LUCIENNE DIVER
Before becoming a literary agent and an author, what line of work did you do?
Before becoming a literary agent eighteen years ago, I was a literary assistant at Spectrum Literary Agency, where I started my career. Before that I was a college student majoring in English/writing and anthropology with enough credits to minor in drama (though they told me that was too much to put on one degree).
In college, I did various things, including edit the Collegiate Anthropologist (the student anthropology magazine), tutor students, proctor tests, and assist a blind economics professor.
Bad Blood is now available in digital format. Hooray! Congrats! (Readers stay tuned. It will also be available in paperback 2012). And super congrats on all the rave reviews. What inspired your protagonist Tori Karacis and her journey?
Thanks so much!
It’s funny, Tori started out a lot grittier than she is now. Originally, her nickname was “the Nose,” probably because for a year or two in school before I grew into mine, that was my nickname. Something in me wanted to make this a positive for Tori, almost a super power, a legendary sense of smell. But Tori, like most of my protagonists, has a mind of her own, and it turns out that rather than a super sniffer, she’s got the ability to stop men in their tracks…literally. It’s a little side effect of a bloodline that traces back to a drunken liaison between the god Pan and one of the gorgons.
Where do you prefer to write?
By the pool, on the dock, anywhere near water and sunshine.
You've got a pretty hectic life. So it seems. What's your secret to balancing?
Once you give up on the idea of sanity, anything’s possible
Often, if I’ve missed a day due to travel or illness, I can make up my page count on the weekends. On the weekdays, after writing for an hour or so, I’ll often go back to sleep for a bit, then wake up, have copious amounts of caffeine, and ‘lo, my agent brain has perked right up.
During business hours, while I might answer the occasional query from my editor or agent, I’m completely focused on my clients and on their work. Yes, I have an agent who isn’t me to handle the business end of my writing. I think it’s important in negotiations to be at a bit of a remove. As an author, I know myself, and I’d be much quicker to sign on the dotted line before a publishing house comes to its senses than as an agent where I can look at things dispassionately and fight more strongly for anything that needs to be fought for.
In the evenings, I type in what I wrote that morning and spend a few hours every night reading client and query submissions. It doesn’t leave much time for a life, but I’ve never had much use for downtime anyway.
Any favorite writing advice or writing rituals you've found helpful?
The writing advice I’ve found most helpful is essentially the same advice kids are given for studying: if you do it at the same time and in the same place every day, your brain will become accustomed to settling into the grove when you sit down to work. A regular writing schedule has been invaluable to me.
Last, but not least, where can we learn more about you and your work?
Thanks so much for asking! I’ve got a website here: http://www.luciennediver.com/. My blog is at: http://luciennediverauthor.wordpress.com/. (Moved over from http://varkat.livejournal.com.) Also, for DragonCon, I have a page that’s kind of a one-stop shopping site for my works that will be linked to from a QR code in ads, and that’s here:
http://luciennediver.wordpress.com/2011/07/24/welcome/
Fangtastic (A sequel to Vamped) will be available in paperback January 8th, 2012. Keep your eyes out.
Again, thanks! I’m very excited about Fangtastic. I’m currently writing the fourth book in the Vamped series, Fang-tabulous, so be on the look out for yet another new adventure some time in 2013!
It was so great to have you, Lucienne! Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedule. Best of luck on all your projects.
Buy Bad Blood on Amazon HERE
QR code for the DragonCon webpage
About BAD BLOOD
Tori Karacis is a little more than your average private eye. Among other things, her family line may or may not trace back to a drunken liaison between the god Pan and one of the immortal gorgons. It may be just coincidence that her glance can literally stop men in their tracks, or that her family sports enough irregularities to keep the Rialto Bros. Circus in business. Then again, maybe not.
Tori’s debilitating fear of heights has kept her out of the family acrobatic troupe, but her extreme nosiness fits right in with her Uncle Christos’ private investigation business, where she was apprenticing when he disappeared on an Odyssean journey to find himself. Muddling through on her own, she’s reduced to hunting (not stalking, as that would just be weird), brass-bra’d Hollywood agent Circe Holland in order to deliver her a message…only to witness her murder by something that looks like the creature from the black lagoon.
Suddenly, all of her family’s tall tales seem a bit more believable, especially when Apollo—the Apollo out of myth and legend, though now hiding out among humans as a star of stage and screen—appears in her office, looking to hire her. She knows the stories and that tangling with gods never works out well for their human lovers, but she’s drawn to Apollo in a way she can’t resist, even given her feelings for one very hot and hardened cop.
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