I sent a few questions to Lisa Cach and she kindly answered them! :)
I hope you find the interview and Lisa's answers interesting. If you haven't done so already, you should go read Wake Unto Me. It is a great story!
1 - Tell us a little bit about yourself?
LC: I’m married to a man I got engaged to within three weeks of meeting, have no kids, love to travel, am learning to paint, I play the piano when I’m angry and garden when I’m happy.
2 - Have you always wanted to be a writer?
LC: I wanted to be many different things, among them a lawyer, a journalist, a marine biologist, a photographer. In my late teens ‘writer’ began to float to the top of the list.
3 – I think Wake Unto Me is a very interesting and unique story. How did you come up with it? What inspired you to write it?
LC: I love ghost stories, the spookier the better, so that was part of it. A dim memory of a short story I read in my high school French class also inspired part of the twist in the book. Inspiration comes from all over: a painting I saw in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence fifteen years ago, castles I visited in France, a deck of tarot cards... And memories of my own time in high school and of my days at Mount Holyoke College, a women’s college, also played a part. The character Naomi was based on a roommate of mine, who really was an Ashanti princess.
4 – There’s a historical component to Wake Unto Me. Did you have to do a lot of research while writing the book?
LC: I had to take a trip to France. Oh, poor suffering writer, to have to engage in such research! :) The best part of traveling for research — as opposed to looking things up online or reading books — is that I’m much more likely to stumble upon unexpected information and, thus, unexpected inspiration. Plus, 101 different questions about a setting can be answered by ten minutes of standing in one spot, in person (what does the ground look like? What type of vegetation grows here? What birds do I hear? What sounds predominate? What are the people like?).
5 –Wake Unto Me is set in a haunted castle. If you could visit a true haunted castle, would you do it? Would you be disappointed if the ghosts didn’t show up?
LC: I have visited supposedly haunted places, and even stayed at a B&B in what was supposed to be the haunted room. And yes, I was disappointed that no ghosts showed up! Or rather, I was somewhat disappointed that I did not have a ghost ‘experience.’ There is a difference between the two. The first presumes ghosts exist, while the other presumes the experience of seeing a ghost exists, but may have a different explanation than the reality of spirits.
6 – Do you relate to any of your characters? If yes, how so?
LC: Like Caitlyn, I think all of us, myself included, have struggled with feelings of not belonging, and of needing deeper connections with other people.
7 – If you could have a paranormal ability, which ability would that be?
LC: I can never decide. Time travel would be cool, though; it would also be super convenient for researching my books.
8 – I really like the cover of Wake Unto Me. What do you think about it?
LC: I like it, too, although there was one point in the design process where they accidentally put the heroine’s hands on backwards. If you’re curious, you can see that version in my post about cover art: http://lisacach.com/2010/12/on-cover-art/
9 – Are you working on a new book right now?
LC: I’m juggling the revisions to my June 2012 adult romance (a funny, Cinderella-themed beach read set in Pebble Beach, California) with a sequel to Wake Unto Me, called Foxfire.
10 – Is there anything else you would like your readers to know?
LC: I love hearing from readers! Feel free to visit me on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/lisacachbooks) or say hello in email at lisa@lisacach.com.
Thank you so much, Lisa! :)
