Author event: Rachel Caine at Foyles

On 23 May, Foyles Charing Cross in London once again held one of their fantastic author events, this time with Rachel Caine, author of amongst others the Morganville Vampires and the Weather Warden series.

What makes the events at Foyles different is that they deliver something extra beyond an already exciting opportunity for fans to meet their favourite authors at signing sessions. On top of the signing there is a talk and Q/A with the author and more often than not Foyles also provides an extra gift to attendees, for instance an ARC of a debut novel.

This time we received a pretty Allison and Busby bag (the publishers of Caine's popular Morganville books) which contained a Morganville bookmark, luggage tag and travel card holder. Great stuff! Make sure to regularly check the Foyles calender of events for upcoming events.

The main event was of course getting a chance to hear Caine speak about her work (she even spoiled the attendees by reading a chapter from the upcoming 13th novel in the series; Bitter Blood, which includes the cool new aspect of "ID cards" everyone in Morganville is obliged to have) and giving the fans a chance to ask their burning questions.

I didn't write down the questions and answers beyond a few key words and it was some weeks ago, but I'll try to describe the Q/A to the best of my ability behind the cut.


Q: Are you a pantser or a planner?
A: Rachel says she is a hybrid of the two. For instance she does write an outline as this needs to be written far in advance so cover description etc. can be made.

Q: Was Morganville's location planned?
A: Yes, the reason for the desert location was planned from day 1, even though she didn't have the name of the creature (Draug) straight away.

Q: What is your favourite character to write?
A: Shane and Myrnin are neck on neck (no pun intended).

Q: Are your characters based on people you know?
A: None of the characters are based on anyone in particular though there's a little bit of people Rachel knows in the characters and some vampires are based on historical figures. And her husband does have a passing resemblance to Oliver though this was unintended as the character was actually based on a surly coffee shop owner she knows.

Q: What was your favourite book to write?
A: She'd usually answer: Whichever one she's currently working on, but Last Breath took the top slot.

Q: What is the most difficult character to write?
A: If they're too difficult they die.

Q: Which character would you like to be?
A: Someone who doesn't live in Morganville (such as the delivery guy). Though for fashion sense: Eve.

Q: Why did you change the point of view of the character?
A: Because book 10 was all Claire's POV Shane looked like a jerk so Rachel had to let people see what was going on when Claire wasn't there. It was fun so she continued doing this.

Q: Who was the hardest to kill off?
A: None of them. Though Rachel does regret killing Sam as it was supposed to be the big finish to the series originally, but then the series got extended.

Q: If you could bring any character to live who would it be?
A: She says she's tempted to say Myrnin as that'd be tremendously fun. At a distance.

Q: Where did the idea for Monica come from?
A: Rachel went to a high school on the border of Mexico that had rich girls with bodyguards, lots of violence and gang members. She knew girls like Monica.

Q: Have you ever considered a spin-off of the older vamps?
A: While tempting the series needs to remain YA. Though they could be ebook novellas.

Q: How did you come up with the name Morganville?
A: Rachel explains she initially had five names and she had to check which one wasn't already an existing town in Texas, otherwise the city risked getting innuanted with visitors asking questions such as, "Can I talk to the Founder?"

Q: Would you consider writing the series from another POV?
A: No, because Claire didn't know the town upon arrival and as such was able to introduce it to the readers.

Rachel reading an excerpt from 'Bitter Blood'

The Q/A was followed by a signing session and those who had three or more books with them also received a fab drawing from Rachel's husband. I didn't bring my whole series of Morganville books (as to not overwhelm Rachel), but I luckily had brought three titles and as such received a cool drawing too.

And while my books were signed I also rambled on to Rachel about how much I appreciated her meeting the fans, how great the talk was and how awesome her vampire turtle stuffed toy is (I own a lot of turtles by the same brand, Russ, but had never come across that one before - I need to find it to add to my collection!). It was a lot of word vomit (it happens when I meet people I admire) but she was nothing but lovely in return. In all, a fab event!

One of the signatures by Rachel (they're slightly different in each book)

Super cool drawing!