Please
share a little about yourself, your genres, any other pen names you use.
I live in
Oakland, CA, with my husband of 13 years, and our Himalayan cat Dakota. I met
my husband when I was just 18 – days into the second semester of my freshman
year at the University of Pittsburgh – and we’ve been together ever since. I’m
a native of Southern California, prefer Northern California, but my heart is in
the British Isles.
After graduating
from Pitt with a degree in Journalism, I embarked on a career in copywriting,
which sounds much more glamorous than it actually was. From there I found
myself working in technology public relations, despite the fact that I couldn't
program my own VCR. By the time I moved on from the world of fast-paced agency
life, I knew more about computer security than I ever thought possible. That
expertise made me the perfect fit to lead the internal communications program
for the R&D organization of a Fortune 500 company that specializes in cyber
security. And that brings me to today. After more than a decade of writing
words ascribed to other people, in December 2014 I quit my job to pursue
writing full time.
When it came time
to publish my book, I was faced with quite the conundrum. Most of my friends
and family call me Becky, but Becky Caudill is the name of a woman in Kentucky
with quite the criminal history, and Rebecca Caudill is the name of a famous
and most beloved children’s author. Of the two, I thought I’d stick with the
one that was better for my reputation. Now I know just how Vivica Fox felt when
she was forced to add the A to her name. J
Tell
us a little about your latest or upcoming release.
A Time Apart: Book One of the Macauley Series is my
debut novel. While it falls squarely in the world of the paranormal (after all,
the hero is a vampire), it is first and foremost a romance, and at its core
it’s the story of two souls who defy the confines of time, life, or death to be
together.
Have
you ever based your book or characters on actual events or people from your own
life?
Not overtly, or too directly. I pull snippets from
my life to help inform the characters. Like Olivia, I had a rough relationship
with my father, albeit in much different ways (most importantly, we weren’t
rich – quite the opposite, in fact). People who are close to me will recognize
some of the names in A Time Apart. Donnelly is a family name, and Heather is
the name of my best friend. We joke that book Heather is much saner than real
Heather. J
Is
there a theme or message in your work that you would like readers to connect
to?
I think at the end of the day, we all want to be
loved, and A Time Apart is really the story of two people whose love cannot be
contained. Also, I think it’s fair to say that when people are desperately in
love (or even in lust) that they make decisions that defy logic or reason. Many
times those decisions are foolish, but sometimes, for the lucky ones, those
decisions can bring true and lasting happiness.
What
would your readers be surprised to learn about you?
I’m not sure that there’s anything really too
surprising about me. Maybe that I met my husband playing beer pong? That was 19
years ago and we’ve been together ever since.
When
you’re not writing what do you do? Do you have any hobbies or guilty pleasures?
When not writing I
am watching TV, planning our next vacation, or trying out new recipes. Like
most of America, I am obsessed with House of Cards, Game of Thrones, and
Outlander, and I just love Nashville on ABC. Oh, and I am an absolute sucker
for House Hunters International even though many couples drive me nuts (“I
really wanted an American size refrigerator” seems to be a favorite saying of
couples moving to Europe.)
What else? A few
of my favorite things are good sushi; crispy, salty french fries; Islay scotch;
and cold, rainy days. My favorite places in the world are Tofino, British
Columbia; Hanelei, Kauai; New Orleans; and just about anywhere in Ireland or
Scotland. In fact, we plan to live in Ireland in the not-too-distant future.
Which
romance book or series (or other genre, if you don’t write romance) do you wish
you had written?
Without a doubt, Outlander. Diana Gabaldon will
vehemently deny that it is a romance, but I’m absolutely positive that millions
of women across the world aren’t fans of it for the historical aspect alone;
they – we – love Claire and Jamie and their love story.
Is
there a genre(s) that you’d like to write that you haven’t tackled yet?
Outside of paranormal romance, my other favorite
genre is Regency Romance. In fact, I’ve probably read more regencies than
paranormal novels. I’m actually working on a book in that genre right now. I
don’t want to give too much away about it because it’s still in the early
stages, but there’s a paranormal angle there as well and I’m really excited to
mix the genres.
Of
all the characters you’ve ever written, who is your favorite and why?
At this point, I don’t have a large stable to choose
from, but I am just in love with William! While I more closely identify with
Olivia, if I were ever to fall for a vampire, he’d certainly be the one. While
I love my husband beyond reason, when I drop into the world of fantasy, I
gravitate toward men like him. William, for all of his confidence and argument
to the contrary, is very conflicted about who and what he is and I find that
dichotomy intriguing. And of course he’s sexy and commanding – men want to be
him, and women want to be with him – you can’t have a book in the genre without
that trope.
If
this book is part of a series…what is the next book? Any details you can share?
What is next for you? Do you have any scheduled upcoming releases or works in
progress?
As the name implies – A Time Apart: Book One of the
Macauley Series – it is part of a series. You can catch a sneak peek of Blood
of My Blood: Book Two of the Macauley Series at the end of A Time Apart. It
picks up exactly where Book One leaves off, but in it we learn more about
William’s life after he became a vampire, and we see how Olivia is settling
into her new, preternatural life. All’s not sunshine and rainbows for our hero and heroine, so we see how
they tackle the challenges from the outside world.
What
book are you reading now? What is in your to read pile?
I’m currently
reading three books but that changes on a daily basis since I go through them
pretty quickly. I just downloaded about twenty more books onto my Kindle this
past week.
A Time Apart
Macauley Series
Book One
Rebecca N. Caudill
Genre: Paranormal Romance , Vampire
Date of Publication: February 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-1508482666
ASIN: B00TDR1O6U
Number of pages: 211 (estimated)
Word Count: 71,020
Cover Artist: Rebecca N. Caudill
Book Description:
A love story that traverses the confines of time, life, and death, uniting two passionate souls from different worlds and ages …
Olivia Donnelly has spent her whole life obsessing about how she will die. When tragedy strikes, reality comes crashing down and she’s forced to confront her fears head on. Hoping that a move across the globe will help her to cope with a devastating loss, she arrives in Ireland a broken down shell of a woman looking for a second chance at life.
Almost immediately Olivia is drawn to places she’s never been, and to a man that she’s never met. When she crosses paths with the mysterious and frustratingly private William Macauley, her life is thrown into turmoil unlike any she has ever known. The two couldn’t be more different – she’s human, he’s a vampire – but Olivia can’t get him out of her mind. Having acknowledged her overwhelming desire for William, now she must come to terms with how her feelings for him will greatly alter her future.
Olivia’s understanding of life – and death – take on new meaning as she examines the truth of the person she once was, the woman she was born to be, and how William is the key to her everlasting happiness.
Available at Amazon
Excerpt from Chapter 6
“Olivia,” he
whispered, and then he too went silent, that one word all he was going to give
her.
Except it wasn’t
all.
The way he had
said her name did things to Olivia that she couldn’t adequately
explain. To her ears, he had said it the way a man says a woman’s name as
he’s about to make love to her for the first time, full of longing and
desire.
It felt like several
minutes had passed since he had spoken her name, but in reality it had been
less than 15 seconds. Olivia wasn’t worried about him hanging up the phone
because she knew he could hear her breathing in response to his voice. Given
how furiously she felt her heart beating, she thought he could probably hear it
too as it was so terrifyingly loud. She certainly heard the thump, thump, thump
of it echoing in her own ears.
“William,” she
eventually responded, trying to keep her voice cold and emotionless, hoping
that her desire for him wasn’t evident in that one single word. She
wouldn’t say more, not yet.
Olivia wanted to
make him tell her why he was calling. She wouldn’t ask. She wouldn’t show how
much she actually cared what he thought of her; unfortunately her hitched
breathing gave her away. If he hadn’t known it before, William certainly knew
that his voice – his words – had power over her.
“I had to call
you. I don’t know why, I just felt compelled to. I didn’t want to
continue conversing with you in one to two sentence fragments over
email. While convenient, I find it so impersonal,” he said.
Impersonal? So
he was looking for some sort of personal connection with her? No, she
wouldn’t read too much into his words.
When he realized
that she wasn’t going to say anything back, he went on. “I know you don’t care
one way or the other, but you are absolutely intriguing to me. A conundrum
really. You see, for as much research as you’ve obviously done on me, I’ve
probably done more on you. After all, you’re rather easy to find online.”
Olivia hadn’t
seen that one coming.
Go on, she wanted to
say, curious to know exactly what he found so intriguing about her, but her
voice wouldn’t work.
When she failed
to speak for several more seconds, he finally broke the silence, the tone of
his voice going from interested to terse and ... rejected?
“I can see
you’re not going to speak to me. Perhaps I’m wasting my time. I’m sorry to
have disturbed you.”
Before he could
hang up and Olivia would lose the moment with him forever, she took a deep
breath and found both her voice and her courage.
“I’m sorry, I’m
just a bit shocked that you’ve called is all. I’m trying to figure out
what you’re about,” she told him as matter-of-factly as she could. “We’ve
hardly been what I would call cordial to one another since we spoke earlier
tonight so I’m wondering why you want a more … personal … mode of
communication. Hell, I’m wondering why you want any more communication,
period. You made it pretty clear that you aren’t interested in what I
have to say, so I’m not sure what else there is to say.”
Olivia could
hear the hurt in her voice, and in addition to feeling embarrassed over her
uncanny physical reaction to him, she also felt ashamed. Unfortunately, he
seemed to pick up on both emotions.
“My apologies if
I have … hurt … you. It was ridiculous of me to have been so rude.
Perhaps if you would allow me to explain myself, you might begin to understand
why my initial reaction to you was so discourteous,” he said.
Okay, Olivia thought,
start explaining.
She couldn’t
have prepared herself for what he said next.
“I know it’s
late, but can I see you? I’d like to speak to you in person.”
Oh shit. Oh
shit.
Oh ... SHIT.
“It is
late,” she replied, leaving the statement hanging between them for him to
interpret.
She didn’t want
him to think that she wasn’t interested in meeting him, but at the same time
she also didn’t want him thinking he could call her up at midnight and that
she’d be at his beck and call. While Olivia had had her fair share of
romantic entanglements throughout the years, she’d never been someone’s booty
call.
But damn if her
curiosity wasn’t getting the best of her. Olivia internally calculated
what it would take to make herself look presentable before meeting him –
wherever he was. She figured that she didn’t have time to redo her make-up but
she could easily throw her sweater and jeans back on, pull her hair up into a
bun, and be in a cab on her way in just under 15 minutes.
And then, as if
she couldn’t be any more shocked than she already was, his next words stopped
her in her tracks.
“I’m in your
hotel lobby, if that changes anything.”
It changed a lot
of things.
About the Author:
Rebecca Caudill read her first novel when she was just four years old and has been hooked on books ever since. When she wasn't writing her own stories, she was sneaking copies of her mom's paperbacks to read late into the night.
Fast forward several years later and Rebecca graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a B.A. in Journalism and a minor in English Lit, which gave her new insight into the written word. Following college, Rebecca embarked on a career in tech PR in the famed Silicon Valley, which eventually led to her leading Global R&D communications for a Fortune 500 company that everyone knows by name. Finally, after more than a decade of writing words ascribed to other people, in December 2014 she quit her job to pursue writing full time.
Today Rebecca lives with her husband and beautiful-but-neurotic cat in Oakland, California. When not creating fictional worlds inhabited by strong women, rakes, rogues, and dashing heroes, she is planning her next vacation, trying out new recipes, or drinking Islay scotch.
Twitter - @rebecca_caudill
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/rebeccancaudill
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