Born and raised in Las Vegas where the Zodiac Series is set, Vicki has always been a voracious reader and writer. However, a post-college stint in PR convinced her she didn't want to spend her days writing on assignment ... so she did what any self-respecting Vegas girl would do. She became a showgirl.
Ten years later she traded in her sequins for a laptop. She can most often be found haunting the true-life locales that appear in her urban fantasy series.
The Midnight Moon Café is proud to present author
Vicki Pettersson!
MMC: Who influenced you the most in your writing?
Vicki: Without a doubt, it was the indomitable Diana Gabaldon. I belonged to a writer’s forum that she did, and still does, frequent, and as far as I know she was one of the first authors to make herself so readily available to her readers — many of whom, like me, were aspiring writers. She exemplified what it was to be a working writer, and talked about her day - the way she juggled family with the writer’s lifestyle, the habits she created in order to satisfactorily do both - while maintaining a very pragmatic attitude about the work. No mumbo-jumbo about the “muse” and waiting to be inspired. Seeing this, hearing the way she created thousands of words a day, book after book, was better than inspiration. It gave me concrete steps to take in order to succeed as a writer. I always tell aspiring writers to find someone in the field that they admire, discover what they do, and then to emulate that. That way you’re learning from the very best.
MMC: Let's talk a little about world-building. How did you come up with your backstory? And how does that setting affect your main characters?
Vicki: It was very piecemeal…it came in fits and starts before taking on a life of its own. I think that’s normal for the first book in a series, or for stand-alones where you’re building a world that previously didn’t exist. A lot of it is recognizing that there are times to barrel forward with story and plot, and other times where it’s necessary to sit back and think a bit longer and harder about what kind of characters exist in this world, what it is that makes both them and the setting unique. A lot of times this can feel like you’re doing nothing, that you’ve put on the brakes and are just twiddling your thumbs, waiting for these people to speak to you. But it’s really active listening, just as you’d do in a conversation with another person.
Additionally, the characters influence the setting as much as the setting influences the characters. When creating a new world you want to have people who could only exist in that particular time and place. Believe me, I wish my process was neater and more organized than that — I wish I could jot down the answers to a standard list of questions and then hit the page running — but it’s as messy as an archeological dig for me. The up side? Like archeology, the pleasure is in the discovery.
MMC: When and where do you get your best writing done?
Vicki: Early morning is preferable. I developed the habit of getting up before the household woke when I had an infant, which was hard at first, but I’d always cajole myself from bed with the mantra, ‘How bad do you want it, Vic?’ (Hint: it’s a bit easier to create that morning time if you push the alarm back in fifteen minute increments rather than a whole hour and a half in one go.) I secured that time, and still get up early, though now I have the freedom to write after I get my kidlet to school.
To be honest, I’d worked nights for so long that it was a shock to discover I’m really a morning person. And the majority of my writing is done at home in total silence, with all my books and materials around me. I’ll switch it up and hit a coffee shop when cabin fever hits, but it’s not too long before I decide that all the things outside of my control - like traffic and loud talkers and interruptions and music - are really annoyances, and then it’s back in my cave.
MMC: How much time did you dedicate to research for your stories?
Vicki: Research runs concurrently with the storytelling. I research what I need when I need it, and when I feel like I’m stuck in a particular section of the book, it’s inevitably because I don’t have enough knowledge to proceed. That’s when I put down the pen and start learning more about my world and characters. A couple of days pass, and I’m good to go again.
MMC: Where do you find inspiration for your work?
Vicki: Well, the standard, boring answer is ‘everywhere’, isn’t it? But it’s true. I can look out the window, catch a bit of conversation as it floats by, see a person on the street and immediately begin making up a story about them. I actively fill the well with what I like to call sexy social science. I have a whole file for things like how bones grow and the function of memory and change blindness and dark energy and … well, really anything I can randomly pick up. I’m like a total magpie that way. I see something shiny, something that lights up my own gray matter, and I hoard it. Some of it gets used, some of it doesn’t, but it’s all interesting. Malcolm Gladwell’s books are good for that. So are the Op-Ed pieces in the Times. Magazine articles are great because if you find something interesting, someone else has already done the legwork to distill those ideas into their most tangible, interesting tidbits. You can pull on one of those strings and it’ll lead in an entirely new direction, one maybe the author never intended. But that’s the point — finding what inspires you.
MMC: Do you ever get stuck in a story? What do you do to break free?
Vicki: Yep, and again, it’s usually because I don’t have enough information. Whether that means mining the story more deeply, and getting a greater sense of exactly what it is I mean to say, or diving into texts to figure out an exact plot point (on which the entire book inevitably hinges) then that’s what I do.
For example, last week I needed to know exactly what a symbol looked like and what it represented in the Zodiac world, and to my characters. I’d previously put the description in brackets, intending to think on it and come back to it later. I wanted its meaning to be invoked from the story, and not force some sort of arbitrary meaning onto the story (if that makes sense). But I reached a point where I simply couldn’t continue without knowing what that symbol was. So I took a step back, figured it out — and it was marginally frustrating because it was four hours of thinking time for maybe two lines of text — but then I was able to hit my word count goals with clarity of mind. The good thing is that I’m getting better at recognizing what I need to do and when (in terms of research or plotting or ‘wordage’) and I can switch up on a moment’s notice. So maybe I’m getting better at this writing thing.
MMC: How do you celebrate when you complete a book?
Vicki: I have a writer’s journal where I list all the wonderful things I’m going to do upon completion of a book, but what I really end up doing is walking around for about half a week, dazed from all of the free space in my head (it’s like too much oxygen or something) and then I start getting antsy. A week later, I’m ready to start thinking about another story. It’s just sick.
MMC: What do you know now you wished you'd known "then"?
Vicki: I wished I’d known before I was published that it was a golden time. No other voices in my head, no pressure from a publisher or readers to produce, just me and my sticky imagination piecing things together in a way that pleased me. So much of my time now is taken up by the peripheral things that accompany being a published author that it can actually interfere with getting to the words. So that silent time before publication is now something I look back on a bit wistfully, though of course at the time it was as fraught with uncertainty as anything I’m facing now.
MMC: Let's say you've just landed a movie deal, and you get to pick the actress who'll play your heroine Joanna Archer. Who would you pick? And why?
Vicki: I’ve not yet found a satisfactory Joanna. So far she exists only in my mind. I keep trying to envision a blond Megan Fox, but she’s a bit one-dimentional yet. Too sexy and not enough toughness. So I’m still searching for the perfect Jo.
MMC: Can you give us a sneak preview of your next book? Is it a continuation of your series, or is it something completely different?
Vicki: CITY OF SOULS is the fourth installment in the Signs of the Zodiac series, so yes, it is a continuation. I’m really interested in Joanna’s evolution in this series, so I’m pushing her hard and fast, and she undergoes more growth and change in this fourth book than any of the previous three. My advance readers have told me that this is their favorite so far, but that it’s also the most heartbreaking. That’s saying a lot considering what Jo has been through in the past, but if it’s any consolation … I cried, too.
MMC: Do you have a newsletter, blog, or website where fans can read about you and your books?
Vicki: My website is
www.vickipettersson.com, and there’s a contact page there where people can write to me about the books. I’m a little late in starting a newsletter, but I’m developing something now that I hope will be a little more interactive than a traditional newsletter, and that should be popping up on the site anon!
~~~***~~~Contest Time~~~***~~~
Leave a comment to enter a drawing to win
a copy of one of Ms. Pettersson's books, winner's choice!
Contest ends at midnight tonight (July 16, 2009), and the winner
will be announced Friday.
Good Luck!
