helsea Quinn Yarbro has been a professional writer for more than 30 years, creating characters who inhabit rich, complex and dark worlds. Count Saint-Germain, who has set the standard for the three-dimensional vampire, first saw publication in 1978's Hotel Transylvania.
A prolific author, to say the least, Yarbro has sold over 70 books, (Writ in Blood, Taji's Syndrome, Night Blooming and her most recent work, Midnight Harvest, are but a few titles) and 60 works of short fiction. All the while she has pushed the
boundaries not only of the vampire genre, but also of the mystery, historical and science-fiction genres—as well as mixing any other number of genres to her liking in order to create a fascinating read for both author and reader. Averaging an astonishing three or four books per year, Yarbro still manages to produce quality, well-respected work that continues to be as enjoyable as it was at the start of career.
She lives in her hometown—Berkeley, Calif.—with two autocratic cats. Her Web site can be found at www.chelseaquinnyarbro.com
Do your characters still have the ability to surprise you?
Yarbro: I sincerely hope so. If they aren't real enough to surprise me, then they aren't real enough to go on the page.
How important is networking at conventions like the World Horror Convention, for both the beginning writer as well as the seasoned pro?
Yarbro: I think it is probably more important to attend specialized conventions for a journeyman writer than any other, but it's useful at all stages of a career, if for nothing else, to find out how the industry is working at any given time. Also, it often helps to see editors away from their New York offices and to have a little more flexibility in dealing with them, but New York visits are also important once you start selling. Providing a writer isn't put off by conventions—and some are—attending them can be a nice break from the necessary isolation of writing.
How did your collaboration with Bill Fawcett start?
Yarbro: Bill called and asked me if I'd be interested in working on a project with him. We were going to do it as a true collaboration, but the publisher in question decided that collaborations don't sell, and so wanted a pen name—we came up with Quinn Fawcett, with the addendum that we didn't think it would fool anyone. Whether it does or it doesn't, it goes on.
Do you have a particular technique to achieve a successful collaboration?
Yarbro: I'm not a good collaborator in general. In Bill's case, Bill and I agree on a story outline, then he leaves me alone to write the first draft. I send it off to him with requests for inserts and additions. Then, when he's finished with it, I smoodge the style in a third draft. Much more collaborator participation is, in fact, way too much for me.
In picking a time period for Saint-Germain, does the setting come first, or the plot?
Yarbro: Availability of women in the culture comes first, so long as the period is part of his history. The setting, including the culture, counts as a tertiary character, and, like all characters, shapes the story line. It doesn't shape the plot, of course: There are only seven of those, and they apply across the board to all manner of interpretations. Storylines are how characters create the plots involved in their stories.
Saint-Germain's drinking of blood leans more toward the need for intimacy than the simple need for food. What motivated your decision to go in that direction?
Yarbro: It's a matter of what the blood is a metaphor for; since one of my intentions with the character was to push the paradigm of vampire as far to the positive as I could, I decided that few things are more intimately individual than blood, and voila!
Keeping in mind that Saint-Germain does not lie, per se, but rather leaves certain things out, does this keep him from being the honorable person he otherwise seems to be?
Yarbro: You mean he's good at half-truths, which is true of most of us. He's had a long time to turn it into high art, and I tend to point it out in narration, as well. I don't think that's in the least dishonorable, I think it's intelligent.
When delving into vampire mythology and deciding what you were going to keep and what you were not, was there a concern on your part or an editor's regarding what readers would consider a kind of revision on mythology?
Yarbro: Saint-Germain's first editor knew very little about vampire lore but what little she had seen in the movies—and it wasn't much, so she had no concerns about it to speak of. Very few editors worry about heresy—their goals are much too commercial, thank goodness. Long before Joanie saw Hotel Transylvania, back in 1971 when I was doing my first work on the book, I literally made a chart of worldwide vampire beliefs. Anything that 80 percent of cultures believed, I kept. The other 20 percent, if I liked it, I kept it; otherwise I threw it out. What Joanie thought about was the problem of consistency, and so far that hasn't been compromised, and I've had a bunch of editors since then: Lisa, Marcia, Hilary, Beth, Greg, Bryan, Melissa, Betsy, Larissa and Jaime so far.
Was Saint-Germain's appearance (dark hair, dark eyes) chosen specifically by you with the purpose of blending into as many cultures as possible?
Yarbro: It was chosen because that's what the real man looked like.
What was the inspiration for Gynethe Mehaut's manifesting elements of the stigmata in Night Blooming?
Yarbro: I haven't the faintest idea. She showed up that way. Incidentally, Gynethe Mehaut is a compound first name, not a first and last name—like Jeanne-Marie but without the hyphen. Common folk didn't have last names in the 8th and 9th centuries.
It seemed that because Saint-Germain affected Gynethe so deeply that when she was tortured, it was made all the more unbearable for her. Is that a valid observation?
Yarbro: Certainly.
Stealth Press hasn't published their editions of your work quite in the sequence in which they first appeared. Was that their decision or yours, and what led to it?
Yarbro: It was Stealth's decision, and I have no idea why they made it.
What made you pick Stealth Press to reprint your work?
Yarbro: They wanted to do it, and they offered a reasonable advance for a reprint. And I got to work with my good friend Pat LoBrutto.
Does e-publishing need to establish itself more as a legitimate publishing venue? If so, what can it do?
Yarbro: The answer depends on how e-publishing sees itself: Does it intend to compete with print? Does it want to go to a more variable format? What is the market it's seeking? Until an e-publisher decides where it wants to go, it hasn't a prayer of getting there. And if e-publishing wants to receive commensurate attention for what's being e-published as print publishing receives, it must establish real literary standards and adhere to them, so that what is offered can compete with the quality of print. Hidden Knowledge, the e-publisher I work with, has very specific literary and academic standards for its works, and Mike Ward, who runs the company, is a prudent and sensitive professional who treats his e-books with care, getting reviews in publications usually reserved for print, and who seeks out booksellers whose regular customers are inclined to be interested in e-publishing. For the time being, it seems to be a workable approach.
How much outlining goes into your work, and has the amount of it changed since you started writing?
Yarbro: I outline fairly extensively because I'm usually dealing with real events. I don't need to give myself as much information as I used to, but I still like to have two pages of outline for every projected 100 pages of manuscript.
What period or periods of time would you like to write about but haven't?
Yarbro: The ones I have outlines in submission for. Beyond that, it will depend on what strikes my fancy.
Some authors have had difficulty finding publishers interested in works that take place outside whichever given universe they've become known for. Have you met with any of that kind of adversity?
Yarbro: Oodles of it. And I still do. It's like an actor being typecast. I work hard to avoid it as much as possible, but it is a problem all writers encounter, and it's getting worse over time.
In regards to the saying "history is written by the victors," do you agree with that, and how much does it affect the way you research?
Yarbro: Generally yes, I do agree with that. Which is why it is always important to research the period immediately before the period I'm writing about. It gives a greater sense of context and often a sense not only of why the history is told the way it is, but why the winning side won—and strength of arms is usually the least of it.
Who do you consider to be your contemporaries?
Yarbro: Anyone born in or around 1942. Charlie Grant is my most contemporary contemporary in the field that I know of—he's three days older than I am.
What do you do to relax?
Yarbro: I ride horseback—arthritic knees permitting—or listen to opera. Sometimes I cook. I used to do needlework, but it's hard on my hands now, so I only do it occasionally, but I like it. And, of course, I read.
How many projects are you working on now, and what can you tell us about them?
Yarbro: I'm working on three proposals while my agent is looking for a new home for Saint-Germain, and I'm finishing up one of my once-a-week novels, on which I work, literally, one day a week, the other five working days going over to contracted work. I'm also making my way through a pair of non-fiction, pseudonymous books for Tor, but they're going more slowly than I intended, since they're about battles and I've been going through an 18-month patch of dying relatives and friends, which makes writing about carnage difficult.
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