Friday, February 18, 2011

Author Speed Date

The idea of speed dating is that you get 10 minutes to sit down with a prospective date and get to know them. In that spirit, we present Author Speed Date. A quick 10 minutes for you to get to know some of our clients. Today we'd like you to meet Kate Douglas.

BookEnds Author Speed Date
Name (the one you’re published under): Kate Douglas

Speed date Bio (one or two lines): It took me twenty years to get published in NY, so I’m having a ball making up for lost time.

Web Link: www.katedouglas.com

Next Book, pub date:
April 2011—StarFire/DemonSlayers mass market series
July 2011—Wolf Tales 12/final book in the series/Aphrodisia trade paperback

Agent: Jessica Faust


About Me
Real Name or Pseudonym: Kate Douglas

Currently Reading: 8 category romances I’m judging for the RITAs (Romance Writers of America published author contest)

Next on Your Reading List: Master of Smoke by Angela Knight

Facebook or Twitter (include account name):
www.facebook.com/katedouglas.authorpage
www.twitter.com/wolftales

Three authors living or dead you would want to have dinner with: Only three? Jayne Ann Krentz, Stella Cameron, Susan Andersen

Jet-setter or armchair traveler: Motorhome camper

Glass ½ full or ½ empty: ALWAYS half full

Tea or Coffee: LOTS of coffee

Live to write or Write to live: At the moment both, but always live to write


About My Writing

When (time of day) I write: All, with occasional breaks—start early, end late, almost every day

Writing soundtrack: None, though sometimes Ancient Visions (native American album)

Character Inspirations: People in general

Plot Inspirations: Life and fantasy

Setting Inspirations: Places we’ve traveled or want to see

Plotter (carefully plot books) or Pantser (write from the seat of my pants): Pantser all the way. I feel trapped by pre-set plots

14 comments:

Anna Banks said...

LOL! Thanks for the quickie, Kate! I love these posts. I find it amazing that Kate doesn't have a set plotting plan when she sits down and writes her amazing stories. That's a little humbling!

Laura M. Campbell said...

I love the speed date. I find it interesting she doesn't listen to music often when she's writing. Music comes and goes while I'm writing, depending on my level of concentration. Thanks!

Stacy McKitrick said...

This was fun! I'm a fan of Kate's writing (love the Wolf Tale series), so this was nice to read.

Hope to see more Author Speed Dates in the future!

Unknown said...

Great post! I'd definitely ask Kate out for a real date. *grin*

I'm a panster too. Outlines make me itchy.

Sean Thomas Fisher said...

Team Pantser all the way. Cool post!

Laurel Cremant said...

I love this post! It confirms what many a professor told me in college--You don't need to be verbose to get your point across. In this case it was an excellent snapshot into the mind of a writer :)

D.J. Cappella said...

Thanks for sharing your authors with us! It is always nice to learn about a new author or two. The speed date idea is a great one!

djcappella.blogspot.com
Author of Witches, Demons, & Deals
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1456553801

Kate Douglas said...

I am SO embarrassed--I knew this was going up on Friday but we got hit with a winter storm Thursday that knocked out power, phone and Internet until Sunday. So, I AM checking in, but a bit late. Anna, I spend a lot of time thinking about my characters and my general idea for a story, but once I start writing, I let the characters take over. They're going to, anyway. It's just easier not to fight them! Somehow it always seems to work, but I honestly can't tell you how.

Kate Douglas said...

Laura, I don't listen to music because I hear music internally when I'm writing, and it changes with the scene. It's always in my head, and I find that if I actually listen to my Nano, songs I recognize can throw off my natural rhythm. The one time I can think of where I had to have music to write a scene was in Wolf Tales 10, where I had a violent BDSM scene that was really heavy on the emotion. That's SO not me, and I couldn't get into it at all, so I found some really discordant Finnish Death Metal stuff on YouTube and played it REALLY loud until I got into the scene. It worked perfectly.

What's interesting to me is that the scene is very difficult for me to read, and yet it's an important part of the story. I don't think the book would have worked well without it.

Kate Douglas said...

Thank you, Stacy. If you know the series, then you're aware that the last one will be out in July. I can't wait to see what my regular readers think of it--it was hard to write, but I'm really proud of the way the story turned out.

Kate Douglas said...

Saranna, I love it! Honestly, if anyone ever has any questions about writing for Kensington, working with Jessica or the biz in particular, feel free to ask. I love to talk about the way this crazy industry works! My email is kate@katedouglas.com and I do answer all my email...when the dumb Internet is working, that is!

Kate Douglas said...

Sean--there are as many ways to write books as there are authors. What amazes me is that we all do it in the way that works for us, and yet we all end up with finished books! Eventually. :-)

Kate Douglas said...

Thanks, Laurel. It's an important point when writing a story--often it's the spare, tight writing that's the most effective.

Kate Douglas said...

Thanks, D.J. We never know WHAT Jessica will come up with next! This was a fun thing to do. Thanks to all who stopped by.