On Books, Writing, and Life – Interview with Author Cameron J. Quinn

Arrested, is the first book in the Starsboro Chronicles. It introduces the series MC’s Zurik D’Vordi and Detective Jennifer Morgan. (Zurik’s younger brother Trent plays a bigger role in later.) It starts when Morgan arrested Zurik, believing he killed a group of men. When it turns out the victims weren’t exactly human, it’s all Morgan can do to put the pieces together without falling apart.

That sounds so exciting! So, why did you decide to write under a pen name?

I’m the only one of my given name and I knew an author who published a book that bombed and the publisher made her change her name for her next book. I didn’t want to go through that. I also write non-fiction and decided to use my given name for that. Cameron is my maternal great grandmother’s maiden name, J stands for Jones which is my maternal grandmother’s maiden name, and Quinn is my paternal grandmother’s maiden name so the name is mine. I decided to honor the women in my family by using their names.

I love how you used family names to create your pen name. What are you working on now?

All the things. Haha. I have trouble focusing on one project. My next thing should be rewriting How to Diagnose a Changeling but I’ve been outlining a paranormal romance about werewolves in Maine that’s got me pretty motivated. The working title is Bite Me Once. It’s about the first female werewolf to be bitten in (and survive the change) in over 100 years. You can imagine how that would go. She ends up in a pack but she’s not sure that’s the right place for her. But can she survive on her own?
The character’s name is Naomi and shes so much fun to write. The hero of the story, Remmy has also been an interesting one to explore.

Wow, that sounds very cool! What does a typical day of writing look like for you?

On a good day, I get up at 5 am, write until the kids up around 7, get them ready for school, get the baby up and then I’m lucky if I can write again that day. I’m lucky though. My husband works second shift so he takes my daughter a few days a week so I can get out of the house to a local coffee shop so I can really get some work done.

That’s nice you start the day with writing with all you have going on! So, how do you come up with your creative storylines? (I’m also very much into the titles of your books, such as “How to Catch a Serial Killer” and “How to Get Kicked Out of School”?)

The Chronicles are a lot of fun. I just look up ghost stories and urban legends and then bring them to Starsboro. I get to see how Zurik and the gang will handle different challenges. The how to’s came from the first book. I was chatting with my friend and fellow author VS Holmes about possible titles and talking about how and why Zurik got caught and it seemed like he almost wanted to. So one of us (I’m not sure which) said it would be funny if it was called how to get arrested. And there it was. Then I decided to stick with the ‘how to’ theme. The second one How to Diagnose a Changeling is because the monster is a changeling and the child that’s taken is the son of a doctor.

Ah, I love it! What surrounds you as you write?

I usually have a fur baby or two close by. I usually write in the living room so I don’t disturb anyone who’s sleeping. And of course if I’m in the coffee shop, I sit by the window, there are always flowers on the table.

You always have such lovely company as you write! So you do your own share of interviews with the Amphibian Press Podcast! Does that experience help you with your own writing?

Sometimes I’ll interview someone who will bring up things in writing I hadn’t thought about before that helps me with craft. I love finding the authors who are dedicated to improving craft not just pushing books out as fast as they can. There’s nothing wrong with that but for me, it’s all about improvement and the reader experience.

I can totally relate! One of my favorite questions to ask authors is – what books did you love reading as a kid? Any favorites?

The book that changed the way I looked at books was Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel. It was about a little bat, the runt, who gets lost on his first migration and when he’s trying to find his way home he finds a brown bat, Marina, and they end up being hunted by two cannibal bats that were brought up from South America. It sounds kind of terrible for a ten-year-old to read that but I promise it was perfect for me at the time. Haha. It also brought up pieces of history and experimentation on bats I had no idea the government had done until I was talking about the book later (with my husband) and he told me about how they were using bats to carry bombs during WWII. I’ll never forget that trilogy of books. Made me love bats. I also read Watership Down, Firebringer and The Sight. over the next few years before getting into paranormal romance. But without Silverwing, I doubt I’d be where I am today. My brother loved reading as a kid and I wanted to. My mom was always reading and writing and I wanted to love it too but I just couldn’t get into the stories until one fateful day in the local bookshop, I found the book about the bat.

How cool! Now I have some books that I need to look up now. Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog!