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Kristin Cast is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who teams up with her mother, P. C. Cast, to write the House of Night, a young adult series about a world in which "vampyres" exist and teenagers go to a special school to cope with the "Change" and to learn more about their new powers. Kristin has stand alone stories in several anthologies, as well as editorial credits.
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This episode originally aired on 11/19/2009 with the following authors:
Note: The following interview has been transcribed from The Author Hour radio show. Please excuse any typos, spelling and gramatical errors.
Interview with Kristin Cast | | |
Matthew Peterson:
Hello and welcome to The Author Hour: Your Guide to Fantastic Fiction, which can be found at www.TheAuthorHour.com. I’m your host, Matthew Peterson. Last week I interviewed Anne Rice, Ursula K. Le Guin, Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson, and Orson Scott Card. This week I’ve got a vampire-themed episode with P. C. and Kristin Cast, Charlaine Harris, Laurell K. Hamilton, and L. J. Smith. So sit back and enjoy as we talk about The Vampire Diaries, House of Night, Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter, and Sookie Stackhouse, which is the basis for True Blood on HBO.
I’ve got P. C. and Kristin Cast on the show today, #1 bestselling authors of the House of Night, which is a vampire young adult series. P.C. is also known for her Goddess Summoning, Partholon, and Divine series, which have won prestigious awards like the Prism, Holt Medallion, Daphne du Maurier, Booksellers' Best, and the Laurel Wreath awards. Thanks for being on the show today ladies.
Kristin Cast:
Hi! Thanks for having us.
P. C. Cast:
Yeah.
Matthew Peterson:
So you guys are a mother and daughter team. What made you decide to start writing together?
P. C. Cast:
Well, as you said, I had already written several adult series and I got this idea for this vampyre [note: in their books, they spell “vampire” as “vampyre”] finishing school series, actually from my agent. And I didn’t think I’d have any trouble writing it, because I had been teaching high school for about a decade at that time. But when I actually sat down and started the first three chapters . . .
Kristin Cast:
She realized she was OD.
P. C. Cast:
[laughs] I wasn’t THAT OD. What I realized was my inner 70's teenager started to creep out.
Kristin Cast:
Scary, very scary.
Matthew Peterson:
[laughs] Uh oh.
P. C. Cast:
And it was really scary. So that’s when I called in Kristin. And I kept calling her and asking her like just little word choices and then I decided, “You know what? This would just be easier if we co-authored and I wrote it and then she went back through it and made sure that I didn’t sound like an old woman.”
Matthew Peterson:
Yep. So how old were you, Kristin, when this began?
Kristin Cast:
I was nineteen.
Matthew Peterson:
Nineteen years old.
P. C. Cast:
Yes, you were nineteen. [laughs]
Matthew Peterson:
[laughs] So were you excited that your mom said, “Hey, will you co-author a book with me?”
Kristin Cast:
Yes, because in my nineteen year old mind I thought it would be my platform to fame.
P. C. Cast:
[laughs]
Kristin Cast:
So, I was very excited. Being with these people that are famous, it’s going to be fantastic.
P. C. Cast:
And then she found out that fame isn’t really as exciting as you think it is, when you’re nineteen.
Matthew Peterson:
[laughs] Sometimes it’s a lonely experience.
P. C. Cast:
Yeah, it’s better because we’re in it together. We like that part, though.
Kristin Cast:
Yes.
Matthew Peterson:
Now, P.C. I do understand that you serve in the United State Air Force, and of course you taught English. Has that played a role in your writing at all?
P. C. Cast:
Oh sure. Everything from my past impacts my writing all the time. Yeah, the Air Force, I joined the Air Force when I was 18, so that was really during my formative years. I think it still stands me in could stead with a foundation of discipline, you know, ‘cause writers are procrastinators.
Kristin Cast:
Yes!
P. C. Cast:
[laughs]
Kristin Cast:
Yes we are!
P. C. Cast:
Kristin’s over at my house right now, finishing a story for Harper Teen.
Kristin Cast:
Because I can’t write it at my house because I end up cleaning or something.
P. C. Cast:
[laughs]
Matthew Peterson:
Oh no. [laughs]
P. C. Cast:
But my military background really helps me, and then of course, I ended up teaching for 15 years, I just stopped teaching last November, and that really impacts my young adult books.
Matthew Peterson:
What’s the best thing about writing together?
P. C. Cast:
Well, I know for me, I do the writing and then I do the entire first draft and then I send it to Kristin and what it allows me is to just really write, to focus on plot, and character development and put anything I want on the page because I know she has my back. I know that I can send it to her and that if I’ve messed up some teenage words or if I’ve sounded a little too mature some places, I know that Kristin can catch that and she can weed that out for me.
Matthew Peterson:
Ah, okay. And Kristin, what’s the worst thing about writing together? [laughs]
Kristin Cast:
[laughs] She thinks she right all the time.
P. C. Cast:
I am right almost all the time, though. [laughs]
Kristin Cast:
She really isn’t. [laughs] However, that is kind of like two sided, because also one of the best things about writing with her is that I have proven her wrong so many times, that she kind of acknowledges that now.
P. C. Cast:
I’ve actually had to say, [sigh] “Yes, Kristin, you were right.”
Kristin Cast:
On more than one occasion!
P. C. Cast:
[laughs]
Matthew Peterson:
How funny! You said you were a teenager in the ‘70s, P.C.?
P. C. Cast:
Yes.
Matthew Peterson:
You need one of those younger whipper-snappers to keep you in line. [laughs]
Kristin Cast:
[laughs]
P. C. Cast:
[laughs] I do indeed. But I had hundreds and hundreds of them for fifteen years when I was teaching.
Matthew Peterson:
Yeah. Well, so let’s talk a little bit about the House of Night series. Kristin, can you give us a little summary of what the House of Night series is all about?
Kristin Cast:
Well, it’s pretty much about high school if you were a vampyre and sucked people’s blood and had affinities for different elements. Other than the supernatural part, it’s just, you know, the angst of going through school and saving the world.
P. C. Cast:
[laughs]
Matthew Peterson:
Oh, just a little bit . . .
Kristin Cast:
Just a little added.
Matthew Peterson:
Just a little added there. And vampyres are just a normal part of life, though, aren’t they? They’re not in the closet or anything. Everybody knows about them, right?
P. C. Cast:
Yeah. Everyone knows about them. They’re not really well integrated into our supernatural world, though. They’re powerful and they’re beautiful and then tend to dominate the arts and that makes humans jealous.
Matthew Peterson:
Oh, okay.
P. C. Cast:
So it’s kind of an uneasy alliance that’s fun to play with in the plot dynamics.
Matthew Peterson:
And so, how do the vampyres and the humans co-habitate? Are there pitch forks and stakes and are the humans completely scared of these vampyres or have the vampyres found a way to drink blood without affecting humanity?
P. C. Cast:
Well, here in Oklahoma, there are some pitch forks and that kind of thing.
Matthew Peterson:
[laughs]
P. C. Cast:
[laughs] There are Houses of Night all over the world and the vampyres have, most of them, have a very high ethical standard. They do drink blood and they do imprint with human beings and then the human being becomes the vampyre’s consort.
Kristin Cast:
There’s not running around killing people.
P. C. Cast:
No, they’re not running around killing people, although we do have some rouge vampyres.
Kristin Cast:
Yes.
P. C. Cast:
And of course, it’s playing on fear of the unknown.
Matthew Peterson:
Yeah.
P. C. Cast:
And fear of what’s different. And because vampyres have become very secluded in their little pockets of success in House of Night, that really plays into the fear that people have of someone being different and more powerful, and add the supernatural element and everything gets messed up.
Matthew Peterson:
And this is a young adult novel, I mean, your main character is 16 years old: Zoey Redbird.
P. C. Cast:
Yeah, she gets marked at the beginning of. . . at the beginning of Marked, [laughs] . . .
Kristin Cast:
Well . . . [laughs]
P. C. Cast:
. . . coincidentally enough, and it’s a physiological change that happens within some teenagers. Modern science doesn’t know why. They do know how it starts happening, but they don’t know why with some kids. And there’s a process that happens then over four years where the teenager’s body either accepts the change and really metamorphosizes or evolves into what essentially is a higher being, a vampyre, or the body rejects the change, and many of them do, and then they die terribly.
Matthew Peterson:
Oh, that’s not fun.
Kristin Cast:
Very unfortunate.
Matthew Peterson:
So this marked business, I’ve seen lots of different ways of people becoming vampyres, and usually it deals with being bit and drinking blood from the vampyre itself, but in your universe that you’ve created, someone becomes a vampyre in a little bit different way.
P. C. Cast:
It’s biologically based.
Kristin Cast:
It’s more like evolution.
P. C. Cast:
Yeah. And that’s because my dad’s a biologist.
Matthew Peterson:
Oh! Okay.
P. C. Cast:
And so, he and I sat down and we talked about junk DNA and physiological response and evolution and change and we decided to base it all on evolution, and that’s also why all the magic in the House of Night books is all based on earth magic too. It’s not like Harry Potter magic, which you know, we love Harry Potter though, but you can’t like zap someone into a mouse.
Matthew Peterson:
Yeah.
P. C. Cast:
It’s more shamanistic than that.
Matthew Peterson:
Well, I’m a big fan of magical powers and things like that. So what are some of your favorite powers that the vampyres have?
P. C. Cast:
I love that the affinity for elements. Zoey’s the only fledgling who has ever had an affinity for all five of the elements. And there’s a group of her friends who each have an affinity, like one of them has an affinity for air, one has an affinity for earth, and so then they can manipulate their element. But of course there’s costs for that. In my world, in our world, you don’t get magical powers and you don’t get these gifts without paying a cost for them too.
Kristin Cast:
And not everyone has something.
P. C. Cast:
Right, not everyone has them, yeah.
Matthew Peterson:
Oh, that would be a bummer. [laughs]
Kristin Cast:
[laughs]
P. C. Cast:
[laughs]
Matthew Peterson:
You’re going to this school for people who are vampyres and like, “Yeah, I’m just a normal vampyre.”
P. C. Cast:
[laughs] But they all get really good hair.
Matthew Peterson:
Ah! Okay.
Kristin Cast:
Yes.
P. C. Cast:
And they tend to be very pretty too because, you know, as my dad said, “Evolution-wise, if you’re a predator and you want to draw prey to you, you have to look a certain way. So as you become a vampyre, you get more attractive.
Kristin Cast:
Right, ‘cause our society likes pretty people.
P. C. Cast:
Yeah!
Matthew Peterson:
Yeah, yeah, that’s true.
P. C. Cast:
And it’s matriarchal, so the girls are really, really pretty.
Kristin Cast:
Yes.
Matthew Peterson:
Ah. Okay. I was reading through various clips of your books and your main character, she has boyfriends. [laughs] She might have one, she might have two, she might have three at a certain time.
P. C. Cast:
She might!
Matthew Peterson:
I mean, is this like a normal thing for a vampyre to, “You know, I’m pretty, I can get the guys.”
P. C. Cast:
You field that one, Kristin. Go ahead.
Kristin Cast:
Well, in a matriarchal society it is not untypical for a woman to have more than one companion. However, they each serve a different role like protector and all that kind of different jazz, but in like the teenage world, I think it’s more than healthy for girls to date more than one person . . .at one time. [laughs]
P. C. Cast:
[laughs] Uh, oh, be careful.
Matthew Peterson:
[laughs] You know, I do agree, that it is good to date more than just one person, especially as a young person, because you can get to know . . .
Kristin Cast:
Exactly!
P. C. Cast:
We don’t like the whole ideology of Zoey’s 16 and 17 and she’s going to meet the guy that she’s going to love for the rest of her life! She can’t even vote yet, come on.
Matthew Peterson:
I know. [laughs]
P. C. Cast:
I mean, she should be dating and vetoing a whole bunch of guys.
Matthew Peterson:
Yeah. I totally agree. I think that’s a healthy thing to really know what’s out there. Instead of just the one person.
P. C. Cast:
Yeah.
Matthew Peterson:
So the latest book, Tempted, Kristin, tell us a little bit about the latest book.
Kristin Cast:
Well, the latest book is told from multiple characters points of view. It’s not just Zoey . . . so you get Stevie Rae and Heath and Stark and of course Zoey and Aphrodite, and you get a mystery character. Yeah, so it’s a little bit different. We did that mainly to kind of start a spin off series to follow the red vampyres, but it makes it really cool. You get to find out a lot more about each character especially Aphrodite. I cried, you know, three times, some in happiness, some in sadness.
P. C. Cast:
Yeah, I made her cry three times in this book. I love that.
Matthew Peterson:
Oh.
Kristin Cast:
Oh. [laughs]
Matthew Peterson:
You made your daughter cry. [laughs]
P. C. Cast:
[laughs]
Kristin Cast:
[laughs]
Matthew Peterson:
So these books have been widely successful, I mean, Hunted just came out this year as well, I mean, that came out #1 bestseller on the USA Today and Wall Street Journal. So I’m excited to see that you are doing an off-shoot, a spin off series, or have an idea of doing that.
P. C. Cast:
Yeah, we set that up books ago. We kind of seeded that through all the back in Chosen. Yeah, we’re excited too about that. And I really have a good time being able to delve into the other characters and fans are going to love that because we have some huge fans of like Stevie Rae and you know some of the side characters that you couldn’t get if everything was just from Zoey’s point of view. Still doing from Zoey’s point of view, too.
Matthew Peterson:
Yeah. Well, that’s great. Thank you so much ladies. So, I’ve been speaking with P.C. and Kristin Cast, New York Times best-selling authors of the House of Night series. Thanks so much for being on the show today, ladies.
Kristin Cast:
Thank you.
P. C. Cast:
Thank you. It was fun.
Matthew Peterson:
Alright, so make sure you go to www.TheAuthorHour.com to check out the bonus questions that didn’t make it onto the live show. Don’t go away, I’ve still got Charlaine Harris, Laurell K Hamilton and L. J. Smith, coming up next.
Read or Listen to the extra questions that didn't make it onto the live show.
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