FAR would like to welcome two talented ladies, CT Adams and Cathy Clamp. This co-writing team has authored a number of books including their newest book Moon's Web. Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions.

You're very welcome!

I've heard rumors about the two of you working together at a law office before writing together. Can you confirm or deny? (grin)

Confirmed! We both have legal backgrounds, and met in a lawfirm in Denver. But we work in different areas of law. It's been surprisingly useful in writing, both on the business end and creatively.

Logistically, how do you write together? Do you live close enough to brainstorm? Or is email your friend?

We've done a lot of both. We do live nearby and brainstorm ideas on our daily walks, or over the pool table (warning: we're REALLY good, but don't play for money! Heh.) Email also gets a lot of wear and tear, and we have "power lunches" where we'll tackle a particular plot problem or create one character.

Does one take the lead in one book and the other the next book? Or is it a true collaboration?

While we collaborate verbally, the writing is indeed handled with one of us as the "lead" author, and the other author does edits to the text after the basic story is completed. Keep in mind that those changes can be fairly minor or bleeding enough red ink to make your eyes hurt. We did try a true collaboration early on in the partnership. Bad idea. Our minds work very differently and HOW we create is also very dissimilar. Cathy plots first and then writes, while Cie creates as she goes. The product might end up the same, but we drove each over a bit buggy trying to write a chapter each because they wouldn't mesh when put together.

Of all the individuals you have created, do you have a particular favorite? What appeals to you the most about this character?

We each have very different favorite characters, and very different reasons why they're our favorite. But just picking ONE? Wow! That would be just too hard.

Do your characters 'talk' to you? How do you decide what to name them?

Cie’s characters absolutely "talk" to her. They are "real" in a way that's hard to explain (and sometimes she thinks it makes her sound more than a little batty LOL). It's as though their lives are going on in the background of her own and she just drops in on sections of their lives and tells the story. Cathy's are silent puppets for her to move around on a chessboard. She is much more "plot driven" and would rather decide what needs to happen for the plot to function and change the base character to suit. But once the character becomes a real person for the plot, then they stay that way. Sometimes, it's a pain to have the characteristics show up in future plots, because you have to work around what you KNOW that character will do, given X and Y circumstances. But that's part of the fun of writing! *g*

You started out with a historical novel and continued from there. Why did you go to romance?

It was a natural progression. Even in the historical, there was a minor thread of romance, because when people interact, that sort of thing happens! LOL. Hunter's Moon was always intended to be a romance, as was Moon's Web. The interesting thing that's been happening is that more and more of the manuscripts we had on the shelf (we have lots of manuscripts in various stages of completion -- and in various genres) are BECOMING romances. It just seems to be happening, because ultimately, we realize that's what the reader wants. Our job is to GIVE the reader what they want.

Why do you think that paranormal romance has become so popular?

For one thing, I think there are a lot of truly talented writers in the genre. The quality of the product is just phenomenal. Too, I think people like a little bit of "scary" to spice things up. It's the same thing that makes people ride roller coasters, or watch suspense or horror movies.

I truly enjoyed your romance novels and am excited to see that you have another coming out soon. Can you tell us how you came up with the idea of a werewolf mafia assassin?

If we told you, we'd have to kill you... heh.

Any more Sazi novels? Please say yes...lol.

Oh yes! We've got a LOT more ideas for Sazi books. No end in sight for the immediate future. In fact, there will be TWO Sazi books in 2006. Captive Moon will be out in August. This will be the very first NON-Tony book. He'll guest star briefly, but the lead character will be Antoine Monier, that sexy French councilman for the werecats who was introduced at the end of Moon's Web. He'll meet Tahira Kuric, a Turkish-American weretiger who's in a lot of trouble in Stuttgart, Germany. At the end of December, readers will meet Raphael Ramirez, the father of Wolven member Raven (also from Moon's Web) and Catherine Turner, the latest attack victim of the oh-so-bad Jack Simpson. But don't worry -- Tony will have another adventure very soon, and he'll be back to his bad-boy self!

Your next book takes on vampires as well as shifters and is available for preorder on Amazon.com. Can you give us a sneak peek?

Absolutely! Touch of Evil features Kate Reilly, an Irish Catholic former pro athlete in Denver, Colorado. In Kate's world, there are vampires and shapeshifters, but not like readers have EVER seen before. Vampires aren't the ancient undead of legend. The creatures known as The Thrall are sentient parasites that use humans as "hosts." People get infected by a bite from the vampire queen and the parasite attaches to the base of the person's brain and FORCES them to drink blood. Well, of course, man does not live on blood alone -- so instead of very long-lived vampires, they actually die after a year or two. It's a death sentence, and a particularly bad way to go. But The Thrall have evolved into a hive mind, communicating telepathically to order the soldier hosts to bring humans to the hive either as food (known as Prey or Herd) or to become Hosts. So, the death of a dozen or so people every year is no big deal. They'll just make more. But they're! not a warm and fuzzy sort of vampire, and the current queen is . . .well, insane. Kate's big problem is that she's psychic, making her the PERFECT person to become the next vampire queen! Unfortunately, the Queen parasite would destroy her own mind. She'd be alive, but not Kate anymore, so she's not interested. Our shapeshifters are also unusual and much closer to how they might have evolved scientifically. Werewolves are a matriarchal society, meaning that the women are the hunters and fighters for the pack! Also, the change isn't magical as it is in our Sazi world. It's adrenaline-based, meaning getting stressed out makes a wolf go Poof! So, they're badly discriminated against. They can't hold driver's license (because . . . well, would YOU want to be in the next car over on an icy road when the driver goes Poof?) But Tom Bishop is a new breed of werewolf. He's a firefighter (which is a HIGHLY stressful job), but he actually keeps h! is human mind -- the first of his species to do so. He's the ultimate search and rescue dog because when he changes, he's STILL a firefighter! His interest in Kate is originally because the pack needs something from her, and also wants to keep her away from the truth. But when they . . . nah. Not going to tell you any more! You'll have to buy the book. LOL!

What made you choose vampires this time?

We wanted to try a completely different "take" on the typical vampire legend and see where it went. It's a very unusual world.

Do you have anything else in the works right now?

Well, of COURSE we do! We're already planning our next Sazi books. One will be set in Texas (where we now live), and another will be set in Australia, using a secondary character the readers will meet in Captive Moon. We're also working on a couple of new worlds that we can't say much about right now. But they're going to be a LOT of fun! In other words, we're going to be doing this for a long, LONG time! :D

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Well, let's see -- we were very excited to learn that Moon's Web is a FEATURED SELECTION in the Fall Doubleday Book Club catalog. Yay! So, if anyone would prefer to own a copy in hardback . . . don't hesitate to drop by their website. ;-) We'll be attending several conferences in 2006 where we'll be signing our books. We'll be at the Romantic Times conference in Florida in May, Writer's Weekend in Bellevue, Washington in June, FenCon in Dallas, Texas in July and the brand new ButcherCon in Chicago, Illinois in October. Finally, we wanted to tell everyone that we really appreciate the input we've gotten from readers! Some of them have even turned into friends, and that's the way we both think it should be. We like chatting with readers and finding out what they would like to see (which is why there's going to be a book in Australia! LOL!) Right now, we answer comments on our guestbook and in Cie's blog, but we're planning a message forum in the near f! uture, where we can chat informally about our books, other books and the writing life in general. Keep watching our website, and hopefully we'll have it up by Thanksgiving!

Thank you both for taking the time to answer our questions. For those of you who'd like to read more about these two ladies, you can check out their website at: http://www.ciecatrunpubs.com/. Thanks again!

Interviewed by: Serena