Outer Alliance Spotlight #30: Teresa Wymore April 16, 2010
Posted by juliarios in : interviews , trackbackWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #30. Each Friday, the Spotlight features an ally who writes, reviews, publishes, or is in some other way involved with LGBTQI speculative fiction. Our guest this week is author and illustrator, Teresa Wymore.
Teresa has been writing queer speculative fiction for ten years. Her work can be found in Straying from the Path (Drollerie Press), Lesbian Cowboys (Cleis Press), and Wild Nights (Bella Books). She’s also got a lesbian fantasy novel, Darklaw, due out from Drollerie Press soon. A visual artist as well as a writer, Teresa did her own cover art for Darklaw, and is working on a graphic novel prequel to that book now.
Teresa also writes erotica for Pen Flourish, and micro-erotica on Twitter. Though she’s a Hawkeye by birth, Teresa is a beach bum at heart.
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OA: Your lesbian fantasy novel, Darklaw is coming out soon from Drollerie Press. Can you tell us more about it?
TW: Darklaw is an adventure I like to think of as the Roman Empire meets the Old West. It’s highly political and violent, and so are the characters.
An idealistic young woman seeks the aid of a legendary ruler who’s now an outlaw. The young woman wants a hero to save her people. The ruler wants her throne back from the brother who stole it. The two women go on the run, but neither is prepared for the evolution to follow. Although their different natures make peace impossible, a compulsive desire drives them together again and again. Really, all that stands in the way of their their love is their hate.
As myth, the story explores the process of Dionysian fusion and release, where ecstasy has a goal. As politics, it’s about why we choose the chains we do–sacrificing everything for radical liberty or devoting all we have to duty. As morality, Darklaw challenges the reader to think about the nature of power.
Every writer loves her characters. They’re like her children, so she understands why they do what they do and can forgive their faults. In writing these characters, I sought to give them compelling motivations for their feelings and choices–as opposite as they are. My favorite compliment from a reader was that I had a “fantastic understanding of psychology”. I hope other readers feel that way, and I’m curious to see which character readers connect with most.
OA: You did the cover art for Darklaw, and are also doing the art for the graphic novel prequel. How long have you been creating visual art, and do you make pieces that aren’t related to things you’ve written?
TW: As a child, I had tried all kinds of media–pencil, charcoal, pen & ink, colored pencils, acrylics, oils, watercolors, clay, plaster–but my favorite art was always comic books. I kept trying different media because I wasn’t satisfied. When I was older, I realized I wasn’t an artist but an illustrator. It would take many more years before I had the vocabulary and life experience to tell the stories that mattered to me.
When I discovered Photoshop all the way back at version 2.5, I left traditional media behind. Now, except for laying out sequential panels on Bristol board, I draw, paint, and design in PS.
Over the years, I’ve worked in marketing and design doing t-shirts, illustrations, brochures, and websites, but am truly enjoying the opportunity to return to my roots.
OA: You had some bumps along the way to finding your niche in the erotica and e-book field. What lessons did you take away from your early experiences? Do you have any advice for new writers just starting out?
TW: In addition to writing, an ebook author has to be a publicist, a business manager, and a cheerleader. I’m not good with unwritten rules and that caused some problems early on with editors who knew the business no better than I did. So I focused on short stories and print anthologies for a while, but my real interest has always been novel-length fiction where I can develop the themes that interest me.
Also, I discovered my stories were too challenging for what most erotica readers expected and too erotic for what most presses would consider. With realism as my goal, I blur genres and develop complex characters. Add to that my love of mythic allusions and beautiful language, and I discovered I was aiming at the wrong markets. Realizing that has helped me find the right publisher.
The advice I’d give any aspiring writer is to adjust your expectations but not your passion. If what captures your imagination doesn’t stir most people, you can’t expect to sell a lot of copy. Still, you will find a publisher, so be sure you find one who loves books and knows the business.
OA: How has your relationship with the Catholic Church changed over the years, and how do you find peace with it?
TW: There’s no peace. My relationship with the Church is complicated, and I reassess often. After all, this is a religion that allows only men–and a very insulated and political group at that–to speak for god.
Vatican II offered the Church a breath of fresh air, but that spirit is under attack. Fundamentalism appears to be the disease of our age, no matter what your religion. Too many people don’t seem to know that their faith has a history. The Church isn’t this rule-bound, unchanging, persecuting behemoth. As a reflection of the people, she is ever-changing and compassionate.
Nevertheless, being a progressive Catholic requires a lot of humor and forgiveness, like any relationship really.
OA: What draws you to write microerotica? What are some of the interesting and challenging aspects of Twitter length fiction, and what makes a successful piece of microfiction in your opinion?
TW: I tried microerotica because I found Twitter rather boring. Most tweets weren’t creating content, only pointing to other people’s content. I haven’t done a lot of this kind of writing yet, but what I have done has shown me microerotica is somewhere between poetry and prose. You have to be sure the words you choose are meaningful, even double in meaning. On the other hand, because every tweet needs to be meaningful, I’ve found it hard to build outward from the action. The sense of story is vague. Microerotica is really about creating vignettes.
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Thanks, Teresa! Join us next Friday for another Spotlight, and in the meantime, check out Teresa’s website and work.
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