Interview with Kathye Quick

by

*lizzie starr

1) Please tell us about your latest book.

DAUGHTERS IF THE MOON is a historical romance set in ancient Greece, fondly referred by me to anyone who wants to listen as ‘My Big Fat Greek Historical.’ It’s a story about Alliya, a student in the sect of the dark Goddess Hecate and Artemis, the son of Draco, the dreaded Archon of Attica Greece.

Alliya had been sold to the temple at birth and knows no other life but that of her religion. Artemis has lived the indulgent life of a noble, but as he grew to manhood, realized that his father is a tyrant. A chance meeting at the Agora, the marketplace in the center of the city, changes their lives forever.

Throw in the High Priestess of Hecate who wants to merge the power of the temple with the power of the Archon via a marriage with Artemis, some betrayal, passion, secrets, war, the Olympian Games and the whims of the Gods and Goddesses of Greece, and you have the story of a love that will change the destiny of man.

2) Where do your ideas come from?

When I was in seventh grade (it seems back at the time of ancient Greece), I was walking down the corridor of our high school when the door to a classroom burst open and twenty or so students with flowers or wreaths in the their hair, and dressed in white robes tied with golden sashes poured out into the hall. They were laughing and chanting and having quite a good time on their way outside.

The last person out of the classroom was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Her dark hair flowed around her head like a veil. Her dark blue robe was woven with gold threads, her eyes lined with black kohl. She glanced at me and smiled but I felt it right down to my soul. Turned out it was the Mythology Class celebrating the Ides of March and the beautiful woman was the teacher. From that day on, I could not get enough of the Greek and Roman Myths, so naturally I was destined by the Fates to write DAUGHTERS OF THE MOON.

So far all the ideas for my books have come from life experiences. ONE RAINY NIGHT, my first book for Wings ePress, developed from my work with a trucking company. My other books came from ideas spawned by knowing an F-16 fighter pilot, trying to coax my seven-year old son (now twenty) into a tuxedo and carry a pillow in a wedding, and my love of baseball.

So be careful. Someday you may turn around and find me watching you and taking notes for the plot of my next Great American Novel.

3) What kind of research do you do?

From intense to very little depending on the book. DAUGHTERS OF THE MOON needed rigorous investigation into a society and people that are studied constantly. Any huge historical error would make the book a waste of time for the reader. I checked and re-checked historical fact. When I found conflicting versions, and there were, I used the one that best suited my story.

For instance, the Goddess Hecate is one of the few deities of Ancient Greece who has very little written about her. From what I did find, it was not such a big leap to envisioning the rites and rituals that wove themselves into my story.

My first contemporary novel with Wings, ONE RAINY NIGHT, needed very little research. I worked at a trucking company, married a truck driver and usually got lost no matter where I tried to go when I drove my car. A few answers about flying an airplane from my son, Scott, and I was well on my way to a romantic comedy.

My other books needed a tweak here or a look-up there.

I am starting on another historical that will probably take a year or so of research before I can even start. It’s based on some coal-mining tales told to me by my grandfather when he was a miner in Mauck Chunk, Pennsylvania. From the Mollie Trials in Pottsville to the stories of the unions, I will need to be accurate in order to make this story work.

4) Who, if anyone, has influenced your writing?

There are a couple of ways to answer this one.

First, the emotional answer – my mother. She always loved to write, but never quite had the time to develop her writing. When I was in my twenties and began doing short stories and articles for magazines and newspapers, she began to say “Think you’ll ever get a book published some day?” She must have asked me that question a thousand times and I always answered the same – “When God thinks the time is right.”

A few weeks after she died, I got the “call” for my first book, ONE RAINY NIGHT, an e-book that was re-issued by Wings in 2001. I had to conclude that mom got into heaven, went directly to God and asked a favor. Believe me, no one ever could ever say no to mom.

Now, the intellectual answer. No one influences my writing. I write for myself and try to tell a good story. I don’t try to imitate anyone, or alter my writing style to fit the latest trends.

And I am definitely not a point-of-view purist. I write how I would like the story to sound. Some reviewers give me a slap on the wrist for it, but readers don’t seem to mind.

A lot of people have helped me, though. Wings own Christine Janssen (WILD NATURE, STAND ON YOUR OWN, MIDNIGHT RUN, DARK LEGACY) is my writing soul mate who continues to make sure I dream and write. New Jersey Romance Writers pointed me in the right direction and got me submitting. Anne Walradt, Karen Plunkett-Powell, Pat Leary, Irene Peterson, Christine Raymond (THE DRINKING GAME, Wings e-Press, August 2004) , Ann Liposvsky and Mary Gilroy, all NJRW members, encouraged, critiqued, edited and reviewed every flash of brilliance (or not) that I’ve ever had. I am eternally grateful to each and everyone one of them.

5) After you’ve written your book and it’s been published, do you ever buy it and read it?

All the time! Then I cringe. I always find spots I should have written better. If given the opportunity, writers would probably never stop revising the same story.

6) Among your own books, do you have a favorite book? Favorite hero or heroine?

I think DAUGHTERS OF THE MOON will be my favorite book. It’s the book I’ve always wanted to read, so I wrote it.

Alliya, my heroine in DAUGHTERS OF THE MOON, is probably my favorite to date. She goes from naïve follower chosen to die for her Goddess to confident rebel leader ready to die for her people.

7) Are you in control of your characters or do they control you?

I think every writer starts out thinking he or she can controls his or her characters. Then we actually write them, and find out it’s impossible. Only fellow writers understand that once you build a character from the heart out, he or she becomes a real person and tends to do things his or her own way.

Often I begin a book with an idea of which way it is going and then one of my characters does something that takes the plot in an entirely different direction. But without fail, this ploy twist wrought by the people involved, turns out to be the way the story should have gone in the first place!

8) What is the most rewarding thing about being a writer?

This may sound silly, but I love going to the library and seeing my own Dewy Decimal System Number. That is so cool!

Seriously now. I get excited, although humbled, each time someone tells me they liked my story. It means I actually took the jumbled images inside my head, sorted them out, put them on paper and told a good story that someone enjoyed reading. It doesn’t get much better than that.

9) If you weren’t writing, what would you be doing?

Tough Question. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t writing something. Short stories in grammar school, school newspaper articles in high school, columns for local papers, articles for women’s magazines, speeches, letters and press releases for politicians, and then the stories that were rolling around inside me.

Maybe I’d do landscape design. I love gardens and constantly try to find the fairies among the flowers.

10) What question would you love to answer that I didn’t ask.

I don’t have a question, just a thought. Writing is a tough business. Painful at times. Rejections stab you right in the heart just at the time anticipation is at its highest.

I have found that some writers forget the hard work and support needed to be successful. Many forget where they began and how easy it could be to be back at the starting point. They offer no advice, no words of wisdom, no comfort to those struggling along the same path they took to getting that first, or even second or third, books published.

My advice to you and to them is to look over your shoulder sometime. Not to see if someone if catching up to you, but to see if someone is close enough that you can reach back and give them a hand.

Happy writing.