Interview With Lyn McConchie

New Zealand author, Lyn McConchie, is the subject of this blog. I was introduced to her via e-mail by our mutual publisher/editor Jean Goldstrom of Whortleberry Press. Lyn was kind enough to put my wife, Judy and me up for two nights at her home, Farside Farm on the outskirts of Norsewood , which is on the north island of New Zealand. Lyn raises “coloured” sheep, free-range hens and geese. She has had pigs and cows also.

Judy and I were greeted by her gander who alerted Lyn and possibly the entire town of our arrival. He looked us over suspiciously and only reluctantly tolerated us invading his farm. Lyn may yell but she also carries a cane.

Inside her personalized one-woman farmhouse we were greeted by Thunder, her Ocicat, who has an unlimited capacity to get love and attention from humans.

In 2011, Lyn won New Zealand’s Sir Julian Vogel Award for the best Science Fiction/Fantasy Adult Novel for The Questing Road and for the best Young Adult Novel for Summer of Dreaming. She has previously won the award three times and she has won several awards for her short stories.

Over the course of two nights we chatted about writing. My interview became more like a series of conversations than a formal interview.

Lyn said she started writing after a serious motorcycle accident in 1977 left her unable to continue to work in the competitive job market. Because of pain in her leg she is sometimes bed-ridden. She could only think of two occupations that allowed her to work in bed and that Thunder would disapprove of one of them.

Writing in science fiction fanzines started her career. She now writes science fiction, fantasy, horror, humor, mysteries and western novels and short stories. In addition she is a frequent contributor to her local newspaper and writes poetry, or doggerel, depending on your point of view.

She is a voracious reader. Her personal library includes more than 7,000 books. And Lyn is a relentless writer. Lynn can write a 95,000 word novel in twenty two to twenty four days. She has developed a system of writing and resting suited to her health issues. She can program her subconscious (a male named “Subbie”) to come up with a short story or article on a particular topic with a general word count before she goes to sleep so that when she awakens she can write it down. She said she feels her imagination has a lively life of its own and sometimes she feels she is just a transcriber.

She said she has 23 books published; 29 books sold and 40 books written. She has also published more than 250 short stories. She said she has been published in at least six countries both in print and electronically. Lyn said her personal “slush pile” allows her to avoid deadlines and the sometimes punitive consequences of not meeting a contract deadline. She said she has known writers who were not able to fulfill publishing contract and faced significant penalties. Other authors sometimes are forced by contract deadlines to publish books that clearly need additional work.

Writers, especially new writers, need to keep in mind that publishers are in the business of making money, not of supporting writers, no matter how sympathetic they sound.

We discussed research and Lynn agreed with me that writers of all genres need to do research. She depends on books by authors who have devoted their lives to learning about a particular civilization or culture for researching her books. The internet is useful for learning about markets and publishing in general. Her life experience, riding horses, hunting, and farming have given her insight into the activities of her characters. She also has a collection of weapons that she knows and uses including a cavalry sword, a long bow and a cross bow.

She explained to me the danger of an inexperienced cavalry soldier swinging his weapon too close to his horse and cutting off its ear which tends to make a very large and powerful animal unhappy with its rider.

Lyn sometimes writes a short story and then edits it to two smaller word counts so she is ready for whatever requirements a market may have.

Lyn does not worry about someone “stealing” her work. She said in New Zealand writers group may be as large as twenty or thirty people, all of whom throw out ideas and questions. She is a story-teller at heart.