Recently I sat down with Caridad Pineiro to discuss her new novel, Sins of the Flesh.
Sins of the Flesh is a very enticing title. Do you always come up with your own book titles, or does your editor sometimes make suggestions?
One of the first things I tell new writers is to not get too attached to their titles. Oftentimes editors and marketing departments will make suggestions about changes to the title in an effort to increase the visibility and marketability of the novel. Sins of the Flesh will be my 24th novel/novella and I've only been able to keep a few of the original titles for the works.
Your books feature paranormal events prominently in their story lines. Have you had any paranormal experiences in your own life?
I had a paranormal experience in my life during a trip to Mystic, Connecticut. It was a rather scary experience involving a waking nightmare. Or at least that's how I'd like to think of it. No adventures with vampires or any of the other shapeshifters I've written about. But in Sins of the Flesh, the paranormal aspect is actually more fact than fiction. The heroine's skin glow is based on real science, namely, flu orescent proteins that scientists use to track gene expression. Not so paranormal in reality, although there are a number of other complications from some illegal gene experimentation that have turned the heroine into a marvel of science.
You have been compared - very favorably - to Anne Rice. Is there anything in particular that you find interesting about vampires?
The most interesting thing to me about vampires is the breadth of history they bring to a story because of their long lives. They've often experienced many unusual things in their past lives. Physical things, like the changes they've undergone to become vampires. Life-altering things like surviving the Spanish Inquisition or a genocide in Rome. Plus there are the emotional things they've handled, most notably, losing everything that is familiar to them as their loved ones die and things around them change while they remain much the same. The combination of all of those elements makes for very interesting and compelling characters.
Sometimes writing can be a journey of discovery.&n bsp; Is there anything surprising you've discovered about life and/or yourself through your writing?
I've discovered that I like tortured heroes. Especially the ones that aren't necessarily all goodness and light. There is something very powerful about redeeming these characters in a story that makes it much more complex and in the end, rewarding. Mick Carrera, the hero in Sins of the Flesh, is one of those heroes. From the moment he came into my mind, I knew he would have a rough past and might not seem so heroic at the start of the story. Letting his hero emerge during the course of the novel really made for a page turner and I hope readers will feel that way as they read the book.
Did you always know you were going to be a writer? Or was there a moment where something just "clicked" in your life?
In the fifth grade, my English teacher assigned a project - to write a book for a class lending library. I went home and started writing and by the end of the year, I knew I wanted to be a writer. Like many people, however, life demanded I do other things, but I eventually realized - right after the birth of my daughter - that it was time to return to my writing and I'm very glad that I did that. Not only did it lead to sharing my stories with others, but it showed my daughter that it's possible to follow your dreams and make them happen.
Do you have any advice for would-be writers that they might not have heard before? (Perhaps some bit of unusual wisdom)?
Never give up and don't be afraid to break the rules. The first bit of wisdom is because I truly believe that the difference between finishing a book or not is perseverance. It takes a lot of effort to finish the first one. It takes continued effort to get it published and even more work to keep on getting published. As for the second bit of wisdom, I always kept on hearing "Don't do this" or "Don't submit that way", etc. from various sources. When I tried to sell my first vampire book, I kept on hearing, "It will never sell. No one20is buying vampires." I kept on trying and ended up choosing an unlikely route for the novel - Harlequin. They hadn't done paranormals in some time, much less one as dark and edgy as Darkness Calls. I broke a rule and gave it to them and it proved to be the right step in my career.
Are there any elements of fantasy writing vs. romance writing that make it challenging to combine the genres?
I think the hardest part of crossing any combination of genres is meeting the expectations of multiple sets of readers. People drawn to fantasy and/or romance have their preferences for what will appear in a story or may be turned off by some things. Male and female readers likewise have different tastes in what they read. So the key is to have enough of the elements to please the various groups and genders while also making the concept fresh and unique. I regularly hear from readers that they were surprised by my novel because they didn't read fantasy/suspense/romance/paranormals, but thought the blend in my novels kept them happily reading. It's always nice to hear that.
What - or who - do you read for fun?
Unfortunately I have a huge To-Be-Read pile because of my work and writing deadlines, but I have managed to sneak in a number of books this year. I never fail to read the latest J.D. Robb and also love Jaqueline Carey and Kim Harrison.
C.E. Lawrence's debut thriller, Silent Screams, coming out in December, recounts NYPD criminal profiler Lee' Campbell's dark journey into the mind of a serial killer. (Kensington Press). She has just completed the sequel, Scorned, to be released in 2010.
