Caitlin Kittredge (edit name/settings)

Caitlin Kittredge is an American novelist of dark fantasy and urban fantasy noir living in Olympia, Washington. She is best known for her Nocturne City series of novels.

Caitlin started writing novels at age 13. Her first was a Star Wars tie-in. Fortunately, she branched out from there and after a few years trying to be a screenwriter, a comic book writer and the author of copious amounts of fanfiction, she tried to write a novel again. Her epic dark fantasy (thankfully) never saw the light of day but while she was struggling with elves and sorcerers she got the idea of writing a story about a werewolf who fought crime.

Two years and many, many drafts later, she pitched Night Life to a bevy of agents and one of them, Rachel Vater, sold the series to St. Martin’s.

Caitlin collects comic books, print books, vintage clothes, and bad habits. She loves tea, loud music, the color black (especially mixed with the color pink) and ghost stories. She can drive a stick shift, play the violin and knows more English curses than American ones.

Caitlin lives in Olympia, WA with two pushy cats.

Q&A:
These are all questions that Caitlin has been asked in the past. If you don’t see your answer here, please contact her via email.

Books & Writing
How many books are in the Nocturne City cycle?
At the moment, five, although that number could change depending on the publisher’s desire.
Night Life, March 2008
Pure Blood, August 2008
Second Skin, March 2009
Witch Craft, September 2009
Spell Bound, March 2010

Have you written anything else?
Yes. I sold a second series to St. Martin’s, the Black London adventures, and a co-authored superhero novel to Bantam-Spectra. I also have several short pieces in upcoming anthologies of urban fantasy.
Street Magic (Black London vol. 1), June 2009
Conjure Man (Black London vol. 2), December 2009
Black & White (Icarus Project, Book 1), July 2009
All current anthologies are put out by St. Martin’s Press and feature many other fine authors such as Jim Butcher, Marjorie Liu and Lilith Saintcrow.
My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon, “Newlydeads”
Strange Brew (Coming in 2009), “Ginger”
Demon Huntress anthology (2009), “Down In the Ground Where the Dead Men Go”

What genres are your books?
All of my current projects are under the loose umbrella of “speculative fiction”, ie fiction with fantastic elements. The Nocturne City series is a gritty fantasy noir, while the Black London volumes are “fairy tales gone wrong”. Black & White is a dystopian saga along the lines of Watchmen.

Are your books appropriate for young adult readers?
My current novels are shelved in adult fiction, and do contain sex, violence and language commensurate with an R-rated movie.

Will you ever write something for teens/another genre/in another format?
Currently, I have both a young adult urban fantasy series and a script in development. Nothing is outside the realm of possibility, although my current novel commitments are to the fantasy genre and frankly, it’s what I enjoy writing.

Will you write a story for my anthology/magazine/web site?
All such inquiries should be directed to my agent, Rachel Vater. To avoid wasting her time and yours, please make sure that your publication is able to offer pro rates for fiction. The exception to this is charity anthologies, which Rachel and I evaluate on a case by case basis.

Are subsidiary rights such as film rights available for your projects?
Please contact Rachel Vater with rights inquiries.

Agent/Editor

Will you recommend me to your agent?
No. Please don’t lie and say I did, either. It’s bad form and very sleazy.

Can I query Rachel?
Knock yourself out. Her submission guidelines are listed on Folio Literary Management’s web site.

Will you help me write a query letter?
Sorry, much as I’d love to, for legal reasons and in the interest of having enough time to write books, I can’t. There are many wonderful resources online for query help, so I suggest Googling.

How much did you pay your editor to publish your books?
St. Martin’s Press pays me an advance against royalties to publish my work. If you’re paying to publish books, that’s vanity publishing and it’s not the same thing at all. Sorry.

Can I query your editor at St. Martin’s or Bantam-Spectra?
No. Both houses accept only agented manuscript submissions. Don’t waste my editor’s time.

Appearances & Interviews

Will you come to my event?
It depends. I’m generally open to appearing at all sorts of events, but there are time and travel considerations. Some ways you can increase the odds in your favor:
Give me a comped membership, airfare, hotel or all of the above
Ask me 3-6 months ahead of time
Let me know the specifics of the event so there are no surprises
Tell me up front the amount of work involved on my end (number of panels, number of signing hours, amount of press, etc.)
Now, I love interacting with readers, so a zero-compensation situation is not necessarily a deal-breaker. Ask. The worst thing I can say is no. You can take a look at the Appearances bar on the main page of the site to get an idea of what sort of events I usually attend.

I want to interview you. What should I do?
Email me. I’ll get the particulars of your publication, your list of questions, the additional items such as photos that you need from me, and I’ll see if I have time to turn your interview around before your deadline. Don’t worry if you’re a smaller publication, such as a zine. Unlike my fiction, I’m happy to have my interviews posted and published almost anywhere.

I want a review copy of your book(s). Where do I get it?
Please contact my St. Martin’s publicist, who handles all review requests. I don’t have stacks and stacks of free copies that I can hand out, and St. Martin’s also possesses a vetting process that I frankly don’t have time for to ferret out ARC scammers and other fly-by-night operations

ARC scammers?
ARCs, or Advanced Review Copies–essentially preview versions of the finished book–go out to reviewers 3-6 months in advance. There are several shady publications in the fantasy community who harvest ARCs to sell on eBay under the pretext of reviewing them and since I’m not writing books to contribute to someone else’s income stream, all requests go through my publicist.

Advice

How did you get your agent?
An old-fashioned query letter.

I’m an aspiring author and I want to pitch to agents at a conference. Which one should I pick?
Depending on your location, I like the Surrey International Writer’s Conference in Surrey, British Columbia or the Backspace conference in New York City.

Where do I find reputable agents to query?
Start with AgentQuery, which is free and updated more frequently than the Writer’s Market books, and go from there. Query agents who represent writers with similar work–their names can usually be found on the author’s site or in their book dedications.

Odds & Ends

Why are you so mean on your blog?
I think of it less as being mean and more as being willing to call things the way I see them. If you don’t like it, you might be better off reading another, “nicer” author’s journal.

How old are you?
I was born in September 1984.

You’re really young to be published! How can you have “paid your dues”?
(Yes, people really ask this.) I put in the work. I wrote the book. Someone thought it was good enough to buy. No “dues” required. That’s the short answer. The slightly longer answer is that age has very little to do with publishing, and I prefer to be judged on the quality of my writing if I’m judged at all. Thanks.

Do you have cats?
I have two spoiled boys who help me write by sleeping on my laptop.

Who are your favorite writers?
In no particular order, here’s the shortlist of my favorites and must-reads:
Neil Gaiman
H.P. Lovecraft
Stephen King
Robin McKinley
Raymond Chandler
Alan Moore
For excellent reads in my genre I recommend the following:
Richelle Mead
Kat Richardson
Cherie Priest
Jim Butcher
Mike Carey
Mark Henry
Stacia Kane
Warren Ellis
Rick Riordan