Interview: Author Christopher Golden

Greetings my fiends. Today I present for your dissection an interview with award-winning author Christopher Golden. After being so entranced with the Ghosts of Albion, I cannot wait to gobble up all of Christopher's literary genius. I would suggest you all do the same. Grab a few books and curl up next to a fire with a nice brandy. You won't be disappointed. Lili's Lair: How old were you when you began writing? CG: I dabbled as early as the age of twelve or so, but I believe the first time I wrote a full-length short story with actual intent was as a freshman in high school. Lili's Lair: When did you decide that writing was what you wanted to do for a living? CG: I took creative writing classes all through college. My senior year, I started writing my first novel, OF SAINTS AND SHADOWS. It was while writing that that I realized that not only did I want to be a novelist, but that I was capable of it. Lili's Lair: What advice would you give up-and-coming writers? CG: I always say "write as much as you can and read as much as you can." There are other things I commonly say as well. But my advice is changing. If you really want to be a writer, do two things immediately. Find a group of people whose opinions about writing you trust and who seem to have some idea of what they're talking about...be it a book group, a library group, an online writing circle, something. Take their criticism to heart, even if it's negative (though don't take any ONE person's response too heavily...take the aggregate). Then...start writing, and go digital. Use every online resource to post, promote, and later hopefully sell your work. The rest will come. That's the new world of publishing. Lili's Lair: How did you first get involved with Ghosts of Albion? CG: Amber Benson and I had written several Buffy comic books together and the BBC contacted me to ask if we would be interested in writing an online animated series for them. What they wanted was, essentially, a Victorian Buffy. But we passed on that. What they asked for was too close to Buffy and we knew people would accuse us of ripping it off. Instead, I talked to Amber about an idea I'd been working on ("Ghosts of Hollywood") that could easily be adapted to Victorian times. She loved it. We worked up a pitch for it together, and the BBC loved it. The rest is history. Lili's Lair: Did you find working with a co-writer difficult? CG: Not at all. I've collaborated many times on stories, scripts, and novels. Amber and I are good friends and creatively are very simpatico. Lili's Lair: Ghosts of Albion is a multi-faceted project. Which aspect of it did you like working on the most? CG: The best part of all was being in the studio in London, working directly with the actors, watching them perform, and watching Amber interact with them as director. Lili's Lair: Is there a particular piece in the series that you liked working on more than the others? CG: Similarly, it would have to be the first serial. Much as I loved writing the novels, the whole experience of inventing the thing from the ground up, creating the characters, casting the actors, and being in the studio with Amber, Jasmine, Emma, Anthony, the rest of the cast and the great BBC production team...that was one of the best creative experiences of my career. Lili's Lair: Did you have any inspirations in the writing of the Ghosts of Albion series? If so, what were they? CG: I've always loved Victorian fiction, particularly Sherlock Holmes. Taking my love of magic and the supernatural and monsters and putting it into that setting was a natural. There was no single inspiration, but my frame of reference for monsters and magic is fairly extensive. :) Lili's Lair: Are there any other types of projects you would like to see the world of Ghosts of Albion taking on? CG: There will, at some point, but more fiction. And, of course, we'd love to see a film or TV series someday. Lili's Lair: What other projects are you working on at the moment? CG: Hmm. The third book of THE SECRET JOURNEYS OF JACK LONDON with Tim Lebbon. A new novella with Mike Mignola. A trilogy of graphic novels with Charlaine Harris. And a brand new dystopian YA novel about which I can say nothing yet.