Event Location: Live Interview at the Summer Lovin’ Indie Author Event in Pomona, CA
Friday, July 12, 2013
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| CJ Roberts |
On Friday, July 12, 2013, we (Rachel and Arlene) had the
pleasure of attending a Summer Lovin’ Indie Author event at
the Pomona Mining Company. We have a separate post that will go live on July 22nd,
so be sure to stay tuned for that because there will be some fun book updates
and giveaways.
However, there was one event that happened that evening which
left us absolutely star-struck, and we couldn’t wait to share with all of you!!
During the party, we got the chance to mingle with the author CJ
Roberts who many of you know is the creator of the highly addictive
series Captive in the Dark. During the evening, we worked up the nerve
to ask her if she would entertain a live interview from us, and to our absolute
surprise she said YES!
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| Captive in the Dark, Seduced in the Dark & Epilogue by CJ Roberts |
As part of this post, we’re excited to share some of our
Q&A discussion with CJ Roberts as well as a SIGNED Series giveaway so stay
tuned!!
Q&A Discussion with CJ Roberts
Waves of Fiction
(Arlene): “First off, thank you so much for taking the time from this event
to talk to us about your books and your writing process. We are both huge fans
of your Captive in the Dark Series! What we’d first like to know is
what kind of reaction have you gotten from your books?”
CJ Roberts: “The
reaction kind of surprised me because it’s been mostly good.”
Waves of Fiction
(Arlene): “What’s been the harshest reaction?”
CJ Roberts: “I get
the harsh reactions too. I mind the reviews when they slam the content
especially when I’ve put a warning label on it. You know what this content is,
and they’ll be like ‘OMG, it has
kidnapping and it has violence!’ The second one is where they attack you
personally... I am not writing a book about human trafficking and how it’s
awesome. I’m wrote a book about two characters who find themselves in very
extraordinary circumstances. Obviously,
it’s not the experience most people have and really especially with Caleb’s
character. What interested me about him was I’ve always had a thing about
villains. I love Lex Luthor. I have a thing about the baddies, but the thing I
wonder about the bad guys is - Why are
they bad? What made them this way?”
Waves of Fiction
(Arlene): “How long did it take you to write these books?”
CJ Roberts: “I
started it in 2002… I write stuff all the time just for me, instead of keeping
a diary… I sent out the whole query letter, but the thing is nobody knew me and
the book’s subject matter so I got rejected by everybody. And he’s (husband) is a big techy guy so he
knew about the whole self publishing thing and thought I should try it. I said
okay, but I thought for sure people would be what the f*^% is this?” *laughing*
Waves of Fiction (Rachel):
“Well, let me tell you... YES! That’s what you think when you read it but…” *lots
of laughing*
Waves of Fiction (Arlene
& Rachel): “You can’t stop reading them!!”
Waves of Fiction
(Arlene): “Did you do any research
for the series?”
CJ Roberts: “OMG,
I did tons! I did a lot of research once
I knew I was going to be putting it out there. Before I didn’t care it was choppy
- paragraph here, just what I wanted for that day. And then once I decided I wanted to publish
it, I had to go back and make it something that other people could read and
understand. If you notice in my books, I
don’t have a lot of descriptions. I will describe, but I mean character
descriptions. Because I already know the characters, and I never felt the need
to be like this is what the characters
look like.”
Waves of Fiction
(Arlene): “You know what, though, I felt like Caleb was very well
described. I had a vivid picture of him in my head.”
CJ Roberts: “Right.”
Waves of Fiction (Rachel):
“Everyone thinks he looks like Paul Walker.”
Waves of Fiction
(Arlene): “I didn’t so much with Livvie, I couldn’t picture her for the
longest time.”
CJ Roberts: “That’s
because all authors in the very beginning write themselves, some version of
themselves into the work, so I didn’t have to describe Livvie because I already
knew what she looked like. I was writing in the first person. It’s hard to write in the first person and be
descriptive at the same time. In the
first version there was no third person perspectives. It was all first person Livvie, the whole
book.”
Waves of Fiction
(Arlene): “So when you wrote her perspective in the first books, how hard
was it switching over to Caleb’s perspective in the final book?”
CJ Roberts: “I
didn’t write two books. I wrote one book, and it was awful. But I sent it to a beta reader and she said
‘You know what, I loved it so much, I wanted it to be better.’ So I took two
years and made it better, and that’s when I wrote Caleb in. That was really cool, that was my - I’m going to write a character for someone
to understand.”
Waves of Fiction (Rachel):
“Where did you get the idea of the whole series?”
CJ Roberts: “It
started when I was in the military. I got to Germany and when I got there I had
no cell phone, no friends, knew no one in the country and staying in a hotel. I thought I could disappear and no one would know
anything for weeks because I hadn’t checked into my new squadron. They could wonder
‘Wasn’t someone supposed to show up a few weeks ago?’ My mom wouldn’t even know
who to call because it’s a foreign country. It scared the shit out of me. So I
just sat in my hotel and started writing, just because I was bored and that’s
what I do when I’m bored. After that I
started having dreams and it just nagged me, so I’d just keep writing. Another
reason I wrote the series is because I wasn’t finding something I wanted to
read, so I wrote it myself.”
Waves of Fiction
(Arlene): “Do they talk to you? Some authors say their characters talk to
them.”
CJ Roberts: “Yes,
I think my characters are real people. In my mind they’re real people.”
Waves of Fiction
(Arlene): “So when you wrote that last page, how did you feel? What was it
like saying goodbye to them?”
CJ Roberts: “Which
last page?”
Waves of Fiction
(Arlene): “Oh, good point.” (Rachel):
“Epilogue, let’s go with Epilogue.”
CJ Roberts: “I never
planned on writing Epilogue. I write as
I go, so when I got to the end of Seduced in the Dark I was really sad. I had spent ten years with these people. How
do you say goodbye to ten years? I think
I wrote the book but that last chapter took me six weeks by itself because I
could just write forever. So I cried at
the end of that. But then I wrote Epilogue and it’s not really goodbye then
because I felt like it goes on. Anytime you want to go back and visit people
you get to know them like I got to know them.”
Waves of Fiction
(Arlene): “Did you have the ending in mind; did you know where it was going
to end?”
CJ Roberts: “No. I
had no idea where it was going to go, which sucks for timing because I can’t
tell people when it’s going to be done or when it’s going to be out.
Waves of Fiction
(Arlene): “So you didn’t know how it was going to end?”
CJ Roberts: “No I
didn’t , so for the second book I knew I could write forever so I thought maybe
I’ll just write down a rough outline so I had a little plot point thing. However, around Chapter 19, I just took a
like a hard freakin’ left and my outline went to shit. So I told myself, I’m
going to go over here now, I guess. So I
didn’t’ know what was going to happen until it was happening.”
Waves of Fiction
(Rachel): “Where are you with Agent Reed’s story?
CJ Roberts: “I
have some really good ideas. He’s become my new obsession. I’m going to start writing in September.”
Waves of Fiction
(Arlene): “Publishers, any hits?”
CJ Roberts: “Yeah,
I do have some interest, but they want me to change the book and edit some of
the language and do this and that and other things. I really didn’t want to do
that, so, um…”
Waves of Fiction
(Arlene): “They’ve already taken a
life of their own.”
Waves of Fiction
(Rachel): “I think you’d have a huge outcry from your fans if you changed.”
CJ Roberts: “That
was the big thing for the people who’ve been with me this whole way, they
would…and that matters to me. When
people read book one, they can review it 5 stars or 1 star. Whatever people’s
opinion is, that’s fine. But when they
get into the second and third book those are people who’ve been with the series
and those opinions matter to me most, especially with the third book. I don’t have many negative reviews, by far
the good reviews outweigh the bad but any negative review that far into the
series, I’m like oh I’m sorry, I let down a fan. I hope I get you next time.”
Thank you so much to CJ Roberts
for taking the time to sit and chat with us. It was fun talking about squeezing
kittens and falling in love with baddies. We had a blast! J
We can’t wait to read Agent Reed’s story. Happy writing!!
To our Waves of Fiction followers, we hoped you enjoyed the
Q&A discussion we had with the author.
Follow this Author
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| CJ Roberts SIGNED Series!! |
For those of you that haven’t had a chance to read CJ
Roberts’s Captive in the Dark series, we are offering a SIGNED SERIES Giveaway.
So be sure to read the content disclaimers and the giveaway details. If you
feel it’s something you’d like to try, be sure to fill out the rafflecopter and
share a thoughtful comment about the interview for a chance to win. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
