It has been a wonderful experience teaming up with my daughter for the House of Night. I do all of the writing, and Kristin serves as my front line teen voice editor. It was awesome knowing that Kristin had my back, which allowed me to focus on the story.
Have you two grown closer because of it?Kristin and I have always been close, so that hasn't changed. I have learned to appreciate her skills as an editor. I am very proud of her!
Kristin started as your sounding board even before the House of Night series. How has her participation in the writing process changed and grown over the course of the series?At first I relied heavily on Kristin to be sure that I didn't make Z and/or the Nerd Herd sound, as Kristin once put it, "like a disgruntled 40-something year old school teacher". But after the first few books the characters were so firmly set that Kristin had very little dialogue editing to do. It was then that she and I began discussing the overreaching story arch for the entire series. Most of the time Kristin was my sounding board, and by discussing plot points with her I worked my way through potential problems. Sometimes she had a very strong voice in what I was considering. Example: Grandma Redbird was almost a casualty. Kristin was very vocal about that! "Nooooooo! Don't kill Grandma!" And I didn't!
Do you and Kristin ever disagree on the way a story should progress, the way a character should be portrayed, or the way a sentence should be punctuated? How do you resolve issues like that?As I did all of the writing we really didn't have these kinds of disagreements. During the editing process Kristin would leave me comments about the manuscripts, but it was ultimately my decision about whether I would follow her advice or not. Mostly that advice was about cutting descriptions that were too wordy, and I usually followed it.
As I began world building for the HoN I made several decisions very quickly. First, I knew that I wanted to set the series in Tulsa. I knew that my vampyre society would be matriarchal and pagan, and I knew that I wanted to base my vampyres more on Biology than magic. From there I sat down with my dad, who taught biology for 40+ years, and he and I came up with the physiological foundation of being Marked and of the Change. Then I took pieces of several different pagan traditions and merged them into the HoN society and religion. At that time I decided to base my heroine, Zoey Redbird, very loosely on my daughter, and the rest followed easily from there!
Right now I am hard at work on my new trilogy. It is reminiscent of classic McCaffrey, Tolkien, and George RR Martin, and is an epic New Earth adventure filled with fantasy, romance, and the struggle to regain humanity. I'm super excited about it and can't wait to share it with my fans!
My father sparked it when I was nine years old by giving me The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I went from there to the fabulous Anne McCaffrey's Pern, and have been firmly hooked by magic and myth since then.
Well, most paranormal creatures have heightened abilities, and I think YA readers particularly identify with them because they're dealing with their own "heightened abilities" in the form of surging hormones! I also think YA readers enjoy the escape paranormal adventures provide them from reality, which is something we all need from time to time.
That really isn't my decision. Davis Films has optioned the series, and right now it is their intention to create 5 motion pictures. I have worked with the awesome screenwriter they hired, and I love the script that is being created!
I'm a big comic book fan, so I approached Dark Horse! They were excited to team with me to create five comics, which were then compiled into a lovely graphic novel. Kent Dalian was my adaptor. He and I had a wonderful time working on the comics together. It was especially cool to choose the artists! I loved seeing my world come alive in this medium.
The truth is that I didn't think about writing YA when I was writing the HoN. I just told the story and didn't worry about anything except staying true to my characters.
I think the HoN has been so successful because the characters act like real teenagers. I've heard from readers all over the world, and whether they're teenagers or adults, they say the same thing - that they understand Z and the gang because they can put themselves in the place of the characters.
I've learned how to juggle a large series with several storylines and plot complications. I've also learned that even though I hate writing outlines IT IS A MUST and eventually makes my life easier. Zoey has matured enormously. I love that she consistently learns from her mistakes. I also love her sense of integrity.
The cast of The Burglar and Little Phyllis - 1910 includes: Alma Taylor as Phyllis
Phyllis Christine
The cast of Phyllis and the Foreigner - 1915 includes: Johnny Butt as Foreigner Chrissie White as Phyllis
The cast of Phyllis - 2012 includes: Austin Hardiman as Jon
The cast of Phyllis - 2010 includes: Olushola Adeyinka as Phyllis Gboyega Babajide as Man on Staircase Opeyemi Fajemirokun as Victim
The cast of Songs of Freedom - 2009 includes: Phyllis Wade as Phyllis
The cast of Unfounded Jealousy - 1915 includes: Phyllis Grey as Phyllis Lillian Worth as Lil
The cast of Him - 1984 includes: Phyllis Wright
The cast of Garage Sale Documentary - 2013 includes: Phyllis Diller as Phyllis Diller Marilyn Shenkman as herself
Phyllis Christine and Kristin Cast are a mother and daughter, who write the house of night series.
It stands for Phyllis Christine. You can find software for pc at onlyforpc.com
Catherine............. We thinkBut were not sure.Her first name is Phyllis but :D