I know that your career hopes had started in music, but when did you decide you wanted to be a writer?
I don’t know that I ever decided, exactly . I liked to write stories, and I did it for my own private amusement for 14 years before I semi-accidentally sold my first professional novel . even then, though, I wasn’t sure I wanted to pursue it as a real career choice. I think the struggle to balance work/life/music/writing got to be too much after my second book was published, and I finally had to bail out of the music. But I only officially quit my day job this year, so I guess I was still hedging my bets!
Why have you written under so many alter egos? Is it fun to write as different people? Roxanne Longstreet, Roxanne Conrad, Julie Fortune, and Ian Hammell.
Well, it is fun, but that’s not the reason I did it. Actually, my first name (Roxanne Longstreet) was my real name at the time, but I didn’t do so well with those first few books, and in order to start over at a new publishing house, I needed a new name. I’d gotten married, so I changed to Roxanne Conrad . but once again, that didn’t work out so well. Rachel Caine was the third try that finally worked! As for Julie, well, she had a secret past in fan fiction, but she went legit with that Stargate SG-1 tie-in novel . and Ian Hammell was a one-off agreement with the publisher to write under a house-owned name as part of a series.
Until recently, you’ve spent some time in corporate communications for a company out of Texas. How did you manage to juggle that career with writing?
I won’t say it was easy, because it definitely wasn’t. Corporate Communications, the way that it rolled in that particular company, was a difficult job because there was a huge landscape of work and only one person doing it . which also meant that when a crisis erupted, I also had no backup to speak of, so trying to manage a demanding writing schedule was always an exercise in chaos. I coped by adopting extreme hours (writing from 5 am to 8:30, then working a full day, then answering emails and doing blogs and social networks during the evening). But it’s not a particularly healthy way to live, especially with a high-stress occupation.
What spawned the idea for the bestselling Morganville Vampire series?
My publisher asked if I’d like to write for their young adult line, but to be honest I wasn’t sure that I had it in me . especially since they were interested in any ideas I had on the subject of vampires. I’d already written a number of vampire stories and books, and I wasn’t sure I had anything new to say . but a conversation with a friend of mine convinced me that I might actually have a good idea about vampires owning a town and its inhabitants, and the balancing act that humans had to perform to survive. So I gave it a shot, and I guess it’s worked out!
Can you tell us what’s going on with Claire in Ghost Town?
Claire’s up against some serious challenges in this book . first, she gets on Amelie’s bad side by semi-accidentally killing a vampire, and then almost kills herself performing the impossible task of repairing some of Morganville’s broken machinery. But when people inside of town start losing their memories – including the vampires – Claire’s problems turn serious, and personal, as she discovers she can’t trust her own friends anymore . including Shane.
Will you give us a peek into what you have planned for the next book of the Morganville series?
Sure! BITE CLUB sees a whole new kind of menace come to town, in the form of a new martial arts gym that advertises that it’ll teach humans to defend themselves against vampires . but when Shane joins up, he starts to change, and not for the better. Worse, there are new players and old enemies joining forces, and Shane’s life may not be worth more than the price of an admission ticket to the next fight.
Do you have any scheduled novels coming out soon in the Weather Warden or Outcast Season series?
There won’t be any more novels in the Weather Warden series . TOTAL ECLIPSE was the last story in that cycle, and I think it was a good ending for all the characters. Outcast Season continues with two more novels – UNSEEN in February 2011, and UNBROKEN in February 2012!
I also have a brand new series starting up in August 2011 with the release of WORKING STIFF, the first novel of The Revivalist series. Bryn is a brand new funeral director who doesn’t just face the usual daily stress of dealing with the bereaved (and the dead). She discovers that her bosses are reviving the dead for profit in the basement.
Where can we get your tour info?
I keep my schedule updated here: http://www.rachelcaine.com/Rachel_Caine_-_Writer/Calendar.html
Where can your fans find you on the internet?
The link above is my main website, and I can also be found on Twitter, Facebook, Livejournal and Myspace!
What is the best piece of writing advise that you’ve ever received? If you can’t think of anything specific then can you offer a piece of writing advice to our readers?
I think the best piece of advice I ever got was to just sit down and write – and to write every day. It sounds boring, and it certainly can be sometimes, but in the end, it really pays off. The other thing I could offer is don’t get discouraged! When you’re a writer, you’ll face your own doubts about whether or not you could do it . and people who don’t think you can do it either. You’ll get rejected, but that’s part of what we all go through – and I still get rejected from time to time, so it’s important not to let it get you down. Just keep writing!
Rachel Caine is the author of more than fifteen novels, including the Morganville Vampires and Weather Warden series. She was born at White Sands Missile Range, which people who know her say explains a lot. She has been an accountant, a professional musician, and an insurance investigator, and still carries on a secret identity in the corporate world. She and her husband, fantasy artist R. Cat Conrad, live in Texas with their iguanas, Pop-eye and Darwin, a mali uromastyx named (appropriately) O’Malley, and a leopard tortoise named Shelly (for the poet, of course).