Q: What drew you to young adult fantasy writing?
My over-active imagination had me writing stories as soon as I could hold a pen. Some of my earliest memories were of gleefully scaring my friends and girl scout troupe with ghost stories I invented on the spot. So I’ve always been a storyteller and some measure of the fantastic and the paranormal always managed to work its way in. Fantasy and the paranormal were the ways I engaged with the world; a constant question of “what if” and dreaming up magical answers to magical questions. I write fantasy because I don’t know how not to. Coming of age and hero’s journey stories are universal and timeless. I’ve said in other interviews that YA fiction presents “life at its most critical” and that’s such a captivating place to create. Adding in fantasy and paranormal elements, into that critical place, only makes the storytelling that much more exciting for me.
Q: What were some of your favorite books growing up and how did they influence you to be the writer you are today?
As a child and teen, I was equally obsessed with fantasy; the works of C. S. Lewis, Tolkien, Madeline L’engle, Lewis Carroll as I was obsessed with Gothic and spooky; ghost stories, Edgar Allan Poe, Victorian ghost stories, classic 19 th century tales of the fantastic. So it’s only natural that the genre that first defined the types of stories I loved would be the style I’d come to write. The love of fantasy and the paranormal was always entwined for me with a love of the 19 th century, so from a very early age I entwined the two; creating ghost stories, starting my first novel around the age of 12 (it was a sequel to The Phantom of the Opera set in 1888) so my themes have been long with me. My first series, the Strangely Beautiful series, is very YA friendly, a sort of YA crossover, and so it’s a natural progression for me to launch a specific YA series with DARKER STILL: A Novel of Magic Most Foul and continuing the Magic Most Foul saga.
Q: Do you listen to music when you write? If so, does Darker Still have a playlist?
A: I do listen to music when I write; it has to be classical music without words as the words will derail my train of thought and my own words. So I listen to sweeping, romantic musicians like R. V. Williams and Tchaikovsky, Dvorak and Debussy. I also listen to movie soundtracks like those created by Phillip Glass, which provide a lovely tone and constant movement. When I’m not writing and I’m daydreaming, I listen to poetic, beautiful and emotional songs by my favourite bands / singers. My Darker Still list that I play riding the subway included music by Over the Rhine, Christina Perri, Death Cab for Cutie, Sia, and my favorite Goth / Dark Wave band, VNV Nation.
Q: What inspired Darker Still ?
A: It’s been a lifelong desire of mine to write a “haunted painting story”. As a kid I watched Sesame Street’s “Don’t Eat the Pictures” over and over again on tape. It’s where the muppets get trapped in the Metropolitan Museum of Art overnight and there’s a ghost of an Egyptian kid. LOVED that film. The next inspiration was The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. The epistolary style I use, writing in diary entries, letters and articles comes from reading and loving Bram Stoker’s Dracula (I also played Mina and Lucy in a few different theatrical productions). I also wanted to write a story where the girl saves the guy. So she does. Don’t get me wrong, I love Lord Denbury, he’s wonderful and clever in so many ways, but Natalie gets all the action in this book. (Don’t worry, I share, Denbury gets more action as the series continues).
Q: Can you tell us about one of your favorite scenes from Darker Still ?
A: Without giving too much away, I’ll say one of my favorite scenes while writing the book was in creating one of Natalie’s nightmares towards the end. When the nightmare revealed what the thing Natalie kept seeing in the hallway actually was, and I saw it in my mind’s eye for the first time, I audibly reacted, jumped back and shivered. I love it when writing a scene surprises me. That’s the reaction I’m hoping for in the reader. I really love writing the spooky stuff, but I can’t write a book that’s only spooky so when the hero, in the nightmare, arrives to help the situation, it’s another of my favorite moments, when my hero and heroine work together as an indomitable (and passionate) team.
Q: Why did you choose the Victorian era as the backdrop for Darker Still ?
A: The Victorian Era chose me, from a very early age. As I mentioned, my first novel was set in 1888, and I really haven’t much left the 1880s in my work. The Victorian era was expansive, technically if you go by Queen Victoria’s reign, from 1837 to her death in 1901. But the world of 1860 is utterly different from the world of 1880, for countless reasons (in America, not the least of which was the Civil War). So my Victorian Era is the latter part; the Gilded Age, as it were. Here, the industrial revolution had taken firm root, as had the middle class, as had the seeds of many progressive institutions for social and environmental change. So it’s closer to what we understand today, there was basic plumbing in many buildings, there were wiring and telegraph communications, the telephone and electricity are not far off. And yet, I write just before some of our most beloved modern technologies, to still give it the air of a wholly other world.
I studied the era in college, adapted pieces of 19 th century literature for the professional stage, and the era just simply lives in me. It might be a past life or something that’s driving me, I’m not sure, but I don’t question the muse; when I see cobblestone streets lit by gaslight my heart melts and my imagination runs wild. The era was a very conflicted time, a polarized time of high morals and a seedy underbelly. The conflict of the era is endlessly fascinating to me. It was both gritty and grand, it was on one hand achingly romantic and on another hand there were crazy issues surrounding love, it was a society of countless secrets. and lots of ridiculously pretty clothes. What’s not to love about writing in (and relishing) an era like that?
Q: What advice would you offer aspiring young adult fantasy authors?
A: Read things that inspire you, just keep writing, keep expanding your knowledge, your vocabulary and your worldview, research random things that interest you and then follow those interests, you never know where it will lead. Keep writing. Keep writing. Keep writing. When you hit a wall, keep writing, just write something else. Steel your heart, accept useful criticism as useful, but nasty criticism discard. You have to grow a thick skin (easier said than done), the business can be rough and when we care about something as much as we care about our stories, it’s inevitable that our emotions get wrapped up in it. Persistence will win the day, and the more you write, the better you get provided you keep your eyes and your heart open to learning. Never stop learning; it will keep you sharp and adaptable.
Q: What can we expect from you next?
A: I just turned in the second Magic Most Foul book, scheduled to release next fall. And my debut novel, The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker , is being turned into a musical! @misspercyparker and I’ll be updating everyone about my various projects at my website: http://leannareneehieber.com , on Twitter: @leannarenee and FB http://facebook.com/lrhieber
Q: Do you have any upcoming tours/conferences scheduled?
My tour schedule is on my website here: http://www.leannareneehieber.com/appearances-contact/
Q: Can you tell our readers something about you that you think they might not expect?
A: When I was a kid, I wanted to be an Ornithologist (a person who studies birds). To this day, I can identify most of the birds found in this country. I’m an ardent environmentalist, devoted both to environmental causes and to animal rights. I’m a vegetarian and the proud momma of a rabbit rescued from a lab thanks to the House Rabbit Society; she’s the best pet ever.
Award winning, bestselling author, actress and playwright Leanna Renee Hieber grew up in rural Ohio inventing ghost stories. She graduated with a BFA in Theatre from Miami University, a focus in the Victorian Era and a scholarship to study in London. She has adapted works of 19th Century literature for the stage and her one-act plays such as Favorite Lady have been produced around the country. Her novella Dark Nest won the 2009 Prism Award for excellence in Futuristic / Fantasy / Paranormal Romance. Her debut novel , The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, first in her Strangely Beautiful series of Gothic Victorian Fantasy novels, landed on Barnes & Noble’s bestseller lists, was named a favourite of 2009 by 14 genre blogs, won two 2010 Prism Awards for Best Fantasy and Best First Book, the 2010 Orange County Book Buyer’s Best Award (Young Adult category) and has been optioned for adaptation into a musical theatre production currently in development with a team that includes talent from Tony Award winning shows like Memphis, Wick ed, Tarzan and more. In November 2011 Leanna launches Magic Most Foul , a new Gothic Paranormal Young Adult series with Sourcebooks Fire.