Interview with author Cindy Spencer Pape

Hey everyone, welcome to another Up Close and Personal chat with Stephani and Patti. Come along for the wild ride as we learn more about Cindy that you ever thought possible. Part way thru the interview Stephani started having trouble with her computer so she would call me and have me ask the questions.


Patti: This week we have the multi talented author Cindy Spencer Pape joining us. Little does she know what we are really like when it comes to interviewing victims, I mean guests. Welcome Cindy, glad to have you here.
Stephani Hecht: Should I tell Cindy what my daughter brought home from art class
Cindy Pape: Go for it
Patti: Only the good stuff, don't scare her away yet please.
Stephani Hecht: I can't resist this one
Cindy Pape: I don't scare easily-- I have teenagers
Patti: So Cindy, tell us what's new and exciting with you? We know you just got back from Chicago.
Stephani Hecht: They made a collage with magazine clippings. Right in the corner of hers is a picture of a near naked stud muffin. All man titty and a tennis racket on his lap. Just so you know she's eight
Cindy Pape: Still recovering from the trip.
Patti: And we wonder why we are banned from Panera's.
Cindy Pape: Training her young, huh? I didn't wonder about Panera’s at all.
Stephani Hecht: I thinks she'd seen too many of our covers
Patti: No, you know us too well.
Cindy Pape: Sounds like it. My son introduces me to his friends as "This is my mom. She writes porn."
Patti: So give us the skinny. What's new with your writing and what are your current releases?
Cindy Pape: Current release is "Stone and Fire" out now at Ellora's Cave. It's book 3 in my "Heroes of Stone" gargoyle series. Coming up next is "After the Rodeo," in the anthology "Finding their Way Back" (Wayback, Texas) from the Wild Rose Press, out on June 26.
Stephani Hecht: sigh I love gargoyles
Patti: I have two in my backyard
Cindy Pape: One in my living room
Stephani Hecht: Patti, I thought you had bunnies in your backyard?
Cindy Pape: Do the gargoyles eat the bunnies?
Patti: I do, it's a nice combination of gargoyles and bunnies. Oh yeah and the occasional coyote which is getting more and more frequent. No, my dog tries to eat the bunnies and so does the coyote. I think the gargoyles just supervise.
Cindy Pape: Smart gargoyles
Patti: So if you had your druthers, do you prefer writing the paranormals or the contemporaries? And which genre have you yet to write that you would like to try your hand at?
Cindy Pape: Paranormals are my first love--even my contemporaries usually have a little touch or two of the woo-woo stuff. I have written very little historical, and wouldn't mind getting into a bit more
Patti: Anything you will never write?
Cindy Pape: tear-jerker women's fiction. I LIKE my happy endings
Patti: What are you currently working on?
Cindy Pape: Currently working on a full-length paranormal romance and a short contemporary erotic romance. The short is a contracted piece for Resplendence. Not sure about where the other one is going yet.
Patti: Congrats on the contracted piece. Those are always nice. So how many publishers do you write for now? Steph is having trouble typing on her new laptop.
Cindy Pape: Resplendence makes four--five if you count Ellora's Cave and Cerridwen Press as separate publishers.
Stephani Hecht: I got a mini one and my fat fingers keep hitting extra keys
Patti: Wow, five publishers is amazing. How do you keep them all straight?
Cindy Pape: yeah those small keyboards are tough
Patti: Glad you got back Stephani. With the way you type, those fingers should be bone thin
Cindy Pape: I'm not sure I do, Patti. One is British, and I can never remember which one I'm supposed to spell things for which way.
Stephani Hecht: I have to keep name tags on my kids to keep them straight and I only the boy and girl
Patti: Wow, British, which one is that?
Cindy Pape: Total-E-Bound
Patti: Hey I've called the kids by the dog and cat's name before.
Cindy Pape: Me too, Patti
Patti: Sad, isn't it? And they even know we really mean them.
Stephani Hecht: Patti, it's that country across the ocean
Patti: across the big pond. Ok we know Cindy is a wife and mom, she's also an author, what other occupation have you had that no one knows about?
Cindy Pape: What occupations have I had? Oh wow, this could take a while
carpenter's assistant, bank teller.
Patti: cool
Cindy Pape: receptionist, teaching assistant, college instructor, Sylvan tutor, museum curator, zoo educator, naturalist, camp counselor
Patti: Oh, like Night at the Museum, did they come to life every night? Sigh, I really need to get a life.
Stephani Hecht: Wow, you've had more occupations than that guy from Dirty Jobs.
Cindy Pape: Since I was in the zoology section, that would have been messy. Another job would be nature center educator.
Patti: But think of the great stories you could tell
Cindy Pape: substitute teacher
Patti: And you're not that old either
Cindy Pape: ha! I wish
Patti: So what do you think Steph, should we hit her with the down and dirty questions now?
Stephani Hecht: Okay
Cindy Pape: bring it
Stephani Hecht: Do you mop with a bucket or a cloth?
Patti: OMG
Cindy Pape: mop? That's why I have teenagers
Patti: boxers or briefs
Cindy Pape: boxer briefs
Stephani Hecht: What movie star do you want to take home and feed milk and cookie too?
Cindy Pape: milk and cookies? As in too young for anything else? Hugh Jackman, maybe
Patti: Oh good choice. Ok, change it to what star would you like to get drunk and do naughty things with?
Cindy Pape: Hmmmm...Johnny Depp? Liam Neeson? I'm sure there are others
Patti: Handcuffs and Captain Jack, good images
Cindy Pape: Liam in a kilt in Rob Roy...YUM!
Stephani Hecht: You can have anyone but Ryan Reynolds since he is already at my house dunking his Oreos
Patti: Pfft, pick a grown up man Stephani. You can have him
Cindy Pape: again, too young
Patti: Here's one Stephani likes to ask - where's the strangest place you've ever made love at
Cindy Pape: Strangest? Or Naughtiest? A grotto in San Diego's Balboa Park is possibly the naughtiest.
Patti: You go girl!!! Do you put any of real life and your experiences in your books?
Cindy Pape: Little bits and pieces. Funny little anecdotes have a way of making it into this or that story
Patti: Do you ever craft your bad guys after real life people who have ticked you off
Stephani Hecht: Please, please tell me the gargoyles are real
Cindy Pape: Ooooh, once in a while. Not usually the big villians, but the nagging coworkers or annoying people in the grocery store? Oh yeah. Tails and all, Steph
Patti: Just like pink ponies and rainbow cotton candy Steph. I'm a big fan of Inside The Actor's Studio and have stolen some of Jame’s questions. What is your favorite sound?
Cindy Pape: Sound? Huh.
Patti: Birds chirping, violins, sound
Stephani Hecht: Mine is silence.
Patti: Come to my house then, no one home but me.
Cindy Pape: Waves, probably and oddly, trains
Patti: What is your favorite food?
Cindy Pape: movie theatre popcorn
Patti: Hmm, a train fetish I think
Stephani Hecht: I have always lived by train tracks and I love that sound
Cindy Pape: lived by train tracks as a kid--so the sound actually puts me to sleep
Patti: Coke or Pepsi
Stephani Hecht: or Coke and rum?
Cindy Pape: diet coke. Lime. No rum.
Patti: Are you a glass half empty or glass half full person?
Cindy Pape: Both. I'm alternately eternally hopeful and horribly cynical.
Patti: Dream scenario as I know you are looking to acquire an agent. You dream agent walks up to you at a conference and says Cindy, I've got an opening in my schedule and I have 30 minutes to fill. I hear you've got a fabulous book to pitch. What is your response to her to seal the deal?
Cindy Pape: Probably incoherent stuttering
Patti: come on run with it, no stuttering.
Cindy Pape: which may explain why I don't have an agent yet.
Patti: mine is foot in mouth syndrome. did it last year at conference too
Cindy Pape: I suppose I'd try to get in my quick pitch for my WIP--all the agents have already rejected everything I've got finished and unsold

Patti: What is your daily writing schedule look like? Do you plot, or fly by the seat of your pants.
Cindy Pape: I usually start a book as a pantser. Toward the middle, I tend to do a few plot points, to make sure I get everything in.
Patti: Do you write everyday? And do you have a page quota you strive for?
Cindy Pape: I TRY to write every day. Life sometimes has other ideas. My average, if things are going well is about 2-4K per day. But that doesn't happen as often as I'd like
Stephani Hecht: Okay here is a very important one...Sam or Dean Winchester?
Cindy Pape: ?
Stephani Hecht: From Supernatural
Patti: Duh moment for me on Supernatural. Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune
Cindy Pape: Ah. Watched the first episode, thought they were both kind of whiny and never watched it again. I like my heroes to be a bit more stoic or funny, not introspective.
Jeopardy
Patti: So tell us about your Jeopardy interview you just came home from.
Cindy Pape: It was fun. Left the room feeling like a total idiot, but everyone else in the elevator said they did too.
Stephani Hecht: Gasp! I love that show. It is my crack, Supernatural that is.
Patti: Hey a little bird told me when your sons are bothering you (one son in particular) you threaten to read blow job scenes out loud. Any truth to that rumor?
Cindy Pape: Just once. He was babbling about something--this is the kid that cannot stand silence. I told him I was trying to write a blow job scene, and if he didn't shut up, I'd start reading it out loud. He put in his headphones and shut up!
Patti: Stephani is having trouble typing again - so she wants me to ask this question.
If you were stranded on a desert island, what Stephani Hecht book would you bring if you only pick one? I swear she is on the phone with me telling me to type that.
I kid you not.
Cindy Pape: I like the beginning, so Archangel Warrior.
Patti: Nice answer, Stephani just said awww.
Cindy Pape: Hoping I got the title right
Patti: Stephani says we'll edit this part to make sure the title is right. She is so bad.
Cindy Pape: yup
Patti: Well, we've annoyed Cindy enough for one night. Thank you for coming out to play with us and we hope you had fun. Tell us your website addys so we can let readers know where they can find you and your books.
Cindy Pape: Website: http://www.cindyspencerpape.com
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/cindyspencerpape
Newsletter Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cspapenewsgroup/
Blog; http://cindyspencerpape.blogspot.com/
Cian Fey: http://cianfey.blogspot.com

Patti: Cool. Cindy thanks again and congrats on the new sale. We wish you many more.
Cindy Pape: Thanks Patti & Steph