How did you both become professional writers, ultimately working on the Buffy and Angel ranges?
Jeff: I've been writing stories almost literally for as long as I can remember. My first published work was some journalism in college, and my first professional fiction sale was a science fiction short story in the first volume of the acclaimed anthology Full Spectrum. This happened while I was managing a bookstore in La Jolla, California.
After that bookstore closed I went to work in the comic book business, which is what my day job still is. Through this gig I started writing the occasional comic, and also met Christopher Golden. When Chris was offered the chance to write a novel about Gen13, comic book characters that we had both written comics about, he asked me to join him on the book. I did so. After that he passed my name on to Lisa Clancy, the Buffy/Angel editor at Simon and Schuster, and I've been doing books ever since.
Nancy: I started studying ballet before I could tell my left foot from my right - the teacher had to tie a red scarf around my left ankle so I could keep them straight. I was so tiny that rather than ask me to move somewhere on the floor, she would just pick me up and carry me to my assigned place.
Ballet sustained me through a difficult childhood and the loss of my mother when I was still quite young. I dropped out of high school and moved to Germany, where it seemed more likely that I would be able to support myself as a dancer - there are lots of companies in Europe, and they hire a wider variety of "looks" than in America.
I eventually decided to come home and go to college. Though I had started writing stories in the second grade, and even completed an entire novel in the sixth grade, it didn't occur to me that I could study to become a writer.
I figured I had to take classes that led to some kind of "official" job. I changed majors a number of times, eventually settling in the Communications program at UC San Diego because I could take as many writing classes as I wanted... for credit!
It finally dawned on me that I wanted to be a writer, but I resisted that impulse mightily, thinking that I needed something safe and steadying... like accounting. (I guess the joke's on all my CPA friends!) But during the pursuit of an MBA and wearing a ridiculous little beanie hat while working at Sea World, I decided to write a novel. It didn't sell. I wrote another. It didn't sell, either. Neither did the third one. But the fourth one did.
