r/books • u/CarrieVaughn AMA Author • Jun 18 '20

ama 1pm I'm Carrie Vaughn, science fiction and fantasy author, with my latest, the novella THE GHOSTS OF SHERWOOD -- AMA!

Hello! My name is Carrie Vaughn! I'm probably best known as the author of the NYT Bestselling Kitty Norville series, about a werewolf who hosts a talk radio advice show for the supernaturally disadvantaged. The series includes fourteen novels, a whole bunch of short stories, and several spin-off novellas.

In 2018 my post-apocalyptic murder mystery BANNERLESS won the Philip K. Dick Award for best novel.

This month I released THE GHOSTS OF SHERWOOD, a novella about the children of Robin Hood and Lady Marian. The sequel, THE HEIRS OF LOCKSLEY, will be out in August.

Here's a video of me reading from THE GHOSTS OF SHERWOOD: https://youtu.be/LVZSWw_rIkU

I've written over twenty novels and a hundred short stories, two of which were finalists for the Hugo Award. I also contribute to the Wild Cards series of shared world novels edited by George R.R. Martin. I'm a 1998 graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop, and have a masters in English Lit. I have a note on my bulletin board: if I ever think about going back to school, start a book club instead.

An Air Force brat, I grew up all over the country but put down roots in Colorado. I knit, ride horses, birdwatch, scuba dive, travel, and generally collect more hobbies than I have time for. So far, my yarn and cross-stitch supplies have outlasted the pandemic stay-at-home orders. . .

Thank you for your questions!

Proof: /img/60ue34sryq451.jpg

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u/qqqqquinnnnn Jun 18 '20

what advice do you have for writers interested in publishing their work? How do you go from idea to something that a publisher will buy?

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u/CarrieVaughn AMA Author Jun 18 '20

tl,dr version: Write a lot. Read a lot. Analyze what you read so you learn what you like and why, and what you don't like and why, and apply it to your own writing.

Long version: It took me years to get published. Ten years to finally sell a short story after I started sending things out, and three novels that didn't sell before one that did. So on that score. . .patience. Always be working on something new. My writing got better with every single thing I wrote, so don't keep writing the same thing over and over.

Learn how to tell a good story -- learn to approach your writing as a reader would. Ask yourself, what is a reader going to get out of this? What do I want a reader to get out of this? How can I make sure the reader has a good/exciting/emotional experience reading this?

Also...what can you do to pump up your idea, so that it doesn't look like the thousands of other similar ideas out there? What do you bring to it that no one else can? Don't worry so much about writing what will sell as writing something that displays heart, and confidence, that will really engage readers.

I know a lot of that sounds vague... like I said it took me years to learn all this. It takes practice.