I''m really excited to welcome Cat Connor here! Killerbyte was my top favorite thriller which I read last year, I found it totally absorbing. I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series, Terrorbyte and the new release Exacerbyte shortly.
Welcome Cat!
I'd love to know if you're still shadowing for police departments - if I remember rightly you were doing work experience or similar alongside them to gain insight for your books?
I stopped doing that when I was pregnant with our youngest – 2 am was no longer an appealing time of the morning to be sitting in a car watching idiots behave badly.
What made you choose Thriller FBI types as your genre?
I don’t think I did choose, my main character arrived one day and that was that – it was all very simple. But writing an FBI thriller is fun for me. I’m in New Zealand writing about Virginia, that’s pretty cool and a lot more interesting from my point of view. Although in the 3rd _byte, Exacerbyte, Delta A does come to New Zealand. So I get to have some fun here too.
If these two after Killerbyte are just as thrilling and plot twisting I might just have to get a bigger sofa to hide behind whilst I read with one eye closed ;p How many are you anticipating to write in the series?
You might want to think about that bigger sofa now! I’m not sure how many books there will be! So far there are 6 written – 3 published. I just started work on a 7th, which is promising to be a lot of fun. I think I’ll write until my main character tells me to stop. Then it’ll be time for a new character and a different experience.
Where do you glean inspiration from for your main characters?
As frightening as it sounds it mostly comes from within my own head. Sometimes inspiration comes in weird and wonderful ways – someone will say something or do something that triggers a thought process and it snow balls from there. But mostly, it’s from within. Except for Mac – Mac was loosely based on a friend in Virginia.
I found the plot of Killerbyte completely absorbing. How do you keep track of all the angles of you storyline so you maintain the suspense?
I don’t. But obviously, I do. Yes, it’s that confusing… I don’t knowingly keep track of all the angles of any particular story, beyond maybe a few notes scribbled on a notebook. I have to go through the book and write down the names of everyone (who dies) or whatever after the fact. In all honesty I don’t know how many people died in Killerbyte or all their names, I would have to re-read the book!
Relationships within between characters happen naturally – characters do things that make them look guilty or innocent, they behave like people.
Also, when I’m writing I only see a small amount of the story – usually just the scene I’m working on. So there is a lot of trust involved. I trust my mind to keep track of everything without any real help from me! And am always surprised when the threads all come together and it works.
I don’t know how any of my stories end until I write those two little words. The End.
Once those little words are out, then I can go back and add things, tweak scenes, get some help from experts for various characters, scenes, etc. At that point, there is a lot of note taking as I write. I love using Word and being able to add comments and so forth as I go – so much easier than losing pages and hand writing!
Any future plans for other series out of this set?
Not at this stage but I don’t see any reason why it couldn’t happen. It would be kina fun to bring out Director O’Hare’s back story. More fun for me than anyone else possibly as it already exists- she was my original main character. There are 3 Cait O’Hare novels sitting on my hard drive.
As a reader, which genre is your favorite, and do you have any favorite authors?
As a reader, I love thrillers. Jeffrey Deaver, Janet Evanovich, E.J. Knapp are three of my favorite authors.
and Exacerbyte, due out March 2011. Can't wait!!!!