Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Ramble from Cate Culpepper

Tonight another great writer shares her words and time with us.
I've been pondering Ze's report about the GCLS Convention. I second many of her thoughts. Great weekend, beautiful women, cool workshops, room service. I attended the "Internet Fiction to Published Novel" discussion too, and I picked up on some of the disdain for fanfiction that Ze noted.

Some... but not a lot. I heard fanfiction mentioned often and fondly through the weekend, in other workshops and in personal conversations. So many of our community's published authors owe their success, at least in part, to the exposure their internet writings provided. I don't believe that debt has been forgotten.

I turned out a lot of Xena stories in the late 90's, under various names. At that time, the anonymity of the net was important to me. I was able to cut my creative teeth in a pretty benevolent cyber-environment.

These days, I write books about a modern-day Amazon clan called Tristaine. All three novels are being released this summer through Bold Strokes Books. Elisa said it was okay to indulge in craven self-promotion in this ramble, which I happily provide below.

The Tristaine series is considered speculative fiction. My themes are pretty simple, and the writing is spare. The love story means as much to me as the action or any political undertones these books might carry. The City featured in Tristaine: The Clinic resembles any American city in which Homeland Security is allowed to run amok, and evolve into its natural totalitarian state.

I thought about what such a society must be like, and then wondered what could make living in that kind of world remotely bearable. Simple answer - the existence of a clan of strong and loving women who prize freedom and pledge their lives to each other. I'm not alone in seeing refuge in this concept -- many of Tristaine's readers have mentioned they wish this clan and its Amazons were real.

Tristaine: The Clinic is available now from online merchants. The next novel, Battle for Tristaine, comes out in July. Tristaine Rises, the third in the series, will debut in August.

Cate Culpepper

Cate's Web site: Writing of Cate Culpepper

If you get a chance drop Cate a line and thank her for joining us tonight. Better yet do yourself a favor and buy her books, I will be. If you want to keep up-to-date with Cate, join her Yahoo group where she can be seen often.

Now on to the update and have a great evening.

Elisa

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