VITAL STATS:

Name: Lyda Morehouse (also writing as romance author Tate Hallaway)

Website: www.lydamorehouse.com

Publisher: Penguin US/Berkley

THE TEN QUESTIONS

1. What’s your first science fiction memory?

I have a very early memory of seeing Star Trek on TV in my grandmother’s basement. But, I think the most fundamental and life-changing science fiction memory for me was being introduced to my cousin Laun’s comic book collection — which was actually started by his father and so included X-Men #1, Fantastic Four #1, and a whole slue of other really early Marvel (and some DC) titles. I ran around the house yelling “Flame On!” a lot. In fact, Laun and I pretended entire year long superhero sagas, and when we were apart we’d write letters to each other “in character.”

2. When did you realize you wanted to write science fiction?

When it became socially inappropriate to wear a towel around my shoulder and get the other kids at the playground to pretend to be the Skrull army –you know at fifteen or so –I sublimated those impulses into theatre and role-playing games and then later writing. Although all my early efforts at the latter would now be labeled “fanfic.” Luckily, I came of age before the internet, otherwise I’d probably have a whole lot of those early efforts out there somewhere. As it is, I have spiral bound notebooks full of Star Trek and Star Wars and Marvel and some SF/F novel (particularly McCaffery’s Pern and Katherine Kurtz’s Deryni books) inspired fiction.

Plus, thanks to the way comic books are structured, I understood at very early age that actual people wrote and drew (and colored and inked and lettered) those things. Also, my library was very clever. They had all the Star Wars books (novelizations and classics like Han Solo’s Revenge) shelved next to the Nebula and other anthologies. So, after I tore through all the Star Wars related material, I just picked up the next book down the line and soon I found myself reading a lot of the seminal writers of SF.

3. What are you currently reading?

Currently, I’m reading a Jermey Scahill’s non-fiction book called BLACKWATER: THE RISE OF THE WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL MERCENARY ARMY and, when that gets too intense THE DOOMSDAY BRUNETTE by John Zakour.

4. Right this instant, what’s your favorite science factoid?

Octopuses have green blood.

5. Outside of your own medium, what’s your favorite science fiction story?

Outside of my medium, I’d have to say I’m all about Sci Fi Channel’s new Battlestar Galactica. Also, I’m very impressed with Ed Brubaker’s CAPTAIN AMERICA. You’d think a title would end when the main character is assassinated, wouldn’t you? Well, Brubaker’s actually kept me on the edge of my seat and hooked into the title, despite Cap’s absence.
6. What are you currently working on?

Currently, I am — or rather Tate Hallaway is– writing my/her fourth vampire chick-lit title DEAD IF I DO for Berkley. I also started a new project as Lyda Morehouse, but I’m not allowed to talk about that yet.

7. What kind of characters interest you most?

Dead ones.

But, seriously, I like characters who wrestle with moral choices. Particularly, I’m fascinated by people who have made bad choices and now have to come up with a way to live with that.

8. How did you break in to the business?

Through fandom and persistence. I’m really lucky in that I’ve chosen to live in a city that’s currently ranked #3 in the “Most Literary Cities” list (St. Paul, MN) and which is right next door to the current #1 (Minneapolis, MN). There are a lot of programs here for writers, namely an organization called the Loft Literary Center (http//www.loft.org). When I was first starting out and a friend said that classic thing friends say to be helpful, which is, “You should publish that book!” and I was looking around wondering how the hell a person figured out just how to do that, I happened to notice that the Loft was offering a class in how to write and publish science fiction. I took the class and learned an enormous amount about not only the craft of writing, but also the how-tos of submitting fiction for publication. Our instructor also encouraged us to start a critique/workshopping group, which I did. That group, the Wyrdsmiths, is still meeting and was instrumental in getting me published.

A friend from Wyrdsmiths knew this guy who knew this guy who was a consulting editor for Tor. Thanks to an old-fashioned “letter of introduction,” the consulting editor, Jim Frenkel, agreed to look at my novel. He actually sat on it for well over a year, which was, it turned out, a really good thing, because that novel sucked, being my first effort and all. I started writing the next book– the one that later became Archangel Protocol — out of pure frustration. Frenkel read the first fifty pages of that second book and offered to be my agent (yes, that’s what I said, the guy I wanted to be my editor was also an agent.) Anyway, long story short, he started shopping it around and a year later Roc/Penguin US bought it.

Normally, this is where the story ends. Mine continues a bit. After four critcally acclaimed novels for Roc, my new editor, John Morgan, let me know on the sly that my sales figures weren’t living up to potential and that his bosses had asked him to “shepard me out the door” after I delivered my last contracted book. I literally said to him, “What’s a girl got to do to make it in this town?” He suggested a new name and a new genre. Thus, best-selling vampire chick lit author Tate Hallaway rose from the ashes of Lyda Morehouse’s career.

9. What’s the worst story idea you ever had?

You want me to name only one?

How about the elf masonry worker that tries to pass as human only to have to liason with the Faerie Queen over zoning laws? That one was pretty dumb. Have you ever tried to make zoning laws dramatic?

10. If you could rapidly advance one technology overnight, what technology would it be?

Terraforming. I have a bad feeling we’re going to be needing it sooner rather than later.

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