Q&A #4:

QUESTION 1: What was the inspiration for Cassie’s universe? Was it an idea that you had been kicking around for a long time or did you have a Eureka moment one day?

It came out of reading a lot of paranormal-type books and wondering why certain things weren’t being done. Like Vegas, for instance. At that time, people had books set in a number of other cities (New York, St. Louis, Chicago) but none there. That seemed odd to me, since, if you’re a vampire, Vegas is perfect. Not only is it a 24-hour kind of town, but a large amount of the surrounding land is owned by the federal government (most of the state, in fact). And other than a little mining and alien-probing, they don’t do much with it. So if you stuck a paranormal enclave out in the desert, no one would be likely to notice. And if anything weird did go down, you could always blame it on Area 51, barely 75 miles away!

There were a lot of other things I wondered about, too, like why no one was doing much with seers, despite their traditionally having a big part in both history and mythology. I’d always enjoyed teaching about Greek history, and the Pythian shrine played a significant role there. I thought it would be interesting to follow the adventures of a modern-day Pythia, especially if she could not just see other times, but visit them as well.

And finally, to be honest, I was a little annoyed that, in a lot of series, it seemed that a strong male protagonist meant that the women were shown as weak, or vice versa. I thought it was possible to do a book in which all the characters were strong, just in their own ways, and set out to prove it.

QUESTION 2: When is the next Cassie book (#6) expected to release?

I don’t have a pub date yet, but as soon as I do get word, I’ll be sure to announce it.

QUESTION 3: I was wondering about Cassie’s father. If he is with Tony in Faerie, I’d like to know whether or not being in Faerie would affect his spirit the way it did Billy’s. And if Cassie ever finds her father in Faerie, would she be able to meet him in person?

Cassie’s father is a big subject. A very, very big subject. So trying to say much about him yet would probably be a mistake. In this case, however, I can point out that he isn’t out and about, so to speak, like Billy Joe. His spirit is trapped, unable to move on or do much of anything else until and if he is released.