Author Interview: Molly Cochran

Today the awesome Molly Cochran has stopped by to talk a little bit about her Legacy series (a new favorite of Gabrielle's)!

1. Who was is/was your favorite character to write?

                In the Katy books (what I call LEGACY, POISON, and the soon-to-be-published SEDUCTION), of course I like to write Katy. She is me, my real voice, the way I talk most of the time. I’m a long way from high school, but I remember how I always seemed to be in trouble for being nosy and talking too much. In my other books (the Katy books are my first YA novels; I’ve written a number of adult books), I think my favorite character was Merlin in THE FOREVER KING—in which King Arthur is reincarnated as a 10-year-old boy in Chicago. Merlin is the grandfather I always wished I had. I guess that’s why I made him up.

2. What do you have planned in the sequels? Without spoiling of course.

                Since SEDUCTION is nearly ready for publication—I’m doing the final rewrite now—I know pretty much exactly what’s in store. Katy goes to cooking school in Paris, where she encounters a coven of beautiful witches who want Peter, hate Katy, and harbor a deep secret that’s hundreds of years old. I love this book!

3. What inspired you to write this series?

                I’ve always liked witches, at least the way I see them—as ordinary people with special extrasensory abilities, not as creepy devil-worshipping hags. So I was thinking about what would happen if a girl came to a town filled with witches, and then discovered that she was one of them. Katy was originally older, in her twenties. But as I wrote it, it became clear to me that she had to be younger, so that she could discover her own paranormal abilities in the nurturing  atmosphere of Whitfield, Massachusetts, aka Witch Central.

4. What is your favorite book?

                Hmmm. I have so many. Jennifer Egan’s A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD is great. Another novel I love is Jennifer Donnelly’s REVOLUTION. I’m reading LUCIA,LUCIA now, and love it. And there’s a young writer who lives in my area, Jennifer Murgia (Jennifer must be a writer’s name!), whose novels ANGEL STAR and LEMNISCATE knock me out.

5. Do you need anything when you write? (Food, music, drink, etc)

                Silence. I wish I could write to music, but I can’t. It’s like I fly off somewhere when I’m writing, and I can’t have anything holding me back. I’m always surprised how fast time passes.

6. Is there anything you’re excited about this year?

                Well, no major events, but I’ve been exploding with ideas lately, mainly about reincarnation and time travel (which, when you think about it, are pretty similar). I’ll keep you posted!

Thanks, Molly!

Molly Cochran, author of the teen paranormal romances LEGACY and POISON, has written 26 published novels and four nonfiction books under her own name and various pseudonyms. Her books include New York Times bestselling novels GRANDMASTER and THE FOREVER KING, coauthored with Warren Murphy, and the nonfiction DRESSING THIN, also a NY Times bestseller. She has won awards from the Mystery Writers of America (Best Novel of the Year), the Romance Writers of America (Best Thriller), and the New York Public Library (Outstanding Books for the Teen Age).

SEDUCTION, the third installment in the LEGACY series, is scheduled for release later this year through her publisher, Simon & Schuster.

Two eBooks, THE TEMPLE DOGS and THE FOREVER KING, are currently available through online retailers. A third, GRANDMASTER, will be available soon.

Molly has lectured extensively and has taught writing at the college level as well as at a women's prison (where she was NOT an inmate). She also writes a blog on writing technique which appears on her website, MollyCochran.com. She is also on Facebook at facebook.com/molly.cochran1 and Twitter at Twitter.com/mollycochranYA.

She lives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.