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“Burned” New Novel

Posted Fri, May 21st 2010, 16:47
(Grand Cayman – CITN) -

“House of Night” series has topped the USA Today, the Wall Street Journal Bestseller lists and has been on the New York Times bestseller list for 63 weeks. Authors P. C. and Kristin Cast has been visiting Cayman for years and the Daybreak crew caught up with them at Books & Books in Camana Bay.

Source/Credit: Day Break Cayman: http://www.cayman27.com.ky/news/item/5441

BUT FIRST VISIT THEIR SITE TO ENTER FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A FREE SIGNED COPY OF BURNED!!

1) What genre have you not yet written but really want to try?

I’d love to try my hand at the horror genre. I like to scare myself!

Not to romanticize the job of being an author. Successful authors are professionals. They treat their careers like JOBS. A successful author educates herself about the business of publishing while she’s honing her writing skills. She is also a savvy businesswoman. Sadly, there is no lounging about eating bonbons and sipping champagne while you wait for the Muse to whisper a bestseller in your ear.

I did loads of interesting research for BURNED. One of the coolest things I did was to spend quite a bit of time tromping around the Isle of Skye in the Scottish Highlands. I also was introduced to some wonderful Clan men and women who were generous and kind enough to share their rich history with me.

I can’t ever remember not wanting to be an author. I wrote my first book in first grade (Blubby the Blue Whale – it hasn’t been published. Yet.). I have had many jobs along the way: I served active duty in the USAF, put myself through college being executive assistant to the director of nursing services for a large hospital, and taught high school for fifteen years.

5) Which fictional character do you have a secret crush on?

Of my own making: ClanFintan from my Partholon novels. Although as the heroine in those novels is embarrassingly like me, the crush probably isn’t very “secret.”

Someone else’s: Jamie Fraser from Diana Gabaldon’s OUTLANDER books.

Source: Free Book Friday!

http://theauthorhour.com/p-c-cast/

I’ll catch up with y’all when I get back to Tulsa. I’m working away on BURNED. It looks like it might have a release date of April 27th! Fingers crossed that I finish in time.

Oh, and what else have I been doing over here?? Hum…well…I did take a quick trip to Dublin (I popped in to a great bookstore called Dubray Books in the city centre and signed stock) AND GOT A TATTOO! Oh, baby!

XXXOOO
PC

YOUR GUIDE TO FANTASTIC FICTION
Hosted by Matthew Peterson

Listen to interviews of your favorite authors every Thursday at 9 a.m. pacific / noon eastern on the VoiceAmerica.com Variety Channel.

Listen to the interview for free!

Where: VoiceAmerica.com Variety Channel
Date: Thursday, November 19th, 2009
Time: 9 a.m pacific / noon eastern

If you missed the live show, don’t worry. You can always listen to it in the archives.
Vampires
P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast (NYT bestselling authors of the House of Night series)
Charlaine Harris (NYT bestselling Sookie Stackhouse series / True Blood on HBO)
Laurell K. Hamilton (#1 NYT bestselling author of Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter & Meredith Gentry)
L. J. Smith (#1 NYT bestselling Dark Visions, Night World and The Vampire Diaries, now a TV series)
Note: The following interview has been transcribed from the radio show. Please excuse any typos, spelling and gramatical errors.
Interview with P. C. Cast

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Matthew Peterson: Hello and welcome to The Author Hour: Your Guide to Fantastic Fiction, which can be found at www.TheAuthorHour.com. I’m your host, Matthew Peterson. Last week I interviewed Anne Rice, Ursula K. Le Guin, Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson, and Orson Scott Card. This week I’ve got a vampire-themed episode with P. C. and Kristin Cast, Charlaine Harris, Laurell K. Hamilton, and L. J. Smith. So sit back and enjoy as we talk about The Vampire Diaries, House of Night, Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter, and Sookie Stackhouse, which is the basis for True Blood on HBO. I’ve got P. C. and Kristin Cast on the show today, #1 bestselling authors of the House of Night, which is a vampire young adult series. P.C. is also known for her Goddess Summoning, Partholon, and Divine series, which have won prestigious awards like the Prism, Holt Medallion, Daphne du Maurier, Booksellers’ Best, and the Laurel Wreath awards. Thanks for being on the show today ladies.

Kristin Cast: Hi! Thanks for having us.

P. C. Cast: Yeah.

Matthew Peterson: So you guys are a mother and daughter team. What made you decide to start writing together?

P. C. Cast: Well, as you said, I had already written several adult series and I got this idea for this vampyre [note: in their books, they spell “vampire” as “vampyre”] finishing school series, actually from my agent. And I didn’t think I’d have any trouble writing it, because I had been teaching high school for about a decade at that time. But when I actually sat down and started the first three chapters . . .

Kristin Cast: She realized she was OD.

P. C. Cast: [laughs] I wasn’t THAT OD. What I realized was my inner 70’s teenager started to creep out.

Kristin Cast: Scary, very scary.

Matthew Peterson: [laughs] Uh oh.

P. C. Cast: And it was really scary. So that’s when I called in Kristin. And I kept calling her and asking her like just little word choices and then I decided, “You know what? This would just be easier if we co-authored and I wrote it and then she went back through it and made sure that I didn’t sound like an old woman.”

Matthew Peterson: Yep. So how old were you, Kristin, when this began?

Kristin Cast: I was nineteen.

Matthew Peterson: Nineteen years old.

P. C. Cast: Yes, you were nineteen. [laughs]

Matthew Peterson: [laughs] So were you excited that your mom said, “Hey, will you co-author a book with me?”

Kristin Cast: Yes, because in my nineteen year old mind I thought it would be my platform to fame.

P. C. Cast: [laughs]

Kristin Cast: So, I was very excited. Being with these people that are famous, it’s going to be fantastic.

P. C. Cast: And then she found out that fame isn’t really as exciting as you think it is, when you’re nineteen.

Matthew Peterson: [laughs] Sometimes it’s a lonely experience.

P. C. Cast: Yeah, it’s better because we’re in it together. We like that part, though.

Kristin Cast: Yes.

Matthew Peterson: Now, P.C. I do understand that you serve in the United State Air Force, and of course you taught English. Has that played a role in your writing at all?

P. C. Cast: Oh sure. Everything from my past impacts my writing all the time. Yeah, the Air Force, I joined the Air Force when I was 18, so that was really during my formative years. I think it still stands me in could stead with a foundation of discipline, you know, ‘cause writers are procrastinators.

Kristin Cast: Yes!

P. C. Cast: [laughs]

Kristin Cast: Yes we are!

P. C. Cast: Kristin’s over at my house right now, finishing a story for Harper Teen.

Kristin Cast: Because I can’t write it at my house because I end up cleaning or something.

P. C. Cast: [laughs]

Matthew Peterson: Oh no. [laughs]

P. C. Cast: But my military background really helps me, and then of course, I ended up teaching for 15 years, I just stopped teaching last November, and that really impacts my young adult books.

Matthew Peterson: What’s the best thing about writing together?

P. C. Cast: Well, I know for me, I do the writing and then I do the entire first draft and then I send it to Kristin and what it allows me is to just really write, to focus on plot, and character development and put anything I want on the page because I know she has my back. I know that I can send it to her and that if I’ve messed up some teenage words or if I’ve sounded a little too mature some places, I know that Kristin can catch that and she can weed that out for me.

Matthew Peterson: Ah, okay. And Kristin, what’s the worst thing about writing together? [laughs]

Kristin Cast: [laughs] She thinks she right all the time.

P. C. Cast: I am right almost all the time, though. [laughs]

Kristin Cast: She really isn’t. [laughs] However, that is kind of like two sided, because also one of the best things about writing with her is that I have proven her wrong so many times, that she kind of acknowledges that now.

P. C. Cast: I’ve actually had to say, [sigh] “Yes, Kristin, you were right.”

Kristin Cast: On more than one occasion!

P. C. Cast: [laughs]

Matthew Peterson: How funny! You said you were a teenager in the ‘70s, P.C.?

P. C. Cast: Yes.

Matthew Peterson: You need one of those younger whipper-snappers to keep you in line. [laughs]

Kristin Cast: [laughs]

P. C. Cast: [laughs] I do indeed. But I had hundreds and hundreds of them for fifteen years when I was teaching.

Matthew Peterson: Yeah. Well, so let’s talk a little bit about the House of Night series. Kristin, can you give us a little summary of what the House of Night series is all about?

Kristin Cast: Well, it’s pretty much about high school if you were a vampyre and sucked people’s blood and had affinities for different elements. Other than the supernatural part, it’s just, you know, the angst of going through school and saving the world.

P. C. Cast: [laughs]

Matthew Peterson: Oh, just a little bit . . .

Kristin Cast: Just a little added.

Matthew Peterson: Just a little added there. And vampyres are just a normal part of life, though, aren’t they? They’re not in the closet or anything. Everybody knows about them, right?

P. C. Cast: Yeah. Everyone knows about them. They’re not really well integrated into our supernatural world, though. They’re powerful and they’re beautiful and then tend to dominate the arts and that makes humans jealous.

Matthew Peterson: Oh, okay.

P. C. Cast: So it’s kind of an uneasy alliance that’s fun to play with in the plot dynamics.

Matthew Peterson: And so, how do the vampyres and the humans co-habitate? Are there pitch forks and stakes and are the humans completely scared of these vampyres or have the vampyres found a way to drink blood without affecting humanity?

P. C. Cast: Well, here in Oklahoma, there are some pitch forks and that kind of thing.

Matthew Peterson: [laughs]

P. C. Cast: [laughs] There are Houses of Night all over the world and the vampyres have, most of them, have a very high ethical standard. They do drink blood and they do imprint with human beings and then the human being becomes the vampyre’s consort.

Kristin Cast: There’s not running around killing people.

P. C. Cast: No, they’re not running around killing people, although we do have some rouge vampyres.

Kristin Cast: Yes.

P. C. Cast: And of course, it’s playing on fear of the unknown.

Matthew Peterson: Yeah.

P. C. Cast: And fear of what’s different. And because vampyres have become very secluded in their little pockets of success in House of Night, that really plays into the fear that people have of someone being different and more powerful, and add the supernatural element and everything gets messed up.

Matthew Peterson: And this is a young adult novel, I mean, your main character is 16 years old: Zoey Redbird.

P. C. Cast: Yeah, she gets marked at the beginning of. . . at the beginning of Marked, [laughs] . . .

Kristin Cast: Well . . . [laughs]

P. C. Cast: . . . coincidentally enough, and it’s a physiological change that happens within some teenagers. Modern science doesn’t know why. They do know how it starts happening, but they don’t know why with some kids. And there’s a process that happens then over four years where the teenager’s body either accepts the change and really metamorphosizes or evolves into what essentially is a higher being, a vampyre, or the body rejects the change, and many of them do, and then they die terribly.

Matthew Peterson: Oh, that’s not fun.

Kristin Cast: Very unfortunate.

Matthew Peterson: So this marked business, I’ve seen lots of different ways of people becoming vampyres, and usually it deals with being bit and drinking blood from the vampyre itself, but in your universe that you’ve created, someone becomes a vampyre in a little bit different way.

P. C. Cast: It’s biologically based.

Kristin Cast: It’s more like evolution.

P. C. Cast: Yeah. And that’s because my dad’s a biologist.

Matthew Peterson: Oh! Okay.

P. C. Cast: And so, he and I sat down and we talked about junk DNA and physiological response and evolution and change and we decided to base it all on evolution, and that’s also why all the magic in the House of Night books is all based on earth magic too. It’s not like Harry Potter magic, which you know, we love Harry Potter though, but you can’t like zap someone into a mouse.

Matthew Peterson: Yeah.

P. C. Cast: It’s more shamanistic than that.

Matthew Peterson: Well, I’m a big fan of magical powers and things like that. So what are some of your favorite powers that the vampyres have?

P. C. Cast: I love that the affinity for elements. Zoey’s the only fledgling who has ever had an affinity for all five of the elements. And there’s a group of her friends who each have an affinity, like one of them has an affinity for air, one has an affinity for earth, and so then they can manipulate their element. But of course there’s costs for that. In my world, in our world, you don’t get magical powers and you don’t get these gifts without paying a cost for them too.

Kristin Cast: And not everyone has something.

P. C. Cast: Right, not everyone has them, yeah.

Matthew Peterson: Oh, that would be a bummer. [laughs]

Kristin Cast: [laughs]

P. C. Cast: [laughs]

Matthew Peterson: You’re going to this school for people who are vampyres and like, “Yeah, I’m just a normal vampyre.”

P. C. Cast: [laughs] But they all get really good hair.

Matthew Peterson: Ah! Okay.

Kristin Cast: Yes.

P. C. Cast: And they tend to be very pretty too because, you know, as my dad said, “Evolution-wise, if you’re a predator and you want to draw prey to you, you have to look a certain way. So as you become a vampyre, you get more attractive.

Kristin Cast: Right, ‘cause our society likes pretty people.

P. C. Cast: Yeah!

Matthew Peterson: Yeah, yeah, that’s true.

P. C. Cast: And it’s matriarchal, so the girls are really, really pretty.

Kristin Cast: Yes.

Matthew Peterson: Ah. Okay. I was reading through various clips of your books and your main character, she has boyfriends. [laughs] She might have one, she might have two, she might have three at a certain time.

P. C. Cast: She might!

Matthew Peterson: I mean, is this like a normal thing for a vampyre to, “You know, I’m pretty, I can get the guys.”

P. C. Cast: You field that one, Kristin. Go ahead.

Kristin Cast: Well, in a matriarchal society it is not untypical for a woman to have more than one companion. However, they each serve a different role like protector and all that kind of different jazz, but in like the teenage world, I think it’s more than healthy for girls to date more than one person . . .at one time. [laughs]

P. C. Cast: [laughs] Uh, oh, be careful.

Matthew Peterson: [laughs] You know, I do agree, that it is good to date more than just one person, especially as a young person, because you can get to know . . .

Kristin Cast: Exactly!

P. C. Cast: We don’t like the whole ideology of Zoey’s 16 and 17 and she’s going to meet the guy that she’s going to love for the rest of her life! She can’t even vote yet, come on.

Matthew Peterson: I know. [laughs]

P. C. Cast: I mean, she should be dating and vetoing a whole bunch of guys.

Matthew Peterson: Yeah. I totally agree. I think that’s a healthy thing to really know what’s out there. Instead of just the one person.

P. C. Cast: Yeah.

Matthew Peterson: So the latest book, Tempted, Kristin, tell us a little bit about the latest book.

Kristin Cast: Well, the latest book is told from multiple characters points of view. It’s not just Zoey . . . so you get Stevie Rae and Heath and Stark and of course Zoey and Aphrodite, and you get a mystery character. Yeah, so it’s a little bit different. We did that mainly to kind of start a spin off series to follow the red vampyres, but it makes it really cool. You get to find out a lot more about each character especially Aphrodite. I cried, you know, three times, some in happiness, some in sadness.

P. C. Cast: Yeah, I made her cry three times in this book. I love that.

Matthew Peterson: Oh.

Kristin Cast: Oh. [laughs]

Matthew Peterson: You made your daughter cry. [laughs]

P. C. Cast: [laughs]

Kristin Cast: [laughs]

Matthew Peterson: So these books have been widely successful, I mean, Hunted just came out this year as well, I mean, that came out #1 bestseller on the USA Today and Wall Street Journal. So I’m excited to see that you are doing an off-shoot, a spin off series, or have an idea of doing that.

P. C. Cast: Yeah, we set that up books ago. We kind of seeded that through all the back in Chosen. Yeah, we’re excited too about that. And I really have a good time being able to delve into the other characters and fans are going to love that because we have some huge fans of like Stevie Rae and you know some of the side characters that you couldn’t get if everything was just from Zoey’s point of view. Still doing from Zoey’s point of view, too.

Matthew Peterson: Yeah. Well, that’s great. Thank you so much ladies. So, I’ve been speaking with P.C. and Kristin Cast, New York Times best-selling authors of the House of Night series. Thanks so much for being on the show today, ladies.

Kristin Cast: Thank you.

P. C. Cast: Thank you. It was fun.

Matthew Peterson: Alright, so make sure you go to www.TheAuthorHour.com to check out the bonus questions that didn’t make it onto the live show. Don’t go away, I’ve still got Charlaine Harris, Laurell K Hamilton and L. J. Smith, coming up next.

Bonus Question(s) that Didn’t Air on the Live Radio Show

Note that you can also listen to this while you read it.

Matthew Peterson: Let me ask you a bonus question.

P. C. Cast: Okay.

Matthew Peterson: Okay, I’m going to ask you a personal question, this is just kind of a fun question. Kristin, what’s the best thing you love about your mom?

Kristin Cast: Oh.

P. C. Cast: Oh no! [laughs]

Kristin Cast: [laughs] I love that she is an independent woman and has taught me to be one as well, and that’s important.

P. C. Cast: Ah, that’s really nice.

Kristin Cast: Oh, you’re welcome.

P. C. Cast: [laughs]

Matthew Peterson: Now, P.C. your chance. What’s the best thing you love about your daughter?

P. C. Cast: Best thing. That’s hard because there’s so many things that I respect and appreciate about her. I love that she is her own person. That she surprises me a lot by who she’s becoming as a woman, and I really like and respect who it is that she’s becoming.

Matthew Peterson: Let me ask you another question, real quick, too. Oh, P.C. just real quick, are you working on another Goddess Summary book as well?

P. C. Cast: Goddess, yes. The Goddess Summoning book, Goddess of Camelot, will be out on 12/10 in December of this next year.

Matthew Peterson: Of the next year, okay, okay.

P. C. Cast: Yes, I’m also working on Burned, the seventh book in the House of Night series.

Matthew Peterson: In the House of Night series, okay. And now this is a fun question. If you could have a vampire power, what would it be?

P. C. Cast: I would want an affinity for earth.

Matthew Peterson: For earth, okay.

Kristin Cast: I would want all of them.

[Everyone Laughs]

Matthew Peterson: Typical, typical!

Kristin Cast: I’d want all of them.

Matthew Peterson: Of course!

Extra Material That was Cut from the Show Because of Time Constraints

Note that you can also listen to this while you read it (you’ll need to fast forward past the bonus questions).

Matthew Peterson: And, Kristin, are you still going to University of Tulsa?

Kristin Cast: No.

Matthew Peterson: Okay, but were you going to University of Tulsa at the time?

Kristin Cast: Yes.

Matthew Peterson: You were. Did that affect your schooling at all?

Kristin Cast: It actually didn’t affect my schooling at all until around the time Chosen came out because it debuted at . . .#2?

P. C. Cast: Yeah.

Kristin Cast: . . .on the New York Times list. And after that happened, now it’s been like this huge whirlwind of tours and deadlines and different promo things. And so not until after then did it actually impact anything I was doing.

P. C. Cast: And she’s still going to school; she just changed universities and focuses . . .

Kristin Cast: Right, I’m just no longer there.

P. C. Cast: . . . but she’s still here in the area and going to school. It’s a lot for her to juggle and you know that’s why sometimes when people want us for an event, they get ME.

Matthew Peterson: Yeah, yeah.

P. C. Cast: Because if she can’t miss a test or miss a particular class, I’ve said, “You have to be here for it.” You know, ‘cause I’m still the teacher/mom person.

Matthew Peterson: Yeah. Ten years teaching English. Well, I’m glad to have you both on the show.

* * * * * * * * * *

P. C. Cast: So, and I still, you know, teenagers are still scarily a pretty large part of my life. My ex-students won’t let me go very easily. So, I still have like my finger to the pulse.

* * * * * * * * * *

Matthew Peterson: And your first book just came out, I mean, not too long ago really: 2007.

P. C. Cast: May of ‘07, yeah.

Matthew Peterson: Yeah and it’s called Marked.

PC Cast posted a blog about her being on the CW!

Quote:

“Hi guys!
Thought you’d like to check out this interview from the CW. We had a great time taping it – they’re lots of fun at the CW! Right now we’re in Seattle. Just had a fabulous event at a very cool bookstore called Third Place Books. Thanks to everyone who came out to meet us!

Oh, and AGAIN – I’m not going to post any spoilers about TEMPTED. So if you’re wondering why your blog post isn’t showing up it’s because it’s wayyyy too early to talk about what happened in the end. And the very silly rumor about Zoey being killed off is just that: a very silly rumor. SHE IS NOT DEAD. Jessh.

Off to San Francisco tomorrow. Hope I see a bunch of y’all at the Halloween party hosted by Books, Inc., in Palo Alto.”

View the video here: PIX 11 Morning News

Today I’m thrilled to feature mother-daughter writing team PC Cast and Kristin Cast, co-authors of the bestselling House of Night Series. The House of Night vampyre novels follow a group of teenagers as they are Marked by the vampyre goddess, Nyx. After being marked, a fledgling vampire will enter the school of the House of Night until they are ready to change into an adult vampire- that is, if their body does not reject the change first, causing them to (gasp) DIE!

The sixth novel in the House of Night series, Tempted, will be released in October. Without giving too much away, can you give us a hint as to what readers can look forward to in this highly anticipated series installment?

KC: TEMPTED will be told from six different characters points of view, and you should definitely pull out your Kleenex boxes! I cried three times!

Recently you both traveled to England to do research for the seventh book in the House of Night Series, Burned. Can you tell us about some of your favorite places you visited?

KC: I loved Culloden, the site where the Clans fought against the English. It was really moving and I learned a lot about myself.

PC: I adore the Highlands! Actually, I’ll be returning next month for more research, specifically at the Isle of Skye, where Zoey and the gang will be going in BURNED. Oh, and Clava Cairn, the ancient burial site of Celtic queens, was my favorite spot, though I also loved seeing Culloden.

Out of all the House of Night novels, has there been one in particular that was your favorite to write and conversely, was there one that was more challenging than the others?

PC: I think the easiest book to write was CHOSEN – all that drama just wrote itself! TEMPTED was more difficult than the others because of the shifting point of views, but it is currently my favorite in the HoN series.

The female characters in the House of Night novels are known for being strong, gutsy and intelligent leads. What types of feedback have you received from readers regarding the empowering roles of women in your novels? Has there been anything that really resonated with you in particular?

PC: I love hearing from young women that Zoey has helped them know that they can mess up and still recover and learn and grow. It’s also especially moving when I hear from gay teens who thank us for including them in the series in a realistic and positive way.

What other upcoming projects (solo or collaborative) are you working on?

KC: Right now, I’m working on a short story for HarperCollins, and, of course BURNED!

PC: Other than working on BURNED, I’m helping launch the new YA imprint of Harlequin TEEN with my fantasy books ELPHAME’S CHOICE (September 2009) and BRIGHID’S QUEST (March 2010).

I also have a paranormal romance for Nocturne titled THE AVENGER releasing Oct 1, 2009.

Her daughter, Kristin Cast, has won awards for her poetry and journalism. She also lives in Oklahoma, where she attends the University of Tulsa as a communications major.

Credit: The Book Butterfly

Hi P.C.!

Welcome to Bitten by Books, we are excited to have you here today!

I would like to thank you taking the time to join us for the question and answer session with our readers. It has been very interesting to get to know more about you and what makes you tick as a writer! Readers, if you haven’t done so already please stop by and get your copy of P.C.’s newest book Tempted.

BBB: What are the most challenging and the most rewarding aspects of writing?

PCC: The most challenging aspect is probably the lack of control an author has over several aspects of her career. in most jobs you know going in what your basic paycheck will be, how you’ll be promoted, and the length of time you’ll need to put in before you can retire. Not so with the career of being an author! That can be scary, especially if you’re like me and support your family. Oklahoma public school teachers don’t make squat, but at least I knew exactly how much squat was and when it was coming in. So the lack of control over the security part is definitely a challenge. The rewards of being an author are worth the scariness, though. I like being my own boss, and working in my pjs is pretty cool, too. I love creating worlds and then populating them with characters I care about. As a longtime teacher, from a family of teachers, it’s important to me that I continue to serve as a role model for young people, specifically young women, and my books, especially the House of Night series, enable me to continue to do that. It also still gives me a major rush when I walk into a bookstore and see books by ME!

BBB: Do you consider different books paranormal romance or urban fantasy? and do you think it is important to distinguish between the two?

PCC: I’m from the old school point of view where I still see the genre line as sci-fi/fantasy. All those other distinctions feel like going through a lot of trouble arguing over what color birthday cake blue icing really is: Is it sky blue? Ocean blue? Sapphire blue? Turquoise blue? Who cares, let’s just eat the cake! I don’t ever think about the labels. From my first book I just decided to create the story I’d most want to read, and that meant, to me, writing in the fantasy genre. I added a modern heroine and some modern settings (urban fantasy?), and a healthy dose of sex (paranormal romance?), and that was that. When I buy books I’m the same way. I don’t care about genre labels and I grab anything and everything that sounds good to me. Right now I’m rereading Diana Gabaldon’s A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES so I can remember what’s going on when I dive into AN ECHO IN THE BONE. What the hell genre is she? Paranormal romance? Sci-fi/fantasy time travel? Historical fiction? Who cares? She’s awesome! And isn’t that what’s really important – telling an awesome story.

BBB: Is is difficult to collaborate with your daughter on the House of Night series and vice versa? And do you ever disagree on the way the book/series should go?

PCC: Nah, Kristin and I work easily together, probably because I’m the mom and The Boss of Her. (Side note to my daughter: KFC, do not post in here and disagree with me!!) Okay, seriously, Kristin and I brainstorm together before I start each book, but then I write it. During the initial writing process I rarely even talk to her about what’s going on with the plot, and she knows it’s going to change radically from what she and I initially discussed. We do disagree sometimes, but we’re on book seven, and by now we both understand that no matter what kind of agenda each of us has for Zoey and the rest of the gang, they’re going to end up doing whatever the hell they want to do anyway.

BBB: What is the most ridiculous thing that you have thought about doing to any of your characters but never did?

PCC: Well, I was going to kill off Grandma Redbird in UNTAMED and I mentioned that to a couple of my friends. They threatened me with severe bodily harm. Jeesh, they were really upset. So Grandma recovered from her nasty car accident.

Oh, in the original manuscript for GODDESS OF SPRING (my Goddess Summoning Series) I had my heroine thinking the hero, Hades, might be gay before he grabs her and passionately kisses her. My editor at the time, the amazing Christine Zika, called me and said, “Uh, PC, I know you think you’re being funny, BUT YOU’RE NOT. It’s not sexy to think the hero might be gay.” I pouted, but changed it. Retrospect says she was really, really right.

BBB: Which do you like better: the original covers for your goddess series, or the new ones? (Both are beautiful, by the way.)

PCC: The new covers are sexy and modern, but I’ll always absolutely love the original four covers. They were simply beautiful artwork. Actually, the original cover to GODDESS OF THE ROSE is my favorite of all my covers.

BBB: How do you keep track of your world building?

PCC: By tapping into my schizophrenic tendencies? Or rather, I use a lot of silly sticky notes all over my computers and I do word search clusters through old manuscripts to be sure I don’t mess stuff up. And the truth is that once I’ve created a world the rules just stick with me. I guess it shouldn’t be that simple, but it is. It’s like knowing the rules of this world. It’s not like you’re going to forget we can’t jump off a hill and fly, right? Same thing with my fictional worlds. Example: the vampyres in HoN can use magic, but it is nature or earth based, which means Zoey can call the element earth to her and have it channel through her and fill her with power from an ancient oak, but she can’t call earth to her and have that power allow her to zap that dorky Elliott kid into a mouse. Does that make sense?

BBB: What do you feel are the benefits of the new electronic readers such as Kindle 2 or Sony Digital Book Reader to the environment?

PCC: Well, obviously they save trees! I don’t really know much about them, but Kristin just ordered a Kindle to take with us on tour, so I’m going to check it out and see if I want to get one for myself.

BBB: What impact do electronic readers create on the bottom line for authors in the end? Do you feel they have a negative impact or positive, or no impact at all that you can see?

PCC: I think people will always buy books, real books. Even if I fall in love with Kristin’s Kindle and have to have one of my very own, I’ll still buy real books I can touch and smell and put on my bookshelf. I do think in this electronic age publishers have got to get a handle on e-book piracy, though.

BBB: Can you tell us about your different stories and the general storylines that drives them?

PCC: Well, I have the House of Night series. Book six, Tempted , will be released October 27th. All hell breaks loose for Zoey and the gang, and that’s what’s driving that plot – they have to save the world. In 12/10 my next Goddess Summoning Book will be released, GODDESS OF LEGEND. I’m co-authoring it with the very talented and funny Jill Monroe. It’s set in mythological Camelot, and giving Arthur a well deserved H.E.A. is driving that plot. For HarlequinTEEN I have two books in my Partholon fantasy series being released: Elphame’s Choice (out right now), and Brighid’s Quest (March 2010) – these are coming of age stories that are my brand of fantasy, which mean there’s romance thrown into the world. My DIVINE books for LUNA (DIVINE BY MISTAKE, DIVINE BY CHOICE, and DIVINE BY BLOOD) have also been reissued. They’re set in the past of the same world as Elphame and Brighid, but they’re definitely adult – fun and sex and adventure drives those books. And, of course, my contribution to the Nocturne Time Raiders series was released this month. What drives each of those books is a quest to save the world and time travel (and hot sex – they’re adult, too).

BBB: What else do you currently have in the works? When can we expect your next book?

PCC: Right now I’m working on BURNED, book seven in the House of Night. I’m not sure of the exact release date, but I imagine it’ll be summer/fall of 2010. Also in 2010 expect a very cool illustrated FLEDGING HANDBOOK 101. And, as I already mentioned, BRIGHID’S QUEST (March 2010, HarlequinTEEN). I’m planning on writing the third book in that series, CIARA’S DESTINY, too. Oh, and GODDESS OF LEGEND in Dec 2010. Jeesh, I’ve been busy…

BBB: Do you feel that centaurs are under-represented as love interests in the romance genre?

PCC: Absolutely! There could never be enough centaurs in romance! Man + horse = total hotness.

BBB: Have you and Kristin thought of writing another series together? Has writing together changed your relationship as mother-daughter at all?

PCC: Yep, we’ve already proposed another YA series to St. Martin’s, and they loved the idea. No vamps in it, but it is still paranormal. We get the question about whether working together has changed our relationship all the time. People have even asked, “Do you two really have a good relationship, or is this just your public persona?” (which utterly baffles us) Here’s the real deal: I’ve been a single parent a long time. Kristin and I have always been close. She saw me struggle through college and work three jobs to support us. She knows what it’s like to watch me worry about whether I can buy food for us and still pay the electric bill. All we had for a lot of years was each other, so we’ve always had each other’s back. From the time she started talking in complete sentences well before she was two, Kristin and I communicated easily. Nothing will ever change that. We love working together because we’ve always been close and we love and respect each other.

BBB: Where do you see the YA fantasy/urban fantasy genre headed? Can you see it slowing down in the near future, or do you think that the immediate future is pretty bright for it?

PCC: I don’t have a clue. I don’t even think about it. I think the bottom line is people will always want to read good stories, no matter the genre. I prefer to write with a paranormal/fantasy influence, so whether the perceived trend is for that to be hot or not, that’s what I’ll be writing.

BBB: How difficult is it to transition between co-authoring the House of Knight series with Kristin and writing your own stand alones?

PCC: Not at all. I think I’d published a little over a dozen books when I sold the House of Night series to St. Martin’s, so I was already an established author. The only difference with the HoN is that Kristin sees the manuscript before it goes to our editor. Usually no one reads my manuscripts before my editor(s).

BBB: How do the two of you navigate the actual story writing, e.g. do you pre-plot it all out, get the main details and pantz it, divide up chapters, etc.?

PCC: Like I said before, we brainstorm and then I write the book. I do make notes to Kristin directly in the text, especially when it comes to pop references. After I finish the manuscript I send it to Kristin, and she goes through it answering my notes and making comments of her own, then she sends it back to me and I go through it again before sending it to our editor at SMP. During the writing of Tempted I did call her and read an entire scene to her and asked whether I was making Aphrodite sound too old. She had me change a word or two, and that was that. Kristin really serves as teen editor – we don’t switch back and forth with the writing. That would make both of us crazy.

BBB: True Blood or The Vampire Diaries?

PCC: True Blood!!

BBB: Do you have any plans for book signings/ readings anytime soon? If so, where can our readers find you?

PCC: Kristin and I are going on tour starting with the live launch of Tempted on the Wendy Williams show October 27th. Here’s where we’ll be:

Tuesday, October 27, 7 pm, Borders, 1260 Old Country Road, Westbury, NY 11590, 516-683-8700 (store)

Wednesday, October 28, 6 pm, Barnes & Noble, 118 E. Broadway, Mall of America, Bloomington, MN 55425, (952) 854-1455

Thursday, October 29, 6 pm, Third Place Books, Party! 17171 Bothell Way NE, Lake Forest Park, WA 98155, 206-366-3333

Friday, October 30, 7 pm, Book Signing/Party, Books Inc., 855 El Camino Real # 74, Palo Alto, CA 94304, *Pre-selling tickets to Halloween Ball, kids can pick them up on day of or when they buy the book.

Sunday, November 1, 11:30 am – 12 , PC signs Goddess Summoning Books, 1pm, Texas Book Festival, Capital Building, Austin, TX

*1-1:45 reading and discussion at festival with book signing to follow with Kristin. For more details check out Texas Book Festival on-line.

Monday, November 2, 7 pm, Barnes & Noble, 7660 North Point Parkway, Alpharetta, GA 30022, (770) 993-8340

Tuesday, November 3, 7pm, Borders, 4475 Roswell Rd. – Ave. E. Cobb, Marietta, GA 30062, 770-5650947

Wednesday, November 4 (KRISTIN’S BIRTHDAY!), 7 pm, Borders, 11054 Lee Hwy, Fairfax, VA 22030, 703-359-8420

Thursday, November 5, 6 pm, Barnes & Noble, 8123 Honeygo Blvd., Baltimore, MD 21236, (410) 933-9670

Saturday, November 7, 2 pm, Borders, 2740 E 21st Street, Tulsa, OK, 918-712-9955

And then I’m going to disappear into the Scottish Highlands with my man for the rest of November.

BBB: Do you and Kristin get flack for leaving such big cliffhangers in the series? And is it deliberate or is it an editing decision to write the books that way?

PCC: Kristin and I stopped reading reviews a long time ago, and most readers who contact us are passing along positive comments. My outlook on life is that it’s healthier to focus on the positives and not give negative energy much attention. Luckily, I’ve never been the kind of woman who thinks she has to please everyone, so I pretty much ignore flack. But to conclude with cliffhangers is an editorial decision because they’re holding me to a word count, and I simply can’t complete more than one plot arch within those confines. I’d prefer to write huge books and only put one out every other year or so, but my publisher wants them broken up into smaller pieces.

BBB: You have two very different series going at the same time. Do you enjoy it when you get to “leave” one and then concentrate on the other? Or, do you write both at the same time?

PCC: Actually I have three publishers and have my fingers in four different series. I don’t find it difficult to move back and forth because the worlds are so different. It is fun to move from YA to adult. I like the variety it gives me. And I wish I could write different books at the same time! I can’t, though. I’ve tried and it just doesn’t work. I can be in the editorial process with one and be writing the draft of another, but that’s the best I can do. I’m just lucky that once I get focused in a book the writing goes pretty quickly. Of course sometimes it takes me two hundred pages to focus…sigh.

Dark, racy world of vampires and zombies an escape

Headstrong Bella is in love with a vampire. Zoey has a crescent moon seared onto her forehead, the mark of a fledgling bloodsucker. Sixteen-year-old Ever can hear people’s thoughts. Calliope is, reluctantly, Death’s daughter.

All are modern female heroes written by women, read by women and not only obsessed over by teenagers but also their older sisters and mothers. The economy may be deeply troubled, but urban fantasy novels about vampires, werewolves, zombies, supernatural creatures, blood and romance are booming, and women are sinking their teeth into them in ravenous numbers.
“We’re living in a frightening time. I don’t know if it’s an escapism as in there’s scary stuff out there so let me control it through the medium of reading,” says Amy Clarke, a lecturer at the University of California, Davis, who teaches science fiction literature.
“There’s dreaming of being with a vampire or werewolf, but there’s always the danger of crossing over. I think it’s a post-feminist way of taking on power.”
The trend gathered steam with Bella Swan and her conflicted romance with gorgeous vampire Edward in Stephenie Meyer’s four-book “Twilight” series, which has sold more than 53 million copies worldwide since the first book’s release in 2005, according to publisher Little, Brown and Co. Meyer’s newest, the more adult-themed “The Host,” has 2 million copies in print domestically.
Call it dark escapism with a racy flair. The “Twilight” explosion, including its hit movie version, has deepened the needs of women urban fantasy novel readers.
Other authors are jumping in: P.C. Cast and her daughter Kristin’s popular “House of Night” vampire series; Alyson Noel’s “Immortals” books: the “Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mysteries” novels by Charlaine Harris, which inspired the TV series “True Blood” on HBO; Richelle Mead’s “Vampire Academy” trilogy; and books by more than half a dozen other female writers.
The genre’s popularity is bigger than just books, says P.C. Cast.
“With women, this is reflecting a shift in our society,” Cast said in an interview from her home in Tulsa, Okla. “I’ve seen a big shift, especially in my classroom, with women standing up and demanding respect. That’s in every woman, whether 16, 26, 56.”

“Our fiction is also reflecting that because we’re writing the fiction. We’ve given ourselves permission to be successful. We’re also giving ourselves permission to have fun,” said Cast, a single mother who taught high school English for 15 years before focusing only on writing.

Her five “House of Night” books, starting in 2007 with “Marked,” follow the adventures of Zoey Redbird, a high school student marked to be a vamp, who must enter the House of Night. Described as a “vampyre finishing school,” it’s filled with bratty girls, cute guys and no end of drama.
Cast enlisted the help of daughter Kristin, 22, to ensure that the teen-speak in her stories reflected current vernacular as opposed to the author’s “inner ’70s teenager saying things that were so not cool.”
It paid off.
There are 5.5 million copies of the five “House of Night” books in print in the United States and the series has been on The New York Times list of best-sellers for 63 weeks, according to publisher St. Martin’s Press. “Tempted,” the sixth book, is due out in October. The series has been optioned by Empire Pictures, with a film script in the works.
“Vampires are super sexy. Vampires and teens have a lot in common. Teens have surging hormones, vampires have surging blood lust. Teenagers think they’re immortal,” Cast said.
And for older women, says UC Davis’ Clarke, “hot blooded” has taken on new meaning.
“All of the stuff I’ve read has some pretty heated sex scenes in them, and that brings people into the world of it,” Clarke said. “The teens haven’t had sex yet and the mothers have, and it’s maybe not as good as it was.”

Credit: News Press

Here’s a first look at the cover of Tempted, the sixth installment in the best-selling House of Night series by mother-daughter writing team P.C.  and Kristin Cast. The novel will hit bookstores on October 27, and publisher St. Martin’s already plans to print over a million copies (a number that will likely go up). We talked to both the Casts yesterday, who offered some exclusive tidbits about what fans can expect in this latest installment.