Cat’s Comments (group member since Jul 02, 2013)

Cat’s comments from the Q&A with Cat Winters group.

Originally I wanted to call the book THE SHADOW WANDERERS, but my agent and one of my critique partners weren't fond of that one. I think I had an entire list of potential titles before I started calling it BLACKBIRDS, but it must be on my old laptop I don't use anymore. My agent came up with IN THE SHADOW OF BLACKBIRDS after she first read the original draft, and my publisher never asked to change it. I love the title, too, and now can't imagine the book being called anything else.

Thank you, Lisa! :)

Wilhelmina wrote: "I am super excited that it's set in Portland! I CANNOT wait to read it! Thanks for doing this awesome Q&A!"

Thanks for your enthusiasm, Wilhelmina! And thank you for participating in my Q&A!

Wilhelmina wrote: "Can you give anymore insight to the plot?"

I'm still being slightly secretive about the plot because some story lines might change a little as my editor and I go back and forth with upcoming revisions. I will say that it takes place in 1900 Portland, OR, and it's about a seventeen-year-old girl named Olivia whose father hires a young male hypnotist to remove her rebellious thoughts. Olivia's father is worried she's becoming a suffragist and a "modern woman," and he's terrified she'll turn into her mother, who abandoned their family to return to a life in the theater. The hypnotism cure, however, doesn't go quite as planned...and Olivia has to figure out if the hypnotist is a friend or a foe.

Thanks, Wilhelmina. You're free to be harsh on Aunt Eva if you still choose. :) Even Mary Shelley isn't always thrilled about her behavior.

Thank you for your very kind comments! I'm thrilled you're also able to imagine her future for her. Another reason why I would be hesitant to write a sequel is because I wouldn't want to ruin anything readers are already envisioning for her.

I'm happy to hear you enjoyed all my extra goodies on my website!

Unfortunately, you'll have to wait over a year to read anything else from me. I'd love to eventually participate in short-story anthologies with other writers to make up for the lag time between my books, but for now, I only have IN THE SHADOW OF BLACKBIRDS available, until Fall 2014. Thank you for asking!

Readers seem to have a love/hate relationship with Aunt Eva more than any other character. I've always seen her as a woman who's pushed to the edge, and the world isn't necessarily bringing out the best in her. She was widowed at age 26, she had to give up her job as a translator to avoid admitting she spoke German, and she's forced into taking care of a headstrong teenage girl only ten years younger than her...in the middle of a terrifying flu pandemic and a war. As Mary Shelley's dad said in his letter to M.S., "When faced with the worst horrors the world has to offer, a person either cracks and succumbs to the ugliness, or they salvage the inner core of who they are and fight to right wrongs." Aunt Eva definitely succumbs to the paranoia and gullibility of this time period, as so many people did in 1918, but I believe she also continuously battles to keep a firm grip on who she was originally.

*A somewhat spoilery part of the answer* I hope that by the time we reach Aunt Eva's final scenes in the book, readers who hate her (and some have said they want her to die), can see her calming down and learning how to cope with life a little better. After all, she's a woman who's capable of booting out a man who's over six feet tall when he was hurting her niece. I truly believe she needs M.S., and M.S. needs her...to balance each other out and protect each other.

Here's your chance to ask a few questions about my next novel, THE CURE FOR DREAMING.

Many people ask me what became of Mary Shelley's father after the book ended. I've answered that question at http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1....

Technically, I wasn't going to start answering questions until July 8, but I have a moment to tackle this longer one right now. I do agree that a sequel without Stephen would probably trouble most readers, which is one of the reasons the book is still a standalone. I do get asked about Mary Shelley's father quite a bit, so if I were to ever have the chance to make some alterations to the Author's Note at the end of the book, I would include a section on the men and women who were arrested for violating the Espionage and Sedition Acts during the WWI era (I'm kicking myself for not including that info in the note to begin with).

When the book ends on November 11, 1918, Mary Shelley would not have know the fate of her father. Some Americans weren't even convicted of their anti-war crimes until after the war ended. In 1919, President Wilson did pardon or commute the sentences of several prisoners, and by the early 1920s, many of the people who served time (and paid large fines) were released. Mary Shelley's father would have likely been released somewhere between 1919 and 1921. As you can see, if I had written an epilogue explaining that info, I would have also needed to include what Mary Shelley was doing during all that time, and I wanted her future to be open ended. I felt the last lines of the book let readers know she had undergone a rebirth and was in a place where she was ready to fight for her father, herself, Stephen, and people like the boys in the Red Cross House. I imagine her returning to the convalescent home to look for Jones, Carlos, and Paul, but I didn't want to give her a new romance at the end of the book. I love that you're able to imagine a future for her. That's exactly what I wanted.

And yes, she would definitely be going to college!

IN THE SHADOW OF BLACKBIRDS is currently a standalone novel, but I occasionally debate whether or not more of this story needs to be told. Here's your chance to weigh in on whether or not a sequel would be ideal.

Do you have a question about a specific IN THE SHADOW OF BLACKBIRDS character? I'd be happy to give you an answer.

Feel free to ask general questions about IN THE SHADOW OF BLACKBIRDS here. I have a FAQ page on my website that covers some of the typical questions I tend to receive: http://www.catwinters.com/p/faq.html.

Please save all of your spoilery IN THE SHADOW OF BLACKBIRDS questions for this folder. Thank you!

Thank you so much for stopping by my Q&A group! I'll be answering questions about my novels and writing in general from July 8, 2013, to July 10, 2013. Please place any questions that involve spoilers in the "Spoilery Questions" thread.