aside where he said when he first read “The Da Vinci Code” he had pictured Robert Langdon as a Harrison Ford type. Then when he saw the movie and then read “Angels and Demons” he was disappointed because he could only see Tom Hanks in his mind which ruined it, haha.
• Amber has written a book for elementary-age kids, and she would like to do another one. Her and Adam Busch (by the way, I did not know they were dating, which I find awesome) have finished shooting a film and it is in the sound editing and color correction stage. They will take it to film festivals this year. She also plans to keep touring her book and would like to do Comic-Con in San Diego.
• She is very familiar with myths and mythology and found that part of the book easy. Pop culture references are also easy for her. The hard part, she said, is fashion – she had to do the most research for the fashion parts of the book, such as what someone would buy at Barney’s, etc.
• She is excited to be writing on her own. It is different from writing with Christopher Golden in that when she writes with someone else, you don’t have as much flexibility to change up the story. She would tell him that she didn’t like where a character is going, for example, and they would talk about it.
• Her characters definitely have a mind of their own and often don’t want to go where she wants to lead them. It’s like the book is being inspired by something else – coming through her, sometimes. Her characters are real to her, like friends, and have different voices (although she says you can definitely hear her voice through them). Tom mentioned a video online of a talk with Elizabeth Gilbert who wrote “Eat Pray Love” that is very interesting and talks about this concept.
• Tom joked about Amber’s quest to get (85 I think?) reviews of her book on Amazon.com and said there is a video out there of her doing the Macarena. He joked, “why that and not the chicken dance?” and she seemed embarrassed. They talked about reviews in general. She is more inclined to read and take things out of her book reviews and comments, than her acting. One reason is that the book series is still going, and she can use constructive feedback in her future books. Another reason is that she feels that her books are more of a living art and therefore discussion of that is more relevant. But a big part is that a lot of reviews of her acting go towards the physical aspects (i.e. body image) and can be hateful. (Author aside: she is gorgeous and very svelte, people are crazy.) She doesn’t want to get too caught up in those comments because if good comments can make you feel good, bad comments can make you feel bad, and she doesn’t want to let them effect her like that. Also, women have enough body image issues. Tom mentioned that when he was first on Buffy he would google himself, but some of the hateful comments put him off.
• As has been noted many times, Amber considers herself a Renaissance Woman and does not consider herself first and foremost an actor, writer, etc. She is a Type A personality and has to always be doing something or she gets restless. Tom joked that he is just lazy.
• She said that it would be cool to write a musical. She had been approached (along with Emma Caulfield) to do a Broadway musical version of Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion, but has not heard what is going on with that right now. There was a tangent about Communist Musicals, which was amusing.
• There is not one religion that informs her ideas of heaven and hell. She is interested in how there are many different ideas about religion, afterlife, etc and doesn’t think one should be “right” or “better.” Her dad was Jewish and her mom Southern Baptist (“fire and brimstone”) so that contrast was interesting growing up. She mentioned that Indian religion and myths influenced her book.
• Someone asked how she gets paid for these books and she says the advance and usually that’s it – unless a book sells quite a bit. She contrasted that to acting and residuals.
• She mentioned that sometimes in movies or TV, there are so many voices and people involved that there is not just one vision – it gets jumbled. With her book, it was nice because her editor does not have an MBA, just a literature background and only gives her good feedback, not geared towards commerce, etc.
• She rarely has anyone mention her books to her – she would be flattered if that happened, in an audition for example. She said that Danny Strong gets that a lot because of “Recount”. Tom joked that Amber does fantasy and he writes “glitter desk” (a running joke) and Danny writes meaningful, political stuff.
• “Glitter desk” – I don’t know if this was a joke, but Tom kept talking about writing about this – I guess he was doing a serious play, and the desk used as a prop had glitter on it that they couldn’t get off – and that make him laugh so he wanted to use that concept.
• Amber likes the idea of her book being out there – a finished product, tangible. Tom said he was in London last week with Felicia Day and they went into a bookstore and Felicia wanted to go to the sci-fi section and Tom found Amber’s book, which she was happy to hear.
• Speaking of Tom – some funny stories. He has been up in Vancouver filming “Cabin in the Woods” (a “horror – comedy”). They are staying at the Sutton Place (he called “Slutton”), which I guess everybody stays when they make films in Toronto. He said he was always excited going onto the elevator, who he’d see next (he mentioned Sandra Oh, Christine Baranski and Brooke Shields). Apparently the Twilight actors were staying there. He told this hilarious story about walking to the convenience store and he did this voice and said “have you seen the vampires?” and then mimed someone not understanding and then picked up a fake magazine and pointed to it, saying “have you seen these people?” and at this point Amber is confused and then says, “Oh, this is YOU asking? YOU’RE asking the people at the store about the Twilight actors?” (I’m paraphrasing) and Tom was like, “Yah, I’m doing my voice” and said he does enjoy Twilight. He didn’t see them but said the convenience store people had.
• Tom mentioned that Amber was recently named to AfterEllen.com’s hot list and she looked embarrassed. He said that is was flattering and she agreed, adding that it is better than Maxim. He asked if she had ever posed for one of those lad mags and she said once she did. She said they trick you because they put you in a room with all these gay guys who are like “girl, you look fabulous” and they have all these costumes and you get comfortable and as the day goes on clothes start disappearing. But she maintains that hers was tasteful. She says that she didn’t even know what the magazine was – it was Stuff and she hadn’t heard of it, so she agreed. She was in a convenience store with a friend and told them about the upcoming shoot and mentioned it was Stuff magazine and they grabbed a magazine and said “THIS magazine?” and she saw a half naked girl on the cover and was like “uh oh”. Tom said, that yah, any magazine you can get at a convenience store is probably bad. Then she said that there are not really any counterpart magazines with scantily clad men. Tom joked – except every other month Ryan Reynolds is on some magazine half naked, haha. Amber said that women tend to not care as much about naked men – they want the whole, “I love you, can’t live without you, but I must stay away from you” Twilight type thing.
• Amber hilariously described her Stuff shoot. It took place at a castle-type house outside of LA, with a moat and turrets and everything. Apparently, a lot of porn is shot there, which she didn’t know. She was taking pictures on the spiral staircase that had a shag carpet. She texted her friend, who said “where are you shooting?” and when she told him the staircase, he said “I hope you’re wearing clothes” because they had recently shot a “train” porn scene on the staircase. Tom mentioned (and Amber agreed) that he would have thought the moat would be the most likely porn location. Then oil was mentioned, and the absorbent properties of shag, and then they changed the subject quickly.
• Tom asked her whether she was a fan of something to the extent that she would go to conventions, etc. He said that he would go to a “30 Rock” convention – he’s obsessed with Tina Fey. She said no, she never has. She used to go to see bands a lot with her friend (or sister?) but it was more their thing than hers.
• She has the humor of a horny 10-year-old boy, she said (mimed covering her mouth and giggling at inappropriate words). Apparently, Adam agrees. Her favorite curse word “is a four letter word that starts with a C and ends with a T”. She’s “reclaiming” it for females.
• She’s enjoying spending time in NYC for the book – any new place is inspirational for writing.
• Both she and Tom agree that they enjoy the tactile experience of books, and are not interested in the Kindle experience - Amber said she likes to crack the spine of her books. They mentioned the read aloud function of Kindle as being bad for audio books, which she loves and listens to all the time.
• Tom is recently on Twitter (TomLenk). He joked that he has four friends and she said, pointing the crowd, “now you have 20 more.”
After the Q&A, she signed autographs for everyone, very gracious, talking with everyone. She mentioned to me that she is enjoying the Charlaine Harris Sookie Stackhouse books and Patricia Briggs. She said she feels very lucky to have been a part of Buffy.
Anyway, that’s all I can think of for now. If anything else comes up in my head I’ll put it down. Probably someone will come out with a video and this will be moot.