We are proud to give you an interesting interview this morning with author Emily Mah Tippetts. Emily writes both romance and science ficiton/fantasy (see her books). She is orginally from New Mexico with a stop in L.A. for a business law degree, she now resides in London with her family. Before the interview, here is a brief description of Someone Else’s Fairytale: Jason Vanderholt, Hollywood’s hottest actor, falls head over heels for everygirl, Chloe Winters, who hasn’t gotten around to watching most of his movies. She becomes the woman every other woman in America is dying to be, but it just isn’t her fairytale.Interview with E.M. Tippets:
Why don’t you begin by telling our readers a short synopsis of the plot?
Someone Else’s Fairytale is about a mega-famous Hollywood actor, Jason Vanderholt, who falls for a woman, Chloe Winters, who could not care less about his looks and fame. Can you imagine if someone as famous as a Robert Pattinson showed up on your doorstep and you hadn’t seen Twilight and didn’t even think he was cute? That’s Chloe, and I thought this concept had a lot of ironic potential.
What is the setting of the novel?
I set the novel in Albuquerque, NM, a town I lived in back when I started my law career. It was the perfect location because even though it is a city, with nearly a million residents, it’s like a small town in a lot of ways. People know each other through extended family, former school ties, shared employment, church groups, etc. It’s also produced some big stars, like Neil Patrick Harris and Jesse Tyler Ferguson, so if there was anyplace that a Hollywood A-lister would meet an average everygirl and have something in common with her, it would be there.
Are the characters based on people you know?
Well, all of the men in my romances are based on me to some extent or another. I’m not as good looking, talented, or successful as Jason, but we’ve got the same quirky world view. I don’t write romance to cultivate crushes on fictional, ideal men. I write them to try to shed light on what men see in women. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against my gender, but that dynamic is very interesting to me. Chloe is much more intelligent than me, and far, far stronger.
Did writing any part of the book make you uncomfortable?
All first drafts make my skin crawl, and quite often the second, third, and so on do as well. It’s a painful process taking an idea you love and trying not to butcher it in the execution. For me, progress is getting to the point when I start enjoying the ride. The book isn’t done until I love my characters and care about them, because I have to if I want anyone else to like them and follow them through a full novel.
What events in the book reveal your world view?
This is an interesting question. People who know me know I’m religious. I’m a devout Latter-day Saint (Mormon). I’d like to think that the subplot with Chloe’s religious friend Matthew shows that I see myself and my kind for what we are. People I like, but who are just as flawed as anyone else. While I do adhere to certain rules of thumb when writing, i.e. no graphic sex or gratuitous violence, I’m not interested in writing propaganda or trying to force a world view on anyone.
What specific themes did you emphasize throughout the novel?
As the title would suggest, fairytales, specifically what are they and can we still believe in them. There are a lot of aspects of fairytales that are outdated. Women aren’t the disenfranchised damsels in distress with no prospects unless a man gives them wealth and stability, but I think the appeal of fairytales goes much deeper than that, and it’s these deeper themes that keep fairytales relevant today. Chloe does get her fairytale in the end, and it’s got nothing to do with money or being made virtual royalty. She does get rescued, but not in an obvious way. In almost every respect, she’s rescued herself and made her own way, so what it is that her ideal man can provide bears some thinking about. So, if that’s not to vague (I don’t want to give the end away), that is the theme I worked on and mulled over as I wrote this book.
What research did you have to perform?
I talked to various friends who’ve worked in the film industry, as I never have. I did my law degree at UCLA, where my good friend was doing her MFA in film. She answered a lot of my questions via Google Chat. I’m sure there are still gaps in my knowledge. It’s not what you don’t know that gets you. It’s what you think you know. I’m sure I neglected to ask some necessary questions, but I did my best. Since my main character doesn’t really care much about the film industry, there are only a few scenes that deal with it directly.
Have you got social media links you’d like to share?
Sure.
Website: www.emtippetts.com
Twitter: emtippetts
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/emtippetts
I try to interact with people as much as I can in these venues, so feel free to come chat! The book is for sale as an ebook on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords. It’ll be in print in March, 2012!
DBT: Emily, thank you for the great interview. Good luck with your next book.
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