Interview with Cindy Papeby Renee Uitto Cindy Pape is in the spotlight this month to tell us her experience as a romance novelist. What inspired you to start writing romance novels? I've always loved to write, and always had it in the back of my mind. About six years ago, I was in a job where I had spare time in front of my computer, so it was time to see if I could do it. What genres do you enjoy writing and reading? I actually read a much wider variety than I write. I read both romance and science fiction/fantasy, as well as mysteries. Within romance, my favorites are paranormal, romantic suspense, and the spicier historicals. I've tried starting other stuff, but so far each book I've written has ended up being at least a little paranormal. I really like the fantasy element, and humor is essential. Explain what paranormal romance is. When did it get popular in the romance industry? Paranormal romance is a romance with a plot that involves something not scientifically provable. That can mean anything from a haunted castle to a romance set on a spaceship. I'm not sure how long paranormal romance has been around as a specific sub-genre. There have always been historicals with a touch of magic, or suspense novels with ESP, and that sort of thing. Barbara Michaels was writing nice creepy romances in the seventies, but nobody called them paranormal. Jude Devereaux popularized time-travel in the eighties, I think. I first noticed the phrase "paranormal romance" in the mid-nineties, and they sort of brought me back to romance after several years of reading mostly mainstream mysteries and science fiction. Where do you get your ideas for stories? Anywhere. Dreams, TV shows the way I think they should have been written. Bits of ideas from here, there, and everywhere. One of the fun things about writing paranormals, is that no idea is too far out. The book I'm trying to sell right now involves a dragon living in the steam tunnels beneath a Michigan college. The one I'm writing now has an eight-hundred year old elf bard driving a Jaguar down Woodward Avenue. The crazier, the better, in my opinion. What does your writing schedule look like? Pretty random. My work schedule at the Howell Nature Center is erratic, and I have two teenage sons, so I basically write whenever I can sneak a few minutes. I don't write nearly as much as I'd like to! Do you plot your novels before writing? Please explain. I'm still working on that question. My most common style is to write a few chapters, see where the story is going, and then do a rough outline, which I change and update as I go. I try to have at least a rough template for the next two or three chapters before I write them. Do you participate in a critique group? Please explain. I was in a critique group, but it kind of fell apart due to people moving and schedules changing. I found it very helpful, mostly because they gave me a kick in the butt and made me get some work done. I'd like to get into one again, but time is always such an issue. How long have you been a member of RWA? GDRWA? I finished my first novel at the end of 2000, and joined RWA in January of 2001, to try to figure out what to do with the thing now that I'd proven to myself that I could actually write an entire book. (It was pretty horrible, but I keep thinking that one day I'll go back and give those characters the story they deserve. I liked them, but my writing was very rough!) I joined GDRWA at the next meeting, in February of 2001. Explain your role as program chair. How do you get your ideas? I'm just starting out as program chair,and so far, my ideas have come from the membership. When we volunteered, my co-chair, Jane Ayotte and Isat down and brainstormed a bunch of topics, then passed out a survey at the next chapter meeting. We looked at the most popular choices and have used contacts from mostly within the chapter to find speakers that match up with the requested topics. So far, so good, but it still makes me nervous. Besides the obvious goal of getting published, what are your other goals as a writer? I'd like to write stuff that is good enough for my readers to throw at their husbands and say "Read this, you'll like the story even though it's a romance." Is there anything else you'd like to add? In the last five years, I've enjoyed GDRWA immensely. It has been wonderful to discover that other people are as crazy as I am. All those years with stories bouncing around in my head, I just thought I was nuts. It took meeting the rest of you to realize that, though I'm probably still nuts, it mostly meant that I was supposed to WRITE THEM DOWN! GDRWA has been tremendously supportive, in so many ways. I think the emails and cards I got this summer when my mom and brother passed away really helped me keep going. With all the family stuff going on, it was nice to have somebody supporting ME, if that makes any sense.
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