Sensational 7 Q & A with Karen Kincy!

Have you ever wanted to know what it would be like to hang out with your favorite author(s)? In an attempt to get a better understanding of authors, my Sensational Seven Q & A takes a closer or more personal look at these authors to give you a glimpse of the personalities behind the writing of your favorite books.

“Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book; a personality which, by birth and quality, is pledged to the doctrines there set forth, and which exists to see and state things so, and not otherwise.” By Ralph Waldo Emerson

A shameless nerd and lover of snark, Karen lives in Olympia, Washington, where she is a senior studying linguistics, literature, and computer science at The Evergreen State College. She ripped off her hometown of Snohomish, WA for the fictional locale of Klikamuks, where Other takes place. When she’s not at her computer, writing, she’s probably out in the forest with her notebook, writing, or on a photography expedition with her trusty digital camera. She likes to imagine werewolves lurking among the trees.

Look for OTHER in a store near you!

If you were given a chance to travel back in time, what year or place would you go / Why?
I would love to visit Ancient Egypt, though I’d have to prepare myself by learning how to read hieroglyphs and speak the Egyptian of the time. And I sunburn like a marshmallow in flame. The pain, however, would be worth it, because once I got back, I’d write an amazing, historically accurate Ancient Egyptian novel. That’s genuinely my selfish authorly incentive to time-travel anywhere and anywhen.

Describe your novel in seven words or less?
Shapeshifter Girl Hunts Killer After Paranormal People! (Breaking News!)

Please share with us about your favorite book and fictional crush to date?
My favorite book and fictional crush? Those are, I believe, two separate things. I will say that Annette Curtis Klause’s Blood and Chocolate ranks up there among my undying favorites. I adore her lush, sensuous language and badass werewolf protagonist, Vivian. As for my fictional crush, I recently answered this in another interview: Eric Northman from Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse series, in his True Blood incarnation. I can’t resist his Viking vampire hotness. Excuse me while I abduct him.

If you could be any character in fiction, whom would you be / Why?
Probably Lyra from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. Partially because I’d love to have Pantalaimon as my daemon, and partially because I love Lyra’s expert lying skills contrasted with her alethiometer (truth-telling device). If I were her, that would also mean that I’d get to run around the amazing steampunky London in the parallel universe Pullman created.

If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see play the lead role as you/ Why?
This depends on whether Hollywood wants to make my life into this serious artsy movie about a young writer’s rise to authorship, or else some sort of romantic comedy about a college student who happens to be obsessed with novels (and writing steamy scenes) while hunting down a boyfriend. According to those websites which match your face with a celebrity’s, I should have Evan Rachel Wood play me. Which is sort of badass, considering how she plays the vampire queen in True Blood right now.

If someone wrote a biography about you, what do you think the title should be – please explain?
Wordly Wise, or some such pun involving words, since I’m both a linguistics/literature major and an author. Beyond that, I love words to the point of wanting a dictionary of etymology for Christmas, and scouring used bookstores for old linguistic texts.

How would you describe yourself/life in seven words?
New college grad seeks book addiction career!

Bonus:

**Is there any additional info you would like to share with your readers about what’s next for you and your books?**
Keep your eyes peeled for Bloodborn, the sequel to Other, in the fall of 2011! I’m revising it right now, in fact, and it shows us what life is like as a bloodborn—newly bitten—werewolf who, incidentally, grew up hating and hunting werewolves. Yes, lots of angst there. Also, scenes with werewolves running around America with the police on their tails. After that, the third book in the series, Foxfire, should hit shelves in 2012. If the title isn’t obvious, expect the Japanese fox-spirits known as kitsune.

Thanks for stopping by Karen!

For more information about Karen Kincy and her books, please visit her website here.