Rebecca York talks to BYS about her release, Beyond Fearless.
What went Between the Sheets of this book?  Either what was happening in your life when you wrote it, or what was happening with the book as you wrote it. 

I was traveling around cold wet Russia a year ago last May.  Desperate for warmth, I decided to set Beyond Fearless on a Caribbean Island.  So while we were eating our meals of borscht and smoked fish, I'd daydream about lying in a hammock in the sun.  Well, that's not really the way my mind works.  Actually, I was thinking about my h/h running for their lives in that tropical environment.  And I was thinking that an island increased the suspense and tension because it would be hard to get away.  Then I started thinking about what the opening scene should be, and I decided a diving emergency would be perfect.  So I started doing scuba research.   

Where did you find the idea to write this novel? 

It's probably twenty years ago that I first had the idea of writing about sexually linked telepaths.  They would be part of an experiment to create super-intelligent children.  Only instead, the guy running a fertility clinic (where he could get fertilized eggs to work on) would have created telepaths who feel incomplete until they bond with another grown-up child from the experiment.  And the bonding would be through physical means.  They'd feel compelled to touch, and when they did, that would awaken their psychic powers.  And the more intimate the touch, the stronger the powers.  Needless to say, nobody would buy a story that far-out when I first thought of it.  But finally, after I was writing for Berkley, I proposed the idea to my editor, and she liked it.  That first book was Beyond Control.  And I've followed it with Beyond Fearless, with another man and woman from the experiment.  In the first book, a government official thinks my h/h are dangerous, and he's prepared to either kill them or control them.  He's still after them in Beyond Fearless.  But the main plot is about the leader of an island cult who wants to use the heroine's telepathic powers to strengthen his hold over his followers.  And to do that, he knows he has to kill the hero and capture her.

How long did it take to develop your characters for this book? 

When you do a sequel, you've got to keep the second book true to the first one.  But you also have to make changes so that you're not writing the same story again.  One of my changes was to have a heroine who'd already developed some psychic ability.  So who would she be?  I made her a woman with a nightclub act who picks up objects from the audience and gets memories from the owner. The bad guy has lured her to the island of Grand Fernandino by getting a nightclub owner to offer her a lot of money to perform there.  And I wanted the hero to have a good reason to be on my island, as well, so I made him a diver and treasure hunter, which also fit in with the idea I had for the first scene.

Why this story at this time?

I wanted to keep writing about my telepaths.  And I don't want to be thought of only as "the werewolf lady."  I realize my Moon books are better known.  But I want to establish myself in other areas of the paranormal, too.  I also get to branch out in my Harlequin Intrigues--with stories that might feature vampires, time travel or possession by an outside force.

Take us through a typical writing day and your creative process. 

I try to get up by eight, but I don't always make it.  I usually stagger downstairs and get a cup of coffee.  Breakfast is half a low-carb bagel with mayonnaise, mustard and Swiss cheese.

Then I stagger to the bathroom and put on eye makeup.  After that, I turn on my computer and read e-mail.  And usually I answer phone calls.  If I get to my wip by 11:00, I feel lucky.  Once I start writing, I try to write ten pages a day.  I might do that in three or four hours.  But if I don't get my pages done early, I may still be writing at eleven at night.

My husband is retired, so he works in our basement office, often doing the business work that goes along with a writing career.  I work on a laptop, in the bedroom or the sun room.  And we message each other if we need to "talk."  We break for lunch about two in the afternoon, and we don't eat dinner until nine.
 
During the day, I try to exercise--sometimes at home and sometimes at the nearby athletic club. 

I tend to stay home and work.  And when I'm here writing, it's hard to pry me away from the computer.  It takes a long time to work myself up to going out to the mall, for example.  Then I get what I call "breakthrough buying," and I make all the purchases I’ve been putting off.

I'm married to "Mr. Travel."  So, ironically, when I'm not home working, I'm likely to be at some far-flung location.  When this interview is published, I'll be in Costa Rica.

How is your family affected by your writing career?

Well, I'm really lucky because my husband has always supported my career.  So he was willing to take the kids out to the movies or the library or a bookstore while I was home writing.  I write cookbooks as well as novels.  So I was often testing recipes on my family.  Once I served a banana cream pie for dinner because that's what I'd had to test that day.  I was home when my kids needed me, but I tried to establish an atmosphere where they knew I was working and wouldn't bother me unless there was an emergency.  My daughter is now a librarian, and she's proud of my career.  My son's a Foreign Service Officer who is probably embarrassed that his mom writes romantic suspense.

Do you have time to read now?  What authors do you read?

I don't have a lot of time to read.  Most of my reading is through listening to books.  I always have a book going in the car.  I’m likely to listen to Terry Pratchett, Tess Gerritsen, Nora Roberts, Clive Cussler, Ken Follett, Carl Hiaasen, or Harlan Coben.

Who or what influenced you to write and what inspires your imagination?

I was seriously influenced by the science fiction and fantasy writers I read when I was a teenager and young adult.  My interest in werewolves was sparked by a book called Darker Than You Think, by Jack Williamson, that I read when I was fifteen.  Williamson made me want to BE a werewolf.  The idea of being able to communicate mind to mind also fascinated me--which is how I began thinking about writing my Beyond books.  When I first began writing romantic suspense for Harlequin Intrigue, I started sneaking in paranormal elements.  I called those early books "stealth paranormals" because I'd hide the weird elements.  The reader wouldn't know, for example, that the hero was a 1,500-year-old space alien until she had already gotten to know and love him.

What are you working on now?

I'm working on my next Moon book.  The working title is Eternal Moon, and the heroine has been doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over through past lives--until she meets Jacob Marshall.  Then they have a chance to change her destiny.   

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?  And how did you keep your spirits up until the first book was published?

I started small--with newspaper and magazine articles.  So I had a lot of sales before I sold a book.  But I also had rejections from lots of magazines.  And the way I kept my spirits up was to rely on my writer friends--because only other writers can understand what it's like to have your work rejected.

I'd advise aspiring writers to read widely in the genre they're aiming for.  They also need to perfect their craft.  And they must be able to revise, because nothing you write is going to come out right the first time.


© 2007 Interview by BetweenYourSheets.com

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