YG: What do you love most about what you write?
CP: I love being able to slip into other people’s lives and experience their struggles, their joys, their sorrows. Even though the majority of my books are paranormal romance, and so crazy things might be happening all around, it’s still the emotional journey my characters go on that means the most to me.
YG: Tell me the name of one of your characters, and what you loved and struggled with most while writing them?
CP: Narrowing it down to just one out of all the characters I’ve written is tough! So I guess I’ll go with Zoe Sandoval, the heroine of my latest book. It was fun writing Zoe because she’s sort of headstrong and determined to get her own way, and yet she’s hemmed in by all the expectations set by her witch clan – she’s next in line to lead the clan, and so is supposed to behave a certain way. I wanted to make really sure that she had a clear arc throughout the book, so the reader can see her growing in compassion and strength as the events in the story unfold. At the same time, I wanted her to be fallible – in fact, it’s because of a colossal mistake she makes at the beginning of the book that events are set in motion.
YG: What’s the oddest thing you’ve ever received from a fan or bought for your writing?
CP: My readers are wonderful…so far I haven’t gotten any mysterious packages from any of them. 😉 And really, I just buy the normal things most writers do – mostly books for research, that sort of thing. I’d say probably the oddest thing I’ve done for research, though, was going to a bunch of UFO conferences when I was researching my Sedona Files series. You meet a lot of very interesting people at those events!
YG: What do you want your readers to take away from your books?
CP: The power of love and acceptance. I see that as a common thread in a lot of my novels, just because so many of them are about relationships between regular people and people who aren’t so “regular,” whether the love interest is a witch or a djinn or an alien. But despite their differences, they always find some common ground.
YG: What do you have coming up next? Or what just came out?
CP: The latest book in my Witches of Cleopatra Hill series, Strange Magic, came out earlier this month. Next after that is another Djinn Wars novel, Forbidden, which is with my editors right now.
YG: You win a house anywhere in the world—and a teleporter to go there whenever you want. Where is your dream hideaway located and why?
CP: That’s a tough one, because in a lot of ways, I think I’m already living there! I love Santa Fe, and I love the desert Southwest. There’s an energy here I’ve never experienced anywhere else. But I also love wacky, crazy Jerome, Arizona, which is where most of the Witches of Cleopatra Hill books are set. If I could have a house there, tucked away on one of the quieter streets, it would be tremendous fun, especially since it’s also close to Sedona, Arizona, another one of my touchstones.
YG: Will you have espresso, mocha, cappuccino, latte, coffee, tea, or some other concoction?
CP: Always tea! I’m that rare unicorn, a writer who doesn’t drink coffee. But I drink iced tea every day, even in the depths of winter.
A native of Southern California, Christine Pope has been writing stories ever since she commandeered her family’s Smith-Corona typewriter back in the sixth grade. Two of her short stories have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
Christine writes as the mood takes her, and her work includes paranormal romance, fantasy romance, and science fiction/space opera romance. She blames this on being easily distracted by bright, shiny objects, which could also account for the size of her shoe collection. The Land of Enchantment cast its spell on her while she was researching her Djinn Wars series, and she now makes her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
STRANGE MAGIC is available at:
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