Interview & Giveaway: Christine Wenrick

Shelly is a big fan of Christine Wenrick's Charmed Trilogy.  Check out this Q&A they did together!

Shelly: Hello, Christine. Let me start out my saying that I’m a big fan of your work. When I got the chance to do this interview – I was thrilled. So that being said – will you tell us a little about yourself and what (or who) started you on the course of being a writer? 

Christine: Thanks, Shelly! I wish I could say I knew I was destined to be a writer all my life, but that’s not the case. I dabbled with writing in college but have been working as a commercial interior designer until four years ago when I decided to write my first novel, The Charmed. I think, like any author, you have to have something that inspires you, and for me it was the ending to this first book. I had a crystal clear image of that ending . . . and nothing else. LOL. So I basically started writing towards that end. Probably not the easiest way to write a book, but it worked out OK.

Shelly: One thing I noticed when I read the first story, The Charmed, was that even though this is a vampire story, you’ve somehow brought a unique and uncommon perspective to the subject. How’d you do that?

Christine: That is certainly a compliment. An uncommon perspective to a vampire story is hard to do these days, but it may be the sense of isolation I put the characters and the reader in at the beginning of the series. I knew I wanted an adult story, a very intimate and personal story between Caleb and Olivia. To me that meant isolating them from the world we see every day, but in a way that makes sense or is familiar to present times. Then you can create those moments of tug and pull, the quiet ones where very little is being said but you can feel the force that is drawing them together. If you can feel passion between two characters in the things they don’t say—the moments outside of the love scenes—then you’ve done your job as a romance writer.

Shelly: Which character, in any of the books, was the hardest for you to write? 

Christine: Great question!!! I would say Jax, the coven leader. He has lived for centuries and his character needed to reflect that kind of depth and breadth of life experience . . . and, of course, pain. For me, he represented the emotional soul of the trilogy and as such is one of my favorite characters.

I had several challenges, mostly because when I started I didn’t know much about the piano. But in writing Olivia’s character it was clear that music was at the center of who she was. It’s how she expresses herself best. The hardest part was making sure that held true throughout all three books and did not get too far sidelined by the other events happening to her.

Shelly: I thought Maya was a gem – she’s sometimes come off as meek but when the tire hits the road she’s something else. Which character would you say is most like you?

Christine: Maya is a fun character. One of my favorite things to do is bring a character along for several books so the reader can watch them grow and mature. You will see that with Maya as well.

As for me, I’m not sure I’m really like any of my characters, more like a mix of them. I might latch on to one thing that it similar to me and build a character from there. For example, Olivia will doggedly focus on something once she believes it’s the right decision or course of action. I can be like that.

Shelly: I enjoyed the flow of dialogue - was it a conscious process that the cursing/swearing would be at a minimum for this series?

Christine: Actually, yes it was. Although I myself can curse just as easily as the next person, I’m just not a huge fan of words that can jar a reader out of the story, especially when they’re repeated a lot. Of course, that’s a really difficult rule to follow when one of your characters is a curse-a-holic (Ahem, Lucas . . .)!

Nowadays people curse, men especially it seems, so it needs to be in there. I just try to pick and choose the right moments and infer the rest.

Shelly: What story are you working on now?

Christine: I am putting the finishing touches on book three in my Men of Brahm Hill series, which is a connected five-book series to The Charmed Trilogy. It has taken me longer to write than I hoped because of my obligations for The Charmed, but I am so excited where this series is going I spend just about every hour I can getting it out of my head and onto paper. The first book in the series, Someone Else’s Skye, will be available this fall, and to get the most out of all the little nuggets I have left for the reader I recommend starting from the beginning with The Charmed.

As part of her tour, Christine is is giving away a $50.00 Amazon Gift Card and a signed copy of The Charmed to one lucky winner that follows the tour. Enter to win.


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