I’ve known Lisa Klass since we shared a Facebook event a few weeks ago. She’s become a good friend and it’s been a pleasure to read her work. She’s written three books so far and should continue to delight with her future offerings. Sit back, relax, and share a few moments with me and Lisa.
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INTERVIEW
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You’ve written three novels so far. Is it getting easier, or harder and why?
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That’s a tough question. When I have the time to write the ideas in my mind flow easily. When I don’t have the time it takes scheduling to work out writing time, but scheduling time in takes away the creative flow. As far as prepping a book such as format and editing that part gets easier each time.
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Do you have a favorite character in your novels and are they you, in a literary sense?
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I would say Cleo from Baby Girl is my favorite, and yes, she is me in a very literary sense. In my other novels I have taken bits and pieces of my life stories and twisted them around, although the characters aren’t me so much as figments of my imagination. Occasionally, I design a character as a combination of people I have known within my life.
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Teaching school can be thrilling and torturous. Like my brother, you teach junior high students, probably the most opinionated group of all. Do you ever wish you had chosen a different career?
Junior High students always get a bad rap. Really though, they aren’t that horrible certainly better than elementary students and seniors. Teaching was never my life goal nor is it now. My life career goal is to write, but in order to do that I need to pay the bills which is where teaching comes in. That doesn’t sound so good so I will add I enjoy my teaching juveniles. It is the system and bureaucratic red tape that needs to go. Students aren’t statistics they are people.
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Describe your feelings when you typed ‘The End’ on your first novel.
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The end is the end is the end, there is no more to tell. I knew the end of the story before I knew the rest and there will never be anymore, therefore when I closed it I decided to end it with a simple statement.
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What kind of story is simmering in your mind right now?
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Many, I have a ton of rough drafts that I wish to finish before I write a new one, but I have crazy notes in my computer, phone, tablet and even paper that I scribble down when an idea pops into my brain. If I had the time I could put out more than one novel in a year. Currently, Baby Girl Book 4 is overwhelming my brain and the ideas are rolling in like a thunderstorm.I have had many requests to put Baby Girl into a full length novel. I hate to give anything away, and there is a very real possibility that I will, and when I do I’m sure more will be added. In my head Cleo’s life is mapped out well into her 30’s. Right now I’m thinking a trilogy of novels.
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You like Zombie movies. (Don’t we all – LOL) Name your favorite Zombie flick or series and would you ever pen a novel about the undead?
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Zombies! I have some ideas brewing in my head that actually originated in a dream where I wasn’t me at all but a young man sitting at a campfire in the desert with my brother and father. As we were escaping from a downpour of zombies my brother got bit, during the campfire, he turned and bolted straight for me, his eyes dead and cold. He grabbed my face in his hands and got ready to take a bite when I yelled, “Dad”. With zombie brother’s head in the way I didn’t have a view of my father, and panic rushed over every centimeter of my body and the dream ended there. Don’t they always?
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What do you do when you get the dreaded writer’s block?
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Whenever I get stuck I reread, if no ideas come to me I erase and backtrack until the ideas flow again, usually just once unless my thoughts are interrupted.
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If you were able to write the final chapter of the True Blood series, who would Sookie Stackhouse end up with romantically?
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True Blood is nothing like the Sookie Stackhouse novels. That being said I would finish them differently. In True Blood I like her with Eric better. In the novels, and mind you I haven’t read the final one. In novel world Sookie Stackhouse is one of my favorite series, and I don’t want to read the end so I put off the reading of the book. Romantically, I don’t like any of the men she’s been with so I think I would have her squeezing through the portal in her back yard with a delicious male fairy, The End.
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Thanks for enduring my review, Lisa. 🙂 May you have much happiness and many successes in the future.
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LISA KLASS’ LIBRARY
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SYNOPSIS
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Baby Girl Book 1: In the Beginning is the first book in this series.
Follow Cleo on her epic saga which begins when she abandoned by her mom at twelve. She has no other family which she is aware of, and in order to survive she leaves her home and lives on the streets. She meets some interesting characters and gets into some amusing predicaments all in the name of survival, such as jumping trains, being chased through the woods by a crazy man with a loaded shotgun and witnessing an unspeakable crime. After a few months on the streets she runs into another group of kids, Einstein is the oldest and a leader in the group, and they form a family of sorts. For survival and money they lean towards a life a crime which inevitably breaks up their family and sends Cleo and Einstein spiraling into their own adventure. Eventually they settle into a “normal” life however their pasts can’t be hushed forever …
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RANDOM 5-STAR REVIEW
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Descriptive, raw, and captivating, author Elle Klass does a great job of leading you through the mishaps, turmoil, and journey that the main character undergoes over the span of roughly a year.
Shorter structured sentences keeps the reader on the edge of their seat, as the pace is heightened and drops you like a roller-coaster into the harried, disjointed life of Cleo. Concise but beautiful descriptions, like “a stream of shrapnel flowed out of the barrel” or “rubber ducky yellow” made the story a visual treat.
I hungered for the author to include more vivid details and reference the other senses such as taste and touch, but otherwise, I could see exactly what the author had wanted me to.
I recommend this short story to anyone looking to escape into the adventure-packed landscape of one rough-around-edges teenager.
Elle Klass’ novel is worth reading as much for its delightfully extravagant journey as Justine’s final decision. The anti-heroine reaffirms the notion that charming people have something to hide, namely their chronic reliance on others to define themselves. Moonlighting in Paris by Elle Klass stands alone as a memorable drama, but as the second part of the series it shows us just how far both protagonist and author have progressed along this winding road.
There are monkey wrenches thrown in at every turn as she struggles to find her place; demonic teachers, cliquish students, her nightmare job, a love lost, and an earthquake that threatens her family. Life continues to dismay her until she can’t take it anymore and sets off on a journey. She is a lost soul with no destination, a wandering heart until something happens, something so incredible she could have never imagined it! Through her harrowing and dark story she finds light, justice and true love. She is a humble and lovable character who is quite ordinarily extraordinary. Her story is anyone’s story.
johntuckermustlive 
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Reblogged this on theowlladyblog and commented:
interview
Great interview with a wonderful and talented writer!!!