Name of Author: Cindy Brown
Title of Book: The Road North
Favorite Authors:
Some of my favorite authors (and sources of inspiration) include Octavia Butler, Samuel R. Delaney, James Tiptree, Jr., Ursula K. Le Guin, and Madeleine L'Engle. There's also so many more perhaps underrated authors such as Mary Gentle, Tanith Lee, Tanya Huff, Susan Cooper, Guy Gavriel Kay, Diane Wynne Jones, and Lloyd Alexander. I could go on for longer! What I love about these authors is not just their stories, which are wonderful in of themselves, but the way they so effortlessly play with language to do so. A good number of them are also - for lack of a better word - anthropological, meaning they get into the heads of characters with very different cultures in an accessible way. I think that's what has always attracted me to SF/Fantasy/Paranormal - all these beings and creatures inhabiting worlds we'll never see.
Bio:
By day, a systems administrator, by night a pencil-chewing author. I'm a southern California native, but I've traveled and seen quite a bit. I'm a life-long reader: everything from classics to adventures and a special place in my heart for science fiction, paranormal fantasy, and in the last decade or so, urban fantasy.
The Road North
Ten year old Rue doesn't have a conventional family. She, her mother, and her uncle live a nomadic existence, dodging trouble and sticking to the vast mountain regions in the north. A single night of violence shatters everything she knows and loves and sends her into a headlong flight across Canada. Until the first full moon appears and the local werewolf pack claims her as theirs.
Bound to a pack that inflicts nothing but misery on her, Rue finally hears of another pack years later . One that may be a better place for her. One that carries out justice. Can she find and make a new home here?
Or will her past catch up with her after all?
Who is your target audience - and why?
I'm writing this mostly for myself - but my intended audience are others who enjoy the paranormal-fantasy genre. I've even managed to entertain folks who aren't otherwise into werewolf stories!
When I write paranormal stories, I usually try to explain "how this might have really happened" or "how this might actually exist in our world." That is, present the "real" stories behind mythologies and legends that are really an imperfectly remembered or perceived reality. Or I try to show how this could actually exist in the here and now but we refuse to acknowledge it exists. I've always loved vampire, witch, or werewolf (or combinations!) stories that are slotted in sideways to our world and if we just paid a little more attention, we'd spot them, too!
What is 'paranormal' about your story?
In general - and not everyone agrees on the details, of course - 'paranormal' refers to stories set on Earth with magical elements added. These stories could be alternate history (eg, vampires 'came out' several years ago; True Blood is an example), or have the magic completely hidden (The Dark Is Rising or The Walker Papers are examples). It can include ghosts, mental powers, fairies, werewolves, vampires, witches and so on.
My story is about werewolves, but it doesn't follow the typical plotlines for many of the werewolf stories I've seen here on Wattpad. No possessive alphas (okay, maybe one), no destined mates (none!), no sex (well maybe a teeny bit of implied sex) - sorry! Rather, it's a look at the complex sort of society and culture I imagine a hidden group of werewolves would have in our day.
Does it contain other genre elements, if so which ones - and why?
Arguably it contains Fantasy elements, since Tomas is busy exploring the sidhe - fairy lands - for parts of this story. But it's not the main focus of this story though it will play out later on.
Tell us about your writing process - how do you get from story idea to a wattpad published story?
This story got started when the opening scene popped into my head. "I wonder," said I to myself, "what would happen if a small slip of a girl told the biggest baddest werewolf around that she planned to kill her alpha if he didn't do it for her?" And thus was born Rue and Finn. The story moved beyond that point, of course, but the opening scene remains.
I completely pantsed my way through this story (and it's being extensively rewritten as a result; mostly putting things into a better order and filling out (or eliminating) various subplots that were introduced and forgotten) and had a blast doing so. I had an idea of where I wanted to go (the other image that I had, along with the opening scene, is the final fight scene) and I eventually wound up there. I'm not sure I recommend this approach!
Did you encounter any challenges when writing, if so - how did you overcome them?
My biggest problem is that it's easy writing the key chapters. It's much harder to write the bridging material in between, and to structure various clues or setup that you need for the payoff in the key chapters. It was maddening to knock off several richly detailed chapters and then sit and stare at one I knew needed writing but just kept staring at a blank screen. Initially I dealt with the slow chapters by writing the exciting ones, but at some point I had no more exciting chapters to write and I still had to write up the remaining chapters! I eventually slogged through with patience. I also spun off at least two short stories and a sequel of sorts while writing this, since I would come up with ideas that were great but more suitable for another story entirely rather than for inclusion in this one.
I also have a huge tendency toward focusing on world building and letting the story languish in places. I'm learning to spot that and to sweep along my info dumps into better places.
You often hear that 'writing well' is the baseline for success. What does that mean for you?
To me, writing well is when your own writing disappears and only the story remains unfolding in front of the reader. I'm nowhere near that, if I ever will be! But that's what I aim for.
Have you ever had a paranormal experience?
That's an interesting sort of question. After all, who are we but the sum of our senses and experiences? And yet if something is not repeatable, verifiable, or quantifiable, how can we be sure it actually exists? I think most of us have experiences that fall into that gray area, left smack in the middle of "Hm, I wonder..."
Certainly I have had experiences that left me wondering. But where they come from, I don't know. I actually kind of like it that way - it leaves me free to imagine ways to explain them!
