Interview with Cathy Gohlke

The Grand Finale of my Blogoversary Month features an interview with Christy Award winning author Cathy Gohlke. Cathy is a wonderful writer, and I am so pleased to share her thoughts with you. 

Cathy has also agreed to share the Blogoversary fun by providing a copy of two of her books for a special giveaway. Click on the titles in the first question to read my reviews of these great books.


Interview, Part One:

Karen: Cathy, thank you so much for sharing this interview with my blog gang and I. Congratulations on winning the Christy Award for your books, William Henry is a Fine Name and I Have Seen Him in the Watchfires. You must have been so excited!

Cathy: Thank you for inviting me, Karen, and for your kind words. Writing has been an exciting and blessed journey.  I’m very, very thankful for the opportunity to do the thing I love for the One I love most.

Karen: How long have you been writing? Have you always wanted to write historical fiction?

Cathy: I’ve wanted to write stories since I was five years old and learned, from my grandmother, that books do not appear by magic, but that “real people write books.”  --a huge revelation to a five-year-old!

As a child and teen I experimented with all sorts of writing.  In my twenties I did technical writing; in my thirties and forties I wrote for local newspapers, wrote plays and skits for local performances, essays and poetry as contributions for larger works, and short stories for public readings.  I was in my forties when I began writing William Henry is a Fine Name, and signed my first book contract on my fiftieth birthday.

Although I’ve always loved reading historical fiction, I had imagined that I would write mysteries—especially current day mysteries with historical twists.  Life is full of surprises!

Karen: What inspired you to write William Henry is a Fine Name?

Cathy: I was born on a farm in the North Carolina Piedmont.  My family’s very old farm house was believed, by my grandaunt, to have been a hiding place for runaway slaves before the Civil War.  I don’t know if that was true, but it made a great story, and sparked my lifelong fascination with the Underground Railroad. I knew that my first novel would have something to do with that topic.  I had expected to write a current day mystery having to do with secret passageways, caves or tunnels, and diaries or records of some sort from that era.  

But when I got the voices of two boys in my head, one black and one white, best friends, both confronting the issues of slavery in their own way—my story was off and running.  The “movie” played through my mind and I could not—did not want to—rein it in.

I loved the historical research—and had a difficult time knowing when to stop!  Bits of story and characters emerged from my research.  I allowed those characters to have their way in the time period in which they lived.  Often I felt that I was recording their story rather than creating.  It was that vivid.

Understanding the way in which people thought and responded to life in their own time period is a fascinating study all its own. For a story to ring true we need to understand, as best we can, their world and challenges from their viewpoint. I loved stepping into the 1850s world of my characters.  My love for writing historical fiction was born—naturally and unexpectedly.

Karen: How about I Have Seen Him in the Watchfires?  

 
Cathy: I Have Seen Him in the Watchfires is a sequel to William Henry is a Fine Name.  It came naturally as “the rest of the story.”  The time frame required that my characters confront the Civil War.  That provided an opportunity to explore the reasons people go to war and the variety of ways they respond to war—a topic that we deal with today.

History repeats itself with astonishing regularity, so finding a “historical frame” for a modern question is not difficult.  Historical fiction can provide distance for our difficult questions, and sometimes a greater perspective.

Be sure and visit on Thursday for the conclusion of the interview with Cathy. 

Giveaway Details:

Cathy has generously offered to send a copy of William Henry is a Fine Name and I Have Seen Him in the Watchfires to the winner of this final Blogoversary Month Giveaway. To enter, kindly follow these simple steps.

1) Leave a comment. Include your email address. Entries without email address will not be eligible.

2) Receive an extra entry by becoming a follower, or by reminding me that you already follow.

3) Receive a bonus entry by posting about this giveaway on your Facebook page. Please leave a comment telling me so.

4) Receive a bonus entry by posting this giveaway on your blog. Please leave a comment with the link.

*Entry deadline is Thursday, April 1, 2010 at midnight. Winner will be notified on Friday and will have 48 hours to respond, otherwise a new winner will be chosen. 

Thanks for sharing in the fun! Happy reading and writing:)

 *Open only to residents of the United States. My apologies to my overseas followers.