Wednesday 23 March 2011

Online Friends & Writers Series — Lacey Boldyrev

 Today I have the Viva Las Vegas hip shaking pleasure of introducing you to Lacey Boldyrev. This is what you’ll find on her bio:

L.J. Boldyrev grew up on a horse ranch in Pennsylvania and spent most of her teen years on the beaches of North Carolina. Now she resides in New York with her family.
She has a passion for all things vintage, loves Elvis Presley more than chocolate, and writes things for teens.
L.J.'s short fiction, PARALLEL, was published in the UK by Rebel Books. It can be found in REBEL MOON: An Anthology of Supernatural Tales and purchased via the publishers website, amazon, and a number of other online retailers.

That’s very cool.

Can you tell us why you love writing?

I love the art of threading words together to create something that causes a reaction, triggers a memory, induces a feeling, anything. Whether it’s a short story for Tangled Ficition, or my pre-published novel(s), life is better when I’m writing.

If you could travel back in time and talk to yourself, what age would you be and what would you say?

I’d go back to the age of twelve. Where I grew up, there was no middle school. When you were twelve or thirteen years old, you went straight to high school for 7th through 12th grade. I know this is the boring answer, but I don’t have regrets in my life. Not anything that was so detrimental that I wish I hadn’t done it. The one thing I would go back and tell myself is to be more confident. I think I still would have made the same decisions, but I would’ve had an easier time dealing with the consequences if I had had more belief in myself.

If you had the opportunity to talk to high school students, what would you talk about and why?

Enjoy it.

I wouldn’t say, “you’ll miss it when it’s over” because not everyone does, but a lot of high schoolers are so focused on growing up, on getting out of high school, that they miss a lot of great experiences. Be responsible, but party your heart out if that’s what you want to do (you know, as long as your parents are okay with that). Spend a whole summer sitting on your porch reading. Hang out with your friends. Go see a movie or watch a band play. Date. Flirt. Respect yourself. Be true to your friends because sometimes they really do stick around, even when you’re grown and find yourselves hundreds of miles apart. Sheena, I’m looking at you. LYLAS.

There are moments in my life that I’ll never forget, the images are fixed in my mind and the emotions are vibrant and telling. It’s these moments that define who I am, can you share a defining moment in your life?

I met my husband under interesting circumstances and the decision I made to be with him was monumental. It required a lot of courage and a huge leap of faith. I knew that with him it would be a forever thing. Was I ready for that? Could I do it? Could I move hundreds of miles away from home? Could I completely change and adapt to a drastically different environment? It was the first time in my life that I really had to consider a relationship at an adult level. I had to use my head instead of just following my heart (although my heart had a major influence on my head). Was it worth it? Totally.

What’s on your bucket list that would surprise your family and friends?

I’m actually a pretty simple person. There’s nothing I want to do that would really surprise the people in my life. I want to visit Graceland, I want to travel from one side of the USA to the other by way of motorcycle, and I want to backpack through Europe. And I want to do it all with my husband.

And, because we love them, do you have a ghost/supernatural story to share?

My family could give you quite a few minor accounts: an old sewing machine that refused to leave it’s place by the fire even after it was locked in the attic, strange smells—my mom smelled something weird in our house when I was a kid and she found out later that at the same time she was searching for the smell, a woman she’d cared for had passed away-- lights turning on and off—again, Mom got mad and the lights blew out. A character in my WIP is based on my mom, I’m sure you can gather why.

I personally remember one incident, staying in the house of a family friend. The room I was in was connected to this big round empty floor space. In the middle of the night, we heard footsteps walking around out there. The dog growled at the door and when the door was opened, there was, of course, nobody there.

Where’s Lacey?

You can find more about me and my writing at my website. I have information there on the anthology my work is published in, as well as links to Tangled Ficition, the fiction blog I share with two other YA writers, Valerie Kemp and Natalie C Parker, where we all work on one three-part story a week together, with no behind the scenes collaboration, and the forth week of every month we post individual short stories. I also post weekly at Sisters in Scribe, the blog I share with my critique partners, Valerie Kemp and Kristi Helvig, and you can find me on twitter @ljboldyrev and facebook.

It was a pleasure, Simon! Thank you!

Lacey, thank you! Lacey is a talented writer, a beautiful person, and I’m grateful she has visited. I wish her all the best in the future. Please leave a comment and say hi, or follow her online.

Disclaimer: Lacey didn’t teach me to break in wild horses, body surf, or give me an Indian name, but that's all right mamma, that's all right for you, that's all right mama, just anyway you do.

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5 comments:

  1. This was fun! Thanks again, Simon! And that last line there is from one of my all time favorite songs. Well done!

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  2. Lacey, you're welcome! Somebody's a psychic :) I grew up listening to Elvis and once sang Jailhouse Rock in a school play. I cried if I wasn't allowed to watch Elvis movies. Thanks for being awesome!

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  3. Lacey--awesome interview. You'll get to Graceland...and you can consider it research for a new book! Simon--thanks for hosting my awesome blog Sister! :)

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  4. Great interview Lacey! I learned some things about you!

    Great job with the questions Simon!

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  5. Thanks, Kristi! Graceland is my goal within the next two years.

    Valerie, thank you! Simon definitely picks interesting questions.

    Also, Simon, I can't give you an Indian name. Only a Shaman can do that. ;-)

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