Tuesday 17 January 2012

AUTHOR INTERVIEW - KRISTINE CAYNE








Let me start by saying that it’s my pleasure to spend the day here at JeanzBookReadNReview, talking with readers about my new book, Deadly Obsession. Thank you!

  1. What is your name, where were you born and where do you live now? My name is Kristine Cayne. I’m originally from Montréal, but now I live in the Pacific Northwest.
  1. How long does it usually take you to write a book, from the original idea to finishing writing it? Usually, an idea sparks in my mind. I munch on it until I can meet with my plotting group. We brainstorm ideas for the major suspense and romance threads. Then the research starts. In most of my books, I deal with locations, cultures, languages, or situations with which I’m unfamiliar. While I’m revising my current work-in-progress, I’m researching aspects of my next book. This allows me time to digest what I’m learning before I sit down to write. From the first spark to the final revision, it takes about a year. But during that time, I’m working on several projects in parallel, all at different stages in the process.
  1. What made you decide to write that genre of book? I write romantic suspense because I love tough alpha heroes. In romance, the toughest guys are the ones who fall the hardest. An alpha hero is focused, determined, and his woman is his number one priority.  Doesn’t every woman want that? How can we resist a man who'd give up anything, even his life, for the safety and happiness of the woman he loves? Here are some of the bad boys that inspired me to write Deadly Obsession and Deadly Addiction.
              



  1. Do you have a favourite character from your books? and why are they your favourite? Each of my heroes and heroines are my favorite while I’m writing them, and they will always own a spot in my heart. But there is one character introduced in Deadly Addiction, the second in my Deadly Vices series, who intrigues me. Very much. He’s a serious badass and I can’t wait to find out his whole story!  I don’t want to give anything away, but suffice it to say, he’ll be getting his own HEA later in the series.
  1. Do you have anybody read your books and give you reviews before you officially release them? ie. Your partner, children, friends, reviewers you know? I am lucky to have the best critique partner in the world. We meet twice a week to read scenes to each other. We work on plot, scene structure, layering, dialogue, etc. I also have a writing group of six authors that meets twice a month. It’s fun and very useful to get feedback from a variety of people who write different genres. Finally, I try to have a couple non-writers beta read the books. I want to make sure the story makes sense to someone coming at it cold.
  1. Do you gift books to readers to do reviews? Yes, I do. As part of this blog tour, reviewers were provided with copies. I’m also participating in a group on Goodreads that matches up authors with readers who get the book as a gift in exchange for an honest review.
  1. How do you come up with the Title and Cover Designs for your book/books? Who designed the Cover of your books? My cover was designed by Scarlett Rugers Design (www.scarlettrugers.com). I think Scarlett did an awesome job.
The titles are based on the central theme of each book. In Deadly Obsession, every major character in the book is obsessed with something or someone. In Deadly Addiction, many of the characters have an addiction of some sort. Each of the main characters in the third book in the series, Deadly Betrayal, has been, or will be, betrayed in a way that changes his or her life.

Where can readers follow you?
Your Goodreads author page? http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5428452.Kristine_Cayne
Your Twitter details? http://www.twitter.com/KristineCayne

And any other information you wish to supply?
Deadly Obsession is available in print and/or e-book format from the following retailers:
Thankyou Kristine for taking the time to take part in this Interview!


4 comments:

  1. Hi Kristine! I'm intrigued to hear that you involve so many other people when writing your books, from the plotting to the beta reading stage. Do you ever have problems with anyone trying to 'take over' your book and steer it somewhere you hadn't intended? Or do you manage to keep a firm grip on your original vision?

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  2. Excellent question, Dave! The plotting sessions are great for brainstorming. Multiple ideas are brought up, but I chose which ones to go with. And after we're done, it's still up to me to write what I want. In some cases, the original idea doesn't work for me anymore when I get to that part of the book. So I change it. My critique partner is great because she'll focus on areas where I'm having problems, those sections where I know something isn't quite working but can't think of a way to fix it. We brainstorm some more, then I take it from there.

    So, for me, getting multiple inputs works because I am able to weed through them and change only those things that I know need to be changed. This is especially the case if several people pick up on the same thing.

    ~Kristine

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  3. Kristine, great interview. Loved reading about your writing process. And I really love the Deadly titles and themes behind (Obsession - Addiction - Betrayal). So much drama implicit in the titles alone. Well done!

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  4. Thank you, Norah! I too think it's fun to learn how others write their books. It seems there are as many processes as authors :-)

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