HC to U: Interview series - with 'creative' C. Lee McKenzie
Introducing a new profile series. I'll bring you a new discussion with a creative or tech-savvy person making use of both sides of the brain. Look out for my HC to U and HC-X posts. This month: C. Lee McKenzie, author.
C. Lee McKenzie is the author of young adult and middle grade books, including Sliding on the Edge, The Princess of Las Pulgas, Shattered, Double Negative, Not Guilty, Sudden Secrets, and most recently, Because No One Noticed. She's also penned middle-grade books, Sign of the Green Dragon, and Alligators Overhead and its sequels. Dozens of short stories count among her body of work, ranging from children's ghost tales to her most recent weekly series on Substack.
A HAPPY ACCIDENT
Speaking to her just before the holidays, I discovered that McKenzie's decision to become a novelist began as an accident when she read about Ivy League students doing physical harm to themselves. "I was intrigued as to why successful young people would do that," she says.
At first planning to compose an article on the topic (McKenzie was an associate professor before turning to creative writing), she soon learned that other professionals had beaten her to writing about it. Instead, she tackled a novel, Sliding on the Edge, published in 2009. McKenzie remembers thinking she'd done what she set out to do: write a novel. "Then my editor called me and asked, 'What's your next book?' It was the proverbial slippery slope."
TIME TO CHANGE - AND TRAVEL IN TIME
The Princess of Las Pulgas (2010) and Sudden Secrets (2014) followed, before McKenzie turned her sights on a completely different target. From writing issues-based stories featuring teen girls, the author found herself drawn to fantasy. Not only fantasy, but a middle grade tale with a male protagonist.
Alligators Overhead is the story of Pete and his best friend Weasel fighting to save their beloved (and as it happens, magical) backyard swamp from bulldozers. The book's popularity with readers spurred McKenzie to write two sequels. "I didn't really plan on writing a series," says McKenzie. "But I got some good feedback from young readers saying they wanted a girl in the next book." Pete and Weasel continued their adventures, time traveling first to Victorian England and again to the Middle Ages, allowing McKenzie to romp through history — a passion that often pops up in her work.
"I didn't really plan on writing a series."
During this period, McKenzie worked on establishing herself, contributing short stories to anthologies like Two and Twenty Dark Takes: Dark Retellings of Mother Goose Rhymes (2013), Beyond the Binding: Composers for Relief Companion Collection (2014), and Of Mist and Magic: Really Slow Motion (2015). To date, she has published 12 novels and 5 anthologies.
CREATIVE CURIOSITY
In the course of more than two decades as an author, her writing process has evolved enough to allow her modest praise: "I'm more confident with setting out my characters and my prose has become better," she says. From her four- and five-star reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, 'better' should be read as 'very accomplished.’
While creativity took place naturally, McKenzie knew self-promotion would be another bargain. She began publishing and marketing her work in the earliest days of social media, taking the plunge into a space she considered an ill fit for her own leanings. "I don't enjoy being out there promoting myself," she says. "I find it uncomfortable to say, 'Oh, look at my wonderful work and buy all my books'."
She began marketing in the earliest days of social media, taking the plunge.
Nevertheless, she acknowledges her debt to technology, not least by her adoption of the publishing platform, Substack, which she uses to delight her followers with a new story each week. Podcast contributor, newsletter writer . . . McKenzie will explore any new technology simply out of curiosity. "I sometimes use AI these days," she says, referring to ChatGPT. "I sent in my summary for Because No One Noticed and it kicked back a character analysis!"
McKenzie's works in progress are many and varied — expect anything from a revived older story (Pete and Weasel, anyone?) to a brand-new idea springing from one of her many passions. Great talking with you, C. Lee!
C. Lee McKenzie's books are available in Kindle, ebook and paperback from Amazon and you can read about her at Substack as well.
