Interview with Author Rachel Caine (Includes Contest!)

There are a lot of authors that I can say are on my 'favourites' list but some authors have a higher status than others because they are writers I have been following since the beginning. My author guest this week is one of them.

Rachel Caine's Weather Warden series showed me that there was more to Urban Fantasy than just vampires, werewolves and the occasional ghost. Then later she also proved that vampires can be more interesting if you have the right setting and crew in the Morganville Vampire Series. She also still manages to wonder and amaze me with her unusual but fantastic new ideas for books like she does in the Revivalist series.

If you haven't read a book by Rachel Caine then you have been missing out on some of the most impressive Paranormal and Urban Fantasy stories of the last eight years!

I hope you enjoy this interview with the wonderful Rachel Caine and please feel free to enter this weeks contest. Win a copy of one of these amazing books!

----------------

Amber - Hello Rachel! Welcome back to Amberkatze's Book Blog! You are an extremely busy author. Maybe you can start things off by telling my readers a little bit about each of your series?

Rachel - Sure!

First, the Weather Warden series is an adult urban fantasy tale of a smart, sexy woman (with a supernatural genie boyfriend) who is part of an international organization that defends you, poor mortal, in the un-winnable fight against Mother Earth -- who wants us all dead.

Outcast Season is a spinoff series featuring Cassiel, a former genie (Djinn) whose personal quest to rejoin her kind means opposing another insane outcast Djinn, with the lives of the human race in the balance. Book 4 (and the last) of that series, UNBROKEN, just released in February 2012.

The Revivalist series is my newest urban fantasy outing, and the first novel WORKING STIFF came out in August 2011; it's the story of a funeral director who discovers that her bosses are reviving the dead for profit in the basement -- and ends up hooked on the drug herself. Now, she's addicted, and one shot away from death, every day. The second novel, TWO WEEKS' NOTICE, is out in August 2012.

And the Morganville Vampires series (young adult) follows the adventures of Claire Danvers, young college student who discovers that her new college town of Morganville doesn't just have a substandard university and the prerequisite Mean Girls, but is owned and operated by vampires. As Claire acquires friends, allies, and a boyfriend, she also attracts deadly enemies ... and only some of them have fangs. Book 12 of the series, BLACK DAWN, is out in May 2012.

Amber - The most well known series you have right now has to be the Morganville Vampires. Last Breath was the latest release and book the 11th so far. How many more books do you intend to write based in Morganville?

Rachel - Right now, we're planning on a total of 15 books. Book 12, BLACK DAWN, is next, and then #13, BITTER BLOOD, will hit the shelves in November 2012.

Amber - The Morganville series has been around a while but you always manage to come up with amazing storylines each time. How do you decide what to throw at Claire and the gang each book?

Rachel - You know, it's really a matter of "what's the worst that can happen?" And there are just an amazing variety of bad things, unfortunately -- that's the nature of life. I think it makes it easier when there's an entire town full of characters and plot lines to draw on.

Amber - Claire, Shane, Michael and Eve are starting to grow out of the Young Adult phase. Do you try to tone things down for the younger readers? Is it hard to keep things young?

Rachel - No, not really, because although they are maturing I still think they're in the most intense and formative period of their lives ... and that's the essence of young adult, isn't it? I don't try to tone things down, to be honest, because I think that if I do, it reads falsely. I need to be true to the story first, but I try to put a lot of humor, love and caring into the story to balance out the scary, dark stuff.

Amber - When will the next Morganville installment be available? Can you tell us a little about it?

Rachel - BLACK DAWN will be out in May 2012. It's the continuation of the story started in LAST BREATH, with the invasion of Morganville by the draug, water-dwelling monsters who are at the very top of the supernatural food chain ... ahead of vampires. Now, Claire and her friends have to work with the vampires to bring down their common, very dangerous enemy ... but what happens when the vampires no longer have anything to fear? There's lots of action, adventure, romance, heartbreak, humor ... everything you've come to expect from a Morganville book!

Amber - The Weather Warden series ended but the Outcast series was born from it. How is the series going and how will it continue?

Rachel - The series just ended with the release of book 4, UNBROKEN ... I had originally planned this to be a limited four-book series, and it actually dovetails into the events of TOTAL ECLIPSE in the Weather Warden universe!

Amber - Do you miss the Weather Warden series? Ever thought of bringing it back?

Rachel - I'm not saying I won't revisit the Wardens and the Djinn at a future date, but for now that's the last in the saga.

Amber - I loved Working Stiff the debut in the Revivalist series. How did you come with the idea for that one?

Rachel - Thanks! I actually got to speak to a nanotechnologist a couple of years ago who was working on nannies that could repair specific types of damage to cells; the idea was to ultimately repair the aging process. I took it a step farther, with nannies that could act as a kind of in-body life support system ... as long as you get your shots every day. I thought it would be interesting to combine that with a business that few people ever write about ... the "death business" of the funeral and embalming trade.

Amber - When can we expect to see a sequel? Will there be more from the Revivalists?

Rachel - We'll be doing three Revivalist novels! The second is called TWO WEEKS' NOTICE, and it'll be out in August 2012.

Amber - Is there one character from your books that you love a lot? Hate? Books you wish you could go back and change?

Rachel - Hmmm, I think I am probably fondest of Myrnin, in terms of characters who are fun to write for ... but it's a very close race! I don't think I hate any of them. I mean, if I hated them, I'd probably kill them off. (This doesn't mean I hate ALL the characters I kill off, though, some of them I actually love!) I don't think there's any writer who wouldn't like to go back and change things after the fact, particularly those written when life was difficult for them ... but I think I like them the way they are, as a testament to who I was and where I was at the time.

Amber - Last but not least, if you could be any character from your books, who would you be and why?

Rachel - I think I'd probably have to pick Joanne Baldwin from the Weather Warden series. I mean, she controls the weather! She has great fashion sense! She has a hot Djinn boyfriend! Yes, sure, she's in mortal danger most of the time, but ... there are compensations. :)

Amber - Thank you for visiting!

Rachel - Thank you for having me! Hugs, Amber!









Contest Time!

Win one of Rachels's books. Winners choice! Want to start the series? Need the new book? You win, you choose!


How To Enter


Which of Rachel's characters would you like to have a chat with? Why?


No Answer = No Entry


'Please enter me' posts will NOT be counted as an entry

Earn more entries for each link you place about this contest on the net. You can post on Facebook, Twitter & MySpace but make sure you add links here for me to confirm your entries! However please do not make individual postings for each entry. Please post all your entries in one post.

Advertise Amberkatze's Book Blog on your site and get an extra entry for this and every other contest!

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

Have you 'Liked' Amberkatze's Book Blog on Facebook?

You can also earn extra entries by emailing your friends about the contest. Just make sure you send a copy of your email or receipt to me at Amberkatzes_book_blog at gmx dot net.

Make sure you post your links here so I can confirm your entries.

Keep the contests going by using the Bookdepository.com and Amazon.com links/Banners below and around the site.

The contest will stay open until 4pm on Sunday 18th March (Central European Time) and the winner will be picked by a randomizer. Entrants should check back to see if they have won. I do not hunt down winners and will pick new winners for any prizes not claimed within 7 days.