One Writer's Thoughts

"There is a shortage of readers. We’re publishing more books than we can pay attention to. It’s like an infantry charge— thousands of people go over the top, but few make it. We send more writers over the top than all the rest of the world. It’s wasteful, but there it is."

"Writers are funny about reviews: when they get a good one they ignore it— but when they get a bad review they never forget it. Every writer I know is the same way: you get a hundred good reviews, and one bad, andyou remember only the bad. For years, you go on and fantasize about the reviewer who didn’t like your book; you imagine him as a jerk, a wife-beater, a real ogre. And, in the meantime, the reviewer has forgotten all about the whole thing. But, twenty years later, the writer still remembers that one bad review."

"The things that a man puts in his books are not necessarily the same things he puts in conversation. You tend to talk about the things you just learned; but the things you put in your books are generally things you learned ten years ago and are trying to unlearn or forget. The bedrock of fiction is laid down long ago, and it’s very difficult to change it."

"…when I began Ipcress File, I didn’t know a thing. I never could have begun if I’d known how long 70,000 words really is."

"It is a story that is going to stay with me for a very long time simply because of it’s depth and the contemplation that comes along with it…The end of Paul and Ian’s story was delicate, pure, realistic and totally perfect. Author Laura Lee’s writing is poetic and has a subtle flow. Angel is an absolutely impressive work of literature that opened my mind and made me think about how, even though religion teaches us to love, it comes with it’s set of complications…I know I haven’t exactly praised this brilliant work the way it deserves to be praised, and that’s because the book has left me stunned and speechless and it is difficult to describe it’s beauty. All I say is that Angel is an enlightening, and completely opulent piece of work. Laura Lee’s writing is truly charming and captivating."

"I just call it fiction. You know, this is a strange issue to me because one of the challenges of getting the novel in print was that it is a bit genre-defying, and it is still occasionally criticized by reviewers for not knowing what genre it is supposed to be. They say the novel can’t decide if it is supposed to be about the church or a love story. This is strange to me because people don’t compartmentalize their lives in that way. You don’t chose whether your life is about a crisis in your career, an existentiual crisis about your philosophy or your romantic relationship. Those aspects of life come all mixed together. They overlap, they affect one another and the thing that ties them together is you. So Angel is the story of a situation in Paul’s life,which is what happens, what he thinks about, what he does and what he has to confront when he falls in love with someone his community doesn’t approve of. In a way, the whole point of the novel is that you can’t compartmentalize these things."

"

LS: There is an obvious lack of graphic sex scenes. Can you explain why you made that choice?

Laura Lee: To be honest, I think the sexual act is subjectively beautiful and objectively goofy. I described sexuality subjectively, in terms of how it made Paul feel, rather than objectively in terms of who touched who where because to me it is sexier. Adult readers know what goes on in bed. I have nothing against erotica, but turning readers on was not my purpose. I didn’t feel vivid sex would add much information in terms of understanding the character’s relationship. Beyond that, there is a perception among a lot of people that same-sex relationships are all about the sex. It was important to present them as fully sexual beings without focusing too much on the sex itself. I also wanted to be able to reach readers who might not be as comfortable with the idea of men being in love. I wouldn’t be too successful reaching those readers if I had pages and pages of hot man-on-minister action in the book. The focus of the story is on the spiritual and social dimensions of their relationship, not on their bedroom antics. Unfortunately, the book consistently gets labeled as “erotica” anyway. It bothers me to see it labeled that way. It is misleading and false.

"

"Q: Angel is listed under a number of different genres. How would you describe its genre?

A: I just call it fiction. You know, this is a strange issue to me because one of the challenges of getting the novel in print was that it is a bit genre-defying, and it is still occasionally criticized by reviewers for not knowing what genre it is supposed to be. They say the novel can’t decide if it is supposed to be about the church or a love story. This is strange to me because people don’t compartmentalize their lives in that way. You don’t chose whether your life is about a crisis in your career, an existential crisis about your philosophy or your romantic relationship. Those aspects of life come all mixed together. They overlap, they affect one another and the thing that ties them together is you. So Angel is the story of a situation in Paul’s life,which is what happens, what he thinks about, what he does and what he has to confront when he falls in love with someone his community doesn’t approve of. In a way, the whole point of the novel is that you can’t compartmentalize these things. So genre labels help to sell books, and they make sense if you’re describing a book about space aliens as science fiction, but I don’t think it is that useful for character-driven story telling."