Q&A with Josh Lanyon discussion
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What Are you Reading?
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I saw some reviews on Amazon. OWWWWWWCH. Jeez.
It makes sense to try and give a spin-off series a good boost from the primary series. But apparently that's a more risky maneuver than one might think.
I guess I've never had a secondary pairing or character I felt strongly enough about (or that readers really took to enough) to try and spin off.
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That's my favorite of the series.
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My new rule of not buying the next book until I've read the previous one is encouraging m..."
I think Jamie is such an entertaining writer.
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Reading or listening? I really loved the audio version! :)"
Me too - I kept seeing Alan Rickman as Septimus in my head."
NO. UGH.
Well, I mean okay if you like Alan Rickman. (But God NO. Not even remotely.)
:-D
Josh wrote: "Colette wrote: "Valerie C wrote: "Idamus wrote: "Next book up: The Darkling Thrush :D"Reading or listening? I really loved the audio version! :)"
Me too - I kept seeing Alan Rickman as Septimus ..."
I don't mind Alan Rickman, he does 'sleasy' very well
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Reading or listening? I really loved the audio version! :)"
Me too - I kept seeing Alan Rickman..."
Maybe so, but Septimus is not sleazy!
If readers want to picture Jake with dark hair, okay. I can live with that.
But Alan Rickman for Septimus?! No. Absolutely not. CLEAR YOUR MIND. I DEMAND THAT YOU CLEAR YOUR MIND. NOW!!!
:-D
Josh wrote: "Idamus wrote: "Josh wrote: "Colette wrote: "Valerie C wrote: "Idamus wrote: "Next book up: The Darkling Thrush :D"Reading or listening? I really loved the audio version! :)"
Me too - I kept seei..."
*Sniggers*
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Reading or listening? I really loved the audio version! :)"
Me too ..."
I'm going to change his hair color in the next book.
Josh wrote: "Idamus wrote: "Josh wrote: "Colette wrote: "Valerie C wrote: "Idamus wrote: "Next book up: The Darkling Thrush :D"Reading or listening? I really loved the audio version! :)"
Me too - I kept seei..."
LOL
Hmm...Septimus is...angles and shadows, (in)tense..., more Benedict Cumberbatch than Alan-not-Septimus-Rickman.
KC wrote: "Josh wrote: "Idamus wrote: "Josh wrote: "Colette wrote: "Valerie C wrote: "Idamus wrote: "Next book up: The Darkling Thrush :D"Reading or listening? I really loved the audio version! :)"
Me too ..."
EWWWWWWWWWW, if you guys keep this up, I'll have to stop listening until my brain bleach has worked :p
Josh wrote: "Idamus wrote: "Josh wrote: "Colette wrote: "Valerie C wrote: "Idamus wrote: "Next book up: The Darkling Thrush :D"Reading or listening? I really loved the audio version! :)"
Me too - I kept seei..."
So sorry, but I adore Alan Rickman and that is my mental image - I promise I won't mention it again.
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Even the DG series -- it was inspired by my love for Pros, but from the start those guys were their own people.
One funny thing though. I always wish I had given Taylor reddish brown hair. He has always had reddish brown hair in my mind, but I gave him black hair because I wanted to make sure that he didn't get confused with the Doyle character in Pros. But that was actually fighting my own creative impulse. The coloring of the character is always very distinct in my mind.
Sometimes I want to change it -- if, for example, I've just been writing a blond character, but it never feels quite right.
Now why that should be when half the time the reader is picturing someone completely different anyway (!!??) I don't know. But for some reason it matters to me what hair color the character has.
Which is one reason why I think authors who don't believe it matters telling the reader what the character looks like, are wrong. It's not like the character is a cipher. We do picture distinct people.
Idamus wrote: "KC wrote: "Josh wrote: "Idamus wrote: "Josh wrote: "Colette wrote: "Valerie C wrote: "Idamus wrote: "Next book up: The Darkling Thrush :D"Reading or listening? I really loved the audio version! :..."
Ewwwww Benedict Cumberbatch?!?!!... But he has The Presence, The Atmosphere! he can pull it off!
;-)
KC wrote: "Idamus wrote: "KC wrote: "Josh wrote: "Idamus wrote: "Josh wrote: "Colette wrote: "Valerie C wrote: "Idamus wrote: "Next book up: The Darkling Thrush :D"Reading or listening? I really loved the a..."
..........NO, gah, *runs for the brain bleach*
He just rubs me the wrong way, even just looking at him
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:-)
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Reading or listening? I really loved the audio version! :)"
Me too ..."
I know, I know. You are entitled to picture whoever you want. This is the reader's privilege. I cannot control the TV set in your brain.
I think Rickman is a talented actor. He's good at pathos. Maybe because he is so homely. INTERESTING LOOKING, I mean. He has an interesting face. Very sad.
I've only once had a specific real person in mind for one of my characters - Cal in Patient Z basically is Tyler Hoechlin, who I was kind of obsessed with at the time. :D But he's the only one. Sometimes I'll find a picture of a model, rather than a famous actor, who's maybe got the general look of a character. But never anyone who is exactly right.
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Reading or listening? I really loved the a..."
Actually, they do have similar faces.
Bandersnatch does not have a melancholy face though. He has more of a sly look. Like he is up to something.
Johanna wrote: "Oh, and the eyes. I always want to hear about character's eyes. I need to know the color and how it chances with different emotions."Oh, yes, i love that!
Josh wrote: "KC wrote: "Idamus wrote: "KC wrote: "Josh wrote: "Idamus wrote: "Josh wrote: "Colette wrote: "Valerie C wrote: "Idamus wrote: "Next book up: The Darkling Thrush :D"Reading or listening? I really ..."
In fairness, Septimus, also, is always up to something ;-) but i think we need to recast anyway. He's good but not perfect for the movie adaptation.
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Yes, a model -- so long as he's not famous -- works. Sometimes it's more the mood of a photo that might provide inspiration than the actual photo. And so it is with characters. It's not like I see them in my mind as a photograph. But yet all the specifics of height and weight and coloring are there. And a general idea of the face. And somehow every one is different. Jake (he is BLOND, people) does not look like Griff in Stranger on the Shore. Griff does not look like Flynn in Haunted Heart. And so on.
It might be that some readers are more visual and so it's nice to be able to pin a character to a physical type that they like?
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I find that endlessly entertaining. I mean, my nieces would get giggly and blushy over Yu-Gi-Oh. He's a drawing. He's a cartoon. He doesn't even look like a real person. :-D
KC wrote: "Johanna wrote: "Oh, and the eyes. I always want to hear about character's eyes. I need to know the color and how it chances with different emotions."Oh, yes, i love that!"
I second that, eyes are so important. I always notice people's eyes in real life too.
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Oh, yes, i love that!"
I second th..."
Oh yes. Eyes are key to communication and connection.
I don't usually think of specific actors as characters unless the actor narrates the audiobook or the author is obviously describing a famous look, but I do get annoyed when the cover art changes the look of a character from how he or she is described in the book. I know marketing people have their reasons, but it always annoys me. To go back a bit, I don't think the problem is spin-offs so much as not meeting expectations for a group of readers within a series (or changing the tone or direction of a series from how is seemed to have been going). That kind of thing will get a backlash from some fans in most cases. Some authors don't care if that happens (an emotional reaction means readers are engaged, right?), but some seem surprised. Of course they can do what they want to do, but I think if they make such choices they should expect what comes with it. Not that you should be scared--just aware that readers sometimes really get into certain characters.
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Someone sent me an interesting article this weekend on that very topic -
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/...
The only characters where I see actors in my head are Ty and Zane, actually, I see Ty and Zane whenever I see a pic of Karl Urban or Eric Bana these days (I blame Abi)
Josh wrote: "Even the DG series -- it was inspired by my love for Pros, but from the start those guys were their own people.One funny thing though. I always wish I had given Taylor reddish brown hair."
I couldn't tell you what their hair colors are except...the name Taylor sounds like it would be reddish brown, and Will sounds like he would be black-haired. :)
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You write for yourself.
But you publish for others.
And sometimes those things dovetail. And sometimes they don't. Which is why I think it is really a sanity saver if the author is clear from the beginning about what he or she wants from publishing.
For some writers it isn't about money or fame or acclaim. It is just about completing the creative act and sending the work into the world to be read. Or not read. It probably doesn't matter either way.
And that must be a glorious feeling. That...Who gives a flying fuck about what anyone thinks? Wow. For that writer, it is just about the creative enterprise.
But for most of us, that's not enough. Most of us want to be read, and read regularly. Even more...I think we want to be understood. I think we want our message to reach someone, touch someone, mean something.
And then some of us have the added pressure of doing this for a living.
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But I think it's an artificial debate. The character and its fate belong to the author.
That said, if you want readers to keep reading, you have to give them what they wish to read. A reader is not a prisoner.
Josh wrote: "I think we all struggle a little between what we want and need as artists (this isn't like putting refrigerators together and shipping them out) and meeting the expectation -- maybe even the needs ..."It does seem to be a delicate balance. It's compounded by the fact that sometimes readers are just talking about books with other readers--but online in a public way. The conversation isn't really aimed at the author so much as just sharing reactions and ideas with other fans. If a author pays too much attention, some of it is bound to hit him or her the wrong way at times.
I've admire the way GRRM seems to take such fan reactions in stride. I laugh at jokes about how every time a fan complains, he kills another Stark. But not everyone can be GRRM (and let's face it, he is going to make a living no mater whom he kills off in his books).
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In theory, maybe? To me, the very act of storytelling seems to require someone to tell the story to. Which is why some stories are just for me and some are to be shared.
But I can believe that there are creative personalities who don't need to ever hear from a reader, can simply trust that the readers are out there. That the stories take on a life of their own and fulfill their purpose simply by being released to the world.
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Yes, it's interesting.
Well, in the case of trying to spin off a character, the idea is to win readers over to the new world, so I guess you would want to know if that was working or not?
It's not something I've ever tried to do, so I have no idea.
I would guess readers don't want you to take up too much story real estate on any couple but the main couple.
Na wrote: "Feral wrote: "It's compounded by the fact that sometimes readers are just talking about books with other readers--but online in a public way. "I'm sure some don't visualise Internet as a public s..."
George R R Martin? Maybe
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:-D
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One funny thing though. I always wish I had given Taylor reddish brown ..."
Yes! And how fascinating that we form ideas of what people would look like from the sound of their names? I do it too.
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Reading or listeni..."
LOL
Josh wrote: "Susan wrote: "Josh wrote: "Even the DG series -- it was inspired by my love for Pros, but from the start those guys were their own people.One funny thing though. I always wish I had given Taylor ..."
And now that you brought up the subject, I wish you WOULD change Taylor's hair color the next time you describe him. I cannot believe you gave him black hair. Just No! :)
I agree I picture Taylor with lighter hair then Will, but not reddish brown b/c my brother has reddish brown hair. So no. ;-)
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LOL
I like Taylor's black hair and Jake has always been blond to me. But as mentioned elsewhere it's far too late for anyone to to convince me that J.X. Moriarity isn't Black. :DI think one reason I find it hard with my own characters to find a picture of someone else who looks like them in any way but a general one, is that I have very clear pictures of them in my head. For my lead characters anyway. It makes getting cover art pretty nervous, because obviously they'll never look just right. I can only hope that they'll be "close enough" to the description of them in the book.
Though it has just occurred to me that a character in my head for a book I'll be writing later this year is already turning into a dead ringer for Tom Hiddleston...
Na wrote: "Feral wrote: "It's compounded by the fact that sometimes readers are just talking about books with other readers--but online in a public way. "I'm sure some don't visualise Internet as a public s..."
Sorry George R.R. Martin--I am a fantasy fan. Maybe you've seen Game of Thrones? I love his work but GRRM kills off more people than Joss Whedon--and he take YEARS to write a book (but they are worth it).
Becky wrote: "I like Taylor's black hair and Jake has always been blond to me. But as mentioned elsewhere it's far too late for anyone to to convince me that J.X. Moriarity isn't Black. :D"That happened to me with Chance from the Petit Morts series. I reconstructed that I read to fast and only read "black" instead of "black hair". I was never able to undo it but, hey, why would I? He's dashing. :-)
Josh wrote: "I guess I've never had a secondary pairing or character I felt strongly enough about (or that readers really took to enough) to try and spin off. ..."Poor Bryce. He needs an HEA... ;) Who was that distinguished African American gentleman he brought to the party? What would Bryce's family say?
Susinok wrote: "Poor Bryce. He needs an HEA... ;) Who was that distinguished African American gentleman he brought to the party? What would Bryce's family say? ..."Of course, that could be answered in a Christmas Coda...
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..."
THAT'S fine. JUST DON'T THINK OF HIM AS ALAN RICKMAN.
Okay, yes, I know. That joke is dead now.
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I think one reason I ..."
I've tried to teach myself to think of cover art as symbolic rather than literal. Sometimes it actually works. :-D That was why I was originally such a fan of the torso covers. But they've been overused to the point of becoming a joke.
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Q&A with Josh Lanyon
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Well, before reading any more books, I guess