Interview with Carrie Vaughn

Q: With a narrative written in the first person and which is at times very emotional, how much of yourself can we find in Kitty's character?

Carrie Vaughn: That's a tough one for me to answer because I don't always have a good handle on the kind of person I am in the first place! An interesting phenomenon I've noticed: people who are acquaintances, who don't know me well, say they see a lot of me in Kitty; while people who know me very well, close friends and family, say they don't see very much of me in her at all. What that tells me is on the surface we may be similar, but past that we're not much alike. If the emotion is there, it's because I want to be inside the character's head while I'm writing. I want to see everything through her eyes and capture that perspective. A couple of details: I gave Kitty an English major so I could drop in literary references, which I seem to do naturally (I have a Masters in English literature.) But I've also found myself reining in a lot of references that I would make, that I know she wouldn't. I decided she isn't a big science fiction fan and probably wouldn't think "Jedi mindtrick" when witnessing vampiric hypnotism like I would.

Carrie Vaughn: The comment I get the most is how real she is to people. People tell me that they relate to her, that they can see her as a friend. I think because she isn't totally wrapped up in being a werewolf, that isn't the be-all and end-all of her existence, she appeals to a much wider audience. It seems like most werewolf stories are all about the angst of being a werewolf, of trying to cure it, of losing control to it. That stereotypical Jekyll and Hyde dichotomy doesn't interest me at all. I made a conscious decision to say, "Okay, she's a werewolf, she's dealing with it, let's move onto to other things now."

Carrie Vaughn: It's really hard to say. I'm writing the fourth one now, so I have a really good idea of where that's going. A couple of questions I get asked a lot are whether Cormac returns and if Kitty ever goes back to Denver to face Carl and Meg. The answers: Cormac plays a big part of the third book, Kitty Takes a Holiday, and Kitty returns to Denver in the fourth one, Kitty and the Silver Bullet. I have a rough idea of how many books I'd like to write, and I do have a direction I'd like the series to go. I know what happens in the last book. It'll depend on if the publisher wants more books.

Carrie Vaughn: It's very important for a couple of reason. Mostly, it distracts the anxiety-ridden, obsessive compulsive part of my brain that's always worrying if I locked the door or left the stove on. I have to shut that part down or I can't write. I also find it very helpful to listen to music that suits the mood of what I'm writing. It was a happy accident that, as I was writing the first book, I found a number of songs that really reflected the mood and ideas of the story. Since Kitty starts out as a DJ,the playlist was a fun way to specifically tie the music to the book. I'm glad I was able to include it.

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Interview by Patrick
fantasyhotlist.blogspot