Please tell us a bit about
yourself: I was raised as an “Army brat” and grew up moving every two to three
years. I think that lifestyle had a huge impact on me, as the need to learn to
adapt and to read people was learned very early. It also made me a bit of a
nomad. Professionally, I moved around, too. I was a legal videographer, a
middle and high school teacher, a cheerleading coach, a law student. Through it
all, I wrote poetry as catharsis and started but never finished many stories.
After I left school, I realized it was time to get serious about the one
constant through it all, my writing. I did, and the results are Spark Rising
and Ignition Point.
Tell us about Spark Rising:
Spark Rising is a romantic, post-apocalyptic adventure set in the southwestern
United States of the future. It’s the story of Magdalena Gracey, a young woman
with the power to create and manipulate the only form of electricity left in
the world, and Agent Alejandro Reyes, a man trained from childhood to be an
elite soldier for the ruling government. He’s sent to investigate a report of
an illegal Spark living in the desert. But Alex has his own agenda. And if the
two of them can learn to work together instead of killing each other, they
might have a chance at sparking a revolution…and love.
What inspired you to write
this particular story?: I’d seen several images that fired my imagination—a
photo set of what the skies over major cities would look like if there were no
lights, pictures of desert sand overtaking an abandoned town. But I originally
sat down to continue writing an old story, a fantasy. When I began, Lena and
Alex started telling me their story instead. They were just there, fully formed
and very vocal. I couldn’t very well tell them to shush!
Please share a favourite
snippet from your book: One of my favorite scenes comes when Lena and Alex are
finally alone, and he’s asked her to help him learn how to do some of the
things with the Spark ability that he’s struggled to master. It’s the moment
immediately before their first kiss.
She stood with
her arms crossed, waiting.
He focused,
grateful for the shift in mood. Instead of trying to affect the Dust inside the
body, as she did in her attacks, he’d try for the Dust attracted to the outside
of her. Perhaps the Dust living inside was simply too protective of their very
strong host? He breathed out and reached with his mind.
Nothing
happened, exactly like all the times before.
“Um.” She
wrinkled her brow. “Did you start yet?”
Alex groaned in
frustration. He dropped his gaze to the ground at her feet, not wanting to see
her expression after the latest failure. Push, dammit!
A flash of light
and heat arced out in jagged white light from the ground. It threw Lena off her
feet, over the bench and to the ground.
He stared,
slack-jawed for a bare second. In two long steps he crossed the clearing and hopped
onto the bench looking down at her.
She wheezed in
an attempt to reclaim her breath.
He jumped down
to her side, hands moving over her head and neck, and then down her sides, to
be sure she was otherwise okay. She projected such a huge persona he was
shocked at how fragile she felt under his hands.
She batted at
him weakly.
Once he’d
reassured himself she wasn’t broken, he wrapped his hands around each of her
thighs and pulled up her legs to inspect her feet.
The indignity of
it helped her find her voice. “Get off of me!”
“Lay still! I
could have hurt you!” He barked the words, guilt and dismay making his voice
harsh.
“Reyes. Alex.
I’m fine.”
He propped one
elbow on his knee in front of him and rubbed his mouth with the back of his
hand. “Dust, Lena. I could have hurt you.”
“Yeah.” She
agreed. “You could have.” Her voice changed, and he could hear the sly grin
under her words. “You really could have.”
The mischief on
her face was contagious.
“I did it.”
“You did
something.” She wiggled a bit and then made a move to rise.
He jumped to his
feet to help. His pull and her slight weight made her sail up into his side. He
wrapped his arm around her to steady her.
She grinned up
at him, mouth opened to make another wise-ass remark, no doubt.
He focused on
her mouth just a beat too long.
She stared back
up at him, her eyes wide and her body very still. Before Alex had a chance to
process the movement or talk himself down, his body shifted, turning to fully
face her. He slid his other hand up to cup the back of her head, lifting her
face as he lowered his.
Just a taste.
One taste. I have to know.
Which comes first for you
– a character's looks, personality or name?: With these two, it seemed that
they came to me ready to go. All three elements were there from the start. But
if I had to choose one, it would have to be personality. They were very much
alive, and they had attitudes.
Any tips for aspiring
authors?: Everyone has a well of creativity inside of them. Figure out, as soon
as you can, what it is that refills your well. I think that what we call
“writer’s block” or the inability to finish is rooted in pulling too much up
from that well without refilling it. We sit down and bang away and then when
the well empties and the words and ideas stop flowing, we despair, thinking the
story is broken—or we are. Instead, take a step back, go do whatever it is that
feeds your soul—for me, it’s reading particular authors or driving aimlessly through
the desert. Refill your well. Then come back and write.
Questions for fun:
What super-power would you
choose?: The ability to heal others. Or flight.
Coffee, tea or wine?:
Ooooh, tough one! I’d say coffee, chased by wine.
What is your favourite
book? (aside from one of your own!): Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey.
Favourite genre and why?:
Speculative fiction. It keeps me most rooted in the magical childhood mindset
that anything is possible, if we only believe. That’s why it goes so well with
romance!
Favourite colour?: Red. Or
purple. Or brilliant, lapis blue. Hmm, I’m not very good at narrowing things
down to just one, am I?
Upcoming news and plans
for the future?: Spark Rising releases on December 15, 2014, which is amazing
and consuming! I’m currently working on its sequel, as well as another
collection of related short stories, similar to Ignition Point, that take up
the stories of secondary characters. The collection will release before the
sequel.
Thank you so much for
taking the time to talk to us!
Thank YOU! I hope everyone
has a wonderful holiday season!
In lieu of preorders for Spark Rising, through
12/14/14, I’d be delighted to offer a free review copy e-ARC of Spark Rising to
those interested. Please contact me at katiecorcino@gmail.com with
your preferred format. Thank you!
(psst, I gave this book a five star rating AND a review quote because
it's THAT awesome! ~Pippa Jay)
Blurb for Spark Rising
All that’s required to ignite a revolution is a single spark rising.
Two hundred years after the cataclysm that annihilated fossil fuels, Sparks
keep electricity flowing through their control of energy-giving Dust. The
Council of Nine rebuilt civilization on the backs of Sparks, offering citizens
a comfortable life in a relo-city in exchange for power, particularly over the
children able to fuel the future. The strongest of the boys are taken as Wards
and raised to become elite agents, the Council’s enforcers and spies. Strong
girls—those who could advance the rapidly-evolving matrilineal power—don’t
exist. Not according to the Council.
Lena Gracey died as a child, mourned publicly by parents desperate to keep her
from the Council. She was raised in hiding until she fled the relo-city for
solitary freedom in the desert. Lena lives off the grid, selling her power on
the black market.
Agent Alex Reyes was honed into a calculating weapon at the Ward School to do
the Council’s dirty work. But Alex lives a double life. He’s leading the next
generation of agents in a secret revolution to destroy those in power from
within.
The life Lena built to escape her past ends the day Alex arrives looking for a
renegade Spark.
Biography
Kate Corcino is a reformed shy girl who found her voice (and uses it...a
lot). She believes in magic, coffee, Starburst candies, genre fiction,
descriptive profanity, and cackling over wine with good friends. She’s been a
legal videographer, a teacher, and a law student, and believes in chasing
dreams. She also believes in the transformative power of screwing up and second
chances. Cheers to works-in-progress of the literary and lifelong variety!
She is currently gearing up for the dual releases of Ignition Point and Spark
Rising, the first books in the Progenitor Saga,
a near future post-apocalyptic dystopian adventure series with romantic
elements, science, magic, and plenty of action.
She lives in her beloved desert in the southwestern United States with
her husband, several children, three dogs, two cats, and a fat, happy guinea
pig.
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