Welcome back to FAR! Today we are chatting with the mother-daughter writing duo, P.C. and Kristin Cast. For those of you unfamiliar with these fabulous ladies - they are the authors of the young adult series, House of Night. Thanks for joining us!

I have to start by saying that I am a huge fan. I love the series and have been lucky enough to be with Zoey since the beginning. Can you give us a quick overview of Zoey and her world?

P.C.: I love this YA series, too! It's a new take on the vampyre mythos that mixes the issues of today's teenagers with the paranormal in a world much like ours - except in Zoey Redbird's world vampyres have always existed. Our vamps have a biological basis versus a supernatural basis, but they do have extraordinary powers and they are ruled by the Goddess of Night, Nyx, so there's plenty of mystery and magic in the books. THE HOUSE OF NIGHT is dark, funny and sexy, while being relevant to today's kids.

I've been pretty amazed by the latest plot twists and can I say awed by the daring changes that you've made in characters as they've progressed. (That was hard to keep spoiler-free - whew) Did you have these twists in mind from the beginning? Or did they morph on their own?

P.C.: Some of the plot twists we knew from the beginning, as in who is really good and who isn't, and major things that happen to character (yep - you know what I mean but can't say because of spoilers!). But lots of additional things have happened since we began - and more are still developing. Besides the six House of Night books we've just agreed to write a spin-off series that begins with three books, so there's a lot going on at the House of Night!

Kristin - what made you want to write with your mom? What was the inspiration behind the collaboration? Did you set out to write this series in particular, or did you want to write with your mom and the story followed?

K.C.: Well, I want to be famous! Hee hees. So of course I wanted to write with my "mam"! My "inspiration" was when Mom yelled at me. I didn't want to get hit by her, so I wrote. (Only kidding just a little there.) Actually, I didn't set out to write anything, and didn't think about it until she asked if I'd like to coauthor the first YA book with her. I tried to get top billing - she said no - and that's pretty much it.

Logistically, how do you write? How do you combine your talents to create a whole?

P.C.: We're working on our 4th book (UNTAMED, August 2008) right now, so we have the system down. Kristin and I discuss where the plot is heading, then I write the draft (usually pretty quickly). I leave holes in it and even spaces in Zoey's internal narration. I send that mess to Kristin and she goes through it meticulously, filling in blanks, fixing stuff that she says I've rambled about (YA moves a lot faster than adult books and I tend to describe too much if she doesn't watch me), and just making general notes on the text. Then Kristin sends the manuscript back to me, and I go through it again, making sure her input flows into mine - which, by now, it does very well.

This might sound like a tedious way to write, but both of us find it surprisingly freeing. Writing is usually so solitary that it's a nice change to work with someone so closely.

P.C. - You still have an ongoing series, the Goddess Summoning series, how do you balance projects? Do you work on one thing at a time? Or do you go back and forth?

P.C.: I have to work on things one at a time. I can't write two books at once. I've tried and characters/plot get all jumbled up in my mind, and that's not pretty. I'm lucky that I'm a fairly fast writer and that I focus easily. So I guess I make good use of my time, which allows me to do several projects per year.

What strengths and weaknesses do you bring to the table as individuals? Do they balance each other out?

P.C.: Obviously I bring experience to the writing table. I know I can bring a book to completion. From my fantasy books I've developed strong world building, which is handy in creating a new vampyre mythos. I also bring about 15 years of observing teenagers (I'm still teaching high school), so I get a huge cross section of current issues and personalities from which to create fiction. Kristin was 19 when we started writing MARKED, so she still had a strong teenage voice. She reads a lot of YA and she helps to keep our kids sounding like kids instead of sounding like adults with silly clothes.

Do you see a distinct ending to House of Night and Zoey's story? Or has it been progressing on its own?

P.C.: We know how we want to resolve several major plot issues, but neither of us see a distinct ending at this time. Plus, Kristin and I are still arguing over who Zoey should end up with.

Book 3: Chosen is coming out in March of 2008, can you give us any peeks into what's going on?

P.C.: It's hard for us to say much about CHOSEN without giving too much away, so let's just say that Zoey MESSES UP SO DANG BADLY and leave it at that.

Do either of you ladies have anything coming soon as solo authors?

P.C.: I have the 6th Goddess Summoning book, WARRIOR RISING, coming out with Berkley in May. Achilles is my hero and I absolutely adore the book! In August the second MYSTERIA anthology will be out, MYSTERIA LANE (with MaryJanice Davidson, Gena Showalter, and Susan Grant) and, of course, UNTAMED, book 4 in the House of Night series will be out in August.

K.C.: I do have something that I've just started working on. It's kind of an off-shoot of the House of Night world, but different. Sorry I'm sounding mysterious, but I'm just getting ready to pitch the idea to our editor and I don't think I should tell specifics until I've talked with her. (But keep your fingers crossed for me!)

RT 2008, Pittsburgh, any chances the fans will get to see you?

P.C.: Sadly we already had a commitment and won't be able to make it, but we will be in San Francisco for RWA.

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

We'd like to thank our fans for supporting this YA series with such passion. Please check out www.houseofnightseries.com for a very cool website and updates. It should be live by the release of CHOSEN.

Thanks again to the both of you for taking the time out of your busy days to answer our questions. If you'd like to learn more about these two fantastic authors, check out their website at: www.pccast.net.


Interviewed by: Serena