LS Kilroy hopped onto the indie steampunk scene just over a year ago and has already leveraged her successful editing and publishing career to accumulate dozens of favorable reviews for her debut dystopian novel The Vitruvian Heir. In fact, it just got first place in its category at the Cygnus awards! Today she stops by Aeronautics Anonymous to talk about life, steampunk, writing tips and so much more!
Let's get started...
Let's get started...
Perkins: Thanks so much for being here. Let's get to know you a little bit, first. What is your oldest memory of writing?
Kilroy: I was a tiny, asthmatic, and sheltered only child who lived on a street surrounded by elderly neighbors, so needless to say I became creative out of necessity. In hindsight, I'm thankful for this. Reading and drawing soon morphed into making up and illustrating my own stories. I'd get ideas for a plot and would write little summaries on plain white paper to remember the idea, then I'd illustrate a book jacket on the other side. I kept a stack of these ideas in an old Snoopy and Woodstock suitcase under my bed. I used to dream of someday living in a garret (I was dramatic). These are my earliest memories of writing. In junior high and high school, I had English teachers who encouraged my creative writing and who instilled a love of literature in me even more. In fact, the idea for The Vitruvian Heir first came to me in a high school history class when we were learning of Catherine de Medici and her "flying squadron" of female spies, and was filed away among those other one-page summaries under a different title.
Perkins: I love that story. I have an old collection of childhood stories, too, but I can’t imagine any of them surviving the adult editing process. Are there any other gems hidden in there you’d love to update?
Kilroy: I don't think so, but I do remember some of their names and they were quite lame slash dramatic. A few I recall are: Pale Sombrero, The Killing of Swan, and Phaedra's Angels. Like, really bad stuff. I also wrote a play junior year in high school called Cold Tea that was frighteningly bad. But, you know. They can't all be submission worthy. My college years were much more fruitful.
Perkins: When did you decide that writing was more than just a hobby to you?
Kilroy: At age fifteen, a man in a bookstore asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. Without hesitation, I answered, "Writer." But I knew before that. It's the one thing about my life that I've never once questioned.
Perkins: Following your dreams sounds so poetic, but certainly it wasn’t so easy. Did you ever feel like giving up? What sort of disillusionment did you have to overcome to get to where you are?
Kilroy: No, I never feel like giving up because, ironically, I have a day job. As difficult as it is to work full-time and try to write on the side (I've lamented it, of course), I think in the end, it keeps me grounded and gives me the freedom to keep pursuing this. As crazy and as counter to creativity as that may sound, it was actually stated by the one and only Oscar Wilde in a letter he wrote to his young lover (and another aspiring writer) that was recently found in someone's private collection. He says, “The best work in literature is always done by those who do not depend on it for their daily bread." Here is that full article.
Perkins: What first turned you on to steampunk?
Kilroy: I think more than straight steampunk, I've always been obsessed with the Victorian age, and so, what I write tends to be more Neo-Victorian/Edwardian. Wuthering Heights, Great Expectations, Jane Eyre, and Frankenstein are some of my favorite books and ones that were early influences on me.
Perkins: What is your favorite of those steampunk “classics”?
Kilroy: Wuthering Heights technically isn't steampunk, but it embodies what I love about a story - there's a dark beauty in it, an ethereal melancholy, a deep immortal ache, a gritty elegance. There's something so universally satisfying in a good tragedy.
Perkins: I think you’ve touched on something there. Steampunk may be all brass goggles and corsets on the surface, but there is a quality to it I think people are drawn to beneath all that, and I don’t just mean Victorian culture. What do you think is the underlying essence or spirit that draws people to steampunk or to these hundred year old Victorian fiction stories? What is it that draws you?
Kilroy: I think it bridges the idea of being realistic but otherworldly at the same time. There's just something intriguing and escapist about it that can be expressed in so many different ways and yet, even though it can sometimes seem like a hodgepodge, it's still its own stylistic genre whether it be the more western steampunk, Neo-Victorian, dieselpunk, cyberpunk, or a menagerie of all of those. And I think it comes with a sort of rebelliousness, which is what I love. It's decorum meets defiance. A nonconformity. Questions of alternate futures - like what would happen if the world evolved in this different and more old-fashioned way? It brings with it all sorts of roguish characters. You can't help but like it.
Kilroy: I was a tiny, asthmatic, and sheltered only child who lived on a street surrounded by elderly neighbors, so needless to say I became creative out of necessity. In hindsight, I'm thankful for this. Reading and drawing soon morphed into making up and illustrating my own stories. I'd get ideas for a plot and would write little summaries on plain white paper to remember the idea, then I'd illustrate a book jacket on the other side. I kept a stack of these ideas in an old Snoopy and Woodstock suitcase under my bed. I used to dream of someday living in a garret (I was dramatic). These are my earliest memories of writing. In junior high and high school, I had English teachers who encouraged my creative writing and who instilled a love of literature in me even more. In fact, the idea for The Vitruvian Heir first came to me in a high school history class when we were learning of Catherine de Medici and her "flying squadron" of female spies, and was filed away among those other one-page summaries under a different title.
Perkins: I love that story. I have an old collection of childhood stories, too, but I can’t imagine any of them surviving the adult editing process. Are there any other gems hidden in there you’d love to update?
Kilroy: I don't think so, but I do remember some of their names and they were quite lame slash dramatic. A few I recall are: Pale Sombrero, The Killing of Swan, and Phaedra's Angels. Like, really bad stuff. I also wrote a play junior year in high school called Cold Tea that was frighteningly bad. But, you know. They can't all be submission worthy. My college years were much more fruitful.
Perkins: When did you decide that writing was more than just a hobby to you?
Kilroy: At age fifteen, a man in a bookstore asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. Without hesitation, I answered, "Writer." But I knew before that. It's the one thing about my life that I've never once questioned.
Perkins: Following your dreams sounds so poetic, but certainly it wasn’t so easy. Did you ever feel like giving up? What sort of disillusionment did you have to overcome to get to where you are?
Kilroy: No, I never feel like giving up because, ironically, I have a day job. As difficult as it is to work full-time and try to write on the side (I've lamented it, of course), I think in the end, it keeps me grounded and gives me the freedom to keep pursuing this. As crazy and as counter to creativity as that may sound, it was actually stated by the one and only Oscar Wilde in a letter he wrote to his young lover (and another aspiring writer) that was recently found in someone's private collection. He says, “The best work in literature is always done by those who do not depend on it for their daily bread." Here is that full article.
Perkins: What first turned you on to steampunk?
Kilroy: I think more than straight steampunk, I've always been obsessed with the Victorian age, and so, what I write tends to be more Neo-Victorian/Edwardian. Wuthering Heights, Great Expectations, Jane Eyre, and Frankenstein are some of my favorite books and ones that were early influences on me.
Perkins: What is your favorite of those steampunk “classics”?
Kilroy: Wuthering Heights technically isn't steampunk, but it embodies what I love about a story - there's a dark beauty in it, an ethereal melancholy, a deep immortal ache, a gritty elegance. There's something so universally satisfying in a good tragedy.
Perkins: I think you’ve touched on something there. Steampunk may be all brass goggles and corsets on the surface, but there is a quality to it I think people are drawn to beneath all that, and I don’t just mean Victorian culture. What do you think is the underlying essence or spirit that draws people to steampunk or to these hundred year old Victorian fiction stories? What is it that draws you?
Kilroy: I think it bridges the idea of being realistic but otherworldly at the same time. There's just something intriguing and escapist about it that can be expressed in so many different ways and yet, even though it can sometimes seem like a hodgepodge, it's still its own stylistic genre whether it be the more western steampunk, Neo-Victorian, dieselpunk, cyberpunk, or a menagerie of all of those. And I think it comes with a sort of rebelliousness, which is what I love. It's decorum meets defiance. A nonconformity. Questions of alternate futures - like what would happen if the world evolved in this different and more old-fashioned way? It brings with it all sorts of roguish characters. You can't help but like it.
Perkins: You mention a lot of stylistic variations in steampunk. How would you summarize yours?
Kilroy: It definitely has that dark, Neo-Victorian/Edwardian, Gothic-meets-Gatsby slant I mentioned before with some technology elements that border on fantastical, but I think a UK reader recently described it best when he said The Vitruvian Heir was "like Downton Abbey and The Hunger Games had a baby."
Perkins: That's a good blurb for the back. If only steampunk could be that popular. Let’s talk story building for a moment. You use third person POV for your novel The Vitruvian Heir, but the story follows its protagonist Lore so closely that you could’ve easily chosen first person POV instead. How did you decide that?
Kilroy: For some reason, I have a mental block on writing in first person. I don't know why, but I almost feel like it's too limiting. I want to be limited, but I'd rather see a character from the outside as omniscient than from the inside. Or maybe I'm a megalomaniac and it's how I feed my God complex...
Perkins: What led to the decision to break the novel into three distinct parts?
Kilroy: I think since art mimics life and every story has a beginning, middle, and a climax to the end, that this coming-of-age story could be a taken as a metaphor for the cycle of girlhood into womanhood. The idea of a young woman starting off pure, naive, and a little vulnerable, then becoming more educated but guided and influenced by others, and finally coming into her own and taking control of her life. There are outside forces circling around her as well - temptation, sexual danger, misogyny, cynicism, saboteurs, false realities - things all girls face.
Perkins: Was it your intent to write Lore as an every-woman? One whose experiences are meant to capture what every reader feels or at least fears?
Kilroy: I definitely wanted readers to identify with her. But more than that, I wanted to create a character whom I felt was a good role model. I think too much in pop fiction, we're shown weak female characters who exist solely for their male counterparts, and sometimes in dangerous ways. I think many story lines - and I won't name any - but I think many of them end up romanticizing obsessive love. I wanted Lore to be a heroine that young women could emulate for the right reasons. In the end, she rescues herself.
Perkins: Where do you get your inspiration?
Kilroy: I think dystopian literature is very interesting and I've been inspired over the years by the works of Orwell and Huxley in that area. A lot of contemporary dystopian work is set in a post-apocalyptic earth where people face a host of frightening new dangers and challenges. I think where I differ is that I like to focus on the idea of societal regression - mostly because I look around and see it happening on a daily basis. The idea that technology keeps progressing, yet our modes of thought are still stunted and archaic. Vitruvia is a version of the United States in 2282 that has, through fear and wars and famine that sparked more and more conservative voting, formed into a dictatorial monarchy that eventually mandated this return to Victorian values. So while it's scary to imagine a future full of new challenges for humanity, I think what's even more terrifying is the idea that we keep repeating our mistakes as a society and there's a very real possibility that our civilization could regress to that point again. It's already happened to women in other countries. And it's not just happening to women, but to people within the LGBTQ communities and minorities. It's chilling to me that in 2016, our civil liberties are still under the threat of ignorance, intolerance, and radical agendas.
Perkins: These are themes that can get real political real quickly, at least these days, but I thought your novel balanced itself responsibly on a very thin line. Do you struggle with keeping your personal ideology reined in when you write, so as not to alienate readers? Or do think a writer should embrace those passions, no matter how controversial, as long as they’re honest?
Kilroy: I try to strike a balance because there's balance within me. Even though I feel strongly about certain issues, I can also try to see the other side and I know that not all readers will agree with my sentiments. However, I hope that even so, they'll still be able to enjoy the story. And maybe it'll give them something to contemplate. I think having a dialogue out there in society about these matters is the only real way to improve things - a dialogue, not a diatribe. And whether the dialogue comes in the form of an op-ed piece, a political debate, or a novel, I think the important thing is that it comes.
Perkins: What are you working on for your next project?
Kilroy: I've actually just finished a second novel and it couldn't be more the opposite of The Vitruvian Heir. I think I needed a complete departure and I'm a huge throwback to the 1960s so I was intent on writing something set in that volatile decade. And again, I think - sadly - that today's social climate mirrors this tempestuous time in our country. So with theme, I kind of did the reverse in writing about a past decade that saw issues that are still relevant in our present. It's called The Clothes That Make You and it's set in 1967 New England suburbia. Sally Fiore is a quiet, teenage outcast from a strict Italian family who is coping with the recent loss of her father. Her sheltered world changes when she makes an unlikely friend in the new girl at school - a feisty, civil rights activist who identifies as a boy. I was hoping for a spring release, but I've decided to take my time with it to get it in its best form.
Perkins: I'll keep an eye out! But I have to admit, I'm sad to see you switch genres. Don't you think The Vitruvian Heir lends itself to a sequel or a series, or do you feel that you said your piece on that one and closed it out on the note you intended?
Kilroy: I haven't made up my mind about this yet. I can see a trilogy in my head, but I'm skittish to commit to that. On the one hand, I'm satisfied with the ending. On the other, even I'm wondering what happened next. I could also see some short stories based around other characters like Sawyer, or even a prequel about Ursula's youth. It's a lot to ponder.
Perkins: I have to ask. How has your career in editing impacted your writing style?
Kilroy: I'm actually a copywriter and now a content manager, so I both write and edit in my day to day. It's definitely taught me brevity. Don't get me wrong - I love words and sometimes it pains me to cut them, but if a word - especially an adverb - doesn't add to the story, then it should go. Plus, most of my professional writing is short form - emails, blog posts, and other communications intended to engage a specific audience, so staying to the point is starting to just become part of my style. My books always end up between 60,000 and 70,000 words. At first this bothered me, but now I've accepted that I write until the story ends. I'm not going to add parts or words that slow it down just for the sake of having a longer manuscript. I think that would be a) pretentious and self-indulgent and b) detract from the pacing and flow, and hence, the essence of the story. This is always my biggest advice for writers. It may sound unconventional, but it's worked for me.
Perkins: Short and sweet. Always good writing advice! Any other professional tips for the writers out there?
Kilroy: It's true that practice makes perfect and you should try to get into a routine to hone your craft - take a class, workshop with fellow writers, and do the thing. Stephen King said "Writers write," and that's true. If you want to be good at something, you need to work at it. However, that isn't always easy. Sometimes with schedules and what not, especially if you work full-time at a job that sucks away your energy, if you have a relationship that you need to devote time to, or a child, you can't carve out a determined amount of time every day to write. I would go weeks without writing a word even when I was in the middle of working on a book. Sometimes it wasn't even because of other factors in my life, it was just because I didn't feel like it. If I'm not inspired and I'm not feeling it, I can't write. And I think that's okay. Because every time I've tried to force it, the product is crap. So my advice is: Write, but only when you feel it. Even though I don't write creatively every single day, I've still managed to produce three books and a slew of short stories in spite of being a high school teacher at one point and having a very stressful corporate job at another. When you feel it and when you're enjoying it, pushing yourself to work when you go home at night isn't as hard as you might think.
Perkins: Challenging words to end on! One last challenging question: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies? Or Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters?
Kilroy: Yeah, I am not into those at all!
Perkins: Ha, me neither. Stick to the originals, right? Okay, how about this one instead. Last year brought us two memorably strong female leads, so which one do you think would win in a fight? Imperator Furiosa from Mad Max or Rey from the new Star Wars?
Kilroy: Imperator Furiosa.
There you have it folks. Thanks again for joining us! If you'd like to get to know LS Kilroy even better, you can check out her website, or just leave a question below and keep the conversation flowing!
Kilroy: It definitely has that dark, Neo-Victorian/Edwardian, Gothic-meets-Gatsby slant I mentioned before with some technology elements that border on fantastical, but I think a UK reader recently described it best when he said The Vitruvian Heir was "like Downton Abbey and The Hunger Games had a baby."
Perkins: That's a good blurb for the back. If only steampunk could be that popular. Let’s talk story building for a moment. You use third person POV for your novel The Vitruvian Heir, but the story follows its protagonist Lore so closely that you could’ve easily chosen first person POV instead. How did you decide that?
Kilroy: For some reason, I have a mental block on writing in first person. I don't know why, but I almost feel like it's too limiting. I want to be limited, but I'd rather see a character from the outside as omniscient than from the inside. Or maybe I'm a megalomaniac and it's how I feed my God complex...
Perkins: What led to the decision to break the novel into three distinct parts?
Kilroy: I think since art mimics life and every story has a beginning, middle, and a climax to the end, that this coming-of-age story could be a taken as a metaphor for the cycle of girlhood into womanhood. The idea of a young woman starting off pure, naive, and a little vulnerable, then becoming more educated but guided and influenced by others, and finally coming into her own and taking control of her life. There are outside forces circling around her as well - temptation, sexual danger, misogyny, cynicism, saboteurs, false realities - things all girls face.
Perkins: Was it your intent to write Lore as an every-woman? One whose experiences are meant to capture what every reader feels or at least fears?
Kilroy: I definitely wanted readers to identify with her. But more than that, I wanted to create a character whom I felt was a good role model. I think too much in pop fiction, we're shown weak female characters who exist solely for their male counterparts, and sometimes in dangerous ways. I think many story lines - and I won't name any - but I think many of them end up romanticizing obsessive love. I wanted Lore to be a heroine that young women could emulate for the right reasons. In the end, she rescues herself.
Perkins: Where do you get your inspiration?
Kilroy: I think dystopian literature is very interesting and I've been inspired over the years by the works of Orwell and Huxley in that area. A lot of contemporary dystopian work is set in a post-apocalyptic earth where people face a host of frightening new dangers and challenges. I think where I differ is that I like to focus on the idea of societal regression - mostly because I look around and see it happening on a daily basis. The idea that technology keeps progressing, yet our modes of thought are still stunted and archaic. Vitruvia is a version of the United States in 2282 that has, through fear and wars and famine that sparked more and more conservative voting, formed into a dictatorial monarchy that eventually mandated this return to Victorian values. So while it's scary to imagine a future full of new challenges for humanity, I think what's even more terrifying is the idea that we keep repeating our mistakes as a society and there's a very real possibility that our civilization could regress to that point again. It's already happened to women in other countries. And it's not just happening to women, but to people within the LGBTQ communities and minorities. It's chilling to me that in 2016, our civil liberties are still under the threat of ignorance, intolerance, and radical agendas.
Perkins: These are themes that can get real political real quickly, at least these days, but I thought your novel balanced itself responsibly on a very thin line. Do you struggle with keeping your personal ideology reined in when you write, so as not to alienate readers? Or do think a writer should embrace those passions, no matter how controversial, as long as they’re honest?
Kilroy: I try to strike a balance because there's balance within me. Even though I feel strongly about certain issues, I can also try to see the other side and I know that not all readers will agree with my sentiments. However, I hope that even so, they'll still be able to enjoy the story. And maybe it'll give them something to contemplate. I think having a dialogue out there in society about these matters is the only real way to improve things - a dialogue, not a diatribe. And whether the dialogue comes in the form of an op-ed piece, a political debate, or a novel, I think the important thing is that it comes.
Perkins: What are you working on for your next project?
Kilroy: I've actually just finished a second novel and it couldn't be more the opposite of The Vitruvian Heir. I think I needed a complete departure and I'm a huge throwback to the 1960s so I was intent on writing something set in that volatile decade. And again, I think - sadly - that today's social climate mirrors this tempestuous time in our country. So with theme, I kind of did the reverse in writing about a past decade that saw issues that are still relevant in our present. It's called The Clothes That Make You and it's set in 1967 New England suburbia. Sally Fiore is a quiet, teenage outcast from a strict Italian family who is coping with the recent loss of her father. Her sheltered world changes when she makes an unlikely friend in the new girl at school - a feisty, civil rights activist who identifies as a boy. I was hoping for a spring release, but I've decided to take my time with it to get it in its best form.
Perkins: I'll keep an eye out! But I have to admit, I'm sad to see you switch genres. Don't you think The Vitruvian Heir lends itself to a sequel or a series, or do you feel that you said your piece on that one and closed it out on the note you intended?
Kilroy: I haven't made up my mind about this yet. I can see a trilogy in my head, but I'm skittish to commit to that. On the one hand, I'm satisfied with the ending. On the other, even I'm wondering what happened next. I could also see some short stories based around other characters like Sawyer, or even a prequel about Ursula's youth. It's a lot to ponder.
Perkins: I have to ask. How has your career in editing impacted your writing style?
Kilroy: I'm actually a copywriter and now a content manager, so I both write and edit in my day to day. It's definitely taught me brevity. Don't get me wrong - I love words and sometimes it pains me to cut them, but if a word - especially an adverb - doesn't add to the story, then it should go. Plus, most of my professional writing is short form - emails, blog posts, and other communications intended to engage a specific audience, so staying to the point is starting to just become part of my style. My books always end up between 60,000 and 70,000 words. At first this bothered me, but now I've accepted that I write until the story ends. I'm not going to add parts or words that slow it down just for the sake of having a longer manuscript. I think that would be a) pretentious and self-indulgent and b) detract from the pacing and flow, and hence, the essence of the story. This is always my biggest advice for writers. It may sound unconventional, but it's worked for me.
Perkins: Short and sweet. Always good writing advice! Any other professional tips for the writers out there?
Kilroy: It's true that practice makes perfect and you should try to get into a routine to hone your craft - take a class, workshop with fellow writers, and do the thing. Stephen King said "Writers write," and that's true. If you want to be good at something, you need to work at it. However, that isn't always easy. Sometimes with schedules and what not, especially if you work full-time at a job that sucks away your energy, if you have a relationship that you need to devote time to, or a child, you can't carve out a determined amount of time every day to write. I would go weeks without writing a word even when I was in the middle of working on a book. Sometimes it wasn't even because of other factors in my life, it was just because I didn't feel like it. If I'm not inspired and I'm not feeling it, I can't write. And I think that's okay. Because every time I've tried to force it, the product is crap. So my advice is: Write, but only when you feel it. Even though I don't write creatively every single day, I've still managed to produce three books and a slew of short stories in spite of being a high school teacher at one point and having a very stressful corporate job at another. When you feel it and when you're enjoying it, pushing yourself to work when you go home at night isn't as hard as you might think.
Perkins: Challenging words to end on! One last challenging question: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies? Or Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters?
Kilroy: Yeah, I am not into those at all!
Perkins: Ha, me neither. Stick to the originals, right? Okay, how about this one instead. Last year brought us two memorably strong female leads, so which one do you think would win in a fight? Imperator Furiosa from Mad Max or Rey from the new Star Wars?
Kilroy: Imperator Furiosa.
There you have it folks. Thanks again for joining us! If you'd like to get to know LS Kilroy even better, you can check out her website, or just leave a question below and keep the conversation flowing!