LAST UPDATED: 24 October 2000

VZSciFi Live Creator Event and Competition: Author Yvonne Navarro
Thursday 15 June, 1.00pm VZT (PST) Space City Conference Centre

llinois-based Yvonne Navarro's VZSciFi appearance coincided with the US release of her latest original novel, That's Not My Name, a nightmarish tale of a woman who finds herself imprisoned by a strangely-caring kidnapper -- who insists she is his lost wife. Peter Straub, author of Ghost Story and If You Could See Me Now says of this new work "Yvonne Navarro bestows upon us what we always most need in That's Not My Name -- a novel distinguished by its generosity of feeling, sense of discovery, narrative timing and command, accuracy of phrasing,and above all its sustained power. This is an exciting, thrilling, heartfelt book."

Navarro's original novels include the vampire thriller AfterAge; Dead Times, the tale a child of an accursed union between a white trapper and a Hopi maiden who does a deal with the Devil to try to extend her life; and the award-winning Final Impact, which depicts events surrounding the destruction of Human civilisation as we know it when the remains of a small, destroyed planet hit the Earth. Final Impact proved such a success that it spawned a follow-up, Red Shadows.
"I've always been an avid reader with a taste for exciting fiction," Navarro told me some time ago. "In the early Eighties, after reading a novel I'd highly recommended, my Mother told me that she thought I could write like that. I shrugged off the suggestion Ð Moms will tell you anything! Ð but it got the wheels turning. I started trying within a couple of months. "I wasn't very disciplined, and while I wrote a number of short stories, it took me until about 1991 to complete AfterAge, my first novel," she reveals. "I finally got serious about writing when AfterAge sold, and I feel very lucky that my writing was then well received."
In addition to longer novels Navarro has also written several short stories including the romantic ghost story Of My Own Making; Santa Alma is an 8,000 word story available on the Extremes CD from Lone Wolf Publishing; and what the author describes as a "weird western", available in Skull Full of Spurs (called the best story in the book by reviewer Ed Bryant at the World Horror Convention in 1999) from Dark Highway Press.
In addition to her original work, Navarro has earned high praise for her novelisations and new stories in genre publishing. Most recently she's been working on new works set in the universe of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Her next Buffy novel, Paleo, is due for release in September 2000.

Preview by Paul Travers

HereÕs the transcript of the event, held on 15 June 2000. This has been edited slightly for spelling, with repetitions removed, and to add additional information where appropriate. Special thanks to Yvonne for going over it again for us! The event was moderated by Mr. Templeton (John Freeman).

Mr. Templeton: Ok folks, today, we're delighted to have author Yvonne Navarro with us, creator of several acclaimed horror novels including the SF thrillers Final Impact and Red Shadows. Yvonne has also written several novels based on films and television, including the two Species movies. Her next Buffy story, Paleo, is out in September, and That's Not My Name (click for excerpt)is her latest, released this week in the US.
<ESP from Yvonne Navarro: Does my hair look all right? ha ha>
Linsue: Hi Yvonne
Mr. Templeton: You have been summoned!
Yvonne Navarro: Hello.
Mr. Templeton: This is a moderated event. To ask a question, please ESP me and I will ask you to ask it if you are an avatar in the room, and voice it for you if you are a ghost.
Yvonne, let's start with a pretty obvious one: what made you become a writer?
Yvonne Navarro: Actually, my mother got me into it. I'd given her a novel to read by an author I admired, and she told me, 'You can write like that!' So that's what started the whole thing, years ago.
Mr. Templeton: What was the novel?
Yvonne Navarro: That novel was... hmmm. Let me think. (Old people need time, you know.)
Linsue: LOL
Mr. Templeton: I know the feeling
Yvonne Navarro: I'm fairly certain it was They Thirst by Robert McCammon. (Editor's note: Robert S. Macammon retired from writing in late 1999 and has requested that sites suchg as Lights Out, which featured information on his his work, be closed down).
Mr. Templeton: So did it take a long time to become a published writer?
Yvonne Navarro: Don't be shy about asking questions, by the way. I don't bite… It did take awhile. I sold a short-short story right away after deciding to try those before working on the bigger project of a novel. Then I didn't sell another story for five years, and it certainly wasn't for lack of trying!
I started writing in about 1982, but didn't get my first novel published until 93… I can't imagine anyone reading an entire book written the way I wrote back in 1982 -- ow!
Mr. Templeton: Crumbs…
Linsue: I would have given up long before that.
Mr. Templeton: Did you get dispirited?
Yvonne Navarro: No, no, no! Don't give up! Persistence is the key for any writer.
But that's not my major piece of advice for new writers. That would be, seriously, to read everything out loud.
Mr. Templeton: Does that help you get the characters, to shape them?
Yvonne Navarro: It helps with everything -- it makes your people real, helps you figure out bad punctuation, repetition, sentences that are so long you don't have time to breathe.
Mr. Templeton: Do you find the characters fighting with each other once you do this stage? I can see your writing room becoming quite lively!
Linsue: lol
Yvonne Navarro: You never know what characters are going to do -- you only think you do. <g>
Mr. Templeton: So you have had situations where a character takes over what you were planning?
Yvonne Navarro: I've created characters fully intending to kill them off, but then they just wouldn't allow it.
Mr. Templeton: Heh
Archivist Shiren of the T'Chell: Do you think short stories are a rite of passage for a writer, Yvonne?
Yvonne Navarro: I think short stories help a writer learn their craft -- they certainly helped me...

Part Two of Transcript | Part Three of Transcript and Book Competition | External Links: Yvonne Navarro's web site