Rachel Caine
Rachel Caine is the New York Times bestselling author of the Morganville Vampires series, the Weather Warden series, and the Outcast Season series, as well as many other books. And she’s grateful to be with you today!
PNR: Welcome back, Rachel! When we last spoke with you in March 2007 DEAD GIRLS’ DANCE, book two in the Morganville Vampires series, was ready to release, and you have been very busy since then; could you tell us what you’ve been up to?
Rachel C.: Putting in a lot of hours at the keyboard, apparently! I’m stunned when I look over my shoulder and see the trail of pages I’m leaving behind me. Between 2007 and now, I’ve written 10 novels, plus a fair number of short stories. I also redesigned my website, started up Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter accounts, and … failed to leave my day job, somehow. Don’t ask.
PNR: The Morganville Vampires series has been described as “one of the best young adult series out there” and two of the titles in the series have earned PNR Reviewer Top Pick; for readers who are not familiar with the series, could you give us a brief overview?
Rachel C.: Claire Danvers wants to take off for thrilling matriculation at MIT, but her parents aren’t so sure; she’s only 16, and they’d like her to stay close to home for a year. The compromise is that they send her to Texas Prairie University, an obscure college hidden away in lonely Morganville, Texas. All well and good until Claire runs afoul of the local Mean Girls and has to move out of the dorm … only to discover that beyond the borders of the university, the town has all kinds of dark secrets. Principally, it’s run by vampires, for vampires. Human residents pay blood taxes, and in return, (maybe) get some protection out of it - but they have to sign their lives away. Sometimes literally.
Moving off-campus has exposed Claire to all the dangers, and now she’s caught up in the politics of Morganville - and the door only works one way. She’s trapped in town, and must, along with her friends Michael Glass, Eve Rosser, and Shane Collins, make the best of a bad situation, and try to have some fun along the way.
Even if it kills them.
PNR: Congratulations! Readers are excited about the June 2nd release of CARPE CORPUS, the sixth book in the Morganville Vampires series from Signet; what are Claire and her friends up against this time around? Can you tell us about the challenges of keeping a series and its characters fresh for readers?
Rachel C.: I’m just thrilled that there’s so much enthusiasm about the series and the upcoming release! I think the readers are keeping it fresh for me, actually. They’re just so supportive and full of excitement.
In book 6, Claire’s facing a life of dreary servitude to the new master of Morganville, the odious vampire Mr. Bishop. But don’t count the local vamps out quite yet … Amelie still has a plan, even if there’s dissent within her own ranks of followers about how to carry it out. All Claire has to do is deal with parental anxiety, a boyfriend in prison who’s hostage for her good behavior, a crazy vampire boss, and a blood-drinking computer. Plus, of course, keep her grades up. And stay alive. Easy!
CARPE CORPUS really brings the entire story back full circle, I think, moving the entire town - vampires and humans alike - into a new era of cooperation.
Or not, knowing Morganville!
PNR: You have been complimented on your masterful world building. Tell us about the challenges you face in world building with paranormal elements in a contemporary setting and making it work with the ideas you have in mind for the progression of your characters and the series?
Rachel C.: Funny, I never feel masterful about my world building; I’m always worrying about it! But I think in the case of Morganville it was relatively easy … I knew the basics of how I wanted the whole town to work, and why, so the paranormal elements were sort of straightforward. It’s a bit of a closed society.
It’s less easy in the Weather Warden series, where the real life wildly collides with my paranormal universe on a regular basis. Mostly, though, I try to find ways to emphasize the stark contrasts of the paranormal against the normal … one minute you’re trying on a wedding dress, and the next you’re dealing with antimatter or murderous Djinn. But you still have to worry about the dress. That’s the trick.
I’ll steal a quote from the fabulous Jim Butcher, who said that paranormal elements need to be equally balanced with real life, or neither of them work as well. I have to agree. It’s the contrasts that make it all hang together.
PNR: Claire Danvers, is a strong and feisty heroine that is very popular with readers; could you tell us about the development of her character? How does writing a heroine for a young adult series differ from the traditional adult heroine?
Rachel C.: When she started out, Claire was very much as I remembered being when I moved out of my childhood home - shy, quiet, nervous, and never quite fitting in. The kickoff event for Claire is finding that someone’s stolen her laundry out of the machine at her dorm. That actually happened to me, only mine never showed up again. In Claire’s case, it was the latest in an ongoing campaign of abuse by the evil Monica and her friends, and it had gone down the trash chute.
So the path for Claire was fairly clear to me … she had to learn how to be independent and strong, but also bond with others. She was a loner, and now she has to be part of a group, and learn to protect her friends. And she’s doing those things we all have to discover in life - how to cook (or NOT to cook), how to get along with housemates, how to handle fear, how to fall in love. I think she’s come quite a distance in six books from where she was in the beginning.
As to how she’s different from a traditional adult heroine - there’s one critical area in which young adult characters vary from adults, and that is in experience. It’s not only okay for YA characters to make mistakes, it’s really wise - this is the time of your life when you learn and grow, after all. If Claire didn’t make mistakes, she wouldn’t feel right or credible. At the same time, if she made the same choices as an adult, it would legitimately feel naïve and short-sighted.
I believe in allowing YA characters the room to build their characters, rather than come into it full blown.
PNR: There has been an explosion in the popularity of young adult paranormals and readers have had the opportunity to discover some amazing new series. What do you feel accounts for the sudden surge in popularity? What is it about this genre that captured your attention as a writer?
Rachel C.: It’s such an exciting area now. In the YA section you can transcend the boundaries of genre and still attract - and retain! - readers who haven’t yet had their “genre limits” set - they’ll gladly go from fantasy to relationship drama to hard-hitting issue books, and it’s all grouped happily together under one banner. I recently read a very wise comment - YA is an age group, it’s not a genre. So there are few preconceptions involved. You can just tell the story you want to tell.
I think the surge in popularity really is owed to the great, groundbreaking series that have built such huge followings … the Goosebumps books. The Harry Potter books. The Twilight saga. It’s given young adults a real love of reading.
PNR: FADE OUT, the seventh book in the Morganville Vampires series, will be released in November 2009; can you give us a sneak peek at Claire’s upcoming adventures? What are your plans for the series?
Rachel C.: FADE OUT is really the first self-contained Morganville book, in that while it follows the events of CARPE CORPUS, it’s branching out in a different direction. The political struggle is - well, not over, but certainly on the back burner. Now it’s the four friends learning to cope with normal life again.
That starts with Eve landing a part in the big town play, and also becoming fast friends with a like-minded Goth girl named Kim, who hits the status quo like a speeding locomotive. Claire can’t stand her; Shane may have dated her; Eve adores her; Michael just wants for her to go away. As they struggle to adapt to all these new feelings, there’s more going on with Kim, and Morganville, than meets the eye, and there could be deadly consequences all around.
There will be at least two more Morganville books coming in 2010!
PNR: Could you tell us about your current projects, what can readers expect to see in the coming months? Do you have any additional series in the works? Single titles?
Rachel C.: The release schedule is a little crazy, but I’ll give it a whirl. CARPE CORPUS - out June 2. The audiobook of GLASS HOUSES (Book 1 of Morganville) is out June 8. On July 7 there’s a new anthology, STRANGE BREW, which is edited by P.N. Elrod, and contains one of my non-series-related short stories. Another anthology, ETERNAL KISS, comes out July 27 and features a Morganville short story. CAPE STORM, the 8th Weather Warden novel, comes out on August 4, followed by FADE OUT (Morganville 7) on November 3.
There are also additional audiobook titles being released in the Morganville series, one a month through October, I believe.
Right now, I’m working on the second novel of the new Outcast Season series, UNKNOWN, and a short story for the upcoming anthology DARK AND STORMY KNIGHTS. I’ll be editing an anthology of my own soon, and I’ve got one more Weather Warden novel this year, as well as two more Morganvilles to go (at least). I know there’s more, but my brain refuses to consider it.
When I come up for air, I do have a couple of OTHER ideas for series, but as you can see, the schedule is pretty full!
PNR: Thank you Rachel, for taking time out to talk to us. Where can readers find out what’s new and how can they contact you?
Rachel C.: Thank YOU! It’s always a delight to talk to you guys.
I’m networked all over the place, so I’m easy to locate. My website is www.rachelcaine.com, and from the ABOUT ME page you’ll find links to my Myspace, Twitter, Livejournal and Facebook pages. You can also sign up for mailing lists on my site, which entitles you to early entry into the contests I run, and occasionally special prizes, hidden content, etc.
Or you can always drop me an email at Rachel@rachelcaine.com!
Again - thank you. It’s been a pleasure!
Carpe Corpus
(Morganville Vampires: Book 6)
by Rachel Caine
Signet
June 2, 2009
ISBN #0451227190
EAN #9780451227195
256 pages
Paperback
BUY THE BOOK
They never covered this in biology…
In the small college town of Morganville, vampires and humans lived in (relative) peace-until all the rules got rewritten when the evil vampire Bishop arrived, looking for the lost book of vampire secrets. He’s kept a death grip on the town ever since. Now an underground resistance is brewing, and in order to contain it, Bishop must go to even greater lengths. He vows to obliterate the town and all its inhabitants-the living and the undead. Claire Danvers and her friends are the only ones who stand in his way. But even if they defeat Bishop, will the vampires ever be content to go back to the old rules, after having such a taste of power?
Genre: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy, Vampire
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