Eilis Flynn has worked at a comic book company, a couple of Wall Street brokerage firms, a wire service, and a magazine for futurists. She’s also written a variety of things that don’t seem to belong together, but they do: comic book stories both online and in print, scholarly works in a previous life as a scholar, book reviews and interviews, and articles about finance (at odds with her anthropology background), before settling down to write romantic fantasies about the reality beyond what we can see. Eilis lives in Washington state. She can be reached at eilisflynn@aol.com.

An Interview with Eilis Flynn

PNR: Welcome Eilis, I’m excited to have the opportunity to talk with you about your writing.

Eilis F.: Thank you for asking me!

PNR: Can you tell us a little about how you started writing; was it something you always wanted to do?

Eilis F.: I started writing when I was a kid – English wasn’t my native language, and it was a good way to practice. And eventually, I realized that I really enjoyed playing with language, making up stories, and eventually, writing novels.

PNR: Are you able to write as much as you would like? Could you tell us about your writing schedule? What do you enjoy doing when not writing?

Eilis F.: I have a full-time job, so I have to be fairly organized when it comes to my writing. I get up at 5:00 am – which isn’t as horrible as it seems; it’s quiet and I can get a lot done at that hour – and I try to do at least three to four pages when I get home. When I’m not writing, I’m doing marketing and promo, trying to stay current with my reading and realizing that my to-be-read pile is never going to get any smaller. And taking walks. Seattle’s a great place for walking. Unless you hit one of those hills that’s at a 45-degree angle.

PNR: Who or what has been the biggest influence on your writing? Who has been your biggest support?

Eilis F.: I’ve had so many influences on my writing, it’s hard to say who the greatest one has been, but I know my greatest supporter is my husband. He always made a point of ignoring me when, before I sold, I would rail and rant and tell him I was going back to graduate school.

PNR: Most writers are avid readers, is this true for you? What titles would we see in your TBR pile?

Eilis F.: Yes, I’m an avid reader. Right now, at the top of my TBR pile is THE LAUGHTER OF DEAD KINGS by Elizabeth Peters, one of my favorite authors. I bought it when the day it came out and I’ve been trying to get to it since. A couple of Silhouette Nocturnes are in there too. A book about crowd psychology is coming up next, called Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. I’ve heard a lot about it over the years, so I’ve been curious about working it into a story somewhere along the way.

PNR: What do you feel are the essential elements of a great story?

Eilis F.: Well, romance, of course! The element of surprise. I love it when something completely unexpected happens and it was in front of you all the time! Sadly, that doesn’t happen a lot. And character development that makes sense is also important for a great story.

PNR: Congratulations, readers are excited about your December 2007 release, INTRODUCING SONIKA, from Cerridwen Press; could you tell us what inspired this exciting Superheroine story and a little about your vision for the project? Are you planning a series?

Eilis F.: I always wanted to write a story about a superheroine who didn’t annoy me! It’s not so much the case now, but when I was a kid, it was mostly men who wrote and drew comics, and females were an afterthought — that was also the case with superheroines. And too many of the superheroines were irritating! I wanted one who was as real as the guys, with her own problems and challenges, and I wanted to explore what she would do if she met someone who made the superhero business she’d gotten out of worth her while to get back into.

And yes, I’m planning a series — my big problem is having enough time to write the stories I want to tell!

PNR: Tell us about the challenges you face in world building with paranormal elements and making it work with the ideas you have in mind for the progression of your characters and the story. Do you write your characters to fit the world you have created or vice versa? How much research is involved?

Eilis F.: With the superhero world, the world accommodates them. With my fantasies, I’ve noticed, the characters accommodate the world, in the same way that we have to accommodate the weather in our reality. And I do both a surprising amount and surprisingly little research, depending on the topic! I was an anthropology major in college, so I’ve always had to do research on a variety of topics.

World building in a superhero’s world has distinctly different challenges from world building in a fantasy. In a superhero world, at least the one I’ve built, it’s enough like ours that it’s familiar, but with one big difference — it’s peopled with superheroes and, of course, supervillains. But they’re like us, too. They have to shop for groceries, pay their bills, wonder where they put the TiVo remote, adjust their Spandex because it’s riding up in uncomfortable places. Well, that last may not be for everyone.

PNR: Could you give us some insight into the origin of your Superheroes?

Eilis F.: I like contradiction — that’s part of life. What could be more contradictory than sound you can touch? That’s how Sonika’s abilities came about.

PNR: Do you feel your writing is character-driven or plot-driven? How do you balance these two elements?

Eilis F.: For the most part I tend to write plot first, character second. In Sonika, the character is the plot, so I was lucky.

PNR: You have written a wonderfully complex “Superheroine” that readers have really connected with; could you tell us about her development? What was your inspiration for Sonya/Sonika’s character?

Eilis F.: Sonika’s story is the way I always wanted a realistic superhero romance to unfold. I wanted her to learn to adapt to and accept her abilities, I wanted the reader to observe as she fell in love, I wanted her to change and grow into the superheroine she was always meant to be.

I was inspired by DC Comics’ Supergirl, in a reverse manner. When that character had her own book in the 1970s, one issue had a cover with the character crying outside a party. She was crying because no one had invited her. This struck me as a really doofus cover. Now, this had nothing to do with the story, and later on, I learned that when you see covers like that, that usually means that the actual story didn’t arrive in time for a more relevant cover to be drawn. But that cover really ticked me off. She shouldn’t have been a wuss. She should have been … sort of like Sonika. And that’s how, many years later, Sonika came into being.

PNR: Is your interest in writing Superhero characters fueled by a love of comic books and Superhero television shows and movies?

Eilis F.: I have read comic books and been surrounded by fellow comic fans virtually all my life, so it was inevitable that I ended up writing superhero romance. For the longest time I kept wondering why there weren’t any, and when there was a little in what I read, a lot of it just didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel true to the superhero genre I’d grown up in. The superhero TV shows and movies mostly came later, but I did wake up at the crack of dawn in college so I could watch the Superman TV show reruns, which confused and amused my roommate. And annoyed her, which is why I learned to watch TV at a very, very low volume.

PNR: How would you describe the sensuality level of your books; do you find it challenging to write love/sex scenes?

Eilis F.: Most of my books don’t have a really high sensuality level, although FESTIVAL OF STARS, my contemporary romance retelling of a Japanese folk tale, is a lot hotter than the others. Generally, if the sex scene is appropriate to the plot, I don’t find them that difficult to write. It’s the emotional connection that’s important, after all.

PNR: What separates the Superhero and Super Villain from the typical paranormal hero & villain with enhanced abilities is the “Larger Than Life’ quality of the characters and setting.  Why do you feel that readers are attracted to this type of over the top character? What is it about this genre that captures your imagination?

Eilis F.: In Hancock, Will Smith’s recent movie, a character refers to what those with great abilities and powers have been referred to over the millennia. Gods, angels, and now superheroes — the concept of characters with enhanced abilities isn’t new, and it’s what’s kept mankind in a state of wonder and mystery for as long as human culture has existed. There has to be something beyond us, something we can’t define. And superheroes, creatures like us but not like us, stronger and bigger than us, is part of that.

PNR: Just for fun, if you could have any super power, what would it be? Your Superhero name? What color would your costume be?

Eilis F.: I think that’s what Introducing Sonika was all about! Her ability is solidifying sound, and since I wrote that book, I knew that would be what I’d want, because it would be seriously cool. Geez, I just realized Sonika is wish fulfillment. What a place to find out. I’m almost embarrassed!

PNR: You have written in the fantasy/urban fantasy genres; is there a genre you haven’t written but would like to try?

Eilis F.: Romantic suspense and mystery. Elizabeth Peters is one of my favorite authors, and someday, I’d love to give that genre a whirl. The plotting, the red herrings, the surprises, the questions — I work a little of that into what I write now.

PNR: Could you tell us about your current projects, what can readers expect to see in the coming months?

Eilis F.: I’m working on a sequel to Introducing Sonika, about what happens after Sonya makes a decision about continuing her parents’ work, but first I’ve got to write a dragon novella that’s part of an anthology I’m doing with Jacquie Rogers, Deborah Ann McGillivray, and Cynthia Breeding. No superheroes, but there’s that element of the fantastic again!

PNR: Thank you, Eilis, for taking time out to talk to us. Where can readers find out what’s new and how can they contact you?

Eilis F.: I’m putting the finishing touches on a brand-new website. Check out eilisflynn.com and see what’s new there!

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