Blog Tour: Lisa Cach Interview

Please welcome Lisa Cach, here to celebrate the release of her YA debut, Wake Unto Me! Read on to find out about how she came up with her title and why she got tired of writing sex scenes ;)

1. In what ways do you relate to Caitlyn? Did you put parts of yourself or people you know into any of your characters?

I always felt like an outsider in high school, which is a feeling I drew on for Caitlyn. Actually, all my characters come from myself in one way or another; there’s a quote from Maya Angelou that has always struck me as describing this well:

"We are all human; therefore, nothing human can be alien to us."

From villains to heroes to minor secondary characters, their emotions are all emotions that I have felt at one time or another, even if only for a moment. You cannot imagine or understand something unless it has a basis – however tenuous - in your own experience of life.

That said, I do get sparks of character inspiration from people I meet. Strangely, it’s easier to build a character based on someone I met only briefly, than it is to use someone I know well.


2. "Wake Unto Me" is such a unique and intriguing title. How did you come up with it?

Oy, it took forever to find that title! I still have the sheets of paper covered with possible titles, scrounged from my Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, from songs, from poems, from my imagination. My editor and I went back and forth for weeks before finding this one, that we could both agree on. It comes from the old-timey Stephen Foster song, Beautiful Dreamer. I always imagine Bugs Bunny singing it:

Beautiful dreamer
Wake unto me,
Starlight and dewdrops
Are waiting for thee.

3. Your YA debut is set in France. What made you decide to host it there? Do you have any favorite places to visit in France?

I wanted to set it in Europe because I needed the deep history of the continent. I decided on southwestern France because I can speak a little bit of French, and because the weather wouldn’t be too atrocious through winter; my original plan had been to set the story in Geneva, Switzerland, but then I realized that my characters would be stuck indoors for most of the school year.

I’ve only been to France twice, but would very much like to go back, and see different regions. I did of course love seeing some of the palaces in the Loire Valley, and would like to go back and see more of them. One of the things that astonished me was all the art that’s in them, by famous painters. It’s almost better than going to an art museum, because you see these great paintings hanging in rooms that people once lived in; it’s a more intimate experience than seeing them on blank walls in an impersonal gallery, amidst gobs of tourists.

4. Considering you used to mainly focus on adult fiction, what made you decide to switch to YA?

The brutal truth is that I got burned out on writing sex scenes. I was writing a romantic erotica (“My Summer as a Sex Vixen,” which comes out February 2012), and every time I started writing a sex scene, I would hit a mental wall and abandon the book for months and months. I thought I was going to have to chuck my writing career out the window, move on, do something new. Maybe enroll in art school.

It was my agent who suggested I try writing a YA. She said I had a young writing voice, so why not give it a shot? Wake Unto Me was the result, and it has revitalized my enthusiasm for writing across the board. I even finished writing the romantic erotica — and I like the result! It’s naughty and funny, and I’m glad I wrote it.

I want to concentrate on YA for the foreseeable future. I feel a little freer to focus on the heroine’s search for identity in YA, and on the plot, than I do in an adult romance where the relationship with the guy is all-important.

5. What's next for you writing wise?

I have several YA story proposals making the rounds, including a sequel to Wake Unto Me. The sequel is almost a sure thing, but I hope I get to write one of the other ideas, too.

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Thanks so much for stopping by, Lisa! Be sure to check out her website and to read my review of Wake Unto Me: coming soon!