It’s time
to put down the wrapping paper, stop writing Christmas cards and take a break.
If you’re like me an a bit fed up of having the festive season rammed down your
throat then you’ve come to the right place. Today we speak to author Eva Caye,
who wrote the To Be Sinclair series - with no mention of Christmas in sight!
Enjoy!
1) Can
you please start by telling us a little about yourself? Where are you from and
how did you get into writing?
I'm a
Midwesterner and have been writing since high school, but it was primarily a
hobby, attending writers workshops and conferences when I could. As an
avid science fiction and fantasy reader, sometimes the stories would just pop
up and demand to be written. I have a few boxes scattered around the
house with archaeological layers of stories from the past 30 years.
I only
grew into a serious author because of a crisis with my long-standing
depression. I consider my 'rebirth' to have occurred in June 2010.
Lying in bed in a darkened room, I figured I was already dead, my body
unable to tolerate 'real life'. Although it may not seem like much of an
inspiration to others, the thought occurred to me that, since the 'old me' was
dead but I still had possession of a body, I could build my life anew.
As a
result, I decided to figure out what I would do if I won the lottery, if
absolutely anything was possible. I have always wanted to be a scientist,
so I began having conversations between the person I was and the person I
wanted to be. The dialogues grew so thick, I got out of bed and began writing
them down! I developed them into characters, since I still do not have
much energy beyond running my brain and a computer and the first four books of
the To Be Sinclair series
roared out of my imagination.
It was perhaps my third book when
I began to feel like I had some kind of wormhole in my mind to a future
parallel dimension. Although I've never been a visual person, I was
seeing my characters in actual scenes and I still consider myself their scribe,
not their goddess. How so? When you decide you don't like what you've
written and rewrite it but go to bed and the characters act out the scene over and over
again until you get up at god-awful o'clock to change it back,
you realize you don't have a lot of control over the story!
2) How
many books have you published to date and what genres are they?
I
currently have eight books in the To
Be Sinclair series, primarily science fiction romances, but they all
have different tenors or timbres to them. Book two, Majesty, is perhaps 95% science
fiction and book three, Fealty
perhaps 95% romance, but the others are roughly 50% sci-fi to romance.
The big question
my series answers is, “What will the greatest ruling family in the history of
the galaxy be like?” Dignity and Majesty detail the romance
and first years of marriage of the Emperor and Empress of the Sinclair
Demesnes, a four-planet polity, and the other books are about individual
children, which is why they have different psychological flavours to them. On
my website http://www.evacaye.com I have brief psychological
profiles of the main characters of each book, to give you a feel of what to
expect of their stories.
I
laughingly refer to Evan's
Ladies as book 6.5, between Loyalty
and Nobility, because it
consists of four novellas/novelettes. The books are companion novels, with Dignity/Majesty, Fealty/Royalty, Dynasty/Loyalty and my most recent
book Nobility to be paired with
my work-in-progress, Morality. I
have also finished 2/3 and 1/2 of two prequels, set some 150 years in our future
but some 500 years in the past as compared to the series. I consider
those novels to be science fiction, though; there are relationships that
develop but they are not the focus of the stories.
In my books, I talk around the
sex more than anything, except that I have appended a short story/novella or
two to the first six books as erotic Easter eggs! I have a warning page in
front of them and not all of them are explicit but I thought it would be the
best way to warn the science fiction readers who may not appreciate stronger
sexual situations, yet give the romance readers a li'l somethin' more!
I've had a lot of people say they would have paid $2.99 for those stories
alone!
3) Can
you tell us a little more about your latest book? What is the story and what
inspired you to write it?
Nobility is about Prince Matthieu Sinclair, the Heir Second
to his grandfather Emperor Victor and his father Prince Zhaiden. This is
very much a new adult novel, in that Matthieu begins at age 20, having finished
his Service training cycles, and moves through two years of Imperial duties,
tours of Service, secret missions, a diplomatic mission that breaks his heart,
and above all, the search for a lady who could handle being his Empress
someday.
I do not plan any other novels
after its companion novel, the finale to the series, Morality. First, because I have to finish my prequels; second,
because I have other projects I want to get to; and third, because the finale
is breaking my heart to write. Nine books covering three generations is surely
sufficient, wouldn't you say?
4) Are
you an independent published or a traditional one? What made you decide to take
that route and would you recommend it?
After
receiving a double-handful of rejections from agents and publishers, with most
of them saying something along the lines of, “The industry is very subjective,”
I decided to go indie. After all, I'm writing for my readers, for literary
value, not for people who only look at a book in terms of fads or how much
money it will make for them or their company!
For
example, I do not focus on gore, horror, or violence; I titled my books after
knightly virtues specifically because I wanted to write uplifting stories of
good people trying their best, who are not necessarily striving against a bad
evil guy, whose issues are with people who think they are the 'good guys'.
I do have one warlike empire that causes trouble throughout the series,
but for the most part, my readers comment frequently on how realistic my
characters are, how lifelike their struggles, as if they can feel themselves
actually living their lives. To me, that is an immense compliment.
I recommend
indie publishing because traditional publishing has tremendous flaws that have
yet to be upgraded to modern times. Why should it take two years for a book to
see print, when so many people
are working on it? My editor finished a manuscript, I go over it a few
more times, and publish it within a couple of months. I've also improved
every book since (a huge advantage of ebooks), and now four are out with
CreateSpace, as print-on-demand.
That is
another disadvantage of traditional publishing: the horrific waste stream.
My books are printed as they are purchased, whereas the average
publishing company 'guesses' how many books they might sell, prints 10,000 or
20,000 copies, sends them to bookstores and, if they are not sold within a
pitifully short period of time (I've seen quotes of 3 months), their covers are
torn off and they are sent back to the publisher.
That
leads to a third huge disadvantage of traditional publishers: accounting
for royalties. Why should an author wait three months for a check? All
those returns. With ebooks and POD, if a person buys it, it's because they want
it. I get notified of the sale within a few hours, and I get the
royalties directly deposited into my bank account every month.
The advantage of traditional publishing
is their marketing teams and avenues, but even then an author is expected to
set up his/her own media platform and pound the pavement to sell books.
Unless the publisher thinks you are another J. K. Rowling, you can expect
very little help beyond an editor and a cover artist, and you can hire them
yourself.
5) Have
you got anything new that you are currently working on?
Besides
the finale and two prequels, I have been setting my books up at CreateSpace as
print-on-demand. I have simply had so many people say they don't have e-readers
that it's worth my time and effort. The first four are now available on
my Amazon Author page, http://www.amazon.com/Eva-Caye/e/B009F50NF8 and
I should have the last four ready to go by Christmas.
Other
than that, I submit stories to magazines, and even wrote a poem recently for a
contest. My two main computer folders are 'Brainstorms' and 'Story Ideas', so
I'm not about to run out of parallel dimensions to spy upon.
More about Eva Caye can be found on her blog at: http://evacaye.blogspot.com/
Her books are also available on Amazon and Smashwords.
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