Who Is L.C. Smith?

“L.C. lives in New Zealand, loves being outside and playing sports and has written since she was little. Her serious writing has taken place over the last three years. She has a Communication degree from Massey Univeristy where she studied a whole lot of writing.”

Lisa graciously agreed to submit to an interview, even though I’m sure she is absurdly busy having just released her debut novel, “Falling”. 

“Love is a funny thing; there’s the kind that’s like you’re five and you’re looking up at your Mum’s face as she reads you a bedtime story.

Then there’s the kind that makes you nervous and twists in your stomach.

Then there’s the kind that makes you feel like you’re holding everything of worth in your hands.

After the death of her parents in a car accident when Reid South was eleven years old she gained the ability to jump into peoples bodies. Not a single person knows her secret, not her only friend Sara and especially not Keller. The problem is, every time she looks into his eyes, she starts to fall into him.”

“I usually get an idea randomly, I can just be walking down the street and all of a sudden I’ll get an idea for something. Usually I don’t write it down, I find that my best ideas are the ones that keep coming back to me, they’ll start to develop and the characters will gain their personalities as I think about them.

I like the first scene to throw you into the middle of the main character’s world. Then I just write until I feel like the whole story is out, which has way more words than I’m going to use, and it’s always horrible, awful writing. Then it’s the re-envisioning stage where I cut things that just don’t work, that aren’t true to the character, but I wanted them to stay! This can go on for a while if I’m being a bit sentimental about certain scenes.

One scene I cut for Falling was in chapter three, actually it was the whole of chapter three and I wanted it, because I thought it was cute. It didn’t work, I always knew it didn’t but I stubbornly held on to it until my editor kindly pointed out how crappy it really was!

Then it’s editing. I hate editing! For me it’s the worst part of the whole process. You have to be slow and careful to catch all the things that are wrong.

At this point it goes to my editor, who is thankfully a whole lot better at it than I am. She really deserves giant hugs for how much she helps.

Then it’s more editing for me and I’m done.

Wow, I made that sound amazingly boring, but it’s not. It’s so great to be able to spend your day making up someone else’s life so that it’s just how you want it to be.”

“Even if I didn’t write I would be thinking about writing, so it’s easier to just get the stories written down.”

“I love growing things I can eat. I have a tiny back yard and have over twenty fruit plants. I need to be stopped, I have no more space.”

“YA historical called One Minute. It’s set in World War Two England; Will (the main character) goes to help his friend rescue his girlfriend who’s Polish, but it all goes wrong and he gets left behind in German occupied France.”

“It would be a big fat chocolate cake.

Keller would be the chocolate, dark of course, because he’s sweet, but has character.

Reid would have to be the baking powder because she can disappear and she lifts everything up.

Sara would be the frosting because she’s about the best friend you could want.”