Paula Lynn Johnson-Interview with the Author
TRC: Hi Paula and welcome to The Reading Café. WE would like to start with some background information. Would you please tell us something about yourself?
Paula: Sure! I’m a Californian, currently living in New Jersey, but I can assure you I’m nothing like Snookie. I work with my husband at the family law practice, and sell antiques on the side for fun. We have boy-girl twins who just turned eleven. It’s a nice age because they haven’t quite figured out that their Mom’s a huge dork, but I’m counting the days until that happens. I love writing, reading, and old, splashy MGM musicals. I play the piano pretty well and the guitar pretty badly. And I’m a terrible cook!
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TRC: You are a former English Major at Stanford and an attorney. What was the precipitating factor that started you on the path to writing?
Paula: I’ve had the itch to write from a very young age. I began by journaling, then moved into fiction as I grew up. It’s something I need to do, the way some people need to exercise. When I don’t write, I get foul-tempered.
TRC: What challenges have you faced as a writer?
Paula: On the pure writing side, I struggle with my tendency to get self-indulgent. Left to my own devices, I can get caught up in what I think is a brilliant metaphor, or pile on description until a passage is totally overwrought. Experience has helped with that, as have mean readers and editors. On the purely practical side . . . well, you know how it is! We all have so much on our plates. Trouble is, I find the daily grind can become a convenient excuse to procrastinate. I have to will myself to ignore that extra load of laundry and park myself in front of the laptop instead.
TRC: What challenges did you face getting your novel to publication?
Paula: Rewriting, rewriting and more rewriting! It takes a lot of polishing after that first draft.
TRC: What was your decision behind indie publication?
Paula: A literary agent agreed to represent me on The Grave Artist, and did a fantastic job in suggesting revisions and pitching the book to editors. It garnered interest but ultimately, the book didn’t get picked up. I was disappointed, but I understand the young adult market is very competitive, as it’s one of the last markets that remain profitable for traditional publishers. According to the conventional wisdom, I should have shoved the manuscript in a drawer and moved on to the next project. Yet, I was reluctant to do so because I saw so many debut authors reaching an audience via indie publishing. I decided to go indie in hopes I could connect with readers, too, even if only on a small scale. That’s what’s so great about indie publishing: It allows writers who would otherwise be shut out of the market to build a niche readership.
TRC: THE GRAVE ARTIST (March 2012) is your latest release. Would you please tell us something about the premise?
Paula: My heroine, Clare, develops an obsessive habit of drawing skulls — and not just any skulls, but winged Death’s Heads of the sort you see on very old gravestones. Then she finds an exact match for her Death’s Head on the grave of one Samantha Forsythe, a teen who accidentally fell to her death over two centuries ago. From there, Clare begins dreaming and drawing new images — a broken chain, a disembodied eye — that seem to indicate that Samantha was murdered, as well as romantically entangled with someone known only as her “Dearest”. Suspense builds as Samantha tasks Clare with solving her murder, and with returning her “Dearest” to her.
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TRC: Do you have plans to write a series of novels around Clare Davis? If so, how many books do you have planned?
Paula: I think The Grave Artist is a stand-alone book. I don’t have any follow-ups planned . . . yet.
TRC: There are many references to religious imagery, sacred imagery and 17th century historical data. What logistical and research challenges were involved in the writing of The Grave Artist?
Paula: I’m an antiques dealer on the side, so a lot of the historical references were ones I had happened upon already in the course of business. For instance, the Lover’s Eye that Clare comes across is based upon similar pieces of jewelry I’ve seen offered by other dealers (for your readers, a Lover’s Eye is typically a brooch featuring a miniature painting of your beloved’s eye). The bigger challenge was how to tease out the mystery of Samantha’s death throughout the book without giving away too much too soon.
TRC: Throughout the storyline, Clare and Neil visit and tour some local cemeteries with historical references and images. Did you travel to older gravesites and cemeteries for reference material and if so, what did you learn about some of the locals buried there?
Paula: I didn’t purposefully set out to find gravestones with Death’s Heads, but once I started writing the book, I was delighted whenever I stumbled upon one. Our family took a vacation to Charleston, SC, and there are a lot of old cemeteries there with some fabulous Death’s Heads. I also did some poking around a nearby cemetery in Princeton, NJ and was astonished to find how many important and influential people are buried there. As an English major, it was very cool to see Sylvia Beach’s gravestone, since she’s the one responsible for getting Ulysses published.
TRC: Vince is the local ‘burn out’ with a backstory that is only touched upon briefly. Did you mirror Vince or any of the characters from people you have met or someone you know?
Paula: Oh, sure. I grew up in a small town in the Sierra Foothills of Northern California. Lots of pot farms, and lots of aging hippies with “crash and burn” back-stories. Some of that comes through in Vince. As far as the other characters, I borrow personality tics here and there from people I’ve encountered. Gollum’s weird ceramics, for instance, are based on the ceramics of a guy from my high school who went on to have a successful artistic career.
TRC: Many writers bounce ideas with other writers, family and friends. With whom do you bounce ideas?
Paula: Other writers, my agent, and my husband. I try not to get friends involved, because it’s tough for them to be honest. On the rare occasion, I’ll even run things by my kids. Once, when my son was seven, I read him a children’s picture book I had written, and he told me: “It stinks! You’re just trying to teach a life lesson!” I was flabbergasted, but you know what? The kid was right!
TRC: Writer’s Block is a very real phenomenon for many authors. How do you handle the stress of writer’s block and deadlines?
Paula: I don’t subscribe to the adage that you need to write every day. If nothing’s coming and it’s like pulling teeth, I find it’s more productive to switch to a different form of creativity. I might paint or draw for awhile, or play some piano. I might simply change projects and write a short, funny piece instead. Or, I might just catch up on my reading and see what others are doing. The wheels keep turning, and eventually I make my way back to my book with some fresh words.
TRC: On what are you currently working?
Paula: I am working on another mystery with paranormal elements, this one set in 19th Century New York and involving a lady’s companion. I’m also working on a legal satire based upon my experiences in employment law. Truly, workplace lawsuits are stranger than fiction. And I still post short humor pieces from time to time on my blog or on sites like The Big Jewel.
TRC: Would you like to add anything else?
Paula: Nope!
LIGHTNING ROUND
Favorite Food – Nutella
Favorite Dessert – Nutella
Favorite TV Show – Downton Abbey
Favorite movie – Singin’ in the Rain
Last Movie you saw – I just watched Tootsie with my kids and forgot how hysterical Terri Garr was
Dark or Milk Chocolate – Dark
Last book that you read – We Learn Nothing by Tim Kreider. Essays that are funny, sharp and sweet.
Do you have any pets? – We have a Siberian cat named Joey who is the mellowest cat on Earth. Just looking at him calms me down. On the other end of the energy spectrum is our Shichon puppy, Pickles, who is spazztastic. We used to have a Killer Rabbit, but sadly, she passed away of old age.
TRC: Paula, we would like to thank you for taking the time to answers our questions. The Grave Artist is a wonderful and fascinating storyline. We wish you all the best in your writing career.
Paula: Thank you so much! This has been fun!
