Welcome Karin.
AUTHOR BIO:
Karin has had poems and short stories published in anthologies worldwide and her ebooks CRUXIM, GROWTH, CAGE LIFE, HEY LITTLE SISTER and PANCAKES ON SUNDAY are available on Amazon, with CRECHE (sequel to CRUXIM) out in November 2013.
Thankfully, the busier she gets, the more creative she is (and the more likely to afford to hire a housekeeper). Karin and her partner live in sunny Queensland, Australia, where she writes from her back deck overlooking the pool, her study (overlooking her messy desk) or her couch (overlooking Dr Phil, who gives her a lot of inspiration).
Also, feel free to email her on cruxim@hotmail.com
...but as a novelist, I'm also partial to a verse from Oscar Wilde's
Because it is true that when writing, creating characters that are conflicted is a must. Sometimes that requires killing off a character, but more usually there are certain small deaths or aspects of their character that have to be stripped away to make the audience feel, and there are many ways to kill your darlings.
That's a hard one. I'll have to ask my fiance. I can't think of any that actually describe me (oh, I'm far too complex - haha). I'm into folk and roots and a lot of sad songs, but I'm actually more upbeat than that makes me sound. One song I love, and that reminds me to stay grounded on this writing journey, is 'My Chair' by Martha Tilston.
6 Quick Things:
A quote that means something to you.
I can't choose just one! I love E. E. Cummings
"The most wasted of all days is a day without laughter"
...but as a novelist, I'm also partial to a verse from Oscar Wilde's
The Ballad of Reading Gaol:
Yet each man kills the thing he loves
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!
Because it is true that when writing, creating characters that are conflicted is a must. Sometimes that requires killing off a character, but more usually there are certain small deaths or aspects of their character that have to be stripped away to make the audience feel, and there are many ways to kill your darlings.
A song that describes you.
That's a hard one. I'll have to ask my fiance. I can't think of any that actually describe me (oh, I'm far too complex - haha). I'm into folk and roots and a lot of sad songs, but I'm actually more upbeat than that makes me sound. One song I love, and that reminds me to stay grounded on this writing journey, is 'My Chair' by Martha Tilston.
Who is your book boyfriend?
Another hard one. Honestly, and this will sound really lame, but I don't read a lot of erotic romance so I would have to say that I always loved Laurie from Little Women (by Louisa May Alcott) and even though Jo couldn't end up with him, I totally would have. It helped that Christian Bale played him in the movie.
Who is your book girlfriend?
My book girlfriend ... I'd love to hang out with Bridget Jones. She sounds like she'd make me look good. But I also have a soft spot for Hippolyta, the Amazon from my favourite book, The Bull From the Sea. She's tough and yet still womanly, and I love that about her.
Author that inspired you and why?
I'm inspired by so many authors. Two of my favourites are Tim Winton and Mary Renault, but I think every author I read and love inspires me in many ways. I have an entire secret crit group of authors, some of them very successful, who all inspire me on a daily basis, so their support is also wonderful.
Will you be attending the Indie Author Down Under Gold Coast event 22nd March 2014?
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Author: Karin Cox
State: Queensland
State: Queensland
Series Title: Paranormal Fallen Angels
Published By : Indelible Ink Press
Date Released: 17 January 2013
Genre : Dark Fantasy/Paranormal Romance
Book Cover Designer : Eden Crane Designs
What is Cruxim?
Amedeo is Cruxim, a mysterious, immortal fallen angel. Destined to seek redemption as a vampire hunter, he nourishes his insatiable hunger on vampire blood. But when the object of his passion, the novice nun Joslyn, is turned into a vampire and enters a vampire coven, Amedeo's worlds collide. Shattered by the loss of his beloved, he vows to rid the world of vampires once and for all, even if it means destroying Josyln in the process.
A Paranormal Game of Cat and Mouse
Joining Amedeo on his quest to rid the world of the undead is Sabine. Half-woman, half-lioness, she is a Sphinx, a Guardian who has protected humans from vampires since the dawn of time. Yet Sabine comes to this fight pursued by her own enemies. Dr. Claus Gandler knows the secret of Sabine's mythological past and has vowed to torment her for eternity or destroy her forever.
Immortal Ever After?
Captured by the evil doctor, Amedeo and Sabine are paraded as sideshow freaks in Gandler's Circus of Curiosities. Only vampire Joslyn has the power to intercede. Will she prove Amedeo's redemption, or his destruction?
Excerpt:
I have lain awake by day many times since, wondering what might have happened had things been different. Had she not done what she did. Had I reacted differently. But it is no use. What is done is done. And in our case, what was done will remain forever impossible to undo.
Still, despite the shame and regret that hangs over that day in my memory, I am unable to forget.
She was radiant that day. Her blue eyes, truer than the ever-changing Mediterranean, shone when I handed her the present I had bought her. It was an especially nice one that year: an illustrated, gold-embossed incunabulum of mythology I had taken from a coven-master I’d killed in Prague. I had fed deeply in Barcelona before coming to her, making my arrival later than usual. The sky had that gilt quality it gets just before sunset, which illuminated the book’s cover as I handed her the gift. When she took it from me, her hand brushed mine. She looked up at me briefly and then quickly back down at the gift. Opening the heavy cover, Joslyn had stroked a slender finger across the hand-illustrated page, over the face of a Seraph that graced it. I remember how her long lashes cast crescents of shadow on the paper. She smiled up at me, but her eyes held a question.
I looked away quickly, afraid, myself, of the answer.
Although she never mentioned my place within the pantheon of angels and monsters, Joslyn had always been fascinated by mythology. Why I indulged her in it I do not know. In my own way, maybe I was bringing her closer to my true self, hoping—and yet simultaneously fearing—that one day she may really know me.
“And this,” I said, holding out a bespeckled purple passionfruit, balancing its firm roundness on the palm of my hand like a suppliant presenting it before the altar.
Her hand wrapped around it on my palm, but she did not take it. She just stood there: palm clenched around the fruit, her dainty hand nestled on my open palm. Curling my own fingers around hers, I said, “Take it, it is yours,” and squeezed her hand. But still she did not.
A moment passed between us.
She looked up at me, and her lips parted, as if to speak. I glimpsed an emotion in her I could not define. Then she snatched the fruit away with a mumbled, “Thank you,” and hurried ahead of me on the path.
It was so unlike her, such ungracious behavior, that I questioned, “Joslyn?”
She did not answer but strode on down the path. Sometime later, she said without looking back, “Perhaps you will share it with me.”
For years she had insisted I share the fruit with her; for years I had declined. Cruxim can eat, can even savor the richness of food, the velvet of claret or the biting fizz of champagne, and can even be sustained on them, but we do not require food or drink. Its enjoyment is marred by the superlative nourishment of blood. So, every year I declined, knowing her enjoyment of it would be a hundredfold my own. Still, every year she asked.
“No, you eat it. It is yours. I bought it for you.”
She split the fruit’s purple casing with a thumbnail. “You so rarely eat. You must take better care of yourself.”
A frown creased my forehead. “I eat enough,” I said, my thoughts flying to the body that lay in an alley near the Cathedral of Santa Eulàlia.
Joslyn put the fruit to her mouth and I heard her suck at it delicately as she continued making her way to the end of the arboretum, heading up the path that led to the castle.
I strode to catch up with her, seeing in this day some wildness that had lain dormant for the past six years. Approaching her, I reached out and put my hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it off.
“Joslyn?”
“What?”
As she turned to me, I noticed a sliver of passionfruit dribbled from the corner of her mouth—the black seed clinging in its yellow sac, which clung to her lips. Tenderly, I reached out to wipe it away. As I did so, she opened her mouth and caught my finger, gently sucking the sweet fruit from my fingertip.
At the touch of her lips, something leaped inside me. Her slow sucking thrilled me, and I pulled my finger out of her tongue’s grasp too quickly, leaving a slurping gasp hanging in air between us as her lips drew air. Color flooded Joslyn’s cheeks. Turning, she ran—awkwardly with her habit held up to expose her ankles—down the path toward the castle.
I, too, was embarrassed. I paused, replaying the moment in my mind, wondering what it all meant. Then, fearful for her safety, I pursued her. It was too late for her to be out alone. The mother superior would soon be calling her in for supper.
She was quick, even despite her robes and the encroaching darkness, and she was soon well ahead of me. My embarrassment burnished to anger. Had I not cared to be secretive, I would have flown ahead of her on the path. As it was, she made it to the castle before me.
The sun had slipped below the horizon by then, and the moon was not yet awake. In the half dark, the castle was a mess of awkward angles and long shadows that easily concealed a slim girl.
“Joslyn?” I wondered if she might have kept going, on to the brook.
There was no answer.
“Joslyn?”
Nothing answered but an echo.
Worried and growing weary of the game, my voice was stern when I called once more into the silence, “Joslyn!”
“Amedeo.”
I had never heard her speak my full name before. Her letters were always addressed to “My Dear Benefactor,” and in person, she always called me Ame. My name had a gravity on her lips that both excited and chilled me. I turned in the direction of her voice, pinpointing it to the shadows by one wall of the Great Hall. Even with my enhanced senses, it took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. “I am here.” I stepped closer.
“Come closer,” she murmured, moving into the thin light in the center of the room. She was paler than she should have been, and sylvan in the darkness. The silence that gripped me was the absent swish of her dark robes.
She was naked.
Q & A SESH with KARIN
Michelle: What five words describe Karin Cox the AUTHOR?
Karin: Passionate, driven, imaginative, creative, manic.
Michelle: What five words describe the person behind the author?
Karin: Busy, tired, multi-tasker, fun-loving, thinker.
Michelle: If you were given the task of walking up to somebody random in the street and you were to explain your book to them in a short speech what would you tell them? Not your book blurbs, but something more...deeper.
Karin: It’s a novel about finding yourself and being able to let go of a dark past to forgive yourself and others in order to fully accept love when it is offered to you, but set in a fantasy world—and with wings, and Vampires!
Michelle: What ten words describe Amedeo?
Karin: Hollow, tender, immortal, immature (at times), vicious (at times), strong, philosophical, self-sacrificing, spiritual, sexy.
Michelle: What ten words would Joslyn use to describe Amedeo?
Karin: Protective, enigmatic, stubborn, confused, beautiful, repressed, beloved, honourable, intelligent, passionate.
Michelle: What quote do you think is the most powerful from Cruxim?
Karin: Probably the one that I made the tagline:
“You are never alone.”
The other quote that is my most powerful is also a spoiler. :-p So maybe instead:
“At the touch of her lips, something leaped inside me. Her slow sucking thrilled me, and I pulled my finger out of her tongue’s grasp too quickly, leaving a slurping gasp hanging in air between us as her lips drew air. Color flooded Joslyn’s cheeks. Turning, she ran—awkwardly with her habit held up to expose her ankles—down the path toward the castle.”
Michelle: Is there a song you listened to the most while writing Cruxim and why?
Karin: Oh, that’s a good one. No, I don’t suppose there was. I rarely listen to music when I write anymore, unless I’m really stuck with a particular scene or unless it doesn’t have a lot of lyrics (because I get distracted by lyrics – I am a chronic singer-alonger), but I do listen to instrumental, so I would have to say it would be ‘Angel (Symphony of Sorrow)’ by Ad Finem from The Chillout Sessions Summer 2004.
Michelle: What song best describes Amedeo and why?
Karin: Another excellent question. It would probably be ‘Angel’ by Sarah McLachlan, which I love.
Michelle: Casting call. Who do you see in your mind when writing Amedeo and Joslyn and do you have an image?
Karin: I came up with a casting call for them for a great Pinterest board an author friend made called Who Shall Play Your Character but I also have an image I bought from a stock photography place that is “my” Ame in my head.
He's pretty.
Otherwise, my celebrity casting call is Marlon Teixeira as a scruffy Ame, Emily Didonato as Joslyn, and this photo of Amanda Heard as Sabine (well, the human part of her) Michelle: You worked as an editor in Australia and the UK for more than a decade before turning your hand to writing. What did you learn from the editing world that helped you in the writing world?
Karin: Well, I have always written too, so my job as an editor was really more a way to make money from doing what I love (reading and writing) while I honed my skills. Of course, editing teaches you a lot about the mechanics of writing, but editing and writing are actually quite different skills. The hardest thing about having an editorial background is being able to let go and not over-edit your own work or to not be so naturally critical of it that you suffer extreme “failure to launch”—which is probably why it took me so long to actually publish a novel.
Michelle: What has been the one thing that stands out to you in your journey as a writer?
Karin: No one reads half-finished novels. Whether you suck or not doesn’t matter; the only thing that matters is that you finish. Once you’re finished, you can rewrite until it doesn’t suck, but if you never finish, you will never publish a novel.
Michelle: Where were you and what were you doing when you came up with the initial idea for Cruxim?
Karin: Actually I was at the Byron Bay Writer’s Festival many, many years ago in a writing workshop. The instructor put a photo of an overgrown gothic tower up on screen and asked us to write 1000 words about it; that 1000 words was the first paragraph of Cruxim. It sat in a folder on my harddrive for about 6 years until I found it and decided to expand upon it, and I thought, I don’t want this to be a “typical” supernatural up here. What can I write about that might be different to a vampire or a werewolf? And so Amedeo and Sabine were born.
Michelle: What has been the most memorable book signing or book event you have been to and why?
Karin: I haven’t been to any signings or book events since I published Cruxim. I just hide in my little writer cave with my toddler and my fiance. Maybe once Creche, the sequel is released next week, I’ll get out and organise something. I love virtual blog tours and authorgraph signings because I can do those in my pyjamas.
Michelle: If your life at this point in time could be described in a chocolate flavour or an icecream flavour, what flavour would it be and why?
Karin: It would be superawesome Neverending Gobstopper flavour. So many wonderful flavours all at once.
Michelle: Thankyou Karin for taking the time to answer my Q’s and all the best with your writing.
Karin: You’re very welcome. Thanks for coming up with such interesting questions.
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Karin’s blog: www.karincox.wordpress.com
www.cruxim.com
Tomorrow I am off to Western Australia to visit Chantal Fernando. It is gonna be a long drive.
Tomorrow I am off to Western Australia to visit Chantal Fernando. It is gonna be a long drive.
Thanks so much for this Michelle.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Karin
No worries :D
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