TT: Interview with Lisa Burke

Hi everyone. Today, I’m interviewing writer Lisa Burke, author of The Invisible Visitor. Enjoy!

~Jane

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JJ: Hi Lisa! First, I’d like to welcome you to Textyladies, and to thank you for doing this interview. Why don’t you start by telling us a little about you?

LB: Hello Jane and Texty readers!  Thank you for having me!
I’m a 31-year-old writer from Connecticut.  I enjoy vegetarian cooking, yoga and jogging.  I spend a lot of time working on improving myself spiritually, with limited but measurable success.  I tend to focus on the end result rather than the journey.  I classify myself as a cynical idealist.  I favor Buddhism but consider myself Agnostic.

JJ: Tell us about The Invisible Visitor.

LB: “The Invisible Visitor” is my debut novel about Nora, a young woman despairing over the death of her childhood boyfriend.  The novel begins with her attempt at suicide.  However, instead of waking up dead, she finds a crass, cigarette-smoking ruffian named Cassock in her apartment proclaiming to be her guardian angel.  He says he’s going to help her, but she has her doubts.  Cassock drags her around to strange places, haunts her when she wants to be alone, ogles her friend Ella, snuggles with her in bed, and finally ingratiates himself to Nora.  Eventually things are forced to get very serious and very heavy if he is really going to save Nora, and it isn’t clear whether she’ll make it through his tests alive.

JJ: Have you been writing long?

LB: I’ve been writing on and off my whole life, but I took some time off to focus on being “normal”, i.e. have a full time job, get married, save money and be responsible.  When my job offered me no fulfillment and my husband divorced me, I thought I might as well spend more time doing something to provide an everlasting and positive accompaniment to my life.

JJ: What is your favorite thing about being published, and your least favorite thing?

LB: What isn’t to love about being published?

My childhood dream was to see my name painted on the front of a novel.  Authors create a world entirely of their own design, immortalized on paper and inside readers’ minds.  Nothing else could be more gratifying because I can correct my own internal and/or external conflicts with no real-life repercussions or barriers.
What I don’t love about being published is the immense vulnerability of sharing my inner thoughts and fears with basically the whole world.  I also do not enjoy the obligation of taking these frailties and then selling them to others – in essence having an emotional breakdown and breakthrough on paper and then asking someone to pay you to read it.

JJ: Who is your publisher? What made you decide to go with this particular publisher?

LB: I am currently working with Cacoethes Publishing House, www.cacoethespublishing.net.  I chose them because they appear to be exponentially expanding their titles each passing year.  They have quite an impressive roster for a relatively new publishing firm.  They also allow for a lot of creative flexibility for their writers.
Also, Random House just wouldn’t give me a large enough advance.  (That’s a joke, of course!)

JJ: Are you working on a second book?

LB: Right now I’m trying to develop some new characters in my head.  Once the characters are solid, have a real backbone and voice, the story will immediately follow.  For now I’ve got three characters that haven’t sank into their bodies quite yet but I am hoping that they find their tune soon.

JJ: Who has been your biggest influence?

LB: I enjoy the classic, but darker writers.  My favorites are Kafka, Nabokov and Poe.  Kafka is just an endearing man; I find him more personally fascinating than anything.  Nabokov has a way with words that is just stunning – and English isn’t even his first language.  Poe can really tell a story, and provide a strong and eerie emotional vibration to it.

JJ: What are your writing goals for the future?

LB: That’s a good question actually.  I try not to project too far into the future because writing is pretty daunting since there is no job security!  My ultimate goal is to be able to write books that can positively influence others in the same way I’ve experienced.  To write a great book is to be the narrator inside another’s head without ever even meeting them.  A great book will continue reading to you in the hours away from the manuscript, and the days after you’ve completed the last page.  If I can do that for people, I think I’ve succeeded.

JJ: Do you have a writing schedule you stick with? A certain word count you reach before stopping for the day?

LB: When I’m in the middle of a novel or a longer work, I try to do 1,500 words per day.  I don’t believe there is one right way to go about writing, but I personally need numeric deadlines or else I will stray too much.  I’m a very regimented person and if I don’t keep up with schedules I get panicked.  However, if I’m not in the middle of a big project, such as right now I’m working on promoting my novel, I don’t write nearly as much because I’m in left brain mode and my creativity center is dormant.  I compartmentalize almost everything in my life.

JJ: What do you do to motivate yourself to write when you’re just not feeling like it?

LB: Have a glass of wine, actually!  That’s terrible advice, but it works for me.  I think what holds me back when I don’t feel like writing is fear, inhibition and negative self-talk.  A glass of wine quiets a lot of that negativity and allows more creativity to flow through in its place.

JJ: Plotter or pantster or somewhere in between?

LB: Pantster, absolutely!  Even though I have said I am very regimented, in terms of creativity I have to work with my subconscious or maybe even glean from beyond this plane.  So when those aforementioned characters gain their voice, they get going and forward the plot as fast as my fingers can type.  Truthfully, I usually have a vague idea of how things will end for the folks, but they provide the fantastic journey.  I just sit quietly and let them speak.  Usually they have more interesting things to say that I could ever think up.

JJ: Give us five random facts about you

LB:

1. I played the Wicked Witch in my second grade’s performance of “The Wizard of Oz”.
2. My favorite TV show is Arrested Development.
3. I hate most slang words.
4. I use google constantly as if it was my own personal assistant.
5. I found this the hardest question out of all of the ones you’ve asked me!

JJ: Do you have any links you’d like to share?

LB: Don’t mind if I do!  My personal website is: www.theinvisiblevisitor.com.  You can buy “The Invisible Visitor” in ebook format at www.cacoethespublishing.net October 15, 2008 and the print version will be available in November 2008.

JJ: Anything you’d like to add?

LB: Yes, I’d like to wish the Texty Ladies and their readers happy reading!  Also, I hope you all go out and vote November 4th!  If you’re undecided, shoot me an email at lisa@theinvisiblevisitor.com and I’ll let you know exactly who to choose!  : )

JJ: It was wonderful having you, Lisa! Thanks so much for doing the interview. I’ll be watching for your next book

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Excerpt from The Invisible Visitor:

As he set the food down, I blurted out, “Why do you work here?  You could be a beacon with that smile you have.”  Surprised at myself, I presumed this was an unconscious urge to be someone else, and therefore I had acted completely different from myself.  Or perhaps it wasn’t, maybe it was just pure self-destruction.  Regardless, at the moment I was on auto-pilot.
Somehow I went on, not even looking for his reaction.  “I’m certain that a lost and confused mermaid would be pleased to find her way through your direction.”
He smiled.  Oh, how he smiled.  He smiled at me.  Then, he even did something fantastical.  He sat down at my table.
“I love mermaids.”  He broke his eye contact with me and glanced at the sea wistfully.  “I look out there a lot hoping I’ll see one jump out.  I know it’s kinda stupid, but while I’m working here, sometimes it’s all I can come up with.”
Dear Lord in Heaven, praise thee.  Praise thee, praise thee, praise thee.
“I’m Nora.”  I extended my hand.
He did as well.  “John.”
“It’s very nice to meet you John,” I said with a grateful smile.  He knew not how grateful.
“You too Nora.”  He even paused to look at me for a moment.  He interrupted himself to say, “Listen, I’m off work in,” he looked at his watch, “ten minutes.  Maybe I’ll come back and have a beer with you?”
Oh my Lord, praise thee.  “Yeah, sure.”
He rose from the table.  “Okay, I’ll be right back.”
Suddenly I was on a date.  This handsome man with a world of summer thunderstorms in his eyes was going to come back and sit with me.  I was pleased at how things had turned around so quickly.  I didn’t pause to reflect; I knew I’d ruin it for myself.  I tried to just sit and wait for him; not overanalyze it.  Instead, I just watched him finish his work.  I watched him push his wavy dark hair out of his eyes.  I watched him wipe the sweat from his face again.  I watched him look out in the ocean’s direction, checking on patrons, or checking on mermaids?  Now I didn’t feel so ignored.  Watching for mermaids was serious business.  I smiled, thinking about how cute he was, as if I knew him at all.  I thought about his sweet, tender voice.  He was somebody I wouldn’t mind getting to know.  He seemed sugary but a little odd at the same time.  That was always my favorite combination.
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Tags: Interview, Lisa Burke, TT