An Interview with
Karen Chance
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This month we will be talking with Karen Chance about her debut book, Touch the Dark, being released in June 2006, and her future plans. After reading this wonderful story I am very excited about the opportunity to visit with you. Thanks Karen for taking to time to talk with us! 1. After finishing Touch the Dark, I was fascinated with the world you created and am eager to see where Cassie’s future adventures lead her. Can you tell us a little bit about this book and the world it takes place in? Touch the Dark is a modern fantasy, meaning that it takes place in the present but with the myths and legends of our past still very much alive and kicking (and occasionally playing craps. The setting is Las Vegas for the most part, although Atlanta and southern France make appearances. The protagonist, Cassie, is a clairvoyant who is hiding out from the vampire who mismanaged most of her life and who now wants her dead. The book opens when he finally locates her. It is mainly concerned with the deal she has to cut with his master-an even more powerful vampire-in order to escape, and what she learns about herself in the process. 2. How long, between conception of the idea and release of the published book, did it take for Touch the Dark? About two years. Roc is great about editing, cover art, etc, and doing those things well takes time. 3. Your debut novel has a little bit of everything for paranormal enthusiasts. How hard was it to develop and organize your world in Touch the Dark? I think most writers do their best work when they write what they like to read. So there is some mystery in the book, some romance, some (ok, a lot) of action/adventure, and a little humor. These are all elements I look for as a reader, so they were what came out naturally in the writing process. 4. Poor Cassie has had a pretty tough life that has molded her in to the strong “take no prisoners” person that she is already. How hard was it to take her story and develop it in to the complex novel it became? It was actually pretty easy. I think once any writer has a grip on who the protagonist is (their back story) then their character flows naturally from that. 5. What was it that made you one day decide you were going to be a writer? Did you always know or was it a surprise to choose this career path? I’ve always wanted to write, but never had the time until recently. I worked a full time job and also went to school full time for years, leaving zero hours in my schedule for a hobby. Then, a few years ago, I accepted an assignment teaching in Hong Kong while I finished up my degree. It was a challenging job but my evenings were free, and there weren’t many recreational opportunities where I was located (which was pretty much Hong Kong’s version of the back 40). So I started catching up on my reading. I like to read fantasy, and somewhere along the line, I started wanting to write it, too. When the contract ended, I realized that for the first time in my adult life, I actually had the option to take some time off. So I sat out for a year and decided to try some of the things I’d put on the back burner. One of them was that book I’d been thinking about, and yes, it was a big surprise when it actually sold! 6. If someone were to ask you what you thought your “signature” characteristic was for your writing, what would you tell them? Fast-paced. I hate books that drag and really try to avoid that in my writing. I cut an entire chapter out of the sequel to Touch the Dark recently, not because I didn’t like it, but because it wasn’t really necessary and it slowed down the finale. 7. I see on your website that you have already sold the sequel, Claimed by Shadow, and are “rumored” to be working on book 3. Can you give us an idea of what book 2 will be about? Can we have a teaser? Claimed by Shadow picks up where Touch the Dark left off, starting about a week later. It answers a lot of the questions left by the first novel, and proposes some new ones. All the main characters from TTD, with one exception, also have important roles in the sequel. It has already gone through the review process and is ready to go. Cassie will continue with her own series after that, but I also have another book coming out that is set in the same universe with a different protagonist-a dhampir named Dory. It was an absolute pleasure to write and I am very excited about it! 8. If you had to think back and pinpoint who it was that inspired you to be a writer, who would you say? Would you say these same people have been most influential on your writing style? If not, then who? I suppose the main inspiration I’ve received has been from reading the works of other writers. I’ve always loved fantasy and was completely blown away when I started reading modern fantasy. The idea of vampires, werewolves, mages, etc, walking around in our own world was a lot more exciting to me that the traditional sword and sorcery tales I grew up on (although I still love those, too). And, of course, modern fantasy tends to have more female protagonists. 9. This is one of my favorite “signature” questions to ask in an interview. If you had to write a short paragraph about your writing to convince readers to give your books a shot, what would you tell them? I’m a reader, too, and have spent plenty of time prowling around Amazon or the local bookstore trying to find something that won’t be a waste of my seven bucks. That’s why I posted a couple of sample chapters of Touch the Dark to my website, so potential readers won’t have to rely on a paragraph on the back cover to figure out if it’s their style or not. I think my book is scary, sexy, quirky and fun, but will freely admit to a little bias. I would tell anyone looking for a new fantasy author to check out the sample chapters and, if you like them, you’ll probably enjoy the rest of the book. 10. I love the idea of basing a night club and casino on Dante’s ten circles of hell. This is of course the perfect place for vampires and weres and all manner of creatures to frequent. Where did you get the idea to use this setting for part of your story, and as the theme for your website? I’ve always wondered why Vegas doesn’t have a haunted house themed casino-it seems such a natural. The idea of putting Dante’s in the book grew out of necessity-where else could certain creatures hide in plain sight? Although part of it may have come from my experiences working my way through college at Disney. Some of the stuff that went on behind the scenes there was stranger than anything in my books! Dante’s was chosen as the theme for the website because it reoccurs throughout the series (plus I wanted something people would remember!) 11. The dark humor found in your book is so much fun to experience. Can we expect this same tone in future works or is this more to the characteristics of Cassie’s personal attitude and life? It’s pretty much just my writing style, so it shows up in both of the other books and will probably be in any future ones, as well. I think in dark fantasy it is important to have a little humor, to lighten things up when they start to get too intense. 12. How much advance plotting goes into your writing process? Do you plan everything out ahead of the time or do you just start writing and see where your characters lead you? Both, I suppose. I am in awe of writers who can plan everything out before they even start writing. I am not now and don’t ever expect to become that organized. But I know the overall story arc for the series and what needs to be in each book before I begun, so I have some basic guidelines to keep me from going off on a tangent. And when I do it anyway, my editor drags me back! 13. I also loved the method found in Touch the Dark, that vampires used for feeding, being able to draw the blood and life force out of their “donors” without actually biting them, and being able to feed through absorption of the entire body surface. Where did this idea come from? It seemed the only way to explain how a sizable number of blood-sucking creatures could survive in our world and stay hidden. 14. If you had to go back and change one key part or characteristic of Cassie’s story, what would it be? Actually, I have a great editor (Anne Sowards at Roc) who goes over my writing with the idea in mind of getting rid of problem areas before anyone in the public reads them. I am a perfectionist about my work, so I doubt I will ever write anything that I feel couldn’t be improved in some way, but there comes a point when you think it’s good, your editor agrees, and you just have to stop. Otherwise, you risk overwriting and killing the spontaneity of the piece. 15. If your fans were to come visit your home and want to see where you create your novels, what would they find in your office? At the moment, not much, I’m afraid. I had just moved to New Orleans when Katrina came for a very unwelcome visit. Most of my books were lost in the storm as well as a lot of other things I used to keep in my office. So right now it’s a little bare. Unlike Cassie, I don’t handle emergencies very well. My family is still laughing about the fact that, when the order to evacuate came, I grabbed only a duffle bag full of clothes, a favorite painting, a bottle of water and a bunch of bananas! I have no idea what part of my brain came up with that list. Anyway, the painting resides over my desk as a reminder that life is full of surprises, and to make sure that my books reflect that. 16. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to chat with me about your debut novel, Karen! I am already eagerly anticipating the next book in the series. Do you have anything you’d like to say in closing? I’d like to invite everyone to drop by my website for a visit. And thank you very much for doing the interview, Kelley!
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