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- Interview with Tanya Huff
Interview with Tanya Huff
- By Megan Harrell
- Published 04/10/2007
- Interviews
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Interview with Tanya Huff, part 4
Harrell: What is it about Vicki that makes Henry so infatuated with her?
Huff: In the beginning, it was because she saw him and accepted him for what he was so he could be himself around her. No lies, no pretense, no masks. Eventually, he began to love the things that define her -- her strength, her unwillingness to surrender, the way she keeps fighting when logically she should quit, her sense of justice, her sense of humour, her intelligence. He started to understand that all her emotional bravado and the way she kept her passions so tightly leashed came from a fear of being hurt and he wanted to be the one to prove to her that there was nothing to be afraid of. Interestingly enough, Mike loves the exact same things.
Harrell: A lot of authors don’t like fanfiction written with their characters. How do you feel about fans of both the books and the show crafting their own stories with your characters?
Huff: Officially, I'm not allowed to know about fanfic. There's all sorts of weird layers and complications if I do.
Unofficially,
I'm as honoured by fans wanting to play in my world as I am honoured by
the people who make television shows. So unofficially, you have my
blessing, knock yourselves out. Just don't let me know about it!
Seriously, that last point is really important. Don't send me links,
don't tell me what you've done because if, gods forbid, anything of a
legal nature should come up we'll both be screwed.
Harrell: The Blood Books were written before the Buffy and supernatural craze really caught on in television. What’s it like to have Vicki compared to Buffy, who was created several years after you’d created your characters? Huff: I worship the ground Joss Whedon creates upon so if people want to compare Vicki to Buffy, I'm totally cool with it. I'd give up a kidney to write for one of Joss Whedon's shows. Harrell: When you wrote the book series, did you have any idea it would be adapted for television? Huff: My degree is actually in Radio and Television Arts so I always hoped the Blood books (as well as the other seventeen books I've written) would someday be adapted for film or television but you can't write with that idea in mind. All you can do is tell the stories you have as best as you can.
Huff: In the beginning, it was because she saw him and accepted him for what he was so he could be himself around her. No lies, no pretense, no masks. Eventually, he began to love the things that define her -- her strength, her unwillingness to surrender, the way she keeps fighting when logically she should quit, her sense of justice, her sense of humour, her intelligence. He started to understand that all her emotional bravado and the way she kept her passions so tightly leashed came from a fear of being hurt and he wanted to be the one to prove to her that there was nothing to be afraid of. Interestingly enough, Mike loves the exact same things.
Harrell: A lot of authors don’t like fanfiction written with their characters. How do you feel about fans of both the books and the show crafting their own stories with your characters?
Huff: Officially, I'm not allowed to know about fanfic. There's all sorts of weird layers and complications if I do.
Harrell: The Blood Books were written before the Buffy and supernatural craze really caught on in television. What’s it like to have Vicki compared to Buffy, who was created several years after you’d created your characters? Huff: I worship the ground Joss Whedon creates upon so if people want to compare Vicki to Buffy, I'm totally cool with it. I'd give up a kidney to write for one of Joss Whedon's shows. Harrell: When you wrote the book series, did you have any idea it would be adapted for television? Huff: My degree is actually in Radio and Television Arts so I always hoped the Blood books (as well as the other seventeen books I've written) would someday be adapted for film or television but you can't write with that idea in mind. All you can do is tell the stories you have as best as you can.
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Comments
Comment #1 (Posted by an unknown user)
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Great interview!
Comment #2 (Posted by sandra)
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Fascinating interview. Loved the range of questions - everything I've wanted to know and lack the opportunity to ask
Comment #3 (Posted by LovinHenry)
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Great Interview!
Comment #4 (Posted by an unknown user)
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Great interview, you covered a range of questions on the author herself and the book series; it was a lot of fun to read and very interesting. A good job all around.
Comment #5 (Posted by Kelly)
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I'm glad to see the books getting onto television. I've been a fan for years. Can't wait until we can actually see it in Canada on a Canadian channel?
Comment #6 (Posted by Michael Short)
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None
Comment #7 (Posted by Natalie)
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My daughter loves these books and Megan did a great job with the interview. It gave a great insight into the storylines.
Comment #8 (Posted by Matty)
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It has been years since I have felt so passionately about a show.
Although I respect gays and, indeed, have good friends who are, I am very glad the writers decided to make Henry hererosexual. I could not feel the same way about him if they had not.
Comment #9 (Posted by Sara Harrell)
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Great Interview. There were a lot of well thought questions. A friend of my has never watched the show or read the series and said that the interview was enough to make her read the series and watch the show.
Comment #10 (Posted by SandraLynn)
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What a terrific article. It's really nice to get Tanya's view on her books and the series and I'm even more a fan of the show after reading this than I was before it. Great interview!
Comment #11 (Posted by Trix)
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Matty, you say you couldn't have "felt the same" about Henry, if they had made him *bi* as he was throughout the novels?
Which "feeling the same" is this, because I'm confused?
Comment #12 (Posted by lavenia crosley)
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Will there be a DVD released from the TV series??? Lots of the fans from the books who are now watching the series really want to know.
Comment #13 (Posted by bloodtiesfangirl)
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I REALLLY liked insight into Ms. Huff's opinion of the show.
Comment #14 (Posted by an unknown user)
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Great article. A lot of questions were answered and I can't wait to see Blood Ties in Canada!! I definitely hope it goes to a second season and is released on DVD.
Comment #15 (Posted by KEA TENNANT)
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I really like reading anything about the show/books and getting as much info as possible because I just adore the show. I didnt know anything about the books until the show so I am now looking at getting the books to read them. It was great getting the author's take on how her vision has developed into the basis of the tv series. I cant wait to see them all!!
Comment #16 (Posted by Stephanie)
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I love the questons asked! there what i wont to know and plus. its the perfice interview.
Comment #17 (Posted by TVDIVA)
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This is a great author interview. Thanks to the interviewer and Ms. Huff for providing interesting background information on the blood book series and the show.
Comment #18 (Posted by Sahara)
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I loved the series even before I knew there was a series of books, which I haven't read yet b/c I have to find them in audio format.
At first, after finding out this was an adaptation of a book series, I was afraid the author had RP. The character Vicki (Cox) portrayed so realistically the way it changes you & how hard you have to fight to remain the person you were before the disease as well as knowing without a doubt where the disease will lead you in the end. I'm thankful to know now that Tanya Huff DOESN'T HAVE RP! I've fought the downward spiral of RP unsuccessfully as there is no cure; contrary to Mike's suggestions on vitamin A therapy, it doesn't work. I've been at this for a little over 20yrs since my diagnosis but had the disease much longer though so mild I didn't know I had it until the night blindness became so bothersome. I fought my husband for my independence. I raised a younger brother after leaving home as a teen b/c of an abusive alcoholic father & a mother who enabled his actions. So I had nobody to depend on but myself. It wasn't easy allowing someone in my life to share it as an equal but then when RP became a factor, I had to deal w/a spouse who wanted to fix the problem without a fix available then the arguments broke out b/c he treated me like a child made out of glass. This was not the person I was at birth and it surely wasn't the person who would allow it as an adult. It's been a long road for us and after 20+ yrs of marriage, I think we've sort of figured out our roles as to what is acceptable and what isn't. I just find it amazing at how Tanya's ideas of Vicki with RP played out so truthfully with equal venom as Vicki works so diligently to retain her life, her ideals, and keep everything as normal as it was before while at the same time realizing her life would never be the same again. The undercurrent of anger at the disease itself is so overwhelming and shows through so well, I was literally afraid that Tanya had personal experience with the disease as only someone who lives with it day in and day out as it progresses over time could understand it; I was wrong. Tanya doesn't have the disease yet she understands the force inside us to retain the person we are despite such a change in our health that has no cure.
As for me, I'm at the severe stage of RP now. My peripheral's gone and now my central is fading too. It is not all RP's fault though. Approx 10yrs ago I was diagnosed with Lupus (SLE) & Sjogren's Disease. These autoimmune diseases attack the body starting with little things like joints and tissue b4 moving to vital organs. Sjogren's is now in my eyes causing inflammation of the corneas so I have to use drops to reduce the inflammation in order to avoid corneal abrasions, which won't reduce my sight anymore than it is now but it will leave scars and with it that foreign body sensation. It's something you want to avoid at all costs.
Way to go Tanya! You did a wonderful job in researching as well as considering how an independent person, esp a cop, would react to living life with an incurable eye disease like RP. I was so full of "piss & vinegar" as they say here, for the first 10yrs after my diagnosis that I had people literally back away from me relationship-wise b/c they knew I was volatile when it came to accepting help but I found & made other friends who were great about it and allowed me to go about my way bumbling and falling with the bruises and everything until I found my niche & without the pity-party attitudes.