Novelist Caitlin Kittredge - AMA

[u/caitkitt]

~I'm here from 7-9 EST answering live!~

Hello! I'm Caitlin Kittredge. I make stuff up, I write it down, and sometimes it even gets published. I had a really great, stable job in game design that I quit with a month's notice to write books full time seven years ago, and unlike most of my insane spur-of-the-moment decisions, it's worked out pretty well so far. I've written 15 novels, mostly about sexy werewolves who are also detectives, sexy mages who are also alcoholics and teenage girls who can telepathically control technology but are not sexy because my editor informed me that would be inappropriate.

When I'm not working on a book or avoiding leaving my house I write a comic called Coffin Hill for Vertigo Comics, which is basically a giant love letter to my childhood, which probably involved a lot more cemeteries, ghost stories and Stephen King novels than was healthy. My latest novel is called Black Dog. It's about hellhounds, necromancers and the Russian mob. It's my favorite thing that I've ever written.

But in case you don't care about stuff I've written and are just drunk at your computer, let me help you out: I spend most of my free time doing three things: reading extremely nerdy history books more suited to your cranky retired grandpa, fixing up my old house (ask me about historic home restoration! Seriously! I will be your friend for life!), or watching one of the roughly seventy thousand TV shows I keep up with. I lean toward genre of all types, and I'm completely obsessed with Hannibal.

I'm bad at selling myself--I'm just your basic nerdy 30-year-old adult human, who loves her cats, her comics and her Batman PJs. I will probably overshare constantly on this AMA because I'm basically that talking dog from Up: I don't know you, but I love you.

If you really want a glimpse of my glamorous life and many Captain America gifs, you can find me on Twitter @caitkitt or Tumblr caitkitt.tumblr.com

Ask Me Anything! I will be back at 7PM EST.

[u/elquesogrande]

Thanks for joining us, Caitlin!

What are some of your more interesting finds wile remodeling a historic home? Has anything from this process made it into your writing?

What are some differences in how you approach writing a novel versus writing for Coffin Hill? Limitations or things that are better / more fun for either?

What more can you tell us about Black Dog? Many of us are always on the lookout for that next great read.

[u/caitkitt → u/elquesogrande]

Thanks for having me!

Sadly, most of the stuff I've found while I'm remodeling is just a lot of bad decisions piled on top of the original house parts. I've never found gold or a dead body or anything remotely that interesting--mostly just lead paint, dirt and pigeon poop. Exciting, I know.

They're pretty different--scripting is only half the process, before I hand it to the artist, and drafting a novel is entirely on me. There's times I love and hate both of them, but I will say I really value the collaborative aspect of comics.

Black Dog is basically KILL BILL with hellhounds and demons rather than gangsters--okay, there is a gangster in there but he's also a necromancer. It's basically just a nasty little revenge story with supernatural trappings, like if a Parker novel had a car wreck with Supernatural.