Interview with Caitlin Kittredge

Today I have an interview for you with a great author, Caitlin Kittredge.  Some of you may know Caitlin from her Nocturne City Series or maybe even the Icarus Project.  I have read and enjoyed her Black London Series. On November 30, 2010 the third book, Bone Gods, will be released.

Lets get on to that wonderful interview...

Me:  Hello Caitlin!  Thank you so much for agreeing to do an interview with me. :)


CK:  My pleasure.


Me:  It appears you have been very busy lately with all the amazing sounding books your working on, recently released, or coming up to be released.  And moving too.  I have been enjoying one series of yours, with Pete and Jack.  The third book of this series is to be released November 30th.  Can you tell us a little bit about your main characters for those who might not have read the series yet?


CK:  Jack Winter is a mage (a magic user who can and does use both lighter and darker sorts of magic) who lives in London.  Jack's also a psychic, who can communicate with the dead as well as see demons, Fae and other creatures who dwell in the supernatural version of London known as the Black.  His ability is strong and it's actually driven him insane in the past.  Pete Caldecott is pretty much his diametric opposite.  She (yeah, it's a thing) is a former detective with the Metropolitan Police who discovered that she had some supernatural abilities of her own that are way more powerful and way more frightening than Jack's ability to cast hexes or talk to ghosts.  Pete and Jack used to be in love as teenagers, but a lot has happened since then, and their relationship is still fragile.  Plus, people keep trying to kill them and a literal demon from Hell has a vested interest in keeping them apart.  


Me:  Jack and Pete have a... unique... connection in the books with the help of their abilities.  But now we have our characters in some predicaments; Jack in a Hell of a place and Pete to learn a lot.  Will we see the characters grow by milestones in the next book?  Any hints you can give us?


CK:  In Bone Gods, yes.  There's a lot of change for everyone involved, including the city itself.  I never set out to write 20 books where Pete and Jack stay exactly the same and the world of the Black maintains the status quo.  It's safe to say that nothing in the books is sacred, including character's lives.


Me:  I read on your blog your to do list you have Black London #4 (Devil's Business), #5 and #6 to write. How many books will there be in the Black London series?


CK:  As many as they'll pay me for.


Me:  The characters have a British accent. Did you live in Britain or do lots of studying to come up with the comments and accent sound?


CK:  I've been to England and have some extraordinarily patient British friends.  I don't get everything right, and I freely admit sometimes I screw up the slang despite my best efforts, but I like to think I improve a little with each book.  


Me:  The relationship between Pete & Jack is great!  I really enjoy the banter they have going between the two of them.  I love that they let all out when they talk to each other.  No love last between the two.  I have not yet read other series by you (although they are on my list to get and read as I have really enjoyed these) but is there anything that fuels the truth behind these characters? 

CK:  I hate cutesy back-and-forth banter couples in fiction (books, comics, film or any other media) who never show each other a real emotion or emotional truth.  I also hate romantic comedies where the female lead won't just say what's on her mind and makes crazy assumptions about her male counterparts, so I think the combination of those two things lead me to the dynamic between Pete and Jack.  Yes, they get irritated and they fight and say horrible stuff to each other, but there's also a profound love and respect between them.  Jack would do anything for Pete and she pays him back by not sugarcoating the truth. Pete as a character is pretty blunt and extremely honest, and Jack wouldn't know how to be tactful if you had a gun to his head.  So they tend to get one another riled up.  


Me:  Do you have that one line, paragraph, page or section you wish you could go back and redo?


CK:  I really wish I could fix the slang mistakes in the first book.  Otherwise, no--I'm behind my writing 100%.


Me:  Any particular section or scene in the Black London Series that you enjoyed the most writing?  What scene was the most difficult to write? Why?


CK:  The scene on the porn set in Street Magic was hilarious, to me.  I was giggling while I was writing that one.  Possibly because on the inside, I'm twelve.  The stuff that delves into Jack's past, when we see his childhood abuse and multiple suicide attempts and drug addiction, was really hard for me to write unflinchingly and not skim over.  Getting down the innermost thoughts of a hard-core heroin addict/abuse survivor does not make for a bright, rainbow-filled writing session.


Me:  Do you have any authors who have influenced you?

CK:  Pretty much everything I read influences me, whether it's good or bad.  The Black London books are my attempt at something like those great British crime novels, where everyone smokes and people get punched in the face quite a bit.  The BBC series Life on Mars (NOT the shoddy American remake) had quite a bit to do with making Pete a cop, and also me deciding that Jack had to be from Manchester.  When I was a little younger I read a lot of the comic books Warren Ellis wrote for Marvel in the 90s, like Excalibur (which technically was about superheroes but owed a lot more to those same crime novels.)  Mike Carey is another fantastic author currently writing London-set fantasy, and Simon Green's Nightside books also had something to do with it.  I'll be a total post-1992 debut author cliche and say Neil Gaiman, as well.


Me:  Any advice to aspiring authors?


CK:  Write a book.  Seriously.  Write and finish a book.  Set yourself a routine, outline if you need to, and make it happen.  If you can finish one book, chances are good you can finish enough to eventually get published.  Also, read non-fiction as well as fiction.  If nothing else you'll get good ideas for future books.


Me:  Is there anything no one has asked you would like to be asked?


CK:  Nobody ever asks me my opinion on unicorns.  This makes me sad.


Me:  What was the last book you just finished?  What is next on you shelf to read?


CK:  I've been re-reading all of David Sedaris's books, and right now I'm reading Already Dead by Charlie Huston.


Me:  Just a fun question, If you could go any where in the world where would you go?


CK:  I've been to a lot of the places I've always dreamed of visiting--London, Belgium, Amsterdam, Kyoto, road tripping across the entire US.  Right now the two trips I really want to take are to tour Ireland or see Moscow and maybe a few other parts of Russia.  And I always enjoy going back to the UK--England is one of my favorite places on earth.


Me:  A fellow blogger and a friend, Robyn from The Bookoholic Zone, whom I've been talking about the books with and will do our scheduled chats with ~ posed a few questions I thought would be great to add in as well.  They are:  She was thinking on the emotions of the characters.  How is Pete going to react when she sees Jack again?  Will she show anger or still care too much about him?  And Jack?  Would he have any emotions left at all from being in Hell that he might still care for Pete?


CK:  Well, you'll have to read Bone Gods to find that out, because to answer any of those questions would be huge spoilers!  Yes, I'm mean like that.


WOW!  Thank you Caitlin.  I really enjoyed your answers.  I learned some great things here about the characters and you.  I am really looking forward to reading Bone Gods very soon.


I would love to wish you the best...in words and pages.  Thank you again Caitlin.

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Okay, so as a reader are you curious about Bone Gods?  
Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

Pete Caldecott is trying to survive in Black London without Jack Winter, her teacher and closest friend.  After Jack was turned into a demon, he went to live far out of reach...in hell.  But for Pete, surviving is no easy matter.  The Black is rife with turf wars between mages and necromancers, the witch-hunting Order of the Malleus has resurfaced, and the gods themselves seem to be at each other's throats.  Then Jack reappears, as the head of hell's army, and Pete has to choose between Jack, and her duties as a Weir--which demand she kill him to save the world from certain destruction...


Would you like to visit Caitlins site?  Here are the links:  Webpage & Blog are both linked here.  Caitlin is also on Twitter @caitkitt and you can find her on many different sites - the links are on her web page sidebar.