Q&A with author Carmen Fox
At a fairly early age. Lying is a way of telling stories, right? I also wrote poems when I was little, then articles for the school paper in my teens. It was my nana who gave me the final nudge to write down my stories after I left college.
What was your first book/story published?
Divide and Conquer was my first. It was published amid delays and close to the publication date of my second book, Guarded, so Divide and Conquer never got the attention I owed it. Such a shame, because it’s quirky and unusual, with a good deal of humor and romance.
What inspired you to write Divide and Conquer?
Frustration. I was fed up with the usual couplings of man and man in the traditional buddy cop movies and of man and woman in paranormal fantasy. So I wanted to write about the lives of two inherently different women who come together for a common purpose. Each follows her own romance interest without sacrificing her friendship with the other, but their bond is at the heart of the story.
What character in Divide and Conquer is the most/least like you, and in what ways?
Lea in the first half of the book, no doubt. When I geek out, I end up just as isolated and misunderstood as she feels.
What is your favorite part in Divide and Conquer?
Every scene with Kirk, the chain-smoking gargoyle. At least that’s my official statement. Between us, I secretly enjoy Nieve’s romance the most.
What was the hardest part to write?
Building a world from scratch is hard. In my other books, I build on tropes we all know. We know vampires struggle with sunlight, werewolves live in packs, and so on. You can play around once you understand the rules. But when you invent a new form of magic, you have to establish universal rules and stick to them.
What would your ideal career be, if you couldn't be an author?
I can procrastinate for gold. So being unemployed looks pretty awesome, except for the lack of money. If I were any good at painting, I’d become an artist. In my head, I’m just awesome at running a huge business, but in reality that involves more ruthlessness than I possess. Sometimes I’d love to go into physics, be the first to evaluate incoming data. At least as a writer, I can be all those things.
Do you read reviews of your books? If so, do you pay any attention to them, or let them influence your writing?
If a reader makes the effort of writing a review, I should read and learn from it. It’s difficult to let yourself be influenced by all of them in any meaningful way. One reviewer praises the editing, another calls your book poorly edited. Some love the laughs, others don’t like any humor in their fiction. Then there are the reviews that make no sense. The ones that claim my female characters rely on men to dig them out of a hole, even though men and hole are never in the same scene.
So why do I keep reading reviews? Because many are worth reading. Clearly I love the positive ones, but even some critical reviews set out where my book fell short for them. If this is something I can address in my next book, I definitely will.
What well-known writers do you admire most?
Darynda Jones. Kim Harrison. Neil Gaiman. Love them all.
Do you have any other books/stories in the works?
I'm finishing up Book 2 in my other urban fantasy series. Then I’ll be writing a novella about a werewolf detective.
You can purchase "Divide and Conquer" at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kobo!
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About the Author:Carmen Fox is an Amazon no. 1 bestselling author in the vampire and werewolf mystery categoriesfor her book Guarded (The Silverton Chronicles). Guarded was also the Amazon no. 1 urban fantasy novel in Australia.
She lives in the south of England with her beloved tea maker and a stuffed sheep called Fergus. An avid reader since childhood, she caught the writing bug when her Nana asked her to write a story. She also has a law degree, studied physics for a few years, dabbled in marketing and human resources, and speaks native-level German and fluent Geek. Her preferred niches of geekdom are tabletop games, comics, sci-fi and fantasy.
Visit her website at: www.carmen-fox.com
Wow, what a nice feature. Thank you very much for introducing me and my book to your readers. It's much appreciated. :-)
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