Spotlight Interview: Cori Kane

Last week we published Cori Kane’s romantic novella The Affair.
And today Cori is answering some questions our senior editor Sandra Gerth had in store for her.

How would you describe The Affair? How is it different from other lesbian fiction books?
The Affair is about two women who are having an affair but find themselves at a crossroads when they discover they’re actually falling in love. It’s a difficult situation, but I think one people can empathize with. I didn’t try to do something new with this story. I was more interested in an ordinary situation (the affair, even if falling in love seems more extraordinary) and how people deal with the stress of it.

What sparked the idea for this book?
I’m a fan of many shows and thus ship a lot of couples – mostly lesbian and women who are not really together on the show. And I often find myself wondering what I would do with the characters, what kind of situations I would come up with for them. Robin and Linda are to a certain extent AU- or uber-characters. But I’m not saying who the original characters are, because I like for readers to create their own image in their minds. A lot of my stories have their origins in characters or even actresses I admire – not all of them, though – and that’s where Robin and Linda came from.

What do you like about your main characters, Linda and Robin?
A better question would be what I don’t like about them. But I guess I especially like that they’re at a certain age where they can accept truths about themselves. Linda may be surprised by the fact that she’s falling for a woman, but she doesn’t make a big deal out of it. She knows that lesbianism is a fact of life and that love is love. She cuts herself the same kind of slack she would advise others to in the same situation. I find that women in their forties are very settled in themselves, and that’s a quality I admire. Robin’s situation is different, and I like that she’s more vulnerable where her relationship is concerned. And that she accepts the consequences of her actions.

Did you plot out the entire book before you started writing, or did you explore where the story would take you?
With this story, I didn’t plot at all. I had the characters and their situation and I was confident that Linda and Robin would lead me through the story. And they did – with a few bumps in the road.

What kind of research did you have to do for The Affair?
I did some research on cancer. I found an online journal of a young woman whose mother was dying of pancreatic cancer at the time. It was very sad, very touching. I read it for the information I could gain from it, but it reduced me to tears.

What was the hardest thing about writing The Affair?
The love scene… Or rather, me making myself write it. I feel that I’m not good at sex / love scenes, and I have to really talk myself into writing them. So, I procrastinated about two weeks on it. I guess it’s silly, but I really have to work up my self-confidence level on those scenes before I can get to work. Yeah, it really is silly.

What was your favorite part about writing The Affair?
I love doing dialogues. I love characters talking to each other. And The Affair was no different. Sometimes in novels you have a sentence like, ‘they talked all night,’ but the next thing you read is that there’s this big misunderstanding that could have been avoided by the main characters talking to each other. I don’t want to do that. I want my characters to talk, and I want my readers to be part of that interaction.

How did you celebrate when you finished writing or when you published The Affair?
To be honest, I haven’t yet. I will probably just have a beer with friends at some point. Probably next week before we’re going to watch Pitch Perfect 2.

Are you working on a new novel? What can your readers expect next from you?
I had quite a number of things planned for this year, but have done very little so far, because life kept interfering. But I promised myself I would start writing a supernatural novel come June. I’m currently doing research, which means watching a lot of movies and shows on the subject, reading novels with supernatural creatures in it. So, I’m almost hard at work. 🙂 I’m trying to establish my own take on vampires, werewolves, and all kinds of other creatures. Though there’ll probably (and hopefully) be a couple more short stories before I can even think of finishing a project like that.

How can your readers stay in touch with you?
There’s some information on my Ylva author’s page about that. I spend a lot of time on my social media pages. You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. But you’re welcome to write me an e-mail, too. Or a message on fanfiction.net or archiveofourown.org. Just look for corikane.

The Affair is available as ebook from amazon, Smashwords, Apple, Kobo and other platforms.

Astrid Ohletz
Publisher