Welcome to Anniversary Week at Someone’s Read it Already! I can’t really guarantee that there will be many interesting things going on this week, but I do have an interview with an up-and-coming author whose novel I reviewed last week.

Christine and Ethan Rose have just released their first novel, Rowan of the Wood, and are doing a blog tour. Today is here, obviously, and it should also be mentioned that any comments on this entry are counted as entries to win a limited-edition print of a painting by Christine, inspired by the novel! See here for more details.

My questions are in bold, and Christine’s answers are not.

1.) How did the collaboration thing work out between the two of you? I mean, sometimes collaborations are that one author has all the ideas, and the other does all the writing work; sometimes it’s pretty obvious who writes what, as in Armageddon Summer, by Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville. Yours appeared fairly seamless, so who did what, and how did you come to that agreement?

Ethan and I thoroughly enjoyed writing together. The original story and character concepts were mine, but the plot and subplots were developed together. I started, being extremely goal-oriented, with writing a first draft of the novel in 30 days (after it swam around in my head for about a year). Then Ethan took it and embellished what I had written, introduced subplots, etc… I took it back for the 3rd draft, and so on. We finally sat down and read it cover to cover making detailed changes and ensuring the timeline worked. Overall, we worked extremely well together, and we’re looking forward to writing the rest of the five-book series.

2.) Assuming that there are more books going, what’s your writing schedule like? Do you write a certain number of hours a day, or only during the full moon, or what?

We write when we can find the time, which of late, hasn’t been very often; however, we’re going on a grand nationwide tour in the Spring, and we’ll have much more time to write then. Ethan must be in the woods to write, and I write in front of my computer with headphones to block out all distractions.

3.) What’s the process? Do you start with notes, and then an outline, and then a draft, and then more drafts, or do you write more organically, or what? And how long might it take you to complete a book?

For Rowan of the Wood, I started out with notes. I had the idea while on a flight from Texas to Oregon. I started scribbling down everything pouring out of my head on some airsick bags. Every inch is covered in thoughts and ideas. I didn’t know in what format I wanted to write they story (screenplay, novel, etc), so it just simmered in my brain for a year. When I finally decided on a novel, I bought the book First Draft in 30 Days, having never written a book before (and I’m very much about the structure), and I did just that: wrote a first draft in 30 days. Yes, there was an extensive outline and planning. I did something new in this writing venture, and that was fully develop the characters first. It was something Stephen King said in his book On Writing. Develop the characters, put them in a situation, and let your characters take you through. That’s also what I did, and it worked for me. It worked better than anything I had tried before.

It took us about 6 months to write it. After finding a publisher, it went into another phase of editing for several months. From concept to publication was 3 years.

4.) Christine, how much did your film career influence this book? i.e., did you conceive of the story cinematically?

I did, actually. It was going to be a movie first; but I’m not a great screenwriter. Besides, movies cost millions to make. Ultimately, I decided on writing a novel (which will hopefully be a movie in the near future!). I think my film career did influence many of the scenes. I learned a lot trying to write for the screen, and some of that was inevitably transferred to the book. I’ve had people tell me that it reads like a movie. It’s very visual, and I think that comes from my love of movies.

5.) That is a pretty awesome painting. Did you paint it first, or did the book come first? Also, seriously, what of the arts are you not talented in? You make the rest of us look bad. :)

My Green Man painting? Thank you! The book was written first. I actually used to be an art major, 20 years ago, and I hadn’t picked up a paintbrush since. It was while waiting for the book to be released… it had gotten pushed back for 3 months for marketing reasons, and I had to do something to keep me busy. We were planning on doing some events, like fantasy conventions, Renaissance faires, and Celtic festivals; and I wanted to have something else at our booth that just a pile of books. That’s too easy to walk past. So, with my extra time last summer, I started doing some Green Man art. I have always been drawn to the Green Man, which is why I decided to tie his mythology in with Rowan’s history.

6.) What’s your opinion on the cover art for your book? I like it quite a bit — it sort of looks like a hybrid of a woodcut and a cartoon to me,
and it’s certainly colorful and eyecatching. Did you have any input?

I LOVE the book cover. I’m glad you saw the woodcut in it, as that’s what I told
our amazing illustrator, Ia Layadi, that I wanted. I had a little input in the feeling I wanted, but the incredible artwork is all Ia. She also did a 4×8 painting of Rowan (you can see a print of it between the Prologue and Chapter One). For our Geekalicious Grand Book Tour next year, she’ll be painting the travel trailer we’ll be taking on the tour… and when a movie is made, she’ll be the production designer! She’s truly amazing.

7.) So, what with all the sexy, misunderstood vampires in YA these days, what made you decide to include vampires and make them completely evil and soulless?

Oh, but Fiana isn’t completely evil! She held onto her goodness at least 500 years after she lost her soul. I LOVE vampires! All vampires: the sexy, misunderstood ones and evil ones — but especially if they’re both (like Spike!!). I love complex characters, too.

8.) How much of your ‘real life’ did you throw into the story? I notice that Max’s cat is named Shadow and so is yours, and you have three dogs and there are three dogs in the story, in addition to the foster-kid situation.

There are certainly real-life experiences that inspired some of the story. After all, authors write what they know :-D

9.) Who are your fantasy and historical influences? What would you recommend to a reader who wanted to know more about Celtic history and
mythology?

I was heavily influenced by the Arthurian Legend and the stories of the druids. My fantasy influences begin from early childhood with fairy tales & The Narnia Chronicles. The major fantasy influence from my college years was defintely Anne Rice (thus explaining the vampires). More recently, J.K. Rowling, Charles de Lint, and the first half of the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton. I would recommend The Mabinogion, Cetic Myths and Legends by T.W. Rolleston, and The Blood Thirsty Celts :-D for more information on Celtic Mythology/History.

10.) So what’s in store for the future? More books, obviously. Another series? Other single titles? More movies and paintings? For mine own part, I’d love to see one of your books illustrated along the lines of James A. Owen’s Imaginarium Geographica (each chapter has its own drawing by the first page).

There will be four more books in this series. Ethan has been working on a book for nearly a decade, so he’ll be publishing one title on his own when that’s complete. I hope to be working on either the movie and/or tv series for Rowan of the Wood soon! Other than that, I have a few more stories up my sleeve that will make their way out one way or another.