A RISING STAR - Marcia colette

by La-Tessa Montgomery

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I met Ms. Colette at the Romance Slam Jam this year.  It was a pleasure meeting and getting to know her; she is a very nice and humble lady.  She is also a great talent, so I invite you to learn a little more about her, her genre (paranormal romance), and her debut release UNSTABLE ENVIRONMENT.  You can find our review of that title here:

A bit about you:

1.    What are some of your favorite authors, genres, and/or books?  That's a loaded question.  *grin*  Give me a good urban fantasy along the lines of Kelley Armstrong, L.A. Banks, and Charlaine Harris.  I also like Tananarive Due, John Saul, and Bentley Little.

2.    What do you do in your down time, (assuming you have any J)?  Reading and going to movies.  Especially movies.  For some reason, they're more of a brain break for me.  If I have some money set aside, then Universal Studios and Disney World. 

3.    How long have you been writing?  Was it always a dream of yours to become a published author?  I've been writing for 8 years now.  It wasn't a dream by any means.  I fell into it when I was living in Boston and needed an escape from the everyday world. 

4.    What did you do when you found out that you sold your first manuscript? (I’m sure some major celebrating went on J)  Actually…I fell off the couch.  My "call" came via snail mail on Halloween of all days.  Once I picked myself up from the shock, I screamed so loud I think I scared away all of the trick-o-treaters.  My friend's took me out to dinner to celebrate the following night.

All about Unstable Environment:

1.    What inspired you to write multicutural romance, and more specifically, multicultural paranormal?  I grew up on things like The Twilight Zone, Amazing Stories, Outer Limits.  So, the paranormal stuff was second nature to me.  However, even at the tender age of five, I wasn't fooled.  There were no African Americans in paranormal/horror shows unless they needed to kill someone off.  I didn't understand why WE couldn't be the heroes, too.  So, the best place to make that happen was with my own writing where I have some control.  While I like horror, I don't like stories that end in doom and gloom.  I want there to be some hope for tomorrow.  And since I joined a romance writing organization (purely for the networking), I thought it made sense to try one.  Until then, all of my stuff was dark fantasy, edging on horror.  I tried and UNSTABLE ENVIRONMENT was the result. 

2.    Now I consider myself to be a big fan of sci-fi fan, and I have never heard of were-cheetahs.  How did you come up with this concept?  I've read stories about werejaguars, wereleopards, and even werelions.  From what I could tell, nobody was doing cheetahs and I LOVE cheetahs.  Surely, they're in the top ten of the big-cat world and someone would remember them.  When they didn't, I said, "I guess I'll have to create my own."  With that, I took one step further outside the box and in a fresher direction.

3.    Do you have any favorite characters or scenes that you wouldn’t mind sharing or providing a little more insight on?  My favorite scene was when Nahla went all the way through with her first change.  It forced Sinclair to see what the future had in store for her if she decided to tough it out with Rio.  Her decision wouldn’t affect just her.  It would affect her three-year-old niece, too.  Her "baby girl" would go through this for the rest of her life and never have a chance at a normal childhood.  Like she would've had one anyway after having suffered through so much abuse at the hands of her mother.  Still, it was better to have a werecheetah for a niece than mourning the precious loss of one.  That little girl was Sinclair's life whether she came with spotted fur or not.

4.    Did you face any major challenges writing this particular story?  If so, what were they?  Rio was a huge challenge.  I wanted to get him right, but at the same time, keep him generic enough for a Hispanic male that he could be anyone.  Family plays a big part in Latino culture.  Unfortunately, that's not the case with cheetahs in the wild.  They're solitary animals, except for a few who choose to pal around with their own sex.  So, I used my artistic license and let Rio's culture dominate some of his decision making rather than his cheetah instincts.   

5.    Are there any more stories in the works about those cheetahs? ( I, for one, am waiting on a sequel J)  I'm glad you asked.  I'm working on Kyle and Donna's story as we speak.  Since Donna isn't a werecheetah, that means the supernatural world is about to expand with root women…and a bunch of mummies to boot.

All about the Fans:

1.    What’s next for you? (Other than the sequel I’m trying to force you to write to UNSTABLE ENVIRONMENT that is..) Do you have any upcoming releases or projects you are working on that you wish to share?  LOL!  I'm working on a prequel to my e-book called Stripped, which is the story of how Alexa and Matt met.  In case you don't know, Alexa is half werewolf and Matt, her mate, is a full blood.  I describe their meeting as the The Bourne Identity, urban fantasy style.  And since I introduced a new character in UNSTABLE ENVIRONMENT 2, there’s a good chance she’ll get her own story in book 3.    

2.    Do you have any reader events coming up (book signing, tours, etc.) where your fans can come out and meet you?  The only thing on my calendar right now is a small Sci-Fi/Fantasy convention in Durham, NC called Trinoc-con and the Moonlight and Magnolias conference in Atlanta.

3.    How can your readers stay in touch with you?  They can always hit me up at my website www.marciacolette.com or on my MySpace page at www.myspace.com/marciacolette.  Also, I'm one-ninth of a group blog called Shapeshifter Romance at http://shapeshifterromance.wordpress.com/

4.    What advice or encouragement do you have for aspiring authors?  Do NOT let writing stress you out.  That's what a job, family, and friends are for.  ;-)  I've seen too may writers stress over things like whether italics should be underlined or have asterisks around them.  If you have questions like that, then you're thinking too hard about things that aren't important.  It’s the STORY that matters.  That's what will get an editor's attention.  If you're lost on 1 inch margins or 1.25 inch margins for your manuscript, same thing.  The editor is more worried about things like plot, characterization, worldbuilding, etc. Also, listen to what others have to say about your writing, but don't spend the next 5 years trying to write to everyone's taste.  That's a good way to talk yourself out of submitting what might have been one heck of a story.