Caitlyn Nicholas

A Warm Welcome to Caitlyn

Bio: I began writing in 2005. Exhausted, pregnant (sure I was going to expire from morning-sickness) and coping with a demanding toddler, I decided the time was right to embark on a writing career. (In hindsight I may have been suffering from a scorching case of sleep-deprivation).

 

Still, it kinda worked out. My debut novel - and the first manuscript I'd ever written - Running Scared, was published in January 2007.  My next book, Secret Intentions followed.  Then I had a short story published in the Mammoth Book of Special Ops Romance (MBSOR) in 2010 - my story is called The Grey Man.

 

In 2012 my novel Drive Me To Distraction was published, and my novella The Danger Game came out just before Christmas.  My next book, The Bunker, will be published in July 2013.

The Danger Game   by Caitlyn Nicholas

BLURB:

Flick likes computers. She’s good with them, and they do what she tells them, mostly. People, however, are more of a challenge.

But when a terrifyingly dangerous program is stolen, and her mentor killed, Flick finds herself on the run. The police are convinced she’s committed murder, and a sinister weapons developer will stop at nothing to force her to work for him.

In Ben’s line of work being suspicious keeps you alive. So when Flick turns to him, he quickly realises that she’s up to her neck in trouble and hasn’t fully grasped the danger she is in. 

First he has to keep her safe, and then, together, they have to figure out how to save the world from an epic meltdown.

Before treating us to an excerpt, Caitlyn Reveals:
 

From where do you get inspiration and what inspired you to write The Danger Game?

I love research, and that is where I get all of my inspiration.  I’ll pick a subject that interests me and research it, putting together a story as I go.  The Danger Game was inspired when I was researching for my next release (The Bunker July 2013). I came across a Wired article on cyber-war and it gave me an idea for a story.  A few days later I had the story plotted out and the first draft was done three weeks later.  If only all of my stories were so easy to write!

In a couple of sentences, describe the hero’s character.  What do you like best/least about him?

I do love Ben, the hero.  He works for ASIO (the Australian equivalent of the CIA). He’s picked up his life from a horrible start and is doing a job he loves.  He’s clever and resourceful, focused on the task at hand, but deep in his heart he’d quite like to be down at Bondi beach catching a few waves.  He admires Flick from the moment he meets her, and is intrigued by her very special skills and abilities rather than being scared away.  He’s just lovely.

And the heroine? How do you relate to her?

I want to be Flick’s best friend.  She’s very smart, a real introvert with a big heart and a kind attitude.  She stands up for what’s right, and when she makes a mistake she’ll go to great lengths to fix it.  She’s brave and tenacious, and when things go wrong she’s not hiding in a corner waiting to be rescued, she’s figuring out how to rescue herself.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? What would be your tips to overcome it?

I get writer’s block all the time.  For me it basically means I’ve got to a point in my story and I’m not sure how to proceed.  My usual methods of getting over it are…

1. Talk it over with anyone who will sit still long enough.  Last time I got stuck I put my problem out on facebook, an hour later a friend had come up with the perfect solution
2. Put on the headphones, crank up the music (to drown out that darstardly internal editor) and just get the words down
3. Research – this can give new ideas and suggest new directions
4. Chocolate / cake / mani-pedi – I am all for self bribery

Do you have a writing routine?

My routine is to write in every spare second I have (life is busy with kids and so on, so I have to grab every chance I get)

What can we look forward to from you in the near future?

My next book, The Bunker, is out in July 2013.  It’s a romantic suspense set in a bunker deep under the idyllic green hills of England.  Geeky Dimity Pond is the only person who can save the world from an epic financial meltdown, but to do it she’s going to need help from the reclusive and terse Lord Richard Summerhayes.

What was your favourite book as a child/teen/adult? Are you currently reading anything?

As a child my favourite book was The Dark Is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper.  It was the late 70s, early 80s version of Harry Potter.  I went back and read it last year, and I still love it.

Right now I’m reading A Man Like Mike by Sami Lee.  It’s a lovely story and I’m really enjoying it.

What is your culinary speciality?

I love to cook, in fact I love it so much I trained to be a chef when I was younger.  I used to have all sorts of culinary specialities, spend hours in the kitchen, host fabulous dinner parties… but then I had kids!! Yeah, that slowed me down a bit! 

One of my favourite and most used recipes these days is my four ingredient sponge cake (Recipe on my blog http://caitlynnicholas.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/lovely-smells-bake-easy-cake-recipe.html).  Quick, easy and the kids plus any guests that may be floating around really enjoy it!

Any exciting plans for the near future?

The next few months hold nothing but work, and for me that’s really exciting!  I love to write J My next release, The Bunker, is out in July, and I’m in the midst of editing it at the moment. The manuscript for my Christmas release is due with my publisher in June so I’m busily finishing that as well.

Now A Taste of Caitlyn:

“It’s your last chance with the Vice Chancellor.”

“I said I’d be there.” Flick didn’t bother to hide her irritation. “I just won the man a million dollar grant, what more does he want?”

BUY

“Your bubbly and fun personality?” There was amusement beneath Andy’s sarcasm.

Flick snorted. “All right. Okay. I’m leaving now.” She growled the words, and hit the off-button on her phone.

They both knew she lied.

She dropped the phone onto the desk. Then, scowling, she clicked on the icon that’d run the Bellona program.  It crashed instantly, and took the computer with it.

“Awesome.”  She threw herself back into her chair and stared at the ceiling panels, running the changes she’d made to the code through her mind.  Realizing it’d be a waste of time to unpick what she’d done, Flick rebooted her computer and went in search of a clean copy of the program on the backup server. 

There were two versions. Usually they only kept one, but she thought nothing of it, and after saving a copy to her hard drive, she opened it up.

She scanned quickly through the code, looking for the section she’d been working on, so preoccupied with figuring out how to manipulate it into doing what she wanted, she nearly missed the strange command, her eye travelled straight past it. But then she hesitated, and went back to the unusual group of letters.  They hadn’t been there before.

A logic bomb? Some little joke Andy was playing?

She ran the command and it brought up a whole section of Bellona that she’d never seen before.

“Bloody hell -” For a moment she simply stared at the screen. 

It was no joke.

 

 Pleasure to meet you, Caitlyn!

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Caitlyn's links:

http://www.caitlynnicholas.com

Blog: http://www.caitlynnicholas.blogspot.com  Twitter: http://twitter.com/CaitlynNicholas  Fb: https://www.facebook.com/CaitlynNicholasAuthor  Google plus: https://plus.google.com/u/0/105412279044420141735/  Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/783424.Caitlyn_Nicholas

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