Janani Pattabi and Charlotte Heads
TRANSCRIPT
JANANI: Hello, welcome back to Analyzing the Arts: The Podcast. This is our first episode and I’m your host Janani Pattabi.
CHARLOTTE: And I’m your other host, Charlotte. And today we have a very special guest with us-Julia Hopkins, the author of The Chronicle’s very own The Lady in Waiting
JULIA: Hello!
JANANI: Welcome to the podcast Julia!
JULIA: Thanks for having me!
JANANI: Could you give us your 10-second pitch on Lady in Waiting for those who aren’t familiar?
JULIA: ‘Kay. Lady in Waiting, without spoiling too much, as of right now is kind of a fantasy..historical fiction story that’s set in the 15th to 16th century and it follows the life of Anne. And she is the poor, the poorest of the ladies that serve Princess Katherine and they’ve all been taken hostage.
CHARLOTTE: Oh!
JULIA: And so she’s..her thing is that she’s trying to figure out how to deal with it, while being hostage, and also trying to handle all of the ridiculous people that surround her because they all tend to be a little stuck up.
CHARLOTTE: Yeah…you said as of right now, how far away do you write?
JULIA: I..so I don’t write ahead, which is probably an issue. I write for the chapter and then I sometimes start a chapter after I’ve finished one. But I’ve never written more than three chapters ahead, but in my head, I have kinda where I want to go and how I want to take the book. And..do you mind if I share how it started?
JANANI: Yeah of course!
JULIA: So it all started was..I was like… I saw the form for The Chronicle which was like “What would you like to see?” And I said, “Well I would love to see a recurring story.” And Mrs. Dittmer emailed me and she said “Would you like to write for it?” cause she had me for my freshman English class. And she said “Would you like to write for it?” and I said, “I would love to!” So I couldn’t figure out what to write, I had no clue! So I did what any reasonable person does and I went to a word generator and I just started generating words until I had, like a collection that I liked. And from there I was like “Okay, here’s what I want.” And I went to name generators…I used a lot of generators!
CHARLOTTE: I’ve been there.
JULIA: That’s how I form so many of my stories, I just use generators until I get an idea of what I want. And I sent her the first chapter and she said it was great! And she published it.
CHARLOTTE: I mean it’s a staple now.
JANANI: Yeah! It is great! So how do you deal with writer’s block, cause it must be a lot harder considering you have to, like, publish in each issue?
JULIA: Yeah, I’m stuck in it right now! Chapter 6 is always fighting me. I..I like having a month, if it was weekly I would have died! But having a month to think it over and look at it, a lot of it, I try and see little experiences from my life. A lot of people talk about this, they talk about the big experiences but I see the little stuff, just like seeing the way people talk to each other, seeing the way they move. And I get inspired kinda from that. But a lot of it is just, you know, something I read or something I saw and I just..”Ooh I like that” and kinda base what I’m writing off of that.
CHARLOTTE: Your main character Anne, you described her as trying to, like, figure out her hostage situation and all the people around her.
JULIA: Correct.
CHARLOTTE: Is she based around anyone? What’s the inspiration for her?
JULIA: I’ve been told she acts like me, but that wasn’t my intention! Really, I would say she’s a conglomeration of all my favorite characters from different books. Like she’s brave, she’s extremely witty and sarcastic and she’s just someone I’d want to be,
CHARLOTTE: Makes sense.
JANANI: Yeah she has a lot of depth and like she feels really grounded as a character and as a person. I could see her, if she didn’t live in the 15th century, I could see her interacting with us now!
JULIA: My goal was to make her a character I would wanna be, someone I would want to represent. And from there I was like, “Well…all my experiences are based on the modern world. So compared to her more..what’s the word I’m looking for..I guess rustic I’ll use, kinda rustic character. And in Chapter 5 you got to see the point of view of the other Lady Anne, the one who’s rich and higher, and you kinda see the difference in the way they think, and I think that’s really cool.
CHARLOTTE: I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna ask. Is there a love triangle?
JANANI: I was going to ask that!
CHARLOTTE: Cause we’ve been theorizing.
JULIA: Oh, well, there’s certainly love involved!
JANANI: Alright.
JULIA: Love triangle I didn’t consider, but now, I don’t know. Maybe it’s in my head!
JANANI: Okay so this is our hypothesis; we think that there’s a love triangle, potentially, between Princess Kat, I’m aware she’s married, and the main character, and the bandit guy, the robber guy who took them all hostage.
CHARLOTTE: A little Stockholm Syndrome…
JANANI: We might be absolutely out of field but…
JULIA: Honestly? I kinda like it. I kinda like the idea! And it wasn’t where I was going!
CHARLOTTE: You got it here first guys!
JANANI: Enemies to lovers but they all hate each other at first
JULIA: I gotta tell you, there’s definitely something there. There’s something I don’t want to spoil too much, but I would say I’m planning on trying to get it in the next three or four chapters. There’s a big plot twist coming up.
JANANI: Oh boy
JULIA: And I’m so excited for it. Like I’m..ooh I’m shaking in my seat right now thinking about it!
CHARLOTTE: Exciting!
JANANI: That’s exciting, yeah. And we’re going to be like the first people to read it, first in line, like, refreshing our site over and over again for the next issue.
JULIA: Don’t even worry, I got you!
CHARLOTTE: So, what other writing-related things do you do, then the Lady in Waiting?
JULIA: Nothing this big, nothing like this. I write quite a bit, I did creative writing last semester and I really enjoy writing. When we get to do author’s choice in our English classes it’s my favorite thing. I have several, I would say, quote-unquote universes that I write in for myself, one of which I call The Subject. I’ve been thinking about doing little short stories of it and posting it in the Chronicle. It’s about a cyborg assassin who’s very sociopathic, very unhinged. And I write about her for quite a few of my writing finals and her thing is she’s just…I don’t even know, just unhinged. And it’s just something kinda fun to write about.
JANANI: Yeah, no I’m obsessed. You should absolutely go for it. That sounds amazing, that sounds like an amazing concept and an amazing character.
CHARLOTTE: We’ll end up with your own section, we’ll have News, Opinion, Julia, Features
JULIA: Something kinda fun to think about, I think
CHARLOTTE: And you said you draw inspiration from a lot of the little things in your own life. Is it usually things that happen to you, people, or just things you see out in the world?
JULIA: Usually things I see out in the world and people. I have a very boring life. I’m very much a homebody, I stay at home. But, I play a lot of video games and watch a lot of shows.
CHARLOTTE: You’ve never been chased by a cyborg assassin?
JULIA: Oh no, gosh I wish honestly. But I read a lot, I love reading, and I love watching TV and playing video games. So I draw a lot of my stuff from the characters I see. And my siblings have a lot of sports so I often get stuck going with them and going with them to their games so I get to see different people and the way they interact with each other often inspires me and I’m like “Oh my gosh, I have to write that.”
JANANI: I’m just curious: at the moment, what’s your favorite genre and is there a book that you’re reading at the moment that you really like?
JULIA: Currently, true crime. That’s what I’m kinda stuck in and I read a lot of true crime books. Currently reading a book about Patty Hearst who, I’m not sure if you guys know who she is-
JANANI: I’m not familiar, no
JULIA: She was kidnapped, she was a very rich woman and she gets kidnapped by these two men and it was big news all over. And then, she was caught on CCTV doing crimes with them and a big thing when she was caught was “Does she have Stockholm Syndrome or is she a con artist?” And it was this big trial, it was huge. And I haven’t gotten very far in it, but I really like it.
JANANI: Sounds very intriguing, I might have to check it out.
CHARLOTTE: Do you think that the Lady In Waiting might take a turn sort of more into..not into true crime but more darker aspects?
JULIA: That would be my hope. In Chapter 5 specifically, I really started to get into a bit of darker topics like pedophilia and things like that. So it’s definitely something I want to explore. A lot of my stories I have, they tend to take a bit of a darker turn, and my goal is to keep this story kinda happy but to also include “Hey, this is the ancient times or whatever it’s not impossible, rape and stuff was very common.” And it’s important, I think, to address that.
CHARLOTTE: Absolutely.
JANANI: How do you feel like you’ll be able to handle those topics with the care and respect they deserve? I mean you’re a fantastic writer and I have full faith in you, but what’s your process and what are you going to do to give those topics some weight cause they’re very heavy.
JULIA: They are. I’d say my goal is just to be as careful with it as possible. I have no idea how I’m going to achieve that, but I think it’s going to include a lot of talking to my friends and have they had experiences like this, and would they be willing to, you know, help me write this in a way that wouldn’t offend anybody or portray it incorrectly. And if it comes down to it, and if I really get strapped, I’d resort to probably social media or something, talking to people, asking “Hey would you be willing to share your experiences for this?” Although I’d prefer to avoid that, social media is a bit of a cesspool.
JANANI: Right.
CHARLOTTE: Do you have a time frame for the Lady in Waiting? Like, how long do you think it will be going?
JULIA: Not really, honestly. Currently, I’m just writing. I don’t have a specific endpoint in mind but I do have several plot points I want to fill out.
CHARLOTTE: Oh okay.
JULIA: So, currently I’m just focused on that, the plot twist and from there I’ll decide how I want to move on. But, I’m really excited about it, I like it a lot.
CHARLOTTE: And do you have any literature-related plans for the future in general?
JULIA: Literature-related plans…my hope would be if I like this story enough, if I’ve built enough to the point where I’m pleased with it, I’d probably publish it somehow. Likely not through a publishing thing but maybe self-publish, and I’d do it through some website..I don’t even know. I don’t know how you’d go about doing that but that’d be my goal.
CHARLOTTE: You already have an audience with the Chronicle!
JULIA: That’s true, I do.
JANANI: Yeah, you have your very own fanbase. Charlotte brought up plans for the future, do you plan on being a writer or pursuing an English major when you go to college?
JULIA: No, I actually plan on pursuing Criminology at the moment.
JANANI: Oh nice!
JULIA: But I would love to write, I want writing to continue being my side hobby or a possible career. Because I love it, I love writing so much. I think it’s so much fun and it’s an easy way for me to relax and think. I’d love to make a career out of it but I’m also trying to be a little bit realistic and becoming a bestselling author is very difficult.
CHARLOTTE: Of course. It’s funny to imagine you studying Criminology and you’re reading about this murder and then you just go and write something.
JULIA: I just go and write my little fantasy, somewhere saved in my documents is a little fantasy.
CHARLOTTE: Perfect. Is there anything else you want to address?
JULIA: I don’t think so. You guys really hit everything I wanted to talk about at all!
JANANI: That’s great! We absolutely loved having you here, it’s been a delight.
JULIA: It was lovely to be here, you guys are so amazing!
JANANI: Thank you!
CHARLOTTE: We might have to contact you again after this plot twist.
JULIA: Yeah send me an email and I’ll be right there.
JANANI: It’s just going to be us screaming at you, depending on what the plot twist is.
JULIA: You know what? I think you’ll be excited. I think you’ll be so pleased, it’ll be great.
CHARLOTTE: It’s a love triangle, isn’t it?
JANANI: It’s a love triangle. I’m still holding onto hope that there is indeed a love triangle.
JULIA: I might have to think about it, I might have to wiggle a little bit in there.
JANANI: Yeah, you heard it here folks!
CHARLOTTE: Well, thank you again for coming and joining us.
JULIA: It was lovely for you to have me, thank you!
JANANI: We’ll see you next week, bye-not next week, next issue!
CHARLOTTE: Next issue!