First
and foremost, please tell us a little bit about yourself. My twitter blurb says I’m a wife, mother and wine
drinker…not always in that order. Oh, yeah, and I’m a NYT’s Bestselling author
who also happens to be a retired ER RN.
You
tend to write various types of genres. What's your favorite to write and
why? What are you most comfortable to write and why? My favorite happens to be whatever isn’t giving me
trouble at the moment. I love to write all kinds of books because I enjoy
reading all sub-genres in romance. World building in a contemporary setting is
easier than creating a world that isn’t like our own…aka time traveling Druids
to Werewolves.
Are
you a plotter or a pantser? I’m a
pantser at heart but have recently found myself loosely plotting some of my
books. But most of the time I just sit down at the computer and start writing
and see where the story takes me.
What
is your writing routine? My
routine starts with marketing…daily. I get an update from my assistant on
whatever pressing matters I need to address. Crystal is the bomb…and get this,
we have yet to meet in person. Although Facetime does make face-to-face contact
possible. Anyway…after I’ve gotten all the ‘business’ of being a writer out of
the way I try and reach my daily word count of 2500. When I’m on a deadline
this is a must. If I’m not I tend to drag a little bit unless something
inspires me and I go for an all-nighter. Just depends.
Where
do you find your inspiration? Daily
life…the people around me, an article or a newscast. Ideas are swimming
everywhere around us. I tend to write series romance so I often build a
character through a few books before I get to their story. So it’s easy for me
to see where the book needs to go to make the hero/heroine grow within the
pages.
Your
Weekday Brides series has heroines employing matchmaking skills. The
heroine in my adaption of Jane Austen's EMMA also loves to match people
together yet can't see her perfect match is right in front of her. What
is it about successful matchmakers who can't seem to find their own match that
attracts readers? The
Weekday Brides Series is more about making suitable and temporary matches. What
will make a truly perfect romantic match isn’t always what will make a good
business deal. And THAT is what the bride books are really about. Although the
matches made aren’t always loveless, or in the case of Fiancé by Friday, they
aren’t matched up because of a business deal at all.
As for what attracts readers…I think when in real
life a person has a hard time hooking up with the right person they’re ready to
let someone else pick for them. The age old ‘throw enough shit against the
wall, something is bound to stick’ plays in here. And of course there is a
fantasy element here. I don’t know many women who would agree to a blind date
let alone a temporary marriage for a payout when it’s all done.
How
do you employ a popular plotline - marriage as a business arrangement - and
make it unique and exciting? Good
question! I think that as long as each of my heroes and heroines have unique
backgrounds and motivations then the stories are fresh and exciting. You can’t
reinvent the same heroine and give her a new name and expect readers to not
catch that.
What
is it about billionaires that attract us (besides the obvious, of course)? The obvious! LOL
What’s not to love about a fantasy hot man with
serious money? The power of a man to obtain big money is sexy. It tells a woman
‘this man has his shit together’. It also gives the pages a huge fantasy
element that many people in this world can’t completely identify with. We can
read about the down on his luck construction worker that can’t afford a hotel,
but there isn’t a lot of sexy in that. Now, if that construction worker is down
and out, but determined to ‘get it all back’, then there is power in that…and
it can be very sexy.
I also look at it like this. When I worked in the
ER, I didn’t watch any medical television…you know ER or Grey’s Anatomy. It
felt like I was at work when I did. So if a reader is reading a book that is
too much like their own life they might not feel the fantasy element they are
looking for when they pick up a book.
In
your NOT QUITE MINE book, Katelyn Morrison is an heiress. With the
romance/chick lit genre filled with billionare heroes and "regular"
heroines, how did it feel writing a heroine who had money and financial
independence? How is it different than writing a "regular"
heroine? It
was great. I love a rich heroine that is flawed in other ways. Money might give
some the advantage over what car they drive, but they probably have other
struggles just to get along in this world. Katelyn was a wonderful character to
work with. She had issues…they just weren’t financial.
How
did you research 16th century Scotland for your MacCoinnich Time
Travel Trilogy? What made you choose that setting? To be perfectly honest I didn’t do much research at
all when I started this series. It’s a fantasy romance set in the 16th
century. The world I built in that book isn’t based on historical events of the
times. It’s about a Druid family working hard to keep evil from taking over.
What
is it about werewolves that draws us in?
Pure fantasy! Like vampires and witches…it’s a fantasy and so outside our
real life that we like to escape into those words and the purely Alpha male
persona that goes along with it. JMHO
Did
you develop your own werewolf mythology or did you keep certain parts of the
lore traditional (full moon, silver bullet, etc.) for your Ritter Werewolf
series? Outside
of a few movies, I had NEVER read a werewolf story before I wrote my Ritter
Werewolf stories. So I can’t say that I used lore as much as my own
imagination. Most of the feedback I get from my readers is that these books are
different than the others they’ve read in the genre.
How
did it feel writing about a heroine as a werewolf rather than the hero? I
loved it. There are plenty of powerful women in this world…why not give her a
monthly cycle that can be a real pain?
Do
you have plans to dabble in any other supernatural mythology, say fairies or
vampires? I’m
not all that interested in fairies, but I do have a vampire book in my hard
drive. Maybe one day I’ll get back into it and decide if it’s worthy publishing.
I do love a multitude of paranormal characteristics and have every desire to
write books featuring many of them.
What
type of relationship is your favorite to explore and develop? Opposite attraction. Or taboo attraction. When I
find myself with two characters that are very much alike it’s harder to write.
Although I do like to challenge myself to make those stories compelling and
page-turning worthy.
How
did you go about publishing your stories?
I started trying the traditional route…agent, publisher etc… I finally
went with a small press first, then on to self publishing. Now I have
traditional and self publishing platforms.
Do
you have any advice for aspiring novelists?
I always give the same advice. WRITE! No one is going to finish your book
for you.
Would
you recommend advertisements or did you market your books through a different
venue? Social
Media is free and full of readers. Start there. Paid advertising is something
you can jump into when you’re making money at this writing thing.
How
involved are you in terms of editing/book cover/release date/marketing process? More involved than anyone else with their hands in
the game. These are my books and I take great pain to see that they are treated
like the babies they are. Now, with a publisher you don’t always have a say in
release, but if I can move a release date to better market the book, sometimes
these things are agreed upon and changed. As for covers…again, this is a big
deal. A bad cover can ruin a book launch.
And no one… and I mean no one can market your book
better than you. Yes, Amazon is my publisher and they market the heck out of my
stuff. But so do I. I’m not an author who sells a book to a publisher and walks
away when it’s written.
Are
you working on anything now? I’m
always working on something. I’m finishing up the 5th book in my
time travel series, Amber’s story. Then I’ll be jumping back into my
contemporary worlds of the Not Quite and the Brides Series for two more books.
Busy me!
Any
upcoming releases? Not Quite Enough (October 2013) http://www.amazon.com/Not-Quite-Enough-ebook/dp/B00CH37J66/ref=pd_sim_kstore_7
Single by Saturday (January 2014) http://www.amazon.com/Single-Saturday-Weekday-Series-ebook/dp/B00DO0OPTK/ref=pd_sim_kstore_3
Website:
catherinebybee.com
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Blog:
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Twitter: twitter.com/catherinebybee
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GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2905789.Catherine_Bybee
Thank you for the interview.
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