More Picking Katie's Brain, by Katie MacAlister

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I really have to come up with a better title for Q&A sessions than brain-picking. Regardless of that, I'm back with a new round of questions, thoughtfully posted by readers. If you're aching and yearning to have an answer to a particular questions, please do post it-there will be one more day of pickage this week.

 And now, let's dive into the dark, murky depths that make up my brain!

Question 1: If a beloved's dark one dies, is she still immortal?

Yes, she is. However, if she's completed the whole Joining process, it's not terribly likely that she'd survive overly long without her vamp-not because she couldn't survive, but because she would be so bound to grief, it would be hard for her to go on.

Now, you may say, what if she had kids? Wouldn't she want to survive for them? The answer is that yes, love for her family would probably go far to making life tolerable. But she would still grieve her lost love.

Question 2: Katie have you ever thought about having a book with both dragons and dark ones? I felt like with Crouching Vampire Aisling needed to hop out from behind a bush any second and help poor Pia out.

I have thought about it, but at this point, I think it's pretty unlikely. Why? Well, look at it this way...in the vampire books, the vamps are very dominant. They don't take crap from anyone, they are strong and focused, and their society pretty much keeps to its own (what with that whole "vampires are the evil undead" thing that mortals insist on clinging to). The dragons likewise are very strong, dominant, and have an intricate society within the weyr that absorbs most of their attention.

If I put the two of them together, heads would butt, and one would have to come out supreme. I don't want to have to pick between the two, so just as dragons and Dark Ones tend to keep their distance, so will I avoid letting them mingle.

That doesn't mean that various secondary characters and elements from the books can't cross over. They have, and I will continue to allow them to do so...all but the actual dragons and Dark Ones themselves.

Question 3: Hey Katie, I don't really have a question, but I wanted to say thanks! When I was going through a rough period in my life, I found comfort in your books! You allowed me to escape for a while. A few hours a day I wasn't grieving. During these hours I was Aisling Grey, defeating evil powers or I was Nell, trying to deal with a Dark One who claimed I was his Beloved and so on...So thank you for your words and amazing characters. They helped me deal with reality.

I realize that this reader didn't have a question, but I did want to address her comments. People write for a variety of reasons, but I have one simple motivation: I want to entertain people. I don't feel like I have to write--heaven knows there are easier ways to make money, there are careers where people aren't driven to writing snarky reviews or blog posts about the job I do, and there is work that wouldn't drive me quite so insane at times, but when it all comes right down to it, I chose storytelling because I wanted to give people a few laughs, and a little enjoyment in a world that is frequently lacking in both.

I picked romances to do this because who doesn't want to remember what it's like to fall in love? And also because I'm a romantic at heart, and nothing pleases me more than to create a world where I can bring together a couple of people who may not seem to be ideal for each other, and then show them that they are. If they can have a smart-talking demon in dog form, or a bevy of comical ghosts along with them while they do it, so much the better.

At the end of the day, when I've dealt with things like rampant deadlines, edits, characters who don't do what I want them to do, and reader and sales expectations, it's comments like the one above that make it all worthwhile. If I can make people giggle, give them a bit of fun, and take them away from stresses and strains of life, then I'm happy.

Question 4: I absolutely adore your books. I love books that make me laugh out loud. And while I have enjoyed your paranormal series (especially the Dragon books) I am longing for a new contemporary book. Is there one in the offing? The Corset Diaries and Hard Days Knight were my favorite. I would also love to see another Noble book, they were very entertaining and I think there were possibilities left hanging for future books. Thank you for the hours and hours of enjoyment your books have given me and I will continue to re-read them.

I wish there was enough time in my day to write everything I wanted to write-historicals, contemporaries, young adult, mysteries, and paranormals. Unfortunately, I'm limited by my desire to remain sane to writing just a few books a year, and I have to pick and choose what I think are going to make readers the happiest.

Because I'm aware that folks want contemporaries, I wrote something that I think has a very contemporary feel to it, while keeping it fresh and different--Steamed, the first book in a new steampunk series. Steampunk, for those of you new to the phrase, is a genre that encompasses a kind of "what if" alternate reality with tinges of Jules Vernian history. My version of steampunk has a very contemporary color in the form of the hero Jack, who is a nanoelectrical computer engineer.

While Steamed may not be a straight down-the-line contemporary like Men in Kilts or Corset Diaries, I hope that readers who are craving a book like them will enjoy Jack and his adventures.

 

Katie MacAlister, Crouching Vampire, Hidden Fang, paranormal romance, vampires, Penguin Books