Caroline Vaughn Carrie Vaughn is not just a Wild Cards author, she's also a fan. She started reading the series in 1989 and has all the books, the British editions of the books, the comics, and the gaming books, which are now falling apart because she's been using them for reference. She is more than a little pleased to be writing what might actually be officially sanctioned professional fanfiction.

Carrie is also the author of an ongoing series of novels about a werewolf named Kitty who hosts a talk radio advice show. The fourth, Kitty and the Silver Bullet, is due out from Grand Central Publishing in January 2008, and she's at work on the fifth and sixth books in the series. Her short stories have appeared in a wide variety of publications, and she's a 1998 graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop. A bona fide Air Force brat, Carrie grew up all over the country, but has lived in Boulder, Colorado for almost ten years, which makes it the closest thing to a hometown she has.

Visit her at www.carrievaughn.com.

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AN INTERVIEW WITH Carrie Vaughn
by Ty Franck

TF: It's been mentioned a few times before, but can you give us a quick timeline of your evolution for Wild Cards fangirl into Wild Cards writer?

CV: Late 1988/early 1989: I find a copy of Wild Cards #5, Down and Dirty. Devour it, and rush out to find the first four. I'm a sophomore in high school. Fanfiction might have been committed around this time.
1993: I write fan mail to George. He writes back.
1993: I lead a Wild Cards fan panel discussion at Star Con in Denver.
1997: My brother and I build costumes, Peregrine and Captain Trips, to wear to Mile Hi Con, but get snowed out of the con.
1998: I meet Daniel Abraham. By this time, I'm writing and trying to sellin earnest.
1999: I sell my first story.
2002: DEUCES DOWN comes out, I see Daniel in the table of contents, I corner him and demand to know how I can get in on the action.
2003: I meet George and Melinda (and lots of Wild Cards writers) at Bubonicon. "So, what's up with Wild Cards?" is the second thing I say after "Very nice to meet you." I manage to bring Wild Cards up in conversation every time I see them thereafter.
2004: I sell my first novel.
2005: George and Melinda invite me to submit characters for the next incarnation of Wild Cards. The rest, as they say, his history.

 

TF: What's the inspiration for Curveball, one of the more popular of the new characters?

CV: First came the ace power. We were looking to create more powerful women aces, and I wanted one who blew stuff up, 'cause that's cool. Wild Cards has a long tradition of tying a character's power to his or her personality, and in thinking about strong women I thought of creating a kick-ass woman athlete--a softball player with a literally explosive pitch. I think it works because these days, women athletes (think Mia Hamm, Venus and Serena Williams, etc.) are such familiar figures, and so admirable, that she strikes a chord. And blowing stuff up is cool.

 

TF: And, how did Curveball wind up being the love interest for just about everyone?

CV: Daniel theorizes it's the picture that was created for the initial proposal for INSIDE STRAIGHT: she ended up looking pretty hot. I think it's the nature of storytelling to want to hook everyone up by the end of the story. I should point out, though, that while lots of guys chase Curveball in INSIDE STRAIGHT, she's a little more picky. She only chases the one guy.

 

TF: You are a vocal proponent of strong female characters, and they show up in all of your work. How do you write the cute blond tomboy character that everyone wants to date, without have her defined by her cuteness?

CV: To put it simply, she has a brain. It's not so hard to do--she has her own history that defines her, her own goals and dreams that guide her. Everyone else may see her as the cute love interest, but her own personality dictates how she reacts to that. Her first love is softball, and she thinks in those terms. She has opinions about the guys chasing her, about what's going on around her, about the world at large. She has friends. She talks about other things than who is chasing her. I think too often (Hollywood, especially) the impulse is to treat women characters as nothing but the love interest, the prize that the male hero gets at the end of the story. That's not interesting to me. She's her own person with goals outside of simply being a prize for the men. Take away the romance, and she's still a well-rounded character with a reason for being there.

 

TF: As a long time fan of the series, what kind of mark would you most want to leave on the series? What new thing do you most want to bring to it? Which character in the shared world did you have the hardest time writing, and which was your favorite to write for?

CV: It would be marvelous to create a character that lives on, that becomes a fan favorite, that becomes a favorite for the other authors to use. And, as has been said, adding more women protagonists. Making sure women characters don't just appear in the Wild Cards universe, but change its course. Starting out, I had a hard time writing other people's new characters--Drummer Boy, John Fortune, etc. These guys didn't grow out of my own head, I didn't have previous books to look at for reference, and I was worried about doing something "wrong," so I had to get over that. By Busted Flush, I did, and I got to write a scene with one of my favorite characters from earlier in the series (to say who would be a spoiler). I had a lot of fun with that one. My favorite scenes have been with my two main characters together: Curveball and Earth Witch are good friends, and I love showing that.

 

TF: I'm asking everyone the same goofy fanboy question: Favorite Wild Cards character ever?

CV: Just one? Sheesh... the Turtle, of course. Also Croyd Crenson, of course. But I have to say, in terms of story, Golden Boy is the most interesting Wild Cards character.

 

TF:Can you give us a quick update on your work outside of Wild Cards?

CV: I have two Kitty novels coming out in early 2009: KITTY AND THE DEAD MAN'S HAND, and KITTY RAISES HELL. I'm also working on the seventh Kitty novel, and a couple of side projects as well. I always have short stories coming out in various places. My website is www.carrievaughn.com for more info.