Make-Believe Mondays With Cie Adams

On this Make-believe Monday I'd like to introduce Cie Adams, one of my friends from RWAonline. Cie pairs up with Cathy Clamp to write paranormal romance for TOR. Their first book, Hunters Moon, is winning awards and they have contracted for several more books.

Cie, first, tell us a little bit about the manuscript you’re working on now.

Cie: It's a paranormal, but a little "lighter" than my usual stuff. I think I got so tired after the last book that my subconscious decided I needed a break. (LOL) The world is very much our current world, where very few people believe in magic and Fairie. But it does exist. This book will have a very kick-butt heroine who is half human and half-Sidhe who stumbles into a very nasty plot that she and the hero work together to foil. I'm having an awful lot of fun with it!

Mark Twain said, “You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” How do you fill your creative well to keep your imagination in focus?

Cie: My main problem is that I have some ongoing health issues, so I have to be very sure not to get too stressed, to eat well, exercise, and sleep. All those "boring" things add up and really make a difference. Because if I'm not well, I'm not able to think clearly, let alone creatively.

Is there a point when your characters begin to come alive and you can see and hear them?

Cie: Generally they fall into my head fully formed. I know it's weird, but to me they are "people" and I just happen to be looking in on what's happening to them at a given point. The plot can be nebulous, but the people are who they are – and I can't change them any more than I can change the people at work or the grocery store in my real life.

Some very famous authors have played with language, creating words for people or places that no one has ever heard of. Have you ever played with words in that way and if so how?

Cie: Once upon a time, when I was very young I created an entire alphabet and was working on a language. I've also created worlds when I've written fantasy or entire cultures for the paranormals. That's one of the things I love best about writing. I get to play pretend and get paid for it!

For some writers, dreams play a role in creating fiction. Has this been true for you? Have you ever dreamed a scene or an image that later wound up in one of your books?

Cie: I have for short stories, but not the books. Honestly, I'm not sure where the books come from. The imagination just creates them out of thin air as far as I can tell.

As a child did any particular book or author pull you into their imaginary world?

Cie: It's funny, as a child I moved into adult books right away. It was only when I got older (late adolescence and adulthood) that I re-discovered children books. I remember loving "A Wrinkle in Time" all the "Borrower" books and "Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth" and so many more.

If there were no categories for books, no reader expectations to meet, and you could create the wildest work of imagination that you could think of what kind of story would that be?

Cie: Ironically, not much different than what I currently write. I've been very lucky in that I apparently have very mainstream tastes. (LOL)

Is there anything else you would like to add about the role of imagination, and dreams in creating fiction? Any other message for our readers?

Cie: Wow. Well, I don't know if this counts, but(Quoting Freud) – "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." A lot of people assume that if a character you write has certain attitudes, so do you, or if they come from a troubled background, you do too. Not so. As I told my Mom – "Happy backgrounds tend to read kind of boring. Characters need conflict." It takes all kinds of characters to create a believable world and believable conflict – which means that some of them are bound to have characteristics that don't reflect the writer's beliefs at all. So don't hold me to blame for my character the serial killer!

Cie, thanks for joining us here on Make-believe Mondays to give us a glimpse into the creative life. I can't wait to see how you combine the "real world" with faerie creatures.

Visit Cie's website at www.ciecatrunpubs.com to learn more.