Chat with author Yvonne Navarro - October 4th, 2000

Original transcript kindly provided by John Freeman, former VZSciFi project manager who appears in this chat as Mr. Templeton.

[Entering Locale: Sci Fi Convention Room]

[Welcome back! You are returning as a ghost.]

Mr. Templeton: greetings Mr Garak

[The URL has been set to http://www.vzscifi.co.uk.]

[Avatars: Mr. Templeton, Plain, simple Garak. Ghosts: Sorsessa.]

Plain, simple Garak: Hello!!

Plain, simple Garak: How are you today???

Mr. Templeton: I'm doing fine - you?

Plain, simple Garak: Very well.

Mr. Templeton: Hiya

Plain, simple Garak: Hello.

Sorsessa: howdy<grin>

Mr. Templeton: How's things? How is business?

Mr. Templeton: Mr Garak, Sorsessa runs a RW shop

Sorsessa: Business is picking up again after the kids are back in college here<grin>

Plain, simple Garak: What sort of shop?

Mr. Templeton: Yes, our home town is getting busy too

Sorsessa: Games and comics

Plain, simple Garak: Really? Very cool. In the UK, US, or elsewhere??

Sorsessa: US

Mr. Templeton: Have yu talked to Robert about having a position in their new mall yet?

Mr. Templeton: in here, in VZones I mean

Sorsessa: I've gotta wait about doing anything until I find out what's going on with billing here.

Mr. Templeton: Yes, I gather there have been some problems?

Sarah M: is this were the author event is??

Mr. Templeton: yes it is

Sorsessa: I have no idea what's going on around here.

Mr. Templeton: 20 mins and counting

Sarah M: lol

Sarah M: cant wait

â GLÂDIÂTOR â â: lol

Mr. Templeton: If you want to read the transcript of Yvonne's last event, plese follow the links on our web site

Sarah M: im changing my name by the way glad

Mr. Templeton: The URL is linked on the wall, floor and table around here

Sarah M: midnight angel

C. Candy: mornin all·

Mr. Templeton: Hi everyone

Mr. Templeton: Event starts on the our

Sarah M: 10k for ur name!!!

Mr. Templeton: hour, even :)

Mr. Templeton: Has everyone entered the Storm Constantine competition? You can win one of her books.

Sarah M: im not american

Mr. Templeton: The question to answer is on the vzscifi web site

â GLÂDIÂTOR â â: nor me

Sarah M: do u have 2 be american??

Mr. Templeton: doesn't matter

Mr. Templeton: Any member can enter

Mr. Templeton: It will still be me running to the post office with the winners prize!

C. Candy: lol

C. Candy: just paying more postage

Mr. Templeton: yep

Sarah M: how do i enter???

Mr. Templeton: But if it helps people enjoy this place then that's mainly what matters to me

Mr. Templeton: Just click on me for the web site and e-mail your answer and address

â GLÂDIÂTOR â â: brb all

Sarah M: k

Mr. Templeton: ooh taht tickles

C. Candy: devoted partner¶

C. Candy: i get to lost here....rofl

Mr. Templeton: I have just changed the floors in the expressways...

C. Candy: nice artwork tho

Mr. Templeton: if you click on them it tells you which planet you have gone past and which one you are heading too

Mr. Templeton: which might help you find your way better, if you use Skip's maps

C. Candy: dumb bunny proof? lol

Sarah M: which link do i click on

Mr. Templeton: there is a mailing address

Sarah M: where do i find the question??

Mr. Templeton: just clck on it and it will open your email app

Mr. Templeton: Right at the top under storm constantine books to be won

Sarah M: k thanx

Mr. Templeton: np

[Avatars: C. Candy, â GLÂDIÂTOR â â, Sarah M, Sorsessa, Mr. Templeton, Plain, simple Garak. Ghosts: ~mi!!ie~, ambrosa ABB.]

Mr. Templeton: While we're waiting... if you click on Mr Garak there he has lots of info about member events in VZSciFi

Mr. Templeton: He and Linsue run bingo and other games,such as trivia

Plain, simple Garak: Yes, I do!

Plain, simple Garak: TY, Mr. Templeton.

C. Candy: ·

Sarah M: hi millie

Mr. Templeton: ]I think between them they have tripled the events happening in this area :)

Mr. Templeton: Hi Millie

~mi!!ie~: hi<wave>

Plain, simple Garak: We're working on it. Hoping to hear back about a Sci-Fi event day, too!

C. Candy: you should get as many as yah like

Mr. Templeton: It's in my in tray!

C. Candy: we tried to do 1 a month in xoom

Sarah M: what actually happens in this event then. dso we discuss buffy books??

C. Candy: was alot of work tho...lol

Mr. Templeton: Yes you can, and ask Yvonne about her other work

Sarah M: cool

Mr. Templeton: tell me about it, C. Candy

Sarah M: how long now??

C. Candy: well this was a lil over a year ago

[Wed Oct 4 09:00:49 2000.]

[Total time online: 216 hr 3 min 57 sec, since Wed Nov 3 05:35:24 1999.]

C. Candy: so things may have changed

Mr. Templeton: Hmm, Just waiting for Yvonne

Sarah M: k

[Avatars: ~mi!!ie~, C. Candy, â GLÂDIÂTOR â â, Sarah M, Mr. Templeton, Plain, simple Garak. Ghosts: ambrosa ABB.]

C. Candy: but we did all day or weekend events

C. Candy: with prizes that we were able to pick out etc

C. Candy: games unique to the event etc

C. Candy: was alot of fun

Mr. Templeton: That sounds good... I am sure Mr Garak and Linsue should get together with you and trade some ideas,

Mr. Templeton: maybe?

C. Candy: Ohhh well Id be happy to help out however possible...but Im a bit out of the loop these days

C. Candy: lol

C. Candy: Ive been offline fer a bit¸

Plain, simple Garak: Yes, we would be interested in any insight you might have.... <grin>

C. Candy: sure...esp me anytime

[Avatars: C. Candy, â GLÂDIÂTOR â â, Sarah M, Mr. Templeton, Plain, simple Garak. Ghosts: ambrosa ABB.]

C. Candy: <grin>

Plain, simple Garak: TY!!

C. Candy: np

C. Candy: I liked to think up new games

Mr. Templeton: Ok, I'm summoning Yvonne now

C. Candy: i found the same 3 or 4 to get a bit tiresome

Plain, simple Garak: That's what we're trying to do, too.

C. Candy: well good luck¶

Plain, simple Garak: TY ·

Sarah M: hi yvonne

Sarah M: <wave>

C. Candy: G'Mornin·

Mr. Templeton: Ladies and gentlemen, Yvonne Navarro!

Plain, simple Garak: Hello!!

C. Candy: <claps>

Yvonne Navarro: Hello.

Mr. Templeton: Thanks for coming back to talk with our emembers again Yvonne

Yvonne Navarro: Glad to be here.

Mr. Templeton: \members, even

C. Candy: quiet morning

Mr. Templeton: It'll warm up -- a few people have popped in and popped out again

Mr. Templeton: Ok: This is a moderated event. To ask a question, please ESP me and I will ask you to ask it if you are an

Mr. Templeton: avatar in the room, and voice it for you if you are a ghost.

Mr. Templeton: Yvonne, I know you have talked about this inworld before, but perhaps you could tell us again how you

Mr. Templeton: came to be an author?

Yvonne Navarro: Well, it's pretty much all my mother's fault. :)

C. Candy: lol

Yvonne Navarro: Actually, I always thought I'd be an artist.

Mr. Templeton: REally?

Yvonne Navarro: I took a lot of art classes and planned on majoring in art in college.

Yvonne Navarro: Life kind of got in the way and that didn't happen, so...

Sarah M: hi buffy <wave>

Yvonne Navarro: along the line I gave my Mom a book to read that I admired.

Yvonne Navarro: Hi. :)

Sarah M: sorry for interrupting

Yvonne Navarro: She read it and gave it back and said, You could do this.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: hiwhat do u do here?

Sarah M: listen

Sarah M: then discuss

Yvonne Navarro: So that's kind of what happened. Until then I'd just been writing a lot of complaint letters. <g>

Yvonne Navarro: But they were =good= complaint letters. ha ha

C. Candy: heehee

Mr. Templeton: lol

Mr. Templeton: do you still draw?

Yvonne Navarro: I do, but very seldom.

Yvonne Navarro: The last thing I had published was in the 1992 or 1993

Yvonne Navarro: World Fantasy Program Book. It was a graphite

Yvonne Navarro: sketch of the Pumpkinhead monster.

Mr. Templeton: Collector's Item!

Yvonne Navarro: You can see it and a bunch of other drawings on my site.

Yvonne Navarro: I wish I had time to draw more -- I miss it.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: what's this got to do with books?

Mr. Templeton: There's a link to Yvonne's site on her avatar, BTW folks

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: ¸

Sarah M: were discussing later buffy

Yvonne Navarro: Roots.

Sarah M: be patient

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: ¸

Mr. Templeton: Hi Buffy, we're talking to Yvonne about all the work she does, which includes her Buffy novels.

Sarah M: i want to be an author

Mr. Templeton: C Candy, your question

Sarah M: u write buffy novels!!

Sarah M: cool

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: i want ot be a stunt woman

C. Candy: Have you done childrens books...maybe with your art?

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: lol

Sarah M: shhh lol

â GLÂDIÂTOR â â: i want to be an RAF pilot

Yvonne Navarro: No, no children's books, but wouldn't that be fun?

Yvonne Navarro: The closest I've come are the two Young Adult novelizations about Willow.

C. Candy: yes very...maybe halloween themed

Sarah M: willow my fav character

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: but i want to still keep up my job as slaying vamps

C. Candy: what age do you recommend willow for?

Yvonne Navarro: Well, that's hard to say. I really didn't write it that much

Yvonne Navarro: differently than I do my adult novels. The publisher

Yvonne Navarro: recommends it at about the 8th grade level, but I know

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: waiting for laugh

Yvonne Navarro: a lot of adults who have enjoyed it, too.

C. Candy: great TY· Ill check it out

Mr. Templeton: Sarah M, your question

Yvonne Navarro: In general, the Buffy audience turned out to be older than

Yvonne Navarro: the publisher expected.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: god this is boring i'm off to go slay more vamps

Sarah M: i would like to be an author

Sarah M: preferbly a buffy one

[avatar: Buffy The Vampire Slayer system: buffythevampireslayer acct: DBA,193709]

Sarah M: is it hard when u have to keep to the buffy storyline??

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: yeah good idea write about me

Sarah M: i write buffy fanfiction right now

Yvonne Navarro: It is a bit restrictive when you write in a set universe,

Yvonne Navarro: especially if you're used to writing what you want. There are

Sarah M: there r certain facts i have to keep remembering

Yvonne Navarro: certain things they won't let you do, and they also give you

Yvonne Navarro: a specified timeline, and you have to stay in it. Buffy

Yvonne Navarro: is a lot more... picky in that respect. They want her to

Yvonne Navarro: act, speak and look a certain way, and they pay attention

Yvonne Navarro: to all of the details. They're the same way with all the

Yvonne Navarro: characters on the show.

Mr. Templeton: Were there things that you wanted to do that you couldn't with the Buffy books

Sarah M: ty. i will look for some of ur books l

Sarah M: <grin>

Yvonne Navarro: Yes, there were. I had figured out a way for Angel and

Yvonne Navarro: Buffy to get together, totally. They didn't go for it -- thought

Sarah M: ohh

Sarah M: i would of like that

Yvonne Navarro: it was too controversial. Still, maybe I can use the idea

Yvonne Navarro: in some way in the future. Sometimes they'll reconsider

Yvonne Navarro: an idea later.

Mr. Templeton: Does that depend on what is happening with the show's own arc?

C. Candy: give angel a twin ¶ LOL

Yvonne Navarro: Actually, the books are set in a sort of parallel universe, of

Yvonne Navarro: necessity. You can't use characters in the books that will

Yvonne Navarro: end up being taken OUT of the series, such as Faith, Mr.

Yvonne Navarro: Trick, other people who've gotten killed or slain. So that's

Yvonne Navarro: another limitation.

Yvonne Navarro: The Mayor is another character who could never appear in

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: faith is in a comer

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: duh

Sarah M: buffy shh]

Yvonne Navarro: a book or story, because they knew he would ultimately demonize.

Sarah M: nehave

Sarah M: behave*

Yvonne Navarro: The books are still set in the third season.

Yvonne Navarro: They're not ready to move into the 4th season yet

Yvonne Navarro: because the editor herself doesn't know quite yet what's

Yvonne Navarro: going to be happen. You have to keep up the continuity.

Mr. Templeton: Right... have you ever had the problem where a book has almost got to publication and had to change a

Mr. Templeton: plotline because of events in the show?

Yvonne Navarro: Angel is a little more open.

Sarah M: angel

Yvonne Navarro: No, I haven't had that. I have, however, been given an

Sarah M: he has so many sides

Yvonne Navarro: incorrect timeline and had to take a character almost completely

Mr. Templeton: ack

Yvonne Navarro: out of a book at the last minute.

C. Candy: wow

Sarah M: wow

Mr. Templeton: Which character was that?

[Avatars: Yvonne Navarro, C. Candy, â GLÂDIÂTOR â â, Sarah M, Mr. Templeton, Plain, simple Garak. Ghosts: riz, Sorsessa.]

Yvonne Navarro: That was Cordelia, and the book was Paleo. The editor told

Yvonne Navarro: me the wrong timeline, but then after the book was written in

Yvonne Navarro: first draft realized that Xander and Cordelia had had their

Yvonne Navarro: parting of the ways. If you recall, she pretty much opted out

Sarah M: shes with angel now

Yvonne Navarro: of the Scooby Gang after that and wouldn't have much to do with them.

Yvonne Navarro: Yes, but the books are still in third season, when they're still in high school.

Sarah M: oh sorry

Yvonne Navarro: I'm hoping they'll change seasons soon, but again, the

Yvonne Navarro: editor has to be able to figure out the direction they're going.

Mr. Templeton: Which way would you like Buffy to go?

Mr. Templeton: If you were writing on the show?

Yvonne Navarro: Well, that's hard to say. This is a whole different environment,

Yvonne Navarro: the college thing, etc. It's kind of like she's going to have to

Yvonne Navarro: spend four years there. From a woman's point of view? I'd

Yvonne Navarro: like to see her be a bit more intelligent. I didn't get to watch

Yvonne Navarro: the show last night, or Angel (I had class and a rainstorm

Yvonne Navarro: made me get home too late), but it seems like she's headed

Yvonne Navarro: in that direction. There's a whole world of interesting ways

Yvonne Navarro: for the story to go as she gets older.

Mr. Templeton: For instance?

Yvonne Navarro: It'll be interesting to see what they give her as a career.

Mr. Templeton: Have you ever tried pitching to television shows, Yvonne?

Yvonne Navarro: I haven't really thought about that much, because I keep getting told to remember to stay with the

Yvonne Navarro: ÿÁ

Yvonne Navarro: TV shows?

Yvonne Navarro: No. I'm not a scriptwriter. I use way too much detail.

Mr. Templeton: lol

Yvonne Navarro: I have a friend who's a scriptwriter and a novelist, who

Yvonne Navarro: got a degree in film school. Every one of his novels have

Yvonne Navarro: been optioned because they have a basic structure that I

Yvonne Navarro: just don't understand but which he does instinctively because

Yvonne Navarro: of his schooling. He loved FINAL IMPACT and wanted me

Yvonne Navarro: to do a film treatment for it that he would pitch to people

Yvonne Navarro: he knows. I tried, based on his instructions, and got this

Yvonne Navarro: email in return that said Uh... we have to talk. <g> So

Yvonne Navarro: we did, and I tried again, based on more instructions. And

Yvonne Navarro: I ended up with the same Uh.... we =really= have to talk.

Yvonne Navarro: I ended up giving up on the idea. Let the scriptwriters write

C. Candy: oppsie....lol

Yvonne Navarro: scripts. :)

Mr. Templeton: C. Candy, your question

C. Candy: o well i was curious if its frustrating to be restricted by the show(s)

C. Candy: or more thrilling because it causes popularity

Yvonne Navarro: It can be frustrating, especially if you view the characters as

Yvonne Navarro: heading in a different direction than the editor or the tv

Yvonne Navarro: people. As the writer, you have to accept that you have the

Yvonne Navarro: least say-so in the entire process. It's work-for-hire and

Yvonne Navarro: you basically just have to do what you're told. I had to

Yvonne Navarro: change a lot in Paleo, including the ending and move scenes

Yvonne Navarro: around, all at the last minute. It was pretty daunting.

C. Candy: i cant imagine

Mr. Templeton: Are you please with the final version of Paleo, which has just been released?

Yvonne Navarro: Pretty well. Frankly, I would have liked to have left Cordelia

Yvonne Navarro: in there more. I always liked her acidic wit, and I think I could

Yvonne Navarro: have finnigled around with it to keep her in there even if she

Yvonne Navarro: and Xander weren't together. But they made me take her almost

Yvonne Navarro: completely out of the book.

Mr. Templeton: shame

Mr. Templeton: Sarah M, your question

Sarah M: Buffy is starting to grow now and her attitude is changing. is it hard to keep up with the changes and

Sarah M: would u ever consider doing an angel novel????

Yvonne Navarro: They also won't let me put in there a lot of stuff that people

Yvonne Navarro: already know, such as past history or how the characters feel.

Yvonne Navarro: Then I get complaints or remarks that say I don't know the characters.

Yvonne Navarro: I do, but the publisher and tv people just think I'm being

Yvonne Navarro: repetitive. Hold on -- let me go back and look at that ?.

Yvonne Navarro: Okay, got it.

Sarah M: lol

Yvonne Navarro: It's not so hard to keep up, as long as you watch the show. <g>

Yvonne Navarro: I would consider doing an Angel novel, and have pitched a

Yvonne Navarro: very basic shell of an idea to the editor for the bad guy character

Yvonne Navarro: in it. She didn't go for it at first, then changed her mind (see,

Yvonne Navarro: how they do that?). So I have to work on that now, although

Yvonne Navarro: I'm kind of swamped at the moment. But I think it's a good idea.

Sarah M: ty

Yvonne Navarro: ty?

Sarah M: thank you

C. Candy: thank you

Sarah M: sorry

C. Candy: heehee

Yvonne Navarro: Ah. hee hee

Mr. Templeton: When you were here last you mentioned you had several projects on the go -- any news on those?

C. Candy: lazy typers¶

Yvonne Navarro: Ty -- don't they make Beanie Babies? ha ha

Sarah M: lol

C. Candy: ·

Yvonne Navarro: Well, let's see what's going on.

Yvonne Navarro: I'm still working on a novel called MIRROR ME, which is

Yvonne Navarro: sort of supernatural horror suspense. I'm on about page 140

Yvonne Navarro: now. I've got an intro to write for a friend's short story

Yvonne Navarro: collection and a whole bunch of short story deadlines.

Yvonne Navarro: And there's that Angel idea that has to be done. Expecting

Yvonne Navarro: the proofs for Willow II at any time, because the publication

Yvonne Navarro: date on that is January. I pitched a co-idea to that friend

Yvonne Navarro: I talked about earlier, the one with the film history, and he

Yvonne Navarro: kind of went for it, so that's something we might write

Yvonne Navarro: together. I got, uh, 'convinced' by another friend to

Yvonne Navarro: editor an anthology based on a universe that he created (he's

Yvonne Navarro: an artist), and I still can't believe I agreed to that (big

[Avatars: Lestat, Yvonne Navarro, C. Candy, â GLÂDIÂTOR â â, Sarah M, Mr. Templeton, Plain, simple Garak. Ghosts: Çountess Diome, riz, Sorsessa.]

Yvonne Navarro: moment of weakness there). And someone else wants me to

Yvonne Navarro: update their website. Plus there's the sequel to AfterAge,

Yvonne Navarro: which I've been promising a small press publisher for years.

C. Candy: busy lady¶

Yvonne Navarro: I'm tired. ha ha

Çountess Diome: running late sorry <g>

Mr. Templeton: np

C. Candy: CD·

Mr. Templeton: Phew! Sounds Are you keeping up with your martial arts (Yvonne is turning into a real world Buffy, folks)

Çountess Diome: <wave>

C. Candy: lol

Yvonne Navarro: I am keeping up with it! In fact, last night I got a

Yvonne Navarro: promotion stripe on my belt! chop chop! <g>

Mr. Templeton: lol

C. Candy: Gongrats´

Yvonne Navarro: Ty. (See, I'm learning.)

C. Candy: lol quick study

Çountess Diome: lol

Yvonne Navarro: But there's quite a ways to go.

Mr. Templeton: You have carved quite a niche for yourself in the horror genre... what type of horror really appeals to you

Mr. Templeton: when it comes to writing?

Yvonne Navarro: Still, it's fun and a great way to work out and learn to protect yourself.

Yvonne Navarro: Hmmm.

Yvonne Navarro: I like the stuff that you can't really see, that's really unpredictable.

Yvonne Navarro: Vampires are okay, but it's better when you do something

Yvonne Navarro: different with them, the same with zombies. Psychological

Yvonne Navarro: horror-- when you mess with your mind-- gets really nasty,

Yvonne Navarro: and I suppose that's what I like best. Then you really have

Yvonne Navarro: to be strong to fight it, not just physically, but =inside= yourself.

Yvonne Navarro: Sometimes what you can only imagine is far scarier than

Yvonne Navarro: what you can see right in front of you.

Mr. Templeton: I always find horror movies less scary once you've seen the monster

Yvonne Navarro: Exactly. Which is why in most of them, if there's only one monster, you don't usually see it until the end.

Yvonne Navarro: Or you get only glimpses of it.

Mr. Templeton: C.Candy, your question

C. Candy: What type of books do you enjoy reading....if you get time..lol

Yvonne Navarro: Oh, that time thing again!

C. Candy: heh

Yvonne Navarro: Actually, I like all kinds of books. Horror, suspense, even

Yvonne Navarro: romances and westerns, mainstream. The best, I think,

Yvonne Navarro: are books that manage to combine a little bit of everything

Yvonne Navarro: in them -- action and adventure, suspense, and you need

Yvonne Navarro: some romance in there, a couple of characters who care

Yvonne Navarro: about each other and whom the reader cares about. Otherwise

Yvonne Navarro: there isn't any reason to read the story.

C. Candy: any authors that influnced you?

Yvonne Navarro: Oh definitely.

Yvonne Navarro: Robert McCammon was a huge influence on me. In fact,

Yvonne Navarro: it was his work that made me want to try my hand at it.

Yvonne Navarro: Also F. Paul Wilson. And of course, the standard for

Yvonne Navarro: every budding horror writer, Stephen King. Way way back,

C. Candy: all males...hmmm lol

Yvonne Navarro: when I was ... uh, younger, my mother called me and

Yvonne Navarro: said I'm setting the type for this wonderful book! The book

Yvonne Navarro: was SALEM'S LOT by Stephen King.

C. Candy: <shiver>

Mr. Templeton: Mr Garak, your question

Plain, simple Garak: Ms. Navarro, when you first sit down to write a new novel, are there any specific 'steps' that you go

Plain, simple Garak: through, or any personal 'formula' that you have for your creation process?

Yvonne Navarro: I think the 'all males' thing is just because of my limited memory. :)

Mr. Templeton: <g>

Yvonne Navarro: There isn't any 'formula' but I do spend a LOT of time

Yvonne Navarro: developing my characters. Sometimes I know how the book

Yvonne Navarro: ends, a very basic idea, and sometimes not. However, I

Yvonne Navarro: always work from an outline, so the story gets a basic

Yvonne Navarro: development in that way first. I wrote FINAL IMPACT without

Yvonne Navarro: one and kind of got in trouble about 2/3rds of the way

C. Candy: eek poofers

Yvonne Navarro: through it. I ended up in a big scene where something had

Yvonne Navarro: happened and I literally didn't know where to go from there.

Yvonne Navarro: So now I always use an outline at least for a general

Yvonne Navarro: idea. I also filled out VERY detailed character 'charts' on

Yvonne Navarro: all the main characters. You're much better off knowing

Yvonne Navarro: more than you'll ever use.

Plain, simple Garak: I see. TY!

Mr. Templeton: Do yu find characters can take over the storyline and take it in another direction?

Yvonne Navarro: :)

C. Candy: I'd love to see the room where you write ...prolly lovingly cluttered

C. Candy: lol

Yvonne Navarro: Oh, definitely, especially when the characters are very developed.

Yvonne Navarro: As for where I write, I live in the lower level of my

Yvonne Navarro: Dad's townhouse, so it's pretty crowded.

Yvonne Navarro: Uh, hold on one sec -- got an emergency with the car here. Be right back.

C. Candy: yikes

Mr. Templeton: If she reads Stephen King its probably eating next door's Chevrolet

C. Candy: rofl!

C. Candy: that movie scared me sooo bad as a kid

Mr. Templeton: Me too

C. Candy: Christine...

C. Candy: i wouldnt stay alone in any car...lol

Çountess Diome: LOL

C. Candy: alotho i did like how she fixed herself

C. Candy: i wish mine did that¸

C. Candy: aq·

angelqueen: hehe i loved that movie hi all

Mr. Templeton: lol Quick reminder here folks and many ghosts... we're talking today to Yvonne Navarro, acclaimed horror

Mr. Templeton: author who's car has just takenj on a life of its own

Çountess Diome: hiya#

Lestat: Greeetings·

Mr. Templeton: she'll be back in a sec

C. Candy: lol

C. Candy: call whitley striber

C. Candy: lol

Mr. Templeton: I'm Mr Templeton and I am your host. This is a moderated event. To ask a question, please ESP me and I

Mr. Templeton: will ask you to ask it if you are an avatar in the room, and voice it for you if you are a ghost.

Çountess Diome: ooooo want him back¶

C. Candy: no clue how to spell his name

Çountess Diome: lol

Mr. Templeton: while we're waiting you can click on me and enter our storm constnatine competition :)

Yvonne Navarro: Hi. I'm back. I apologize.

Lestat: w/b·

Mr. Templeton: WB

Yvonne Navarro: There's something horrible going on with the alarm

C. Candy: yikes

Yvonne Navarro: system in my car and we can't get it to shut off.

Mr. Templeton: We were just thinking your car had turned into Christine

Yvonne Navarro: Unfortunately I parked it in the middle of the driveway

Çountess Diome: not a good sign lol

Yvonne Navarro: last night because it was pouring and so now we can't

Yvonne Navarro: move it so my Dad can get his car out of the garage. Guess

Yvonne Navarro: who's not really pleased with me right now. agh.

Mr. Templeton: ack

C. Candy: uh oh

Yvonne Navarro: Anyway, until I get evicted because of this truck thing, I

Yvonne Navarro: live in the lower level of Dad's townhouse. ha ha

C. Candy: lol

Mr. Templeton: C. Candy, your question..

Yvonne Navarro: It's kind of L-shaped and the desk, credenza, a bunch of filing

Yvonne Navarro: cabinets are in the alcove.

Yvonne Navarro: I do stay organized though -- I had it when I can't find

C. Candy: I was wondering what you would say to aspiring authors...

Yvonne Navarro: stuff.

Yvonne Navarro: Ah. My biggest piece of advice for them is to read their

Yvonne Navarro: stuff out loud. Really READ it, like you were acting it.

Yvonne Navarro: So you can't do it in front of other people (unless you're a ham).

Mr. Templeton: lol

Yvonne Navarro: That way you find all the mistakes and bad punctuation,

C. Candy: wow great advice.....

Yvonne Navarro: sentences that are too long, bad grammar, etc.

Yvonne Navarro: There's a FAQs page on my site that recommends a book or

Yvonne Navarro: two, etc.

Mr. Templeton: Does that help you create a different voice' for your characters? Reading out loud?

Yvonne Navarro: Oh, definitely. But the character chart is really what creates

Yvonne Navarro: your character -- it's like 'building' a person from scratch.

Yvonne Navarro: Cover everything in it --

Yvonne Navarro: address, favorite color, family background, past and future

Yvonne Navarro: problems, in addition to the basics like what they look like.

Yvonne Navarro: That way you don't end up with cardboard people.

Mr. Templeton: And you told us last time that you do a lot of reasearch, not just on your characters?

Yvonne Navarro: Yes, I will do research if a book requires it. For instance,

Yvonne Navarro: if it's set in a hospital or about a disease, I'll research that.

Yvonne Navarro: If it's set somewhere I'm not familiar with, I'll research that.

Yvonne Navarro: Sometimes I end up researching little things that I never use,

Yvonne Navarro: or that turn out to only get a line or two. But that little line

Yvonne Navarro: is correct, and that's what counts.

Yvonne Navarro: For a lot of people, to read something in a book that they

Yvonne Navarro: know is just flat wrong-- it ruins the entire book for them. So

Yvonne Navarro: take no chances!

Mr. Templeton: Do you use the Internet a lot for research these days?

Yvonne Navarro: I do, yes. But I also still love good old-fashioned books. It's

Yvonne Navarro: hard to put a Post-It note or a plastic paperclip on a website,

Yvonne Navarro: ha ha. I like to have a bunch of books open on my desk, photos

Yvonne Navarro: that I can look at and text to refer to back and forth. It's also

Yvonne Navarro: easier to find a clipped page in a book three years later than

Yvonne Navarro: it is to sort through bookmarks on Netscape or any other

Yvonne Navarro: browser.

Yvonne Navarro: Frankly, I don't ever think books will be obsolete.

Mr. Templeton: Good news for you then <g>

C. Candy: i hope not

C. Candy: nothing like the smell of a new book¶

C. Candy: lol

angelqueen: lol

Yvonne Navarro: True. There are other reasons, too.

Mr. Templeton: Have you explored the possibilities of online publishing yet?

Yvonne Navarro: I have, and I'm just not convinced. For one thing, I had a

Yvonne Navarro: story up at Mightwords.com and finally pulled it down after

Yvonne Navarro: a couple of months. It's so easy to publish online that the

Yvonne Navarro: so-called publishers don't promote it. Since they don't

Yvonne Navarro: promote, the 'royalties' they claim they're going to pay never

Yvonne Navarro: materialize because, frankly, they don't sell any copies.

Yvonne Navarro: People don't want to read off a screen if they can help it.

Yvonne Navarro: They want to read a book -- take it in the bathroom, in the

Yvonne Navarro: car, to the beach, to a deli at lunch. If you have a Rocket

Yvonne Navarro: Reader, well that's great... until you drop it. Then you're

Yvonne Navarro: out $300 or so. If you drop a book, just pick it back up.

Mr. Templeton: I agree with you, personally. There has been a lot of problems with work being lifted and appearing on

Mr. Templeton: other sites and even printed in foreign magazines

C. Candy: unless you drop it in the bathroom <g> lol

Mr. Templeton: lol

Yvonne Navarro: This is true. That's why when I put AfterAge on a computer

Çountess Diome: i normally drop em in the bath <g>

Yvonne Navarro: disk I disabled the abiilty to print. This also, unfortunately,

Yvonne Navarro: killed the project -- people don't want to read off a screen.

Yvonne Navarro: (They dry off from bathtub drops, but they dry bigger.)

Çountess Diome: uhuh <g>

C. Candy: lol

Yvonne Navarro: A Rocket Reader isn't going to dry out.

Çountess Diome: i hve a collection of 6 like that now <g>

Mr. Templeton: of the novels you've written, do you have a personal favourite?

Yvonne Navarro: That's hard, because I love each one like a child. Still, I

Yvonne Navarro: really had a tendency toward Final Impact... but I love AfterAge, too.

Yvonne Navarro: See, it's the characters in each that draw me. So that means

Yvonne Navarro: that Red Shadows, the follow-up to Final Impact, pulls at me

Yvonne Navarro: too. :)

Mr. Templeton: All of which you can buy from Yvonne's web site BTW folks

Yvonne Navarro: I really think my most favorite character in any of my boooks

Yvonne Navarro: is Lily, who started in Final Impact and then continued on

Yvonne Navarro: in Red Shadows. She started as a disposable character,

Yvonne Navarro: someone I created just to be killed off. But she took on

Yvonne Navarro: such a life of her own, and she was so crazy and strong,

Yvonne Navarro: that she just wouldn't let that happen.

C. Candy: Do your books read better in order?

Çountess Diome: (was just reading chapters)

Yvonne Navarro: They don't have to be read in order, although I think you'll

Yvonne Navarro: have more fun if you read Final Impact before Red Shadows.

Yvonne Navarro: Those are the only two that are connected.

C. Candy: ok great TY

Yvonne Navarro: But you can read Red Shadows without reading Final Impact.

Yvonne Navarro: I had to make sure the history was there -- you always do

Yvonne Navarro: in a follow-up or a sequel, in case the first one isn't

Yvonne Navarro: available anymore.

C. Candy: Im gonna own stock in my local bookstore...lol

Yvonne Navarro: Bookstores are wonderful. Now can you imagine a store with

Çountess Diome: (me too <g>)

Yvonne Navarro: only Rocket Readers or the equivalent, and just lists of the

Yvonne Navarro: books you can put on them? Bleh.

C. Candy: bleh indeed

Mr. Templeton: No there is a horror story.

Mr. Templeton: Yvonne, thank you so much for talking with us today , I'm sure you've made a few converts today!

Çountess Diome: (um whats a rocket reader? lol)

C. Candy: lol palm pilot kinda reader dealie

Çountess Diome: ahhhh

Yvonne Navarro: A Rocket Reader is a hand-held mini computer, like a palm thing.

Çountess Diome: i like paper better<g>

Yvonne Navarro: Paper, and the beautiful covers.

Çountess Diome: yes <S>

C. Candy: me too...I highlight really good parts

Yvonne Navarro: Exactly.

C. Candy: colorfull metephors etc

Çountess Diome: lol

Mr. Templeton: I would like to wish you every success with your upcoming projects. If folks have further questions,

Mr. Templeton: please go ahead, if you have time Yvonne

Çountess Diome: i just remember the stupid quotes i find funny <g>

Yvonne Navarro: Sure, I have time. Ask away.

C. Candy: how do you cure writers block?

Yvonne Navarro: I don't hear any truck alarm going off in the driveway. ha ha

Çountess Diome: LOL

Mr. Templeton: lol

Yvonne Navarro: Well, I've never had a full 'block', as it were. I've hit

Yvonne Navarro: some stumbling stones in a story now and then, but I

C. Candy: show off...LOL j/k

Yvonne Navarro: usually just take a break from it and let it turn over in my

Yvonne Navarro: mind. I guess a real writer's block is when you can't

Yvonne Navarro: think of anything to write about, and I have so many ideas

Linsue: Hello everyone sorry I am late

Yvonne Navarro: for stuff that I'll never live long enough to do them all.

C. Candy: <wave>

Mr. Templeton: It sounds like to me, you could always switch to other projects :)

Mr. Templeton: when you get a block

Yvonne Navarro: Exactly. And sometimes that gives you the break you need

Yvonne Navarro: to let your subconscious work out the problem with the other

Yvonne Navarro: project you're dealing with. Or sometimes just let the story

Yvonne Navarro: take over -- don't think so much ahead of time. What am I

Yvonne Navarro: going to do about such-and-such? Just sit down and start

Yvonne Navarro: writing, and let the story dictate what happens.

Mr. Templeton: Would you say you were a disciplined writer? Do you assign yourslef a set time to write each day?

Yvonne Navarro: Gosh, I really need to buy a new pack of discipline! Actually,

Yvonne Navarro: it's harder working at it full time, at home, than people

Yvonne Navarro: realize. There are constant interruptions. People think

Yvonne Navarro: that because you're home you're not 'working' and they call

Yvonne Navarro: at any time and want to yap for hours. Or they just come by

C. Candy: like us? lolol

Yvonne Navarro: or expect you to stop what you're doing instantaneously.

Yvonne Navarro: No no. This is a planned event. And speaking of planned,

Yvonne Navarro: I specifically told my Dad about it this morning. But did it

Yvonne Navarro: stop him from coming down here, even before the truck

Yvonne Navarro: emergency? Oh nooooo. <g>

Mr. Templeton: lol

C. Candy: lol

Plain, simple Garak: LOL.

angelqueen: what is the one thing for a beginer writer should know ?well the most important thing?

Mr. Templeton: write, write and write again

angelqueen: lol

Yvonne Navarro: Even more than that, I'd still stick by that READ YOUR WORK

Yvonne Navarro: OUT LOUD thing. Had I done that earlier in my career, I

Yvonne Navarro: think I would have gotten things going -- i.e., sold a few

Yvonne Navarro: stories -- a lot quicker than I did. I had no idea of some of

Yvonne Navarro: the mistakes I kept making, the same ones over and over.

angelqueen: how did you finaly figure out your errors

Yvonne Navarro: Well, editors are so busy that you seldom get a personal

Yvonne Navarro: rejection. But one young woman in California by the name

Yvonne Navarro: of Jay Scheckley was editing a tiny magazine. I submitted

Yvonne Navarro: a story to her (this was back in the days of snailmail and

Yvonne Navarro: self-addresed stamped envelopes as opposed to email

Yvonne Navarro: replies). Copies were expensive, so you sent a big

Yvonne Navarro: enough envelope and enough postage to get your story

Yvonne Navarro: back. She rejected the story, but she took the time to

Yvonne Navarro: edit a couple of pages, to actuall SHOW me what I was

Yvonne Navarro: doing wrong. Redundancy, bad grammer, bad punctuation,

Yvonne Navarro: etc. Things like describing something small as that little

angelqueen: punctuation my down fall

Yvonne Navarro: tiny whatever instead of just saying that little whatever.

C. Candy: have you done poetry as well?

Yvonne Navarro: Sentence structure. I looked at the page and thought

Yvonne Navarro: Well, DUH. No wonder no one will buy this stuff.

Yvonne Navarro: She really did me a huge favor.

C. Candy: lol

Mr. Templeton: That's what I call a proper editor... I grew up reading about Asimov's editor, John Campbell. Thought

Mr. Templeton: they would all be like that

Yvonne Navarro: I've only done one poem so far.

Yvonne Navarro: They probably would be, if they had the time. But they

Yvonne Navarro: get so many submissions that it's become impossible.

Yvonne Navarro: As for poetry, I like stuff to rhyme AND tell a story, a whole

angelqueen: how hard is it to find a edtior ?where do you start ?

Yvonne Navarro: one. So I'm not fond of a lot of what's out there today.

C. Candy: lol thats how i write

Yvonne Navarro: Well, there's an 'editor' for every magazine or book. So

Yvonne Navarro: every time you submit something, the editor for that project

Yvonne Navarro: or whatever reads it.

Yvonne Navarro: The editor is the person who reads and decides what stories,

Yvonne Navarro: etc. go into a magazine. In a publishing house, the editor

Yvonne Navarro: is the one who decides which books get published and

Yvonne Navarro: what, if anything, in that book has to be revised.

Mr. Templeton: These days though they also have to help maret the books, cost them etc... which used to done by a slew

Mr. Templeton: of other people before effeiciency became a buzz word

Yvonne Navarro: True, although that's moreso in the smaller houses. The

Yvonne Navarro: big houses, like Bantam, Pocket, etc., still have other

Yvonne Navarro: departments for that. The problem is that each department

Yvonne Navarro: doesn't always get involved with the other department that

Yvonne Navarro: much, and so sometimes you get some confusion. Or you

Yvonne Navarro: might have an editor who wants her book project to be

Yvonne Navarro: promoted but the marketing people either don't agree or

Yvonne Navarro: don't have the budget for it.

C. Candy: its a small miracle anything gets published

Yvonne Navarro: Promotion can make or break an author's career.

Plain, simple Garak: Since you have more than 15 years of writing history, do you find that you get edited less today than

Plain, simple Garak: you used to?

Yvonne Navarro: In the book market, yes it is.

Yvonne Navarro: Generally speaking, yes. Willow Files 2 surprised the

Yvonne Navarro: beans out of me by getting through the editor at Pocket AND

Yvonne Navarro: the people at Fox TV without a single revision request.

Plain, simple Garak: Wow. Congrats! <grin>

Yvonne Navarro: Still, you have to deal with copy editors, and if you get an

Linsue: WTG<grin>

Yvonne Navarro: inept one, you can have a hard time. I had a real problem

Yvonne Navarro: on THAT'S NOT MY NAME. Thanks. :)

Yvonne Navarro: Hey, someone with my face!

Guide NiteKat: here you go <grin>

angelqueen: lol

C. Candy: lol

Çountess Diome: Twins <g>

Yvonne Navarro: But she doesn't have my hat. hee hee

Mr. Templeton: Can you tell us more about that?

Yvonne Navarro: A copy editor goes through and brings the manuscript up to

Yvonne Navarro: the 'style' of the publishing house, polishing up the

Yvonne Navarro: punctuation, capitalization, etc. Hopefully picking up any

Yvonne Navarro: typos, any... what would you call them. Dangling ends or

Yvonne Navarro: mismatched facts. Like you say Tom has blue eyes on

Yvonne Navarro: page 37, but you forget (and this is where a character chart

Yvonne Navarro: would have saved your buns) and on page 238 you say he

Yvonne Navarro: has brown eyes.

C. Candy: lol

Çountess Diome: Hi Storm <S>

Yvonne Navarro: Unfortunately, on THAT'S NOT MY NAME I got a seriously

Yvonne Navarro: over-zealous copy editor, what authors generally think of

Yvonne Navarro: as someone who wants to be a writer but who, because they

Yvonne Navarro: have never gotten around to writing their OWN stuff, can't

Yvonne Navarro: resist the urge to change someone else's. THAT'S NOT MY

Yvonne Navarro: NAME didn't need any special help -- RED SHADOWS was

Yvonne Navarro: barely touched at all (I had a wonderful copy editor on that,

Yvonne Navarro: who asked questions before changing anything). The guy on

Yvonne Navarro: THAT'S NOT MY NAME literally tried to rewrite my work,

Yvonne Navarro: crossing out entire paragraphs and putting in his own

C. Candy: o geez

angelqueen: can they just change with out asking ??

Yvonne Navarro: words, filling the manuscript with terrible cliches. I was

Yvonne Navarro: furious, plus it took me nearly two weeks to fix it and of

Yvonne Navarro: course they needed it back 'right away'.

Yvonne Navarro: Well, that's why you get the manuscript back from the copy

Yvonne Navarro: editor, so you can go over what they did to it. Ostensibly

Yvonne Navarro: they're supposed to HELP you, but this guy did a terrific

Yvonne Navarro: amount of damage. My editor's assistant actually wrote

Yvonne Navarro: a complaint letter to the copy edit department (they had

Yvonne Navarro: contracted out the job to this person) so that they would be

Yvonne Navarro: sure not to ever use him again.

Mr. Templeton: Sounds like you need an iron will to be a novelist!

Yvonne Navarro: Which didn't help me any.

C. Candy: hes in the mailroom now¶

Yvonne Navarro: You do need a thick skin -- you have to be able to take

Yvonne Navarro: rejection and consider revision requests rather than just

angelqueen: lol taken out the trash cans now

Çountess Diome: opppppps

Yvonne Navarro: automatically say no. I've gotten some wonderful suggestions

Yvonne Navarro: from editor about changing books to make them better.

Yvonne Navarro: My editor at Bantam is really, REALLY good at pinpointing

C. Candy: not sure id handle critism well

Yvonne Navarro: something in a book that would improve it.

Yvonne Navarro: Ah, but you must learn if you're going to be a writer!

C. Candy: true

Yvonne Navarro: The thing to do is to read it, then step back and think about it.

angelqueen: depends how it was said too

Plain, simple Garak: How do you know if you have a 'good' editor or a 'poor' editor?

Yvonne Navarro: Just give it the benefit of the doubt, and ask 'Well, is there

Yvonne Navarro: ANY chance there might be something to what this person

Yvonne Navarro: said?'

Yvonne Navarro: By the suggestions, and literally whether they make sense.

Yvonne Navarro: This isn't the same as whether you disagree with them.

Yvonne Navarro: For instance, I sold DeadTimes first to a small press

Yvonne Navarro: publisher, a different one than DarkTales. The editor there

Yvonne Navarro: wanted to change EVERYthing about it. The character's

Yvonne Navarro: sense of self and purpose, what happened in each chapter.

Yvonne Navarro: He also wanted to change the events, and one of the most

Yvonne Navarro: telling thing was in the Salem Witch Trial chapter. There, he

C. Candy: wb

Çountess Diome: w/b storm

Yvonne Navarro: said 'we need to burn a witch at the stake.' Well, in the

Yvonne Navarro: States no witch was ever burned at the stake, and the story

Yvonne Navarro: was heavily researched and grounded in fact. Over here,

Yvonne Navarro: they hung witches. I didn't want to change it but he wanted to---

Yvonne Navarro: he literally didn't CARE that it would be factually wrong. I

Storm Constantine: Hi, sorry about that. Lost connection

Yvonne Navarro: ended up asking him why he'd wanted to buy the book to begin

angelqueen: who won the battle ?

Yvonne Navarro: with because he didn't seem to like anything about it, and

Çountess Diome: happens all the time <S> you get used to it <g>

Yvonne Navarro: I killed the deal.

Mr. Templeton: Good for you... brave move

angelqueen: yes realy

Plain, simple Garak: That sounds pretty flagrent.

Mr. Templeton: Yvonne, thanks so mucyh for talking with us today...

Yvonne Navarro: So it's published now, by a publisher who changed hardly

Plain, simple Garak: ...on their part, that is.

Yvonne Navarro: anything in the book.

Yvonne Navarro: It's fun. :)

Yvonne Navarro: Any other questions?

Mr. Templeton: I think we'd all like to wish you all the best with your projects

Yvonne Navarro: Ty. hee hee

angelqueen: yes the best

Plain, simple Garak: TYVM, Yvonne!! <grin>

Mr. Templeton: This has been a great time chatting with you again

Çountess Diome: i gonna finish reading my chapters

Çountess Diome: <g>

Mr. Templeton: Please click on Yvonne for her own web site

angelqueen: thanks for giving up you time too

Yvonne Navarro: Come and visit my web site. (promo ha ha)

Çountess Diome: least i can't drop em in the bath <g>

Linsue: Thanks Yvonne sorry I missed so much

angelqueen: i am there already

Çountess Diome: me too lol

Mr. Templeton: and we will post a transcript of this event on the vzscifi site soon, once Yvonne has edited it

Yvonne Navarro: I try to keep it up to date.

Mr. Templeton: :)

Linsue: <grin>

Çountess Diome: have a lil Vamp <g>

angelqueen: awww

C. Candy: heehee¶

Yvonne Navarro: Thanks everyone for listening to me yammer on for so long.

Plain, simple Garak: Enjoyed it very much....

angelqueen: i loved it 1st time i ever came ot one of these events

C. Candy: I did as well TYVM·

Yvonne Navarro: Anyone else have any more questions?

Yvonne Navarro: Hey, what's this little thingy in my lap! :)

Çountess Diome: its a lil Vamp <g>

angelqueen: doll

Yvonne Navarro: Cool! Thank you!

Çountess Diome: offspring <g>

C. Candy: Im gonna see if my 9 year old can read the Willow books

angelqueen: lol

Çountess Diome: can have my 8yr old too if you want him <g>

Yvonne Navarro: Oh, I think she can. They're very 'gentle' in that respect.

angelqueen: pixel vamp offspring

C. Candy: lol

Mr. Templeton: Thanks Yvoone, do you need directions back to your own turf now?

Yvonne Navarro: Well, thanks for the offer of the 8 year old but my Dad won't even let me have a puppy.

Çountess Diome: LOL

Mr. Templeton: lol

Linsue: lol

C. Candy: She can get thro Potters pretty well ...and they are loooong

C. Candy: lol

Çountess Diome: he's quiet now <g> he's watching angel lmao

Yvonne Navarro: She'll do great then. I wish I'd written the Harry Potter books! ha ha

C. Candy: yah me too

C. Candy: lol

Storm Constantine: Don't we all!

Çountess Diome: prefer the Discworld books <g>

C. Candy: Im going to use your advice on her as well...she really loves writing

angelqueen: wish my son liked to read

angelqueen: its like cutting his arm off to get him to read

C. Candy: Shell get a kick out of knowing I spoke to you¶

Yvonne Navarro: Try to get her to read out loud. As she gets older and more

Yvonne Navarro: confident, she'll start =wanting= to read her stories to other

Yvonne Navarro: people.

Mr. Templeton: brb back folks

Çountess Diome: kk

Yvonne Navarro: Maybe he just hasn't found the right books?