Author Profile: Lois Duncan

Lois Duncan

INTERVIEW

Lois Duncan is a mastermind of suspense with an imagination as bottomless as a 24-ounce Big Gulp.  Her fans adore her, and new fans are constantly popping up.  Last year, when her book, I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, was made into a movie, Lois Duncan fans all over resurrected old copies of classic Duncan novels and new fans ran out to buy them.  Who can forget STRANGER WITH MY FACE about the girl whose evil twin haunts her, or GALLOWS HILL, the one about a modern day witch who has to fight for her life -- the latter was actually made into a TV movie.

Here is an interview with Lois Duncan which was done by Nathalie op de Beeck.  Read on to find out about the woman behind the mystery.

TBR:  There are often supernatural powers at work in your stories, like voodoo and astral projection.  How would you describe your attitude toward
supernatural forces?

LD:  I think you mean "paranormal," not "supernatural," which refers to God
and the occult.  A miracle within the church is supernatural, because it is caused by God's intrusion into the world by stopping the laws of nature, such as parting the
Red Sea or raising someone from the dead.  The "paranormal" is something very different.  That term was coined by people involved in technical research to refer to natural phenomena like astral projection, telepathy, and psychometry, which we don't yet fully understand, but which, in the future, may be explained by science.  I believe in those things, because I have experienced them myself.

TBR:  Many of your stories and characters revolve around the supernatural, but your characters more often than not use their brains, not their magic, to
solve problems and get out of sticky situations.  Do you make an effort to
create characters who help themselves without using magic?

LD:  With the exception of Lisette, in LOCKED IN TIME,  and Sarah, in SUMMER
OF FEAR, (both books that I consider pure fantasy), I can't think of any of my
characters who use magic.  They often use psychic abilities,  as we all do
when we respond to hunches, premonitions, and inspiration, but, as I mentioned
above, those abilities are not super-natural.

TBR:  In some of your books you write about murder and mental illness, yet you avoid graphic descriptions.  On your web site, you admit that you don't like the "gory" movie version of I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER. Why do you spare readers the gruesome details?

LD:  I don't think anybody benefits from wallowing in muck.

TBR:  Your most sympathetic characters are often newcomers who find themselves on the outside looking in.  What is the allure of the lonely outsider in your books?

LD:  "Outsiders" make sympathetic protagonists, because they have no pre-
established support group and must find the strength to overcome adversity on
their own.

TBR:  Your books are often critical of cliques. At the climax of GALLOWS HILL, for instance, the school's most popular kids riot and nearly kill the heroine. Tongue-in-cheek of course, do you think cheerleaders and football players are inherently evil?  Or are you simply telling readers that it is dangerous to blindly follow the crowd?

LD:  I've never meant to imply that any particular clique is inherently evil.
However, I do believe strongly in the importance of resisting peer pressure and taking responsibility for one's own actions.

TBR:  The girls in your novels initially tend to fall for the attractive, but
often dangerous boys.  The underdog tends to be your romantic hero, even
though he may go unnoticed at first.  Do you think that these plots might
persuade readers to take a second look at the unconventional person who may not be the most popular?

LD:  I certainly hope so.

TBR:  You've been writing novels since the mid-1960s, yet your work still
rings true for today's teenage readers. You cover tough topics like abortion,
spousal and child abuse, separation and divorce, and corruption among adults. How do you keep your topics and characters up to date?

LD:  I've always had young people around me to keep me current -- five
children and their friends;  nieces and nephews; journalism students; plus a multitude of young readers who share their lives with me through mail and, now, e-mail.

TBR:  Individuality is a major theme in your books.  Do you think the high
school years determine and shape identity more so than college or career life?

LD:  For most people, the teens are the beginning of the self actualization process.
That's when we lay the moral foundation that we will continue to build on throughout our lifetimes.  So, yes, I believe those years are extremely important in establishing the kind of individuals we eventually become.

TBR:  What makes your novels so suspenseful is that many of your characters are not quite what they seem.  Sometimes they even turn out to be dangerous.  Do you think teenagers should be careful of whom they befriend?

LD:  I think that, not only teenagers, but ALL of us, need to be cautious
about whom we allow to influence our value system.

TBR:  Your family's web site (www.iag.net/~barq/) is devoted your life in
Albuquerque, NM, the setting of many of your books.  The site also includes
links to information about the unsolved 1989 murder of your 18-year-old
daughter Kait Arquette.  Has Kait's murder, which you wrote about in WHO
KILLED MY DAUGHTER?, changed the way you write about crime?

LD:  It has been very hard for me to focus my mind on creating a fictional mystery
while the real life murder that has shattered our family remains unsolved.  It's not that I ever stopped writing, I just shifted gears.  In the years since Kait's death I have written non-fiction, (PSYCHIC CONNECTIONS: A JOURNEY
INTO THE MYSTERIOUS WORLD OF PSI) and books for younger readers, (THE MAGIC OF SPIDER WOMAN; THE LONGEST HAIR IN THE WORLD, etc.); edited short story collections, and dabbled in television projects.  GALLOWS HILL is a mile stone for me, as it represents my return to the genre of young adult suspense.

TBR:  Why do you write young adult novels as opposed to adult novels?

LD:  I started my writing career when I was in my teens, so it was natural to
write for my own age group.  Once you become successfully established in a
genre, it's almost impossible to break out of it, because that's what publishers and
readers want and expect from you.  Besides, I really enjoy writing for this age group, who are mature enough to handle sophisticated subject matter, yet are vulnerable enough to be open to new ideas.

TBR:  Who are your favorite YA authors?

LD:  I can't even begin to pick and choose among my colleagues, many of whom
are personal friends.

TBR:  You have a new book that you edited called TRAPPED!: CAGES OF MIND AND BODY.  What is this book about?  Is this at all similar to your other books?

LD:  TRAPPED! is a collection of stories by some of the nation's top YA
writers, (Lois Lowry, Rob Thomas, Walter Dean Myers, Joan Bauer, etc.), about
young protagonists who are trapped, physically, mentally, and emotionally, in
a variety of intriguing situations.  The book was published by Simon & Schuster.  I found these stories fascinating and, in some case, terrifying.

TBR:  Would you ever write a sequel to any of your past books? Hypothetically, if you decided to�which one would you most want to write a sequel for?

LD:  My dream is to write a sequel to WHO KILLED MY DAUGHTER?, to give our
family's true life horror story a closure.  Of course, for that to be possible, Kait's case must be solved.

TBR:  So what's next?  Are you working on an original novel right now?  If so, can you give us a sneak preview?

LD:  I never give anybody, (including my husband, my children, and my agent) sneak previews of a work-in-progress.  I'm superstitious about jinxing it.