Thanks for stopping by to
talk a little about your writing! Let's jump right in. When did you begin writing
and why?
I’ve always dabbled, but
the first time I tried to give it a serious go was in the late 90s, when I had
a job where I had little to do but had to look busy, preferably on my computer,
and games weren’t an option. But nobody noticed if I was typing a document.
That’s when I wrote my first novel.
Do you have a favorite genre? Is it the same
genre you prefer to write?
I love historical,
suspense, and paranormal, for both reading and writing. Sometimes I like to mix
them up, such as in my steampunk work. Curses is a paranormal, werewolf/witch
book with a fair bit of suspense. Where there’s Smoke is a Prohibition-set
historical, with no paranormal elements. I love them both!
Do certain themes and ideas tend to capture
your writer’s imagination and fascinate you?
Of course! I’ve noticed
that family often features prominently in my books, both the good and bad of
them, as well as the idea of the families we build for ourselves as we go
through life. Also humor, even when the story’s in a dark place, because I
think life is just stupid funny sometimes.
Do you have a favorite author who introduced
you to the genre?
Hands down, for paranormal
and suspense, and smart romance,
there’s no beating the late Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters. My early
historicals were usually medieval, which I haven’t written much, but the master
of the early medieval historicals was undoubtedly Roberta Gellis. I have so
many other favorites and inspirations, but those two are definitely part of my
foundation as a writer.
What advantages or challenges does a writer in
your genre face in today’s fiction market?
Steampunk flat out didn’t
sell like we’d hoped, so that hurt the bottom line a bit. Paranormal is up and
down, as is historical. Right now, though, the state of the publishing industry
as a whole is the big thing that gives us all nightmares. With publishers
merging, closing, firing editors and bookstores closing all over the place,
it’s a tough time in any genre.
What's on the top of your TBR pile right now?
I just unpacked several boxes of old books. I think I’m
going to go back and read some of my classic Jayne Ann Krentz and Linda
Howard’s.
Tell me a little about the characters in Where there’s Smoke.
Nettie Price is a young
woman from a decent family that pretty much lost everything when her mother
died and her father descended into alcoholism (yes, it could be managed during
Prohibition, but it was riskier.) She promised her mother she’d look after her
father, but as he becomes more physically abusive, it becomes more and more
difficult. Eli Price is from a wealthy Chicago family but has chosen to forego
the family banking business to be a lawyer and volunteer firefighter in a small
Michigan town.
Where’s the story set? How much influence did
the setting have on the atmosphere/characters/development of the story?
The setting, especially
the time period, influenced everything. Nettie and Eli live in a time where the
world was changing around them faster than people could keep up. Most small
cities didn’t have professional fire departments, so it was possible for Eli to
follow both of his dreams. Nettie works at a book store, which would have been
a little scandalous just a few decades earlier. At the start of the book, she’s
never even owned a lipstick—makeup, for “nice” girls was a new thing. She makes
her own clothes. The location of the story, the western coast of Michigan is
rich in timber, and was very popular for rich Chicagoans building summer homes,
which is a big part of Eli’s family.
If you had to write your memoir in five words,
what would you write?
Many jobs, kind of crazy.
How often does your muse distract you from day
to day minutiae?
I’d say it was a pretty
equal split between that and when the day to day stuff interferes with my
writing. J
What do readers have to look forward to in the
future from you?
I have a lot of stuff I’ll
be re-releasing over the next year or two, plus I’m working on some new
paranormal and historical stuff plus taking a step out of romance and into
urban fantasy. Ideally, I’d really like to revisit the twenties, maybe with
another mystery for Nettie and Eli, and, if possible, maybe sneak in a bit of
steampunk just for fun.
Curses, published by Butterfly Kisses
Press from the Ethan Ellenberg Agency, full-length paranormal romance.
Cindy Spencer Pape’s
first published novel, Epic-Award winning and multiple award finalist, Curses, is being re-released by
Butterfly Kisses Press:
Some people really are cursed when
it comes to love! For innkeeper and witch Melissa MacRae, a family curse means
that falling in love is the ultimate bad idea. Author Jonas Pierce is a
werewolf, who has seen too much evil to even consider passing on his curse to
another generation. So why does a hot summer fling have them both thinking
about happily ever after?
Curses will be re-released on April
1, 2016, in paperback and e-book.
Where there’s Smoke, A Roaring 20’s
novella, Vintage romantic Suspense with a hot fireman hero, available from Rook
and Rose Publications.
Michigan, 1926:
Nettie Price supports her abusive father because of a deathbed promise to her mother. One of the highlights of her day is when Eli Lawson, lawyer, and volunteer firefighter comes in to her bookshop for his morning papers.
After one particularly brutal beating, Eli finds her and takes her to his home to recover. As a string of fires heats up the town, things also start to heat up between Nettie and Eli. But between arson and their own insecurities, love just might not be enough to save their relationship—or their lives.
Nettie Price supports her abusive father because of a deathbed promise to her mother. One of the highlights of her day is when Eli Lawson, lawyer, and volunteer firefighter comes in to her bookshop for his morning papers.
After one particularly brutal beating, Eli finds her and takes her to his home to recover. As a string of fires heats up the town, things also start to heat up between Nettie and Eli. But between arson and their own insecurities, love just might not be enough to save their relationship—or their lives.
Excerpt from “Where there’s Smoke”
At every other shop in town, the clerks looked at Eli as if
he were nothing more than his wallet or his position on the city council,
always trying to sell him something more, something he didn’t need, or hoping
to influence his opinion on this or that. Nettie saw the man beneath, and spoke
to him like a person, and damn if every book she suggested wasn’t a good one.
Best of all, he’d watched her with other customers. She was thoughtful to
everyone who entered the shop, rich or poor. She was even polite to the ones
who spoke rudely about her drunken father.
It was on that thought that Eli entered the shop so he’d
momentarily lost his cheerful mood. It disintegrated completely when he got a
look at Nettie’s face. Her left cheek was a mass of bruising, the eye swollen
nearly shut.
And still she smiled. “I wondered where you were today. I’ve
saved you a Washington Post.” Her bright tone never wavered.
Eli lost all pretense of civility and stalked to the
counter. “Your father?” He pitched his voice low, so it wouldn’t carry through
the open door.
“I tripped.” She winced as she tried to smile again. “Fell
down a couple of stairs into a wall.” Her fingers clenched on the counter,
wrinkling his copy of the local paper.
Not that he gave a damn about that. He laid his hand over
his. “You’re not a very good liar, Miss Nettie. Why’d he hit you this time?”
She shrugged. “I forgot to pick up his medicine on my way home last night.”“Medicine, my Aunt Gertrude. You mean his booze.” Everyone knew Murphy the pharmacist sold bootleg liquor out of his shop, and gave a cut of the profit to Doc Rollins, the disreputable quack who prescribed it for a wide variety of ills.
About the Author:
Multi-Award winning author Cindy Spencer Pape
firmly believes in happily-ever-after and brings that to her writing, which
blends fantasy, adventure, science fiction, suspense and romance. Author of 19
novels and more than 40 shorter works, Cindy lives in southeast Michigan with
her family and a houseful of pets. When not hard at work writing she can be
found restoring her 1870 home, dressing up for steampunk parties and
Renaissance fairs, or with her nose buried in a book.
2 comments:
Interesting interview Cindy. Love your cover!
What a wonderful interview. I love mixing up my genres too! :) It's fun to find a new wonderful world by a fabulous new author!
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