Lindsey S. Frantz was born and raised in Appalachia and earned her MFA from Bluegrass Writers Studio at Eastern Kentucky University.
Her stories and poems have previously appeared in numerous literary journals, including Main Street Rag's Villains Anthology, Ruminate Magazine, and Emerge Literary Journal.
Author name: My full name is Lindsey Stockton Frantz, so I publish under Lindsey S. Frantz.
I had a few pieces published in literary journals before I got married, and those were published under the name Lindsey Stockton.
Are you a traditionally published/indie/hybrid author?
My
publications have been kind of all over, so I suppose I’m a hybrid author.
I
have one short story published in an indie anthology (From Now On: The Last
Words Anthology), one novel published by a traditional small press (The Upworld by Line by Lion
Publications), and a handful of short stories and poems published by literary
journals.
You can check out other books published by Line by Lion at
www.linebylion.com!
The Upworld is my debut novel! It was released by
Line by Lion Publications in August of 2017, and holding it in my hands for the
first time was most definitely the best moment of my writing career!
The Upworld: It
has been many generations since the Vitium War. In the ruins of what was once
Appalachia, the population has split into three groups—upworlders who live in
sparse, walled off cities, albino cave dwellers, and a group of savage nomads
called the Wylden. Then there’s Erilyn—a telekinetic 17-year-old girl who can
see auras and hear thoughts. For three years she’s lived a quiet, calm life in
the woods with Luna, her albino serval cat, until the day Finn—an upworld boy
from Sunnybrook—stumbles, injured, into her clearing, chased by Wylden hunters.
Erilyn’s once calm life is turned upside down as she guardedly travels with
Finn back to Sunnybrook. There she must confront both the secrets of her past—the
cave dwellers she ran from as a child and the bittersweet memories she daily
tries to forget—and Morrigan, the girl who broke Finn’s heart and who’s
harboring her own a dangerous secret.
How long have you been writing?
I remember
“writing” my first story (dictating to my dad) when I was about five. Together,
he and I made a little book about a golden pony that lived on top of a hill.
I
have loved books since I was a toddler, so my parents weren’t that surprised
when I started coming up with stories.
But I suppose I seriously started writing,
really trying to put stories together, when I was maybe thirteen or so. My
uncle let me borrow Dragonseye, a
book by Anne McCaffrey, and I just fell in love with this world she’d created
around telepathic dragons and deadly silver thread. So I sat at my family’s
desktop and started writing a story that was heavily based on hers. It was
terrible, but it’s where I started, and I haven’t stopped since!
I’m 33 now, so
I guess that means I’ve been writing for 20 years, which just seems
unbelievable to me.
What is the most challenging thing about writing for you?
I actually
just had a conversation about this yesterday!
My local library invited me to be
a speaker at their Know-It-All Festival this past weekend and I talked about my
writing process and gave some general advice to new writers. In that
conversation I admitted that the hardest part about writing for me is actually
making myself do the writing itself.
I spend a lot of time thinking,
brainstorming, planning, questioning, taking notes, and just figuring things
out in my head, but when I sit down to write I start to get nervous that I
won’t get it right!
So, the hardest
part for me is making myself just write straight through (without revising as I
go).
If I stop to revise, I’ll never finish, so I make myself write (with
breaks, obviously) straight through a book or story or poem, and only when I’ve
typed the last word do I let myself go back and revise, but I digress.
It’s the
act of writing—of putting all those ideas I’ve mulled over and shaped and
reshaped in my head and in my notes 1,000 times on paper—that’s the most
challenging for me.
And what is the best thing about writing?
In
retrospect, the best thing about writing is the writing process (but as I said
above, it’s also the most challenging).
Oddly enough, I really enjoy revision. I like to compare the writing process to
baking a cake. You have to make sure all the
ingredients are there, you have to make sure it’s baked for the proper time,
and after it’s done, you have to let it sit for a while.
But revision is like
decorating the cake! If you mess up, you just scrape the icing off and try
again. Revision is the fun part, because there’s so much less pressure. You can
try things and sit with a single sentence or phrase or even word for hours if
you want, because the bulk of the work, the hardest part (the writing), is
done!
Where is your favourite writing spot?
It’s so
important to have a space that’s all yours to write in.
My favourite, right
now, is in my kitchen (a space that I’ll no longer be able to use, because we
are planning to move in the next few months). My kitchen has bright yellow
walls and big windows that look out over our backyard, and a stream and field
behind that. It’s just my calm writing space.
And if I’m not home, there are
two local coffee shops—Purdy’s Coffee Co. and Berea Coffee & Tea—that I
love to go sit in, maybe with headphones, and some kind of hot drink to work.
But honestly, I get the most done if I’m in my kitchen. Here’s hoping our new
house, when we find one, has a spot like my lovely yellow kitchen.
What do you do during times of self-doubt or (goodness forbid) if “writer’s block” strikes?
I get
writer’s block a lot. I
think it
stems from my constant worry that what I’m writing isn’t “right” as I’m writing
it.
For years, when that feeling would hit, I would just close my laptop or put
away my notebook and walk away, hoping it would clear up. But that took too
long, so eventually, after some good advice from a writer I admire so very
much, I just started making myself write, no matter what.
If writer’s block
hits, I just write through it. A lot of times, I have to end up trashing those
parts, but writing through it lets me push past it and get back into my groove.
What is the most frivolous thing you’ve purchased with your royalties?
Well, my
husband and I have two toddlers and a mortgage, so royalties just go into the
bank with our pay checks, but I do let myself do a little “extra” spending, and
we may go to a coffee shop for lattes or live large and eat out (with toddlers,
this means going to McDonald’s) instead of eating at home.
So nothing very
exciting. Maybe one day we’ll be able to take a vacation with my royalties or
something!
What is the best writing advice you’ve ever received?
Just write.
It’s why I write through my
writer’s block, and it’s why I don’t stop to revise.
The advice came from an
amazing writer and teacher, who later became my friend, and it’s stuck with me
through the end of my undergraduate degree, through my master’s of fine arts degree,
and beyond, into my more serious writing life.
So, whenever I feel stuck, or
unmotivated, or even just like I need a pick me up, I just write.
Do you prefer tea/coffee/hot chocolate?
I mean, I
like all of them! But my favourite would have to be coffee.
I drink a lot of coffee. It started in college.
I
was reading Kim Harrison’s Rachel Morgan/Hollows series in my very first
apartment, and the protagonist, Rachel, drank a lot of coffee. A lot. So I thought, “I need to drink coffee,
too!”
So the next time I visited my parents, I asked to borrow their old coffee
pot. It started with cups that were half coffee, half flavoured creamer, but
like Rachel Morgan and her roommate Ivy, I drank coffee every time I sat down
with those books.
Now, fifteen years later, I drink coffee all throughout the
day (sans creamer, most of the time) just because I love it. But I’m also quite
partial to a lovely chai tea latte. Purdy’s Coffee Co. makes the best I’ve ever had. It’s like Christmas
in a cup!
Is there anything you’d like to add…?
I love to
write, and read other writer’s work, and talk about writing, so I’d love it if
people would contact me to chat after reading this interview!
I love making
writer and reader friends! And if you want, visit my website and sign up for my
newsletter! Everyone who signs up receives a free Kindle copy of my short story
“Erilyn’s Awakening,” which is the prequel to my novel!
*You can follow Lindsey S. Frantz on:
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