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MEET HEATHER TOMLINSON
by Bonnie O'Brian

What books influenced you most when you were growing up?

Heather Tomlinson

Fairy tales of all kinds, especially from Andrew Lang’s colored fairy books. BEAUTY and other novels by Robin McKinley, for showing how a fairy tale could be expanded. The WIZARD OF OZ and Narnia series, for the idea that there could be a magical world accessible from ours, if we could just find the magic slippers/ wardrobe/ painting to reach it. THE SECRET GARDEN, LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE and Betsy-Tacy books, for stories that entertained even without magical elements. Howard Pyle’s illustrated King Arthur books, and THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON for derring-do and adventure.

Did you write stories when you were growing up? at school? Or at home as hobby? As a young child, or as a teenager, or both?

As a kid, I wrote stories only when assigned creative writing projects at school. Most of the non-school writing I did as a teenager was journaling, to chronicle what was happening in my real life. But I always read a lot, from childhood through the teen years and into adulthood.

Do you write every day and do you have set hours that you work?

I tend to work in bursts rather than at a scheduled pace. Before we sold our house in 2006 and moved onto a sailboat, I often worked in coffee shops. It’s better for me to get away from the temptations of the computer (checking e-mail! reading blogs! researching!) so I write my first draft in longhand. I’ve had some productive writing streaks when cruising around Catalina Island. There’s not much to do there but hike and write. Now I have a new distraction—a baby. His recent arrival has made it more challenging to fit writing into the day.

If you didn’t write as a child, then when did you start writing and what inspired you to start?

In 2000, I got married and moved from San Diego to the Los Angeles area for my husband’s new job, away from the book distribution company where I had worked for ten years. Unemployment gave me an opportunity to try writing, something I had wanted to do for a long time, but never pursued with serious energy or commitment. I took classes and joined a critique group. My first published novel, THE SWAN MAIDEN, came out seven years later.

What are the topics are some of your books?

Navigating the transition from childhood to adulthood is probably the common theme. I work a lot with fairy tale material, telling familiar stories from a different character’s point of view, or changing the story to suit my own whim. Sometimes, as with AURELIE: A FAERIE TALE, the story changes so much in revision after revision that the original fairy tale is hardly recognizable in the finished book.

Where do you get your ideas?

I’m a plot-challenged writer. Retelling fairy tales, besides being fun, gives me a time-tested action framework. Confident that the underlying structure is sound, I’ll brainstorm characters, motivations, and settings until I come up with a combination I want to explore. THE SWAN MAIDEN started with a story called “The Devil’s Daughter.” It had many, many versions in French—over 120, I think—so I knew there’d be lots of possible shapes the story could take. Plus disobedient daughters, magic, and a central mystery. Writing gold!

Do you enjoy researching or do you prefer working totally from yourimagination?

 Although I write fiction, and fantasy at that, I love researching. When starting a new fairy tale project, I read a lot, beginning with original versions and continuing with contemporary retellings, since my goal is to bring something new to the page. Once I’ve decided on a tale and setting, I research the place and time my fantasy world is based on. For SWAN MAIDEN, this meant reading French history and travel books, and digging out my scrapbooks from the year I lived in Aix-en-Provence. The castle Doucette lives in is based on Les Baux de Provence, a ruined (and pretty spooky) chateau I had actually visited. AURELIE’s world is based on Paris and Versailles during the 17th century. For my forthcoming novel TOADS AND DIAMONDS, I switched from French to Indian history, focusing on the Mughal era when the Taj Mahal was constructed.

When is your next book going to be in book stores?

TOADS AND DIAMONDS is due April 2010.

Do you have any advice for young writers?

Read, read, read! Pay attention to what you love, and also what irritates you—there are ideas lurking there. When you’re writing, don’t be afraid of a terrible first draft and resist the challenge to spend too much time perfecting the first chapter. Instead, push on to the end of your story. Writing and revising are two distinctly different efforts, so don’t turn your inner critic loose on your story until you have a big chunk ready to polish.