Post by buffysmglover on Aug 31, 2007 21:42:13 GMT -5
From www.btvs-angel-authors.moonfruit.com , a SlayAlive Affiliate
B-A-A: What has been the most unforgettable experience for you so far in your time of being an author?
AH: When I first got the go ahead to write NIGHT TERRORS. I was ecstatic. It was an incredible opportunity to create a work of fiction set in a universe that has brought me a lot of enjoyment over the years.
B-A-A: Have you always wanted to be an author? Even when you were a kid?
AH: Yes, I always wanted to be a writer. I started writing short stories when I was six. My dad had given me his manual typewriter, and I immediately started creating fiction. Even then I wrote eerie tales of the supernatural, as well as some detective fiction. I wrote my first novel at age twelve, and my second at seventeen. I earned my undergraduate degree in writing, and took a lot of writing workshops. Then I started submitting my short stories to publishers and have been steadily writing and submitting since then. After graduate school, I got a job at LucasFilm, Ltd., in the video game division. I did some Star Wars writing during this time, and my writing career just took off. It's a fantastic feeling to create characters and worlds, write down adventures and discover new imaginary places.
B-A-A: What is the book you believe to be the best book you have written?
AH: That's a tough one. I really enjoyed writing all the books I've written. NIGHT TERRORS was very different from the others because it's written as a Choose Your Own Adventure style book. It was a lot of fun to write because I had so much literary freedom. The book has twenty different endings, so I could take the narrative in a lot of different directions. PORTAL THROUGH TIME, the book I just completed, has some intense scenes in it that I think turned out quite well. I did a great amount of historical research for that novel, and the historical scenes have a lot of authentic detail in them. The Civil War scenes are perhaps my favorite, though it's hard to choose.
B-A-A: Where did you come up with the idea for that book?
AH: I came up with the idea for NIGHT TERRORS from my studies while earning my master's degree in folklore and mythology. There is a worldwide phenomenon wherein people awake, terrified, convinced someone or something is in the room with them, and they can't move. You find reports of this occurrence in mainland U.S., Canada, Hawaii, Asia...all over the globe. While considering this phenomenon, I imagined it would be exciting to write a book in which a creature truly *was* in the room with the sleeper, seeking to take over the sleeper's body. The plot for NIGHT TERRORS was born.
B-A-A: Did you grow up around many authors or in a wealthy family?
AH: My father was a writer, and an amazing one at that. He wrote fiction and non-fiction. He loved tales of the supernatural, as well, and he also wrote mysteries. He encouraged me from a very young age to follow my passion for writing. Both of my parents were very creative and supportive of my desire to be a writer.
B-A-A: What would you like potential fans to know about you or your books?
AH: I want them to know how much I love and enjoy writing. I hope my books entertain them.
________________________________________________________________
NIGHT TERRORS:
B-A-A: First off, could you tell those who haven't read Night Terrors what it is about?
AH: NIGHT TERRORS focuses on a creature who has the power to possess the bodies of sleeping people. Trapped in the dream dimension, he'll do anything to escape from it. Taking over a human's body is one means of escape. Unfortunately for him, once he takes over a body, it begins to break down because it can't contain his energy. But when he learns of Buffy and her supernatural Slayer strength, he believes he has found the perfect host body for his soul.
It's written in the style of a Choose Your Own Adventure book, set in the Stake Your Destiny series of Buffy books. The reader gets to choose the direction of the narrative. In some threads, Buffy herself is possessed. In another, the creature takes over Giles. Angel is the victim in another plot. There are twenty possible endings, some good, and some bad.
B-A-A: Have you ever read a CHOOSE YOUR DESTINY book? I think Night Terrors probably has the most endings! That's good because different people like different things. Did you take that into consideration?
AH: I have read the other STAKE YOUR DESTINY books, and I loved reading the Choose Your Own Adventure books from the 1980s. NIGHT TERRORS does indeed have more endings than most. I did that because I can remember reading Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid, and sometimes I would have to read the same sections over and over to get to all the endings. With NIGHT TERRORS, I aimed for minimal repeating passages. I wanted a different adventure for the reader every time the book was opened. Depending on your choices, the narrative can take you to some pretty different places, with lots of fresh material as you journey through the pages.
B-A-A: The endings dealing with the demons in a different dimension that looked like the Night Terror were my favorite. But, whether Buffy tells them about the Night Terror or not doesn't really matter. I think when she does tell them the truth, they have to take a longer way and a more difficult spell to send her back into her body. Did it ever occur to you that the two ways to get back in her body were quite similiar?
AH: I'm glad you liked those endings! I had a lot of fun writing them, and you get to see a little more about the Night Terror's origin. I made those endings similar on purpose. I thought that if the demons sent her back one way in Choice A and a totally different way in Choice B, that readers would think, "Hey! Wait a minute...why didn't they just send her back like they did in Choice A?" Instead, I opted for similar methods, but written slightly differently, which is why the spell is a little more difficult in one of the choices.
B-A-A: I also liked the ending where Angel isn't a vampire and Buffy's parents never were divorced. The question with that is that I don't know whether it's a good ending or a bad ending because it ends at the climax. Is it a good ending or a not so "happily ever after"?
AH: I liked this ending, too. Most of the endings in NIGHT TERRORS are either really good, or really bad. I didn't have many neutral endings, but this is one of them. It's good in that Buffy can be with Angel, and that her parents are still together, something that's made her sad over the years. But it's bad in that she's also trapped in a different dimension. I left it open on purpose so that the reader could decide how they'd like it best to end...Buffy with Angel and her parents, or Buffy returning to her own dimension. So it's really up to the reader to decide if it's good or bad.
B-A-A: What is your favorite ending or which way would you choose at a certain part if you had to?
AH: I really enjoyed writing the dream sequences in which Buffy is trapped in the dream world. Thinking of surreal, imaginative things that might be part of her dreams and nightmares was a lot of fun. I like the Great Transcendental Ned, too. The endings involving him are the ones I would choose if I were reading NIGHT TERRORS. I also like the Ethan Rayne/Mummy parts. They add a bit of lightheartedness to the book.
____________________________________________________________________
PORTAL THROUGH TIME
B-A-A: Can you give us a more detailed and more of an understanding of the BtVS book you are writing entitled Portal Through Time?
AH: PORTAL THROUGH TIME was a blast to write. The premise is that a follower of the Master devises a way to travel back in time and kill historical Slayers. By murdering Slayers before the time of their natural deaths, he hopes to alter the Slayer lineage. If he succeeds, Buffy will not be the active Slayer when the Master rises. The devotee of the Master targets four historical Slayers, and Buffy and the Scoobies must travel back in time to save them. Their rescue missions take them to Roman-occupied Britain during an attack on a Druid stronghold; to ancient Sumeria during the reign of King Gilgamesh; to one of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War; and to the dangerous, chaotic streets of the French Revolution, where they encounter Angelus. If they fail in any of these rescues, the Master will rise to power and open the Hellmouth.
LIFE:
B-A-A: What has been the most unforgettable experience for you so far in your time of being an author?
AH: When I first got the go ahead to write NIGHT TERRORS. I was ecstatic. It was an incredible opportunity to create a work of fiction set in a universe that has brought me a lot of enjoyment over the years.
B-A-A: Have you always wanted to be an author? Even when you were a kid?
AH: Yes, I always wanted to be a writer. I started writing short stories when I was six. My dad had given me his manual typewriter, and I immediately started creating fiction. Even then I wrote eerie tales of the supernatural, as well as some detective fiction. I wrote my first novel at age twelve, and my second at seventeen. I earned my undergraduate degree in writing, and took a lot of writing workshops. Then I started submitting my short stories to publishers and have been steadily writing and submitting since then. After graduate school, I got a job at LucasFilm, Ltd., in the video game division. I did some Star Wars writing during this time, and my writing career just took off. It's a fantastic feeling to create characters and worlds, write down adventures and discover new imaginary places.
B-A-A: What is the book you believe to be the best book you have written?
AH: That's a tough one. I really enjoyed writing all the books I've written. NIGHT TERRORS was very different from the others because it's written as a Choose Your Own Adventure style book. It was a lot of fun to write because I had so much literary freedom. The book has twenty different endings, so I could take the narrative in a lot of different directions. PORTAL THROUGH TIME, the book I just completed, has some intense scenes in it that I think turned out quite well. I did a great amount of historical research for that novel, and the historical scenes have a lot of authentic detail in them. The Civil War scenes are perhaps my favorite, though it's hard to choose.
B-A-A: Where did you come up with the idea for that book?
AH: I came up with the idea for NIGHT TERRORS from my studies while earning my master's degree in folklore and mythology. There is a worldwide phenomenon wherein people awake, terrified, convinced someone or something is in the room with them, and they can't move. You find reports of this occurrence in mainland U.S., Canada, Hawaii, Asia...all over the globe. While considering this phenomenon, I imagined it would be exciting to write a book in which a creature truly *was* in the room with the sleeper, seeking to take over the sleeper's body. The plot for NIGHT TERRORS was born.
B-A-A: Did you grow up around many authors or in a wealthy family?
AH: My father was a writer, and an amazing one at that. He wrote fiction and non-fiction. He loved tales of the supernatural, as well, and he also wrote mysteries. He encouraged me from a very young age to follow my passion for writing. Both of my parents were very creative and supportive of my desire to be a writer.
B-A-A: What would you like potential fans to know about you or your books?
AH: I want them to know how much I love and enjoy writing. I hope my books entertain them.
________________________________________________________________
NIGHT TERRORS:
B-A-A: First off, could you tell those who haven't read Night Terrors what it is about?
AH: NIGHT TERRORS focuses on a creature who has the power to possess the bodies of sleeping people. Trapped in the dream dimension, he'll do anything to escape from it. Taking over a human's body is one means of escape. Unfortunately for him, once he takes over a body, it begins to break down because it can't contain his energy. But when he learns of Buffy and her supernatural Slayer strength, he believes he has found the perfect host body for his soul.
It's written in the style of a Choose Your Own Adventure book, set in the Stake Your Destiny series of Buffy books. The reader gets to choose the direction of the narrative. In some threads, Buffy herself is possessed. In another, the creature takes over Giles. Angel is the victim in another plot. There are twenty possible endings, some good, and some bad.
B-A-A: Have you ever read a CHOOSE YOUR DESTINY book? I think Night Terrors probably has the most endings! That's good because different people like different things. Did you take that into consideration?
AH: I have read the other STAKE YOUR DESTINY books, and I loved reading the Choose Your Own Adventure books from the 1980s. NIGHT TERRORS does indeed have more endings than most. I did that because I can remember reading Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid, and sometimes I would have to read the same sections over and over to get to all the endings. With NIGHT TERRORS, I aimed for minimal repeating passages. I wanted a different adventure for the reader every time the book was opened. Depending on your choices, the narrative can take you to some pretty different places, with lots of fresh material as you journey through the pages.
B-A-A: The endings dealing with the demons in a different dimension that looked like the Night Terror were my favorite. But, whether Buffy tells them about the Night Terror or not doesn't really matter. I think when she does tell them the truth, they have to take a longer way and a more difficult spell to send her back into her body. Did it ever occur to you that the two ways to get back in her body were quite similiar?
AH: I'm glad you liked those endings! I had a lot of fun writing them, and you get to see a little more about the Night Terror's origin. I made those endings similar on purpose. I thought that if the demons sent her back one way in Choice A and a totally different way in Choice B, that readers would think, "Hey! Wait a minute...why didn't they just send her back like they did in Choice A?" Instead, I opted for similar methods, but written slightly differently, which is why the spell is a little more difficult in one of the choices.
B-A-A: I also liked the ending where Angel isn't a vampire and Buffy's parents never were divorced. The question with that is that I don't know whether it's a good ending or a bad ending because it ends at the climax. Is it a good ending or a not so "happily ever after"?
AH: I liked this ending, too. Most of the endings in NIGHT TERRORS are either really good, or really bad. I didn't have many neutral endings, but this is one of them. It's good in that Buffy can be with Angel, and that her parents are still together, something that's made her sad over the years. But it's bad in that she's also trapped in a different dimension. I left it open on purpose so that the reader could decide how they'd like it best to end...Buffy with Angel and her parents, or Buffy returning to her own dimension. So it's really up to the reader to decide if it's good or bad.
B-A-A: What is your favorite ending or which way would you choose at a certain part if you had to?
AH: I really enjoyed writing the dream sequences in which Buffy is trapped in the dream world. Thinking of surreal, imaginative things that might be part of her dreams and nightmares was a lot of fun. I like the Great Transcendental Ned, too. The endings involving him are the ones I would choose if I were reading NIGHT TERRORS. I also like the Ethan Rayne/Mummy parts. They add a bit of lightheartedness to the book.
____________________________________________________________________
PORTAL THROUGH TIME
B-A-A: Can you give us a more detailed and more of an understanding of the BtVS book you are writing entitled Portal Through Time?
AH: PORTAL THROUGH TIME was a blast to write. The premise is that a follower of the Master devises a way to travel back in time and kill historical Slayers. By murdering Slayers before the time of their natural deaths, he hopes to alter the Slayer lineage. If he succeeds, Buffy will not be the active Slayer when the Master rises. The devotee of the Master targets four historical Slayers, and Buffy and the Scoobies must travel back in time to save them. Their rescue missions take them to Roman-occupied Britain during an attack on a Druid stronghold; to ancient Sumeria during the reign of King Gilgamesh; to one of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War; and to the dangerous, chaotic streets of the French Revolution, where they encounter Angelus. If they fail in any of these rescues, the Master will rise to power and open the Hellmouth.