Interview and Giveaway: Rachel Caine’s TERMINATED

shapeimage_11Adventures in SciFi Publishing is pleased to share this interview with Rachel Caine and offer a giveaway of her newest book, Terminated: A Revivalist Novel, (in paperback). Details at the bottom for how to enter. First, a brief intro to Rachel:

Rachel Caine is the NEW YORK TIMES and #1 internationally bestselling author of more than 30 novels, including the hit Morganville Vampires series, the Weather Warden series, the Outcast Season series, and many others.

Tim Ward: For those who haven’t come across your many books, how would you introduce each of your series?


Rachel Caine: The Weather Warden series (9 novels) follows the adventures of Joanne Baldwin, a woman who’s part of an organization charged with wrangling the forces of nature that are actively trying to kill us. Joanne is armed with a fearsome talent for battling deadly weather and a sexy Djinn boyfriend, but her opposition is Mother Earth herself … who wants you dead. It’s a fun, adventure-filled series full of action and danger. And occasional sexy cars, too. (She loves cars.)


The Outcast Season series (4 novels) is a spin-off of the Weather Warden books … Djinn Cassiel has been exiled from her existence as one of Mother Earth’s guardians, busted down to merely human status. Without a solid partnership with a human Warden, she’ll die … but the complication is that she doesn’t really like humanity very much. Still, she’s going to be our last, best hope for survival when she’s all that stands between us, and an insane Djinn bent on remaking the world in her own image.

The Revivalist series (3 novels) follows Bryn Davis, whose new job as a funeral director takes a dark turn when she discovers her bosses have stolen a drug that revives the dead … temporarily. See, you have to keep taking the shots, and they’ve discovered a nice side business in extortion money. This discovery quickly dooms Bryn to be one of the Revived, dependent on the drug and owing her very existence to an evil pharmaceutical company … but with the help of a rebellious security chief, she’ll discover that the conspiracy goes into ever more sinister places, and being dead may be the only way to survive uncovering the truth.

 

TW: I know TERMINATED is the final book in the Revivalist series, but must these be read in order?

RC: Yes. I wrote it as one story arc, so you really do need to read them in order.  (Check out Book One: Working Stiff)

 Working Stiff

TW: I read that you spoke to a nano technologist in researching your Revivalist series. Any notable bits of info that you can share which you felt had to go in this series?

RC: It was a relatively casual conversation (as casual as you can have with someone that incredibly smart!) about the future of medical research, and how so many things are so exciting in that field right now. His comment that sparked my story was, “One day, life support will be something that’s done by nanotechnology, not by all the hoses and ventilators we have today.” That made me think about the blurring of lines between death and life — where exactly does it fall, in a world where nanotech can hold you hovering at the brink? Exciting stuff. And a little terrifying. 

Enter below for giveaway of this book in paperback

 

TW: How is the heroine for your Revivalist series a fresh direction from your previous series and how did you know she’d be interesting enough to support a new series? What are her strengths and weaknesses?

RC: I wanted to make Bryn less of a superhero, and more of someone with some basic skills who wasn’t a Special Forces ninja, but just a regular woman straight out of the military looking for a new career. I was excited about the idea of taking an ordinary person and making her extraordinary through an evolution of her character … not having her be immediately kick-ass and invulnerable. 

Bryn’s a strong person, with a strong will to survive, which is definitely what she needs in this situation; her weaknesses really revolve around the same ones we all have … the fear of death, the fear of pain, the fear of causing harm to those you love. When you begin to become powerful, you can do a lot of damage, and Bryn is afraid of that. I think that makes her admirable.

 

TW: Urban Fantasy is pretty popular. What makes your style a unique contribution to the genre? What do you try and do differently, from others and from your previous works?

RC: I really don’t know what makes me unique — I couldn’t say, because I just write what I love to write, and do it the best that I can at the time. I suppose what I hear from my readers is that I have strong characters they like to be around, which is great. I try to go after ideas that are offbeat and relatively unexplored, or take familiar ideas and turn them in unfamiliar ways … but I think we all try to do that. Sometimes you strike gold and really create something that resonates, but I think it’s the audience who makes that decision. 

I try to make every series different … for myself as much as for the audience, because I want to expand and stretch and challenge myself. So that’s always my goal with a new project.

 

TW: What are some writing obstacles you thought were impossible and how did you overcome them? Any you didn’t?

RC: I think I’ve faced the same obstacles anyone else has. First — how do you start? Then, how do you finish? Then, how do you find someone willing to give your work a chance? Those are things we all share as writers, and the solutions are pretty straightforward, because the answer to all those things is “work harder.” There aren’t any great tricks, just determination and annoying persistence. 

I’ve faced some more or less unique situations during my career when my work was less popular, and I had to change publishers and pen names before hitting the right material at the right time, but the answer again is sheer persistence … and a willingness to try new things and find the joy in them. 

As far as things I didn’t overcome … I always wanted to write for television, but I didn’t want to live in LA. So I never overcame that one. 🙂

 

TW: Are you still under deadlines every three months? How have your first two projects gone this year? Any interesting challenges you have overcome?

RC: I’m almost out of deadlines — I’ve got an edit for a short story, proofs coming for another book, but that’s all I have right now, which is amazing. As of this month, I have NO contracts left to fulfill, which is awesome. I’m taking a few months to rest, recharge, and come out with new proposals for things I want to do … I expect I’ll be restless inside of a few weeks and ready to go, though! 

This year was hard, because I had significant deadlines (Terminated, Daylighters and Prince of Shadows) all due in the first half of the year, plus Real Life Drama intruded … my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimers, and I had to step in to find a way to make her life healthy and secure before I could focus on anything else. But all’s well now, and she’s happy and — most importantly — safe. Add to that long trips to the UK and out to the West Coast for San Diego Comic-Con, and it’s been challenging for sure … but rewarding, too. 

Preorder for November 5th release.

 

TW: Are there any other releases in 2013 or anything you’d like to mention for people to check out?

RC: Terminated is out in August, and the last Morganville Vampires novel in YA, Daylighters, comes out in November … number fifteen! In February 2014 Prince of Shadows, my young adult retelling of Romeo and Juliet set in Shakespeare’s Verona, comes out, and I’m very excited about that as well. In short fiction, Carniepunk just came out with one of my stories, and Kicking It will be coming out later this year, plus Dark Duets

Oh, and if you’re not already in the know — we’ve successfully funded a Kickstarter to film the first season of our MORGANVILLE web series! I’ve written the first six episodes, and we’re starting filming in September for an early 2014 release.

 

TW: Will you be at any conventions in the remainder of 2013?

RC: Not as many as I have been — trying to cut down! But I’ll be at FenCon in Dallas as a panelist. That’s pretty much all I have planned for the rest of the year, except for the November tour for Daylighters!  (Tour schedule on her website)

 

TW: Thank you for your time, Rachel, and best to you in the remainder of 2013.

RC: Thank you so much for the chance to chat! Best wishes!

TW: You can find Rachel online at: Website | RSS | YouTube | Flickr | Facebook | Twitter

Giveaway details:

To enter, email adventuresinscifipublishing(at)gmail(dot)com with the subject line TERMINATED and your mailing info in the body of the email. US residents only. Duplicate entries will be deleted. Or, comment below on why you’d like to read this book. All entires and their info will be deleted after giveaway is complete.

Bonus entry to anyone who emails/comments and is a member of our Goodreads group.

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Timothy C. Ward
Executive Producer

Timothy C. Ward‘s first publication, Cornhusker: Demon Gene (A Short Story), is available on Kindle for $.99. He is looking for beta readers for his novel, Kaimerus, described as “Firefly crashes on Avatar and wakes up 28 Days Later.”

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About Timothy C. Ward

Timothy C. Ward is a former Executive Producer for AISFP. His debut novel, Scavenger: Evolution, blends Dune with Alien in a thriller where sand divers uncover death and evolution within America's buried fortresses. Sign up to his author newsletter for updates on new releases.

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