THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS:
ROMANTIC AND DARK FICTION
BY CASS ANDRE

An Interview With
Elizabeth Burton

ER!-If there was an ever an author who needed a hat stand for the many hats she wears, it's Elizabeth Burton. Thank you so much, Elizabeth, for letting us step into your brain and The World of The Everdark War!:-) Let's talk about your books first. Dreams of Darkness: Book 1 of The Everdark War is now available from Pulsar Books. What is Dreams of Darkness about?

EB- Take two people, a man and a woman, who are temperamental opposites. Inform them that--surprise!--they have inherited the job of putting a rogue god back into "prison." Add liberal dashes of danger, suspense and season with some erotic moments. It's about accepting responsibility even when it's the last thing we want to do. For the characters, it's pretty much like John Lennon said: "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans."
It's a bit more romantic than the standard fantasy, but doesn't come close to being a romance as most people understand it. That's one of the reasons I opted for seeking an electronic publisher. I was pleased that they were willing to take a chance on something that didn't slide easily into an existing market niche. I knew I'd have to do a lot of promoting--but research indicated I'd probably do that anyway even if I were published by one of the traditionals.
When I submitted it to Pulsar Books (http://www.pulsarbooks.com), I had planned on producing it as a print-on-demand paperback myself, but our parent company, Romance Foretold, saved me the trouble. Eventually, the entire RFI catalog, which includes Starlight Writer and Dark Star as well as Pulsar, will be in paperback, at which point they'll be dropping the CD format.
Personally, I think that's a smart move this early in the e-publishing game. There's no question that the demand for print books far outweighs the demand for e-books, so the paperbacks are a potential source of development capital for the company.

ER!-Although the second and third book (Shadow of the Scorpion and The Blood Crown) aren't out yet, can you give us a sneak peak of what they're about?

EB- I'm into cliffhangers, so Dreams ends with one. Scorpion takes up where that one ends--originally they were part of the same book--and follows Randrik and Perian to the conclusion of their quest. Which, of course, isn't a conclusion. That comes in The Blood Crown, which is set fifteen years after Scorpion and ties up most of the remaining loose ends.
The operative word here is "most." I'm already getting notes and scenes for a fourth book set in the same world, which I'm tentatively calling The Karlathia Chronicles. I suspect there may well be more--a kind of cut-rate Darkover.

ER!-Aside from being an editor and copyeditor for a number of publishing houses, you also distribute The Blue Iris Journal. What can readers expect to get from this e-zine and how can they subscribe?

EB- The Journal is currently available as an online read, but I'm starting to entertain thoughts of publishing a newsletter version. My husband, Phil, who's our resident web wizard, had started doing a text version for those whose systems couldn't handle full-graphic pages. I'll have to discuss it with him, but an email version would be an easier way for those who don't have the time to surf to get the 'zine.
I started the Journal for selfish reasons. I wanted a way to tell other people my opinions of the books I was reading. I also wanted to provide a cheap way for authors to promote their work. Since we have no revenues at this point, we offer published authors free ad space in exchange for reviews in lieu of money.
Since then, we've expanded the format to include publishing and author news items and a terrific monthly column by the very talented Steve Lazarowitz called "Sahara Ice." We're always open to well-written reviews of current books, but we do ask that people contact us for a copy of our guidelines before submitting. It's important to use that readers come to trust us as a source of information on what's worth reading. That doesn't mean we don't occasionally praise or pan a book that doesn't deserve it. We do try not to, however.

ER!-Is there a book out there that you're just dying to write but for some reason haven't?

EB- Well, I was going to write this novel about a writer with writer's block who discovers his vacation home is haunted, but Stephen King beat me to it.<g>
Seriously? There are probably tons of books I'll never find time to write, although I plan to live as long as possible in hopes that won't happen. I'll probably be working on the Karlathia books for the next while unless I can persuade the characters to back off and give me a break. I have about 70,000 words of a science fiction-suspense novel I'd love to finish, and a couple of romances that might be fun and.... I'm dying to write them all. There is nothing to compare with sitting down to a blank piece of paper or a blank screen and watching the words take shape into characters and dialogue and a full-blown story. Equally, it seems most of them are dying to be written. For example, I have a short general outline done for Blood Crown--and I NEVER do outlines. I've never gone from finishing one book directly into starting another, but that's what happened with BC. And I had absolutely no choice. It was write it down or not get any sleep.

ER!-What would you say has been your biggest writing challenge?

EB- The same one a lot of people have: finding the time I need. I've wanted to write novels since I was ten years old, and I did do a few when I was very young. But marriage and children and divorce and single-parenting and all that attends those little moments in life used up most of my energy. Basically, the only real personal writing I did for close to 25 years was in my journals.
Then I went to work as a newspaper reporter, thinking that would be a good way to get back in the writing groove. Wrong again. By the time I got done writing for a living, there was nothing left for my own work.
Then I got a break. I went back to work for an agency that helps people in need locate resources, and I had access to a computer and a little spare time. The urge to tell the story that was the first draft of DoD and Scorpion arose with irresistible force. It was the first full manuscript I'd completed in decades.
Then I met Phil--on the Internet--and when we married and I joined him in Texas I decided this was my chance to see if I really could be what I'd always wanted to be. Spurred on by some wonderfully complimentary words from author Catherine Asaro, I took the plunge and submitted a short story to the Writers of the Future contest--and made the finals.
Now I do have more time to devote to writing, but the need to have some steady income has become a priority. I have a disablity--I had polio when I was six--so it's next to impossible for me to take on a fulltime job anywhere. That's why I took up editing. Well, that and the fact I'm good at it (and humble--my humility is extraordinary!<lol>). So between the work I'm doing for my publishers and trying to drum up private clients and promoting DoD and reading and reviewing books for the Journal I'm once again squeezing the writing in where it fits.
Still, there's a difference now. In the past, setting the writing aside for other things was fairly easy. Now, it seems as though the moment I sit down with nothing else to do the "voices" start nagging at me. "Hey, writer person! You left me in the middle of something. How about you get me out of it or kill me off or whatever." I'm doing the first draft of Blood Crown in longhand. The notepad holder and my ergonomic pen are in the living room, and as soon as my evening TV is done (or sometimes before) the next chapter is underway.
Apparently, procrastination is no longer an option.

ER!-Is there anything out there (in the non-writing world) that you'd like to do, but haven't yet been given the opportunity?

EB- When I got old enough to start seriously considering vocational choices, I wanted to be an archaeologist. I would still love to spend one season at a dig somewhere, even if all I got to do was catalog. There's something so unutterably fascinating about finding those little pieces of the puzzle of civilization's past.
The other thing I'd love to do is act in movies. I majored in theater in college, and the acting bug is one of those incurable infestations. It's also, apparently, inheritable. All my kids have a touch of it in one way or another.

ER!-Is there a book that you've written, but we'll never see? Why?

EB- When I was in high school I wrote a fantasy novel that (thank goodness for small favors) disappeared long, long ago. Other than that, what I have is what I have. That may be the one good thing about the long delay in starting my writing career. Those years were spent absorbing the craft of writing, a kind of overly long apprenticeship, you might say. So, by the time I finally got around to putting words down, I had most of the basics I might otherwise have had to learn by doing.
The fact I had developed my editing skills during that period didn't hurt either.

ER!-If you weren't a writer, what would you be doing?

EB- Sitting on a beach in Hawaii or New Zealand chatting up passers-by. Of course, I'd be independently wealthy as well. Traveling when sitting gets boring, going to all the fabulous places I've never been.
Those are the choices--writing or doing nothing at all. Of course, I wouldn't object to writing WHILE I was sitting on the beach.

ER!-Of all the characters you've written about, who would you say is most like you? And why?

EB- I don't model my characters. They come to me of their own accord, as if they've been living somewhere else and have just found me and need me to pass along their stories. I've entertained a theory that fiction is really history, the historical record of events that occur in parallel universes. The Quantum Theory of Fiction. Granted, I enjoy people--meeting them, studying them, trying to figure out why they do what they do. And I've absorbed a lot of psychology over the years, although I consider that more of a point of departure than an established protocol. I suppose I could find elements of myself in all of my characters, but more often than not if I try to impose my own view of a character's personality they just laugh and walk off in whatever direction they were headed for in the first place. I've even had them wake me up in the middle of the night shouting "I would NEVER do that!" So now I pretty much limit myself to asking them if their quite certain they want to do what they're doing.

ER!-What's the non-writing world like for you? Is there a husband, a boyfriend, slaves hidden in the basement? Children?

EB- I've lived in Austin, Texas, since Phil and I were married in April 1998. As I mentioned, we met on the Internet, in one of those online communities. He'd noted in his profile that he wanted "to be a poet and philosopher" when he grew up. I emailed him suggesting growing up wasn't a necessary part of the equation and it just grew from there. What told me it was more than just a friendly exchange was that I dreamed about him one night months before I met him.
From the first marriage I gained four great kids. Kate, the eldest, is married to Joe and they have my three-year-old grandson, Nick. Stef, the next in line, and her SO, Ryan, are learning to cope with my year-old granddaughter, Morgan Rose. My elder son, Adam, graduates college in May of this year; and the youngest, Jared, is a college sophomore. They're all in Pennsylvania except Stef, who's in Milwaukee while Ryan gets his master's in history from Marquette, so I don't get to see them nearly as often as I'd like.
And then there are the cats, Wesley and Sara. If you don't live with cats, my saying anything more won't give you any idea what it's like; and if you do live with cats no further explanations are necessary. Suffice it to say that around here cat hair is a condiment.

ER!-Many readers wonder what's going on in an author's head, and here's the part where we find out<g>.
Describe yourself in one line:

EB- To paraphrase Anne McCaffrey: I have silver hair and bright blue eyes; the rest is subject to
change without notice.

ER!-(Finish this sentence) On a Saturday night you'll find me...

EB- ...reading, watching a video or a movie on TV and/or getting down the next chapter of Blood Crown so they'll let me alone.

ER!-If I were a cartoon character I'd be...

EB- The Brain, from "Pinky and the Brain." I'd LOVE to take over the world.<g>

ER!-If I could have one wish, I would wish...

EB- ...that the ideals and principles that generated Gene Roddenberry's image of the future could come into play before we destroy ourselves and our planet.

ER!-What kind of car do you drive?

EB- A 1971 Olds Cutlass Supreme sports sedan with a small-block V-8, disk brakes and an anti-skid rear suspension that did the quarter mile in 15.8

ER!-What kind of car do you *want* to drive?

EB- A fully restored 1971 Olds Cutlass Supreme sports sedan.

ER!-Answer the following questions as quickly as possible, but feel free to expand on any of your answers (Hey, it's not a test).: What's your favorite movie?

EB- The African Queen, The Princess Bride, Ghostbusters, Ladyhawke, Cabaret, Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb; Amazon Women on the Moon

ER!-Favorite song?

EB- "White Rabbit" by the Jefferson Airplane; "Come Together" by the Beatles; "Requiem" by Mozart; "Ninth Symphony" by Beethoven; "Crazy" by Patsy Cline; "Missionary Man" by the Eurythmics--Oh, never mind. I'll be here all day.

ER!-Favorite snack?

EB- Ice cream and potato chips--together.

ER!-Favorite book?

EB- Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass; Horton Hears a Who; The Lord of the Rings; Zelazny's Amber books; Dune; The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

ER!-Typewriter or computer?

EB- Computer, no contest. I think it was having access to a computer that gave me the impetus to finish that first book.

ER!-Soup or salad?

EB- Salad, with lots of ripe cherry tomatoes and sunflower seeds on top.

ER!-Pre-planner or blind leap?

EB- Both, sometimes at the same time.

ER!-Turkey burger or steak?

EB- Steak, rare. As long as it doesn't moo when I stick in the fork, it's done.

ER!-Slacks or jeans?

EB- Slacks--they're less binding.

ER!-Boxers or briefs?<g>

EB- Briefs. Perferably on Mel Gibson. Or even off Mel Gibson.

ER!-Are blondes really more fun?

EB- I was, anytime I was I blond. Of course, I still am so who knows?

ER!-Have you ever held anyone hostage?

EB- Not to my knowledge, although the cats have been known to complain about not being allowed outdoors.

ER!-If no, would you?

EB- Is George Clooney free?

ER!-Do you believe in love at first sight?

EB- Given my present relationship, I'd better say yes, don't you think?<g> But yes, of course. Soulmates always recognize each other.

ER!-Are aliens real?

EB- Indeed they are. They are currently sitting in session in Washington, D.C.

ER!-If you could vote members off of Gilligan's Island, who would get the boot first?

EB- Tough question. Probably Lovey Howell, but I'd miss her.

ER!-If Godzilla and Superman got into a street fight (no weapons allowed), who would win?

EB- Big G would have Superman in the first round. A couple of kryptonite breath mints and that guy in the cape is done for. Super sushi.

ER!-What is one thing about you that very few know?

EB- I talk to dead people.

ER!-What is your greatest fear?

EB- That Bill Gates will somehow be elected President.

ER!-If you could be anyone (dead or alive) who would you be? And why?

EB- Albert Schweitzer. I would love to be able to comprehend that kind of love and reverence for life in all its myriad forms.

ER!-And finally (and you can take your time on this one:-)), what's next for you? Your next book? Writing venture? Goal?

EB- Revise Scorpion and get it ready for editorial consideration. Finish Blood Crown so I can get some rest. Finally be able to see the paperback of DoD in the bookstores. Go to PA in May to see my son graduate and play with my grandson. Be a rich bestselling author so my hubby can retire. Get caught up on all my work--for once in my life.