The only girl in a large family of boys, former tomboy Kim Harrison invented the first Brigadier General Barbie in self-defense.  She shoots a very bad game of pool and rolls a very good game of dice.  When not at her keyboard, she enjoys lounging on the couch with a bowl of popcorn watching action movies with The-Guy-In-The-Leather-Jacket.  She plays her Ashiko drum when no one is listening, and is hard to find when the moon is new. Questions and Answers How did you get the idea that started the Rachel Morgan series? Actually, DEAD WITCH WALKING was a short story that got out of hand. . . . I was trying to attract the attention of the short story market and wasn't having much luck, so I mixed the most bizarre characters I could think of with the appeal of the girl next door--and got Rachel. ;-) The short story didn't find a market, (I only showed it to two magazines, so I really can't complain.) but the characters wouldn't let go of my imagination, and I eventually expanded it into a novel. Are you a full time writer, or do you have another job? I am fortunate enough to have been a full-time writer for several years now, but even before finding an agent and publisher, I treated my writing as a part-time job, devoting about four hours a day to it, seven days a week. Who is your favorite writer? That's easy. Ray Bradbury. He was the first person I remember seeing use the world of fantasy to shed light on the tragedies and joys of the human condition, and I haven't gotten over it yet. If books, like dvd's, had deleted scenes, what sort of scenes would you include on one of yours? None at this time. I've never had to cut a scene or chapter to satisfy a page-count issue. I consider myself really lucky there. I work the books pretty tight, managing to get everything in that I want. Music seems to be a big part of your writing, what's your favorite style, singer, or song? Music is a huge part of where I get my inspiration for some of the characters. I've slowly been evolving a list linking characters to songs which people can look at and add to on my web site. It's been fascinating seeing how many other people do as I do, finding reflections of the characters in popular music. As to my favorite style? Slow jazz from the 40's, popular music from the 80's, and lately, alternative rock. Lots of good stuff there. Right now I'm sort of fixated on NIN, Nickleback, Garbage, Godsmack, a little bit of Korn, and a lot of Evanescence. Rob Zombie fits in there, and the Foo Fighters, but you're as likely to find singing monks or show tunes in my CD player as anything else. How do you feel about e-books? I think there is a future in it, most certainly, but if I like an e-book, I will try to find a paper copy for my shelf. I invest and get back too much emotion in reading to not have something I can look upon fondly and touch, using it as a touch-stone to remember how I felt when I read it. And the ability to pass on a real book to another feels too good to give up. This week, I handed a ten year old who struggles with reading one of my early loves The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams. I got it back today, then almost bawled my fool head off when he asked if he could have it when I no longer wanted it. I just don't see that emotional connection with handing over a piece of hardware or password to my account. Do you ever find your characters making the story change in a way you hadn't planned? All the time. It's what keeps me interested in writing. I would be bored out of my mind if they didn't. Is there any advice you'd give a wannabe writer? There are no wannabe writers. If you write, you're a writer. And I've got lots of advice, the first being, write like you have the contract. What I mean is, write as often as you realistically can, even if you don't feel like it. Get yourself in a writer's critique group that meets once a week where you can polish your style and firm up your unique voice. Not only will your work improve, but you'll gain the contacts that the industry relies on to find new talent. The slush pile doesn't work very well any more, but who you know, does. And trust me, even the shyest person shines when they talk of their work. Get yourself out to the conferences and workshops where the agents and editors look for new talent. But the biggest and often hardest to follow advise I can give is to simply write. Write consistently for large chunks of time--even if you don't "feel" like it. It's a job. You don't go to work just when you feel like it. If you did, you wouldn't have a job. To expect writing to be any different is ridiculous. ;-). Do you have any predictions for the future of sf and fantasy? Yikes! I don't know the industry well enough to even try to predict the future of SF and fantasy. I do think, though, in my off-the-cuff observations, that there's going to be more mixing of straight SF and what are traditionally fantasy elements. Digging deeper, I think you'll see a much larger acceptance of fantasy seeping into what might be traditionally thought of as literary fiction. I think it's already started, visible in the popular movies hitting the box office the last ten years. There's power in using fantasy to explore the human condition, using it to safely discuss "taboo" topics. Fantasy allows an high degree of acceptance not often found in other genres, even if only for the time that it takes to read a book, but a memory of that acceptance lingers, coloring how we interpret our real day-to-day life. And besides, fantasy frees us. It's fun. It's an escape. Telling stories is a basic part of human nature. To think that there isn't a future in it is like saying we are no longer human. And I know that's not true. ;-) Relevant Links Kim Harrson's Main Listing Kim Harrson Website