Author Interview: Catherine Peace

About the author:
Catherine Peace has been telling stories for as long as she could remember. She often blames two things for her forays into speculative fiction—Syfy (when it was SciFi) channel Sundays with her dad and The Island of Dr. Moreau by HG Wells. She graduated in 2008 from Northern Kentucky University with a degree in English and is still chasing the dream of being super rich and famous, mostly so she can sit around in her PJs all day and write stories.

Catherine currently lives on a farm in South Carolina. E-I-E-I-O.

What inspires you to write romantic fiction?
A lot of bad relationships, actually. I started reading and writing romance after a particularly bad breakup, and I haven't looked back since. I'm still at a place where I need to find some hope in the world, and romance does that for me. No matter how bad a circumstance is in a romance novel, I know it's going to have a happy resolution, and in today's world, I need that., and so do a lot of other people.

Tell us about how you write.
I have ADHD so it's a miracle I get anything done LOL. What works for me is to write in 10-15 minute sprints, preferably with a writing partner for accountability. I've also started figuring out the ends of each chapter so I know what I'm working toward. It's a little extra work, but it's helped my productivity A LOT.

Do you listen to or talk to to your characters?
Oh man. I tend to listen more, but I've had arguments with them in the past. For example, while rewriting a YA book, the main character wanted to do something that wouldn't have been out of character, but also wouldn't have served the plot's purpose. I think we went back and forth about it for…much longer than I want to admit…..

What advice would you give other romance writers?
Lean into tropes. Love them, pet them, don't feed them after midnight. Seriously though, readers love tropey romance, they look for it. Tropes aren't cliches, they're building blocks of your novel's foundation. Relationship dynamics are often tropes: grumpy/sunshine (the big one right now), nerd/jock, enemies to lovers, etc. Use those to your advantage. They'll make marketing easier, too.

How did you decide how to publish your books?
My wallet decided for me LOL (so please buy my books!). Self-publishing is EXPENSIVE and I tip my hat to anyone who does it. There's no guaranteed ROI in any publishing venture, but self-pubbed authors take a huge risk because they're paying 100% of the cost and most are lucky to break even. Support small pub and self-pubbed authors!

What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I think we're going to end up having another self-pub/small pub boom in the next couple of years. Authors don't need agents and big publishers to reach readers anymore, and readers are getting spoiled on new releases every few months instead of waiting years for another book from their favorite author. Larger publishers will eventually price themselves out because of the cost differentials between their books and small pub/self-pub books.

Which romance sub-genere(s) fit your stories best?
contemporary, speculative, paranormal

My books are available in the following formats:
eBook, Print