Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Interview: Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine

UFI welcomes Author Rachel Caine. Thanks for Joining us!!


I don't know, I've had a lot of interviews ... it just depends which you've read! I suppose it might come as a surprise to learn that I used to investigate insurance fraud, but I hated that job, and I quite it pretty quickly. ☺

What do you enjoy doing on your down time? 

I think the standard answer is, "What is down time?" – but I do take time, and usually I spend it visiting with friends, going out with them to lunch or dinner, watching movies and TV, reading. A pretty standard answer, honestly. I'm not super complicated.

What is your Favorite part of writing? 

I love sinking completely into a story and having it unfold right in front of my eyes—on the best days, that's what happens, and you're just swept along with it. Hours pass without you even noticing. It's the experience of the story that I love. I also love having written and getting to go out and meet with readers. It's a privilege.


I always have headphones and a specific playlist of songs for each book, so that's certain true. But I can write anywhere. I prefer early, but I can (and have) written late as well. Early's better, though, for me.


SO MANY! I love what are now classics of the field, like Charlaine Harris's Sookie bookies, Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, Kelley Armstrong, Kim Harrison, Patricia Briggs, Ilona Andrews, Tanya Huff, P.N. Elrod, Lee Killough, Anita Blake ... there are just too many to name. It's a rich and vibrant field full of wonders. I continue to love it. Chloe Neill's doing amazing work. So are Tom Sniegoski and Anton Stout.

How would you pitch INK AND BONE to someone who has not heard of it before? 

We like to pitch it as "Harry Potter meets Fahrenheit 451, by way of The Book Thief" – but my full elevator pitch is, "It's a world where the Great Library of Alexandria never burned, and it's illegal to own your own books."

Can you tell us a little bit about the world that INK AND BONE is set in?

There are some aspects that are modern day, and in fact, it's set slightly in the future, but the Great Library's control of information—and censorship of developments it considers dangerous—has led to a world that has some modern features, and some things that seem quite Victorian, steampunk, even medieval. A lot of places are familiar, but eerily different, like London or Alexandria; some don't even exist, or are hugely changed. It's very much an alternate history.

Do you have a favorite scene in INK AND BONE? 

I do! I think the opening of the book is very exciting, and gets across a lot of the world Jess lives in. The Ink-Licker always gives me a chill, even though I wrote it.


From my Weather Warden series, Joanne Baldwin was always a treat to write. Smart aleck, powerful, brave and sometimes reckless, she could always be counted on to be a dynamic character. I suppose the hardest, in some ways, is Morgan Hault from Ink and Bone ... she's one of those characters with a lot of layers, and I am still unveiling them myself!

What Other Projects can we look forward to reading from you? 

There will be two more books in the Great Library series. The second is PAPER AND FIRE, and will be out next summer. Meanwhile, there's a new Morganville Vampires short story collection coming out in March 2016, with about 50,000 words of brand new stories in it, as well as many that were hard to find/obscure. I've also got a lot of other anthologies that I'm part of right now, plus we're preordering the DVDs for MORGANVILLE at the moment and talking about Season 2. There are film projects in the works, though not announced/final yet, and at least one other book series that'll be announced soon too.

Thanks so much for talking with me, and I hope you enjoy INK AND BONE!





Find Rachel and her books

Ink and Bone
The Great Library #1


