Prime Time Replay:
Tananarive Due
on her novel My Soul to Keep
MsgId: *omni_visions(11)
Date: Thu Aug 7 22:04:15 EDT 1997
From: Ed_Bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.24
Hello, all -- and welcome to another edition of Omni Visions. The pleasure of hosting this show every other week is the opportunity of conversing with some of fiction's finest talents, particularly the writers. But tonight's guest is a particularly special treat. Tananarive Due has made her present solidly known in both general fiction and horror through publishing only two novels. "THE BETWEEN" appeared two years ago from HarperCollins and ended up as a finalist for superior achievement in the novel form for the HWA's Bram Stoker Award.My typing's terrible. "present" up there should be "presence." But to continue... Tananarive's second novel, "MY SOUL TO KEEP," just appeared from HarperCollins. Between novels, she contributed to the year's most wacko shared-world novel, "NAKED CAME THE MANATEE," a work comprising chapters by most of Florida's best writers.
Tananarive (accent on the second syllable, final "e" is silent) Due (rhymes with queue) is the dating/relationships columnist for the Miami Herald. Her new novel is about plenty of things, but especially deals with immortality, the Prometheus myth, south Florida family life (particularly when it's endangered by superhuman powers).
I'll be talking with Tananative for an hour or so; then producer Ellen will open up the chat to all who wish to participate and ask questions. So be watching, thinking, and preparing...
Tananarive, your novels thus far are very much well-executed novels of human beings with thoroughly believable lives and relationships -- lives that are then warped into the weird through either the supernatural or what are essentially (I'd argue) science fictionnal elements. Where did your bent for the fantastic come from? Why this instead of perfectly straightforward mainstream efforts?
MsgId: *omni_visions(15)
Date: Thu Aug 7 22:14:15 EDT 1997
From: TananariveDue At: 152.163.197.35
Well, Ed, I'm sure I'm not unique in that I write, very often, to process my own fears. And since many of my preoccupations are with issues of chaos and mortality, I find it more therapeutic to use supernatural ... and -- OK, if you say so -- science fiction elements to dig at the issues that trouble me. I was writing "contemporary realism" pretty much up until I wrote "THE BETWEEN." But once I opened my imagination up to that avenue, I was pretty much hooked. And I'd always loved supernatural fiction growing up, anyway.Oh! A story, incidentally ... I first heard the term "contemporary realism" from Anne Rice -- and it was after I interviewed her for a Miami Herald story in 1992 that I realized that I, too, was a supernatural fiction writer at heart. She'd said, in passing, that she believes in wrting about supernatural fiction you can be both literary AND commercial, and that resonated with me.
Up until that point, I think I'd been slightly tained by creative writing courses that did not consider genre fiction serious fiction. In my quest for "respectability," I wasn't being true to my heart. I began writring "THE BETWEEN" within weeks after that Anne Rice interview -- so I really believe it was waiting in a corner of my mind for me to shine a flashlight on it.
MsgId: *omni_visions(18)
Date: Thu Aug 7 22:19:03 EDT 1997
From: Ed_Bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.24
T, I won't argue about sf elements. I guess I mentioned them because there's the clear suggestion in the new book that physical immortality is connected with a human bio blood factor; and in the first novel, one can argue that psychic links are not necessarily occult. But anyway ... Can you mention some of the supernatural fiction writers that influence you earlier on?
MsgId: *omni_visions(20)
Date: Thu Aug 7 22:22:32 EDT 1997
From: TananariveDue At: 152.163.197.35
Writers, writers ... Was always intrigued by Poe. And when I read my first copy of "THE SHINING" at age 16, Stephen King had his hooks in me. I never grew up reading Lovecraft -- like many people of my generation, Stephen King WAS horror fiction. Stephen King was definitely my favorite writer when I was a kid. Now, I've expanded my list to include writers like Toni Morrison (hey, "BELOVED" is a ghost story!), Gloria Naylor (so's "MAMA DAY"), Octavia E. Butler, Dan Simmons and Steven Barnes.
MsgId: *omni_visions(21)
Date: Thu Aug 7 22:24:08 EDT 1997
From: Ed_Bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.24
So do you expect to keep on dealing with the supernatural in fiction a while longer?
MsgId: *omni_visions(23)
Date: Thu Aug 7 22:28:04 EDT 1997
From: TananariveDue At: 152.163.197.35
You know, I had a conversation with an editor recently ... and I could hear her cringing at the thought that people might begin to consider me (gasp) GENRE. But the fact of the matter is, no matter how editors or bookstores want to classify me, all of the ideas I've had recently have a very dark or fantasy element. I really believe that's where my voice it. I like to use fantasy as a mechanism for mirroring the everyday -- and, if possible, for healing.I don't know how many readers I can "heal," but I'm definitely healing myself. "MY SOUL TO KEEP" really helped me come to terms with a lot of my mortality fears -- because, frankly, the alternative ain't that great! That's what I keep TELLING myself, anyway. Besides, "reality," by comparison, is just so ... well ... boring? I hate to generalize -- there's some great contemporary realism out there, and I read it too, but ... I'm just not interested right now.
Readers point out that "MY SOUL TO KEEP" has elements of a love story, too, so they wonder if I would consider writing a straight "romance" or contemporary love story. I really have a hard time seeing it. I enjoy the suspense element too much, and the supernatural component really helps me stretch my imagination.
MsgId: *omni_visions(27)
Date: Thu Aug 7 22:37:30 EDT 1997
From: Ed_Bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.5
Sorry about the delay. The program told me my connection was unstable. I took it personally ... At any rate, I think publishing right now is only too glad to package what might once have been considered genre novels as general fiction. Altho the thought of "BELOVED" as a Dell Abyss book is intriguing.I took note that your protagonist in "MY SOUL TO KEEP," David aka Dawit, a 400-year-old Abyssinian, really comes across as a product of his time as one might expect him to be affected by the passage of centuries. Only part of him is reflective of the 20th century. How did you approach that sort of characterization? He is part familiar, part alien...
MsgId: *omni_visions(30)
Date: Thu Aug 7 22:42:58 EDT 1997
From: TananariveDue At: 152.163.197.35
I'm VERY happy you think so! Dawit/David was a tough character to bring to life -- in fact, I have to admit that when I finished the first draft, I realized I still didn't "know" him the way I needed to in order to make him as convincing as possible. That meant going back scene by scene, trying to put myself in his head, in his experiences, to try to craft his thought patterns. And in order to paint David, I also had to have a fairly clear picture of what the other immortals would be like. How would you structure a society of immortals? How would they differ from us in the most fundamental ways? What would their priorities and goals be? It was challenging, but a heck of a lot of fun. And in the end, I felt I knew Dawit/David much better...In fact, in some scenes in which I'd believed he was merely being sincere, after a little polishing I began to see his puppet-strings at work -- because David is very bright, and I think very bright people are manipulative even when they don't mean to be. Reading the scene again, I'd think, "Why, you little SOB ... That's a good one!"
MsgId: *omni_visions(32)
Date: Thu Aug 7 22:46:27 EDT 1997
From: Ed_Bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.5
Your female lead, Jessica, is also a distinctively realistic character: a loving wife and mother, yet thoroughly tough when it comes to survival. And she's that rarety in most contemporary fiction -- a sympathetic acknowledged Christian. I'm curious how you yourself view the supernormal.
MsgId: *omni_visions(34)
Date: Thu Aug 7 22:48:52 EDT 1997
From: TananariveDue At: 152.163.197.35
How do I view the supernatural? From a distance. (Ha!) Fortunately or unfortunately for me, I've never had an encounter with the supernatural. But because I write what I do, readers often come up to me to share their ghost-sighting, prophetic dreams, reincarnation experiences ... One woman recently said my book reminded her of being regresssed. The hypnotist had told her to LOOK AT HERSELF during her regression, and she'd seen little brown feet, and she'd realized she was a little black boy learning how to read, in secret, during the slavery era. Mind you, this was a white woman -- and she didn't know much about the history of the U.S. slave era. But reading my book, she said, helped make more sense of a piece of HER experience (the regression, that is).As for what *I* believe, it's hard to say. I think my Unitarian upbringing shows, frankly -- I grew up believing in everything and nothing in particular, which has given me a sort of browser's mentality to questions of metaphysics and spirituality. But I have very good friends who have shared some pretty spooky stories from their own childhoods, and I don't discredit anyone else's beliefs. Do I believe me friend woke up levitating over his bed in the middle of the night? Sure I do. Just because it's never happened to me (and, frankly, wouldn't want it to) doesn't mean I'm not willing to believe in the possibilities.
MsgId: *omni_visions(36)
Date: Thu Aug 7 22:52:06 EDT 1997
From: Ed_Bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.5
Is it a correct line of speculation to wonder if your newspaper column's purview examines some of the same territory your characters explore?
MsgId: *omni_visions(38)
Date: Thu Aug 7 22:57:29 EDT 1997
From: TananariveDue At: 152.163.197.35
I don't know if there's a direct relationship between my Dating Column and the issues my characters face -- but there is DEFINITELY a preoccupation with interpersonal relationships that defines them both. I write that column because I notice couples, I observe how they get along, I'm very much intrigued by the concept of making love work day-to-day. And how it causes tragedies that we read about in our newspapers every day (or variations of what people BELIEVE is love, anyway).So, yes, that is a correct line of speculation. I make the joke that anyone who doesn't understand the relationship between writing a Dating Column and horror novels must not be single! There's a little truth to that, too. I did a column on people who discovered they had dated (or married) pathological liars, and I was ready to run a background check on every new guy I went out with. There is a lot of scary stuff out there. And sometimes we don't recognize our own imbalances, or unhealthy patterns, enough to keep away from people who have T-R-O-U-B-L-E stamped on their foreheads.
In "MY SOUL TO KEEP," I think Jessica had more than a few signs that David was not the right mate for her -- but she couldn't bear to look at them. We do that all the time in relationships. For most of us, though, the consequences are not quite so grim.
MsgId: *omni_visions(41)
Date: Thu Aug 7 23:06:27 EDT 1997
From: Ed_Bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.5
I suspected you were probably more qualified that writer/shrinks, say, through your professional background, to write about people in horrific circumstances. In a different tone, was the "NAKED CAME THE MANATEE" project the lark it seemed from the outside? Unlike "NAKED CAME THE STRANGER," where no one knew who the journalists/contributors actually were, this new book, of which you're a part, trumpets the contributors, ranging from Dave Barry and Edna Buchanan to Carl Hiassen and James Hall. About the only south Florida writer not included is Charles Willeford -- and he's dead. How did something involving so many egos and talents come to fruition to effectively?
MsgId: *omni_visions(42)
Date: Thu Aug 7 23:10:03 EDT 1997
From: TananariveDue At: 152.163.197.35
"So effectively"? HA! No, I'm just kidding. I just have to laugh every time I think about "NAKED CAME THE MANATEE," because it was a fluke from beginning to end. In the first place, as far as MY participation, I was a brand new novelist at the time the editor of The Miami Herald's Tropic magazine approached me about writing a chapter. With all those big-name writers involved, the notion filled me with pure terror. (It reminded me of college creative-writing exercises that always managed to go horribly wrong...) But what the heck, I said, it's only for the Sunday magazine. Dave Barry would write the first chapter, then we'd each have a week to write our assigned subsequent chapter. Mind you, the writers did not discuss the plot (or, as it's often referred to, the "alleged plot" beforehand). No planning at all ....Week by week, the thing grew exponentially weirder. Week by week, I watched other writers bring in the characters from their series novels -- I had NO IDEA what I was going to do. Meanwhile, as the thing began to run in the paper, editors and agents began calling about actually PUBLISHING it. By the time it was my term, Putnam was offering a $205,000 advance for the %$#@!!! thing. The editor's implicit message to me: "Don't screw it up." ...
So you might say there was just a lit-tle pressure ... But we were all just flying by the seats of our pants. It actually turned out to be a LOT of fun, and we managed to avoid the question of thirteen agents by the decision that Carl Hiaasen's agent would sell it and then we'd all donate our money to charity. I was BRACING for the reviews, but people were kind. People magazine likened it to watching an All-Star Game -- maybe it won't be great ball, but it's a heck of a lot of fun to watch the players.
Oh! But the BEST part, Ed, was getting a copy of the audio book and having the opportunity to hear THE Burt Reynolds actually read my words. (He even pronounced my name right!) I was laughing the whole while like someone who was insane. It wasn't the kind of experience I could have SHARED with anyone ... but hearing those words read by Burt, I dunno, it was an experience on a wholly different level.
MsgId: *omni_visions(47)
Date: Thu Aug 7 23:20:53 EDT 1997
From: Ed_Bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.5
Oh, it is fun. It is fun indeed. Since you wrote a chapter that was less than novel length, that brings up the matter of short fiction. Have you/do you write short stories?
MsgId: *omni_visions(48)
Date: Thu Aug 7 23:23:14 EDT 1997
From: EllenDatlow At: 38.26.16.21
Ed, T,I've opened the chat room door in case some watchers would like to ask questions. If anyone does, please sign your name after your question/comment.
MsgId: *omni_visions(49)
Date: Thu Aug 7 23:24:18 EDT 1997
From: TananariveDue At: 152.163.197.35
I have a strange relationship with short fiction. On the one hand, I cut my teeth on it; I'd been writing short stories steadily since college, in particular, trying to distill events into the short-fiction format. I've written a couple in the past year, and I still don't know what to think of them. And because my short stories were always sent right back from editors like homing pigeons, I think I still have a mental block about sending them out again. Part of me knows, logically, that it HELPS to have written two novels ... but another part of me is still a timid writer who doesn't want to take the knocks.I do think I'm a better novelist than short-story writer. But I also think my short stories are getting better, so ... who knows? Maybe one day soon, I'll cross that major threshold, too. In some ways, I'd be just as proud to sell a really good short story as I am to sell a novel. Maybe even more so, on some weird level. I think short stories are very special, with a magic all their own.
Actually, come to think of it, I think the turning point in my short fiction has also been the dark fantasy/speculative element that has begun to mark my fiction. That must be where my heart is. I have zero interest in anything else right now.
MsgId: *omni_visions(51)
Date: Thu Aug 7 23:28:02 EDT 1997
From: guest At: 206.163.121.187
Some say that religions were created due to Man's fear of death. What kind of spiritual beliefs do you see your Immortals practising?--Steven Barnes
MsgId: *omni_visions(54)
Date: Thu Aug 7 23:33:02 EDT 1997
From: TananariveDue At: 152.163.197.35
Why, Mr. Steven Barnes, what a thought-provoking question! Actually, first of all, David/Dawit himself professes to have NO religion. I like the irony of a character who is supposedly immortal BECAUSE of Christ's blood then using his freedom from morality fears to disavow religion, period. A few of the other immortals practice a form of self-worship -- that is, worshiping the man who created THEM as immortals ... someone who has superior gifts, but is someone they can also very realistically aspire to be like. Immortals, I think, would probably also approach religion in ways that differ GREATLY from our approach. Their perspective is just so different. As David says in the book, "When there is no fear of death, there is no need for religion."Do I agree with David wholeheartedly? Not necessarily, though I think there's a lot of truth in the way we EMBRACE religion, beliefs aside -- when we're frightened. When we can't stand the notion of being "alone." (Like the fascination with alien cultures...) But I think religion can also evolve beyond fear as a motivator. Just not as far as David is concerned.
MsgId: *omni_visions(53)
Date: Thu Aug 7 23:30:00 EDT 1997
From: Ed_Bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.5
I'd like to ask about agendas ... You're a woman, you're African American, you're a journalist. In this decade, many observers expect one's characteristics to influence one's predilections and actions. Do you perceive yourself as having any variety of agenda in your writing? And do you ever perceive other people anticipating that you might have an agenda, whether you do or don't?
MsgId: *omni_visions(57)
Date: Thu Aug 7 23:39:18 EDT 1997
From: TananariveDue At: 152.163.197.35
Ed: You know, as much as many artists are loathe to think in terms of "agendas," I do understand that I have a few -- one is universal, working out those mortality issues; one is racial, to depict intelligent African-Americans facing universal issues; one is relationship-oriented, depicting what I believe does and does not work and why; and gender is in there too, I'm sure ... but a part that is not yet clear in my mind.I am sure there are some black readers, and some female readers, who might expect me to convey seem to remember a quote about politics and art being akin to a gunshot in an opera house. I like to be more subtle than that. My characters may have passing conversations about politics because, in life, we DO have those passing relationships. And what my characters say is not necessarily what I believe, either. My real agenda, I think, is to provoke thought. Maybe that's all I can ask.
(Oops. Correction. Make that "passing conversations" above, not "passing relationships." See? I have a one-track mind.)
MsgId: *omni_visions(56)
Date: Thu Aug 7 23:37:57 EDT 1997
From: guest At: 206.163.121.168
Do you develop plot and character simultaneously, or separately?--Steven Barnes
MsgId: *omni_visions(61)
Date: Thu Aug 7 23:49:25 EDT 1997
From: TananariveDue At: 152.163.197.35
Steve: Plot and character ...? Hmmm. With "THE BETWEEN," my first novel, the protagonist seemed to appear fully-formed nearly simultaneously with the plot. In "MY SOUL TO KEEP," I knew the general plot -- What if a woman were married to an immortal man? -- long before I knew either character. I guess it just varies. Generally speaking, though, while characters will later influence the plot, the plotting seems to take form first in my imagination. If I'm lucky, characters will follow RIGHT away, with loud and annoying bells on, demanding to make changes. (The more loud and annoying, the better; I'd much rather let my characters do the work...)
MsgId: *omni_visions(60)
Date: Thu Aug 7 23:46:18 EDT 1997
From: guest At: 152.163.197.35
You are such a great writer. I understand that you are now working on a nonfiction book with you mother. Is it more difficult doing nonfiction? Doris Hart
MsgId: *omni_visions(62)
Date: Thu Aug 7 23:52:45 EDT 1997
From: TananariveDue At: 152.163.197.35
To Doris Hart: Thank you! Yes, I'm working on a nonfiction book with my mother about her experiences, and other oral histories, from Florida's civil rights era. Even as a longtime journalist, I find nonfiction MUCH more difficult to write (those pesky facts keep getting in the way), but I'm fortunate here because the subject-matter is so intensely personal. I really don't think I would want to write another nonfiction book, however -- unless it was about relationships, the subject that is so close to my heart.
MsgId: *omni_visions(63)
Date: Thu Aug 7 23:56:33 EDT 1997
From: Ed_Bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.5
The clock's winding down ... just a few more minutes. Tananarive, will you be going on tour for the new book? Or are you going to be making other public appearances, since you sometimes attend the World Horror Convention and the HWA awards weekend?Ah, and will the new novel be waiting for when you're done with the nonfiction book with your mother?
MsgId: *omni_visions(65)
Date: Thu Aug 7 23:59:24 EDT 1997
From: TananariveDue At: 152.163.197.35
As a matter of fact, I just recently returned from a book tour! I was in Atlanta, Chicago, Washington, Dallas, San Francisco, Portland ... hmmm. May be leaving someone out. I toy with the idea of going to World Fantasy, but England is quite a long hop. I should be at Orecon in November. And I never miss the Bram Stoker banquet -- which will probably coincide with the paperback release of "MY SOUL TO KEEP" by HarperPrism.I am roughly 80 pages into a sequel to "MY SOUL TO KEEP" I'm calling "THE LIVING BLOOD." No clue when that might actually be finished or show up in bookstores. ONE LAST APPEARANCE: The Miami Book Fair is hosting a panel on black science fiction, fantasy and horror writers, which I'm looking forward to. (Jewelle Gomez, Octavia E. Butler and Steven Barnes will also be attending). The same panel, with the addition of Samuel R. Delany, was hosted at Clark Atlanta University in April -- and it was great. So, Miami's book fair is in November,(22-23) and it's not a bad time to be in Florida, folks!
MsgId: *omni_visions(67)
Date: Fri Aug 8 00:07:24 EDT 1997
From: Ed_Bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.5
Excellent! I have great memories of Miami just from the last American Booksellers Convention that was held there. But that's another story ... Tananarive Due, thank you so much for giving ups this time and conversation tonight. I urge all looking on here to read "MY SOUL TO KEEP" (HarperCollins) and to check out the mass paperback of "THE BETWEEN" (HarperPrism).And I'll invite you all to check a week from tonight when Jim Freund will interview Dan Simmons ("RISE OF ENDYMION"). I'll return in two weeks to talk with Douglas Clegg (as "Andrew Harper," "BAD KARMA").
Thanks again to Tananarive, and to my producer Ellen and to all who asked questions. Good night, and be productive!
MsgId: *omni_visions(68)
Date: Fri Aug 8 00:09:19 EDT 1997
From: EllenDatlow At: 38.26.16.21
Ed and Tananarive thank you, you were both great.
MsgId: *omni_visions(69)
Date: Fri Aug 8 00:10:34 EDT 1997
From: TananariveDue At: 152.163.197.35
Thanks for inviting me!
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