An interview with Sara Reinke
Sara Reinke is a member of the new virtual authors group, Dark Muse Society. You can visit her and fellow authors in the virtual world, here.
What attracted you to writing books with paranormal elements?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been drawn toward genres with other-worldly elements, be it fantasy, sci-fi, paranormal, etc. For example, when I was very young, maybe second grade, I wrote a series of stories in spiral-bound notebooks about a trio of unicorns who were sent on different adventures at the behest of the Greek goddess Athena. In grade school, I was fascinated with books about ghosts, the Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot, UFOs, urban legends, etc. If The X-files had been on TV back then, my teachers probably would have called me “Fox Mulder,” LOL. When I was in high school, I really got into comic books and graphic novels, and that interest followed me off and on both through college and afterwards. I loved urban-gothic books like J. O’Barr’s The Crow, and I think that atmosphere – that sort of dark, underlying edge – remains evident in my writing even today. Dark Thirst, the first in my Brethren series with Zebra Books is very much the end result of this continuous evolution in interest. I love paranormal fiction because you aren’t constrained necessarily by the laws of physics. The world you create is limited only by your imagination. Anything is possible, and writing with that kind of freedom takes me back to elementary school, to the wonder and fascination I found with the endless possibilities of the unknown.
What is your favorite paranormal creature?
I write a lot about people or beings with extrasensory perception, and I think that probably stems from some deep-seeded longing on my part to have this ability. I love the idea of telepathy, of being able to communicate with others with your mind, or clairvoyance or prognostication. Mediums also fascinate me; this combines my curiosity in psychic abilities with the hope I think most people share of some kind of life after death. I think out of all of the paranormal phenomenon out there, psychic abilities as a whole seems the most feasible to me. Human beings only use something like 10 percent of their brain capacity, and it seems reasonable to believe there is so much more we might be capable of if we were to tap into that other 90 some-odd percent.
Do you base your paranormal worlds/beings off myths and legends or make them up?
A little bit of both. For example, my Brethren series tackles vampires, which is definitely nothing new to anyone. But I think that I was able to imagine and present a new take on the familiar vampire legends. For example, my vampires aren’t immortal. They can walk in daylight. Humans can’t “become” like them if bitten.
I think most paranormal authors strive for this same goal – we want to take familiar myths and give them our own personal and unique interpretations. The classic creatures like vampires and shape-shifters have frightened and fascinated mankind for centuries, and will probably continue to do so for centuries to come. That’s part of what makes paranormal romance so successful, I think. Authors are playing off of age-old fears, touching upon dark fascinations that are universal.
What do you think is the most important element when writing a paranormal book?
Suspension of disbelief. Taking something that everyone knows, like vampires or werewolves, and giving it your own “twist” is every bit as challenging as creating an entirely new creature. You’re having to make what you do believable enough to get past your reader’s preconceived notions; you have to work twice as hard in many respects to get them to believe in your legends versus what they’ve grown up reading or watching in the movies.
Do you believe in the paranormal or do you consider yourself more a skeptic?
I definitely believe in the possibility of the paranormal. The world would be pretty damn boring otherwise. But without ever having seen definitive evidence or proof of its existence, I can’t say that I believe in it whole-heartedly, but then again, I can say the same thing about God, and I believe in Him just fine.
Do you believe that people can possess psychic abilities?
I would like to, going back to my whole curious fascination with that entire concept. Maybe it’s because I spent my formulative years reading comic books, LOL, and wanting to be like Jean Grey in The X-Men. But as I mentioned earlier, I find it entirely within the realm of possibility that the human mind is capable of far more than we’re currently aware of.
Have you ever experienced anything paranormal?
I’d like to think that I have. I sometimes feel what I call karma from certain places, a sort of tangible atmosphere in a house or room, and sometimes I feel very comfortable in a place, like I’m meant to be there. I felt like that about an apartment I once lived in, the upstairs of a beautiful old Victorian house. From the moment I stepped inside, I felt like I was home. I’ve always had that same feeling at my current house, too; the way a broken-in pair of jeans feels when you slip them on. Like I’m where I belong.
I’ve never seen a ghost, but after my cat died, I kept thinking I heard her meowing in our house until one day when I called out to her and told her it was okay, she could stay here as long as she liked.
I’ve never had a moment’s clairvoyance. In fact, I used to trust my intuition, so to speak, and for more than fifteen years, believed I was unable to have children based in part on a sort of premonition I had while still in high school. And look at me now – mother of two, LOL. I remind myself of this every time I get to thinking I’m having a premonition about something.
But I keep an open mind, and open eyes. You just never know.
Do you find you write paranormals better with a certain setting?
No, but I’m a mother with a toddler and a young baby, so writing for me is always catch-as-catch-can. I don’t have the luxury of atmospheric settings, LOL. But I do find that music inspires me a lot. I can’t stand the distraction of music playing when I write, but since I listen to the radio as I commute throughout the day, I sometimes find inspiration in songs I hear. Lately, I’ve been inspired by different songs – “Lovesong” by The Cure really appeals to my muse all of a sudden (the slower extended version is really good for brainstorming love scenes, *wink*). I’m sort of going retro in my musical tastes, finding sound inspiration through music from my high school days, the pseudo-punk sounds of the late 1980s like The Cure, Depeche Mode, etc. Probably because I have a WIP in my mind that keeps wanting to set itself back in that time period, despite my best attempts to imagine it in a more contemporary setting, LOL.
About Sara
Sara Reinke is the author of several books, including her debut fantasy, Book of Days, from Double Dragon Publishing, which was named one of the Top 10 Science Fiction/Fantasy Novels of 2005 in the annual Preditors & Editors Readers poll and a Finalist in the 2005 Dream Realm Awards competition. Other available or upcoming titles include Book of Thieves, the sequel to the award-winning Book of Days; Tethers, a science-fiction thriller; the historical romance, An Unexpected Engagement and the paranormal romance, Dark Thirst.
She is a member of the Louisville Romance Writers chapter of Romance Writers of America.
