Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work.
Today, C.C. Bridges – CC Bridges is a mild-mannered librarian by day, but by night she writes about worlds of adventure and romance. When she’s not busy solving puzzles in an escape room, she can be found diving into comics or binge-watching superhero movies. She writes surrounded by books, spare computing equipment, a fluffy dog, and a long-suffering husband in the state of New Jersey. In 2011, she won a Rainbow Award for best gay sci-fi/futuristic novel.
Thanks so much, C.C., for joining me!
J. Scott Coatsworth: If I were a Hollywood producer about to put your book on the big screen, who would you want me to cast as the leads? Why? And can we have pictures to drool over?
C.C. Bridges: Chris Pine. Chris Pine. Chris Pine. He’d gotten so much good press because of Wonder Woman, but I’ve loved him since Princess Diaries 2. He’s always been Hank (from Exodus) in my head.
(I may possibly have an entire pinterest board filled with Chris Pine pics:)
I’ve never been able to cast Ian. Maybe Tom Hardy? I keep changing my mind!
JSC: When did you know you wanted to write, and when did you discover that you were good at it?
CCB: I feel like I’ve always been writing in some form or another. I remember, very clearly, being in fifth grade, writing a poem about “light” and being praised by my teacher for it. That sticks out in my memory as being the first time I started writing for other people to read.
But the true moment when I discovered I was good at it? I had someone email me after reading one of my works, telling me that the story comforted them while they were in the Emergency Room waiting for news about a family member. That message was so important to me. It’s the reason I keep writing – because there’s nothing like reaching someone like that.
JSC: Tell me one thing hardly anyone knows about you.
CCB: I’m actually painfully shy. I think that’s probably why I wanted to be a writer. It’s easier to take time and craft what I want to say. I also tend to surround myself with people who are the exact opposite, in an attempt to make myself a bit more outgoing. It hasn’t quite worked, I’m still super shy:)
JSC: How would you describe your writing style/genre?
CCB: I think my writing style is very approachable. Even when I’m writing sci-fi, I try to keep my characters grounded – they might be flying in space, or be augmented by cybernetics, but there’s something familiar about them.
JSC: Were you a voracious reader as a child?
CCB: Oh yes. I collected so many books, the hanging shelf in my bedroom crashed off the wall due to the weight of them. I was a frequent visitor to the public library (libraries are great! Support libraries!), and proudly beat out everyone else with my summer reading card.
JSC: What was your first published work? Tell me a little about it.
CCB: My first published work was a short story called “Catseye” in the Love Bites anthology. I look at it now and see the broad strokes of how my writing would evolve. It’s a menage story, and there is quite a bit of character mixed with a lot of smut. My work has matured since then, but I like to think I’m still writing true to myself.
For this post, I’m giving away a copy of Kitten At Play, which has the story “Catseye” along with three others featuring the same mmf trio. To enter, just comment to this post.
JSC: What fictional speculative fiction character would you like to spend an evening with and why?
CCB: My first exposure to science fiction was the original Star Trek, which I caught on syndication when I was a kid (no cable tv for us!), so I’d have to say Spock or Captain Kirk. I would love to hear their stories and ask them a million questions.
JSC: What’s your writing process?
CCB: My writing process is constantly evolving. I used to work solely as a ‘pantster’ – just writing without a plan. I’ve started to use outlines now, although for a time I feared it would kill my creativity – what would I discover about a character, if I knew everything up front?
It turned out that even with an outline, my characters still surprised me.
Most important to my process is giving myself enough time to think about my characters – to get to know them in my head before I put anything down on paper.
I use multiple tools – a combo of pen and paper, notes on my chromebook, and formal edits on my pc.
JSC: Would you visit the future or the past, and why?
CCB: I’m torn, because I’d like to visit both, but not for very long. I’d love to be able to go back in time, to see some of the great works of art being created – watch the building of the colosseum, see an original performance of a Shakespeare play – but I’d be terrified of the butterfly effect, of doing something and trashing the future.
I would like to peek into the future and make sure everything turns out okay, that we as the human race haven’t destroyed the planet, that we’ve reached the stars and made the world a better place.
JSC: What are you working on now, and when can we expect it?
CCB: I’m super excited to be working on the re-release of the first two Heaven Corp novels (Angel 1089 and Exodus) to lead into the brand new release of the third book “Angels Rising.” The first book should be out this winter/fall, followed fairly quickly by the next two books, all by Dreamspinner Press.
I’m also working on a completely different sci-fi series, but that is still in early stages yet. The first book is completed and I’m looking for a home for the series.
GIVEAWAY
C.C. will give away an eBook copy of “Kitten at Play” which contains her first published story in addition to three other mmf stories featuring the same kinky threesome. (as mentioned in the text of the interview)
And now for C.C.’s new book: Love in the Time of Hurricanes:
The night Nick Henderson storms into Martelli’s Pizzeria, he’s just looking for something to eat. Along with dinner, he finds Lou Martelli—pizza cook extraordinaire and Jersey Shore native. Nick is renting a Shore house for the winter while taking classes at the local community college as he devises a way to escape the accounting major his father chose for him.
When Lou offers to show Nick around, heat flares between them as they realize they have more in common than domineering families. But it’s not all fun and games on the boardwalk. Hurricane Sandy blows ashore, changing the place Nick was starting to think of as home. His peace is shattered, and it will take everything he has to keep his relationship with Lou from being torn apart by the storm brewing around them.
States of Love: Stories of romance that span every corner of the United States.
Buy Links
Author Bio
CC Bridges is a mild-mannered librarian by day, but by night she writes about worlds of adventure and romance. When she’s not busy solving puzzles in an escape room, she can be found diving into comics or binge-watching superhero movies. She writes surrounded by books, spare computing equipment, a fluffy dog, and a long-suffering husband in the state of New Jersey. In 2011, she won a Rainbow Award for best gay sci-fi/futuristic novel.