Interview with Tina Anderson
April 30th, 2010 The BabesWe here at BND had the honor of interviewing Tina Anderson! Ms. Anderson has been active in BL publishing since 2005. Her latest release for Kindle, Loud Snow, is available now! You can also read Nikita’s review of Loud Snow here!
Why did you want to write Loud Snow?
I don’t know if I can say I wanted to write it. Hm, that sounds bad, doesn’t it? At the time I was kicking around something new for a publisher–unaware that the company wasn’t in any real financial shape to take on more material–and was told to write something ‘romantic’ and ‘funny.’ After gagging and taking some Advil, I settled down on the couch and decided not to do it. Romantic comedy just isn’t my thing, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that ‘challenges’ were my sort of thing. I looked at writing a romantic comedy as a challenge.
What makes romantic comedy such a challenge?
I’m not a romantic person. 0_0 To be honest, I’m not much of a sexual person either, but that’s been changing lately. I went through this massive dry spell where my private parts just went on hiatus and I lost my passion. Oddly enough, it started after I had my kids, but then I found yaoi comics, fiction, fandom–it gave my brain a way to be sexual but not my body. I’m hitting the big 4-0 soon and I’ve noticed changes. I actually give a damn about doing it these days.
TMI aside, I have a difficult time writing romance and, for the past year or so, have been uninterested in writing sex. I’m truly hoping it’s not some sort of evil catch-22 in that once I start having sex again, I lose my chops for writing it. =_=;
In Loud Snow’s afterword, you mention you were inspired by a TV special on orca. How many of your plots grow from something as mundane as a TV special or magazine article?
Oh, so many plots come from the mundane! ^_^ Games with Me and Gadarene come from a night of watching “The Irish in America” and then seeing an HBO teaser for “From Hell.” I was perpetually stuck in the 1870s for about three weeks. I wrote six plots and only two of them were developed into anything worth selling.
How do you pick which artist to collaborate with for a particular story?
Once upon a time, I used to know them and we were friends. LOL! The business has a funny way of putting itself in the middle of friendships. After my relationship with Caroline Monaco soured (we worked together on a lot of doujinshi before Only Words), I decided I wouldn’t work with friends anymore. I thought, I’ll just work with acquaintances that have the same goals as me or complete strangers on commission.
One acquaintance that turned out well was Lynsley Brito. I met her while working on Roulette with Laura Carboni–another excellent acquaintance I adore and am glad to work with. I worked with MT Copyright for Whore of Turfan–not knowing her well, I paid her by the page. She was wonderful and always got her work done. I loved watching her skills with sequential storytelling grow while working on the series.
I broke my own rule last year and created Loud Snow with a friend of mine, Amelie Belcher. I prayed Loud Snow wouldn’t hurt the friendship. It’s finished and selling and we still talk on the phone–so far, so good. *knocks on wood*
What is your next project?
That’s a good question! Since taking a job outside of comics, I haven’t had much time to start anything new. Loud Snow in print release in July (pre-orders here if interested!**). I did set aside time this summer to work on a novel collaboration with c.b. Potts–sadly, it’s not GloBL nor gay-themed. I’ve taken on the role of executive editor for RUSH magazine, which I’ll go in to more detail at San Japan this July.
2011 will finally see the print releases of my German titles. The company in Germany merged with another and the schedules for both companies were combined, knocking my release dates back a peg. ^_- Never fear though, they’re coming.
Any advice for BL writers/illustrators who want to be published?
Publish it yourself. Let me tell you why: I loved what I was doing more when I was doing it myself. Getting together online with friends and releasing digital stuff is great. A few years ago, it was all about the print books, so we got together, did our thing and sold our print copies.
If you’re looking to create original material, honestly, do it yourself. It doesn’t cost a thing to prepare your work for Kindle, eManga.com, or even DLSite English Side. Shoot, I’ve seen creators upload their series, print up and sell collected editions. If you can eliminate the middle man, do it.
**Pre orders for Loud Snow are being taken for just $8.00 plus shipping. (Ordering from us after June 21st, the price goes up to $9.99.) We’re offering a better price than Barnes and Noble pre-order because pre-ordering from Amazon.com or BN.com isn’t going to help up pay for printing costs. (Amazon and BN.com sells at the list price, which is $12.99.) Amelie and I want to print these books without going into the red–and we need only 80 pre-orders to pull that off. ^_^
I know many fen won’t pre-order directly from publishers because of shipping costs–we charge only $1.50 to ship. Also, we’re using a local PostNet office, so neither Amelie nor I will have access to anyone’s email or snail mail address. I know privacy is an important issue with some fans and they don’t want other people on the net to know their address. We anticipated this and hired PostNet to carry out our fulfillment. We’re even taking Amazon Payments for pre-orders for those who have their info plugged into Amazon. Paypal for those that don’t.
Tina Anderson can be found at her website, tina-anderson.net!