Interview with ARTEMIS GREY
Artemis Grey was
raised on fairytales and the folklore of Appalachia. She’s been devouring books
and regurgitating her daydreams into written words since childhood. She can
often be found writing by a crackling fire or romping through the woods on
horseback, searching the depths of random wardrobes and wriggling into hollow
tree trunks. She hopes to make her readers look at the world they’ve always
seen, and see the world they’ve always envisioned.
What are you reading
right now?
We’ve been on overtime at work for almost two months, and my
reading has been happening only in audio from (graciously provided by a
coworker who shares his audible account). Recently, I’ve been listening to the LEGEND
OF DRIZZT series, by R.A. Salvatore. The books that started everything for me,
were the original DRAGONLANCE trilogy, and the CRYSTAL SHARD trilogy.
Specifically Raistlin Majere, and Drizzt Do’Urden have always been, and will
always be, my two great loves in regard to character romances. Drizzt, in
particular, is a comfort for me, and his stories are the ones I go back to
again and again. From his character itself, to the fact that that character was
actually created on impulse and without any intention of having the character
“mean anything” Drizzt represents to me the what-ifs and the indomitableness
carried within oneself.
What first sparked
your interest in writing?
I accidentally answered part of this with my first answer.
Like many writers, I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t telling stories, but
it was reading fantasy books like the ones above that started me writing my own
stories. That, and the desire to be able to maybe create characters that would
mean as much to someone, somewhere, as characters like Drizzt mean to me. In more
recent years, writing nonfiction (specifically for the theatre of conservation)
has been sparked by the need to educate the public and spread information, to
be a voice for the voiceless.
What do you love the
most about writing? The least?
What I love most about writing fiction is everything about
the process and actual creation. “Meeting” new characters, learning about them,
seeing their stories unfold. What I like the least is the need to try and
convince members on the commercial side of things that my stories are “worthy”
of being put into the public’s reach. In writing nonfiction, what I love most
is being able to engage the public and teach them things they didn’t know. I
also love, in a warrior’s sense, being able to combat those who would exploit
voiceless animals, nature, and public ignorance, to make money, and damage that
which they profess to care about. Most people are shocked to realize the truth
about some of the most visible “conservationists” they’ve heard of. What I like
least in nonfiction is the willful ignorance, and blind devotion that I’ve
encountered on widespread levels. The willingness of humanity to warp or
destroy principles, or overlook the same, even as they acknowledge it, in
exchange for either their own gain, or because it’s more comfortable, or
convenient to do so.
Tell us a little
about your writing process.
In fiction I’m a panster to the core. A story, or character,
or set of characters will blossom inside me, and for a varying amount of time
decided by each, I’ll let them grow there, developing and maturing. Then I
simply start writing. Most of the time, the greater story arch will already be
visible to me. I’ll know the start, at least have an idea of the journey, and
where things end up. But my rough drafts are very much that. My second drafts
are where hard lines get drawn. I still write long hand in pen, when I’m able,
and when that’s happened, it’s the transcription process that stands as my
“second draft”. In nonfiction, I do a ton of research for articles. That’s very
rewarding in itself. It’s all about taking hard science, and/or verified facts,
and then presenting it in a way that reaches out and physically impacts the
public, opens their eyes, and permanently alters them afterward, hopefully in
all the best ways.
What are your
passions?
Writing. Being a voice for those (animal or human) who have
none of their own, but doing so in a way that remains true to them. Being
alone, surrounded by nature, with as little indication of the presence of
humanity as possible. The intangible connection and exchange possible with
nature and animals that requires you to step outside yourself and not perceive
the world in the manner of how it exists in relation to you, by rather in how
it exists without you.
What inspires you?
Everything. Literally everything. From the things I love, to
the things I most hate, or fear, it all inspires me in some way.
How was CATSKIN born?
I have always thought humans with albinism to be
exceptionally beautiful not just in form, but in the sameness so often denied
them by the rest of society. I feel likewise about all other “differences”
perceived and maintained by society. At the same time, there were no male
characters (that I knew of) which embraced “broken” females as they were,
without trying to “fix” them because they saw them as not actually “broken” but
simply the same as everyone else in a different way. The parallels of society
treating those with albinism as being “different” and society treating those
who have suffered a trauma as “different” developed into a story about a boy
who was just the same as everyone else in his “differences” falling in love
with a girl who likewise was the same in her “differences,” but who had been
conditioned to believe she wasn’t “right.”
Do you think you will
ever return to write more with Ansel and Catskin?
I sincerely hope so! I actually have outlines for two more
books, one which follows Catskin before she met Ansel (which would address some
issues like you can’t really walk around in Alaska for months surviving on
nothing as it seems like Catskin did before meeting Ansel. I'm looking at you,
Erynn) and one which follows them after the events in CATSKIN. Because CATSKIN
was released through a very small press (Clean Reads, you’re the best ever) and
because my writing is rich in satisfaction and joy, but poor in monetary
matters, I have to split my time between a full time job, and my writing
efforts. Clean Reads was the only publisher willing to publish CATSKIN
(seriously, Clean Reads is a phenomenal group of people) so I’ve been trying to
work on other projects which might be more commercially viable in the hopes
that subsequent contracts would provide me with more time to write. Still
working on that but also still working on CATSKIN related books!
Do you have any
advice for aspiring authors?
The best advice I can give aspiring authors is to take the
time to learn themselves, to learn their inner beings as far as their writing goes.
Learn, accept, and respect what matters the most to you. Do you want to write
for the love of writing? Do you want to be commercially and monetarily
successful through your writing? Do you want to achieve some functional change
in the world with your writing? The answers are vital, because they will guide
you, and embracing them will allow you to be happy. Also, there is no wrong
answer, and the answer can change dependent upon subject matter and situation.
If you want to be a monetarily successful author, if what will make you happy
is seeing your name in headlines, then you can shape your writing, what you
write, and how you write it, with the goal of achieving those things. Yes,
unexpected lightning does strike. But documenting the lifecycle and daily
struggles of a hellbender salamander in an Appalachian stream-bed is not likely
to gain you red-carpet receptions, or invitations to Dragon-Con panels.
However, if what you love most is being able to take something that most of
society doesn’t even know about, and turn it into a gripping tale that might
mean everything to just a few people, then red-carpets and Cons don’t matter. A
writer who wants to make money off their writing, is no less an author than a
writer who wants only to document the comings and goings of the field mice in
their backyard, and vice versa. Neither are the two exclusive. You can desire
monetary success through one type of writing, while wanting only to document
something for the sake of that thing with another type of writing.
Is there anything
else you would like to tell us about yourself?
Because I took over a month to get these questions answered
and sent to Rachel (and I love Rachel immensely and very much appreciate her
interest in interviewing me) I think she, and readers, deserve something extra,
so I’ll tell you a secret: I have a habit of leaving scraps of paper sort-of
hidden in all the places I go (public, or natural) with little things written
on them. It might be a little stanza of poetry (I’m not an accomplished poet
but I try) or a (hopefully) inspirational quote, or it might just say something
like “You are enough in yourself.” Or something like that. But I believe that
little unexpected bits of magic, and discovery like that help keep us alive in
all the important ways, so I try to help them happen whenever I can.
