[INTERVIEW] Eve Kenin

Meet Eve Kenin, author of futuristic novels Driven and Hidden (Dorchester: 14th August 2007 and 1st July 2008 respectively). Let’s learn…

Driven
Raina Bowen knows she can handle herself just fine against anything the harsh Northern Waste throws at her. Until it throws her an enigmatic stranger called Wizard. First, she has to haul him out of a brawl he can’t hope to win. And next, her libido is shooting into overdrive at the feel of his hard body pressed against hers on the back of her snowscooter. But there’s something not quite right about this guy. Before she can strip bare Wizard’s secrets, they’re lured into a race for their lives, battling rival truckers, ice pirates…and a merciless maniac with a very personal vendetta.

Hidden
Tatiana has honed her genetic gifts to perfection. She can withstand the subzero temperatures of the Northern Waste, read somebody’s mind with the briefest touch, and slice through bone with her bare hands. Which makes her one badass chick, all right. Nothing gets to her. Until she meets Tristan. Villain or ally, she can’t be sure. But one thing she does know: he has gifts too – including the ability to ramp up her heart rate to dangerous levels. But before they can start some chemistry of their own, they have to survive being trapped in an underground lab, hunted by a madman, and exposed to a plague that could destroy mankind.

Tez Miller: Your world-building is fab, and I’ve love to read how life in the Equatorial Band, Africa and the Southern Hemisphere compares to that in the Northern Waste. Any chance you’ll write about these other places? (Not that I have anything about the Northern Waste, but I read Hidden during the coldish autumn down here.)
Eve Kenin: Thanks Tez 🙂 I’d love to write more stories with related characters and have the chance to visit the Equatorial Band, Africa and the Southern Hemisphere, each of which is as lawless and wild as the Northern Waste, fraught with danger and uncertainty. I’m actually working on my next historical Gothic right now, but I always have a ton of ideas percolating.

Yay, I have hope 🙂 There’s a Maori Talisman from the Southern Hemisphere in the Northern Waste. What’s the story behind that?
The story behind that has to do with the breakdown of the polar ice caps and subsequent formation of temporary ice bridges, all set off by global warming and the weapons of the First and Second Noble Wars. The apocalyptic changes led to tectonic shifts, horrific weather disruption and rapid migration of people desperate to survive. Those people took parts of their culture with them, and left behind tangible markers of their fight for survival. Think of it as if the world “turned upside down”.

Spooky. Is there really an arboretum in New…er…contemporary Edmonton?
There are botanical gardens, conservatories and arboretums in current day Alberta, including contemporary Edmonton. For more info you can check out http://www.rbg.ca/cbcn/en/information/gardens/g_alb.html

Are Gladow Station and Liskeard real places (sorry, my world geography knowledge doesn’t extend that far)?
To the best of my knowledge, there is no Gladow Station except in the strange terrain of my imagination. Liskeard is found in Cornwall, UK, and there is a New Liskeard in Ontario. But neither of those is in the correct geographic location to fit the
Liskeard described in my Northern Waste stories.

Tatiana has synth-skin that covers her tattoo. Do you have any tattoos you wish you could hide?
I have no tattoos.

You hold two post-secondary degrees, and are an instructor of human anatomy and microbiology, so bringing science into your stories must be easy. (And one of the best things about Hidden, might I say.) Does that mean you can claim the cost of your education as a work expense? 😉
LOL! I doubt it, but I suppose I ought to contact the tax bureau and find out.

Actually, bringing science into my stories is a challenge. I want to run on and on about the scientific details, but I suspect that some readers might nod off if I did. I have to rein myself in and include only what needs to be there to lend
authenticity to the story.

But I want to hear more scientific details! Then again, I’m a minority 😉 What kind of research did writing the Northern Waste novels entail?
Tons! I had to research geography, temperature, climate, ice floes, animal populations. Then I was driven (pun intended) to make certain that my science made sense, so I had to investigate hydrogen as a power source, different types of lasers and their functions. To authentically represent the barren emotional state of both Wizard and Tatiana, I researched feral children (those raised in the wild by animals in complete isolation from human contact). I researched current strides in gene therapy research, anti-aging as related to telomeres of DNA…and…well, you get the picture.

It’s fascinating stuff. Hidden will be released in July, during your summer (my winter). Does writing/reading about icy terrains help cool you down?
Actually, release dates for books aren’t necessarily an indication of when they were written or turned in. As it happens, I wrote most of both Driven and Hidden in the cold winter months.

As I’ve never experienced snow first-hand, what are the must-have clothing and accessories to wear whilst outside?
Snow on a nice, sunny, warm day is amazing. I’ve been known to step outside in jeans and a T-shirt on days like that. But that’s a rarity. Mostly, I’m bundled up in layers of sweaters, thermal socks, waterproof boots rated for minus forty degrees Fahrenheit (although in the Northern Waste they’d probably want something rated minus 100), a warm, waterproof coat, mitts with thinsulate, a balaclava…Sigh…honestly, I hate winter, LOL!

That better be a rarity – wouldn’t want you sacrificing yourself to frostbite on a regular basis 😉 Tatiana has a nifty snow scooter. What do you ride/drive?
A little yellow car. Very yellow. Very bright.

I loved the mentions of centimetres and metres in Hidden – yay for Canadians, you speak my language 🙂 Has it ever been suggested that you Americanise (or, in this case, Americanize) your writing, or are your neighbours to the south cool with the differences between your English and theirs? And I imagine yuales are a unit of measurement, but I’d never heard of them before.
I try to keep my stories true to time period and location. I research these points and incorporate them into the story. The Northern Waste stories are set in the futuristic remnants of Siberia and Canada, so the metric system was appropriate. My historical Gothics are set in the United Kingdom in the early 1800s, so I use Imperial units. And my contemporary paranormals refer to U.S. customary units. For me, it’s all about creating the most authentic read possible.

Ah, metric, my old friend… You also write under the name Eve Silver. What are the pros and cons of your separate writing identities?
Because I write for three publishers, scheduling book release dates without overlap could have turned into a nightmare. Writing under two different names helps preempt any problems. There really are no cons that I have encountered, other than the fact that once or twice I’ve signed a book with the wrong pseudonym, LOL! There was also a small blip when I tried to decide how to create my web presence. Two sites? One site? In the end, I decided to have my http://www.evesilver.net site have a page dedicated to http://www.evekenin.com This solution offered clear definition between the two names while allowing readers interested in all my work convenient access to information about both names.

Ah, not-so-subliminal promo for your site/s there; well done 😉 You recently won two awards at the recent Romantic Times convention (yay!). Is it a required rule to be modest, or did you get the urge to shout out, “Ha, I got two! Suck on that, y’all – I can has multiple wins!”?
I am honoured and thrilled by the kind recognition and accolades. I don’t know if it is a required rule to be modest, but I honestly feel humbled. All the finalist books were amazing reads, and I view each of them as a winner. I’m definitely not the “Suck on that, y’all” type, LOL! I’m more the “thank you…I’m overjoyed at this honour” type.

Bugger, now people know what my personality’s really like… How did your enormous rabbit become enormous – nature or nurture?
Nature.

More rabbit to cuddle 😉 Do you write in silence, or do you need some kind of sound, whether it’s music, TV or otherwise?
When I started writing, I quickly learned to work wherever and whenever I could steal a few moments. At the kids’ martial arts lessons. At younger son’s football practice. At the kitchen table while the kids had a dozen friends over, all screaming at the tops of their lungs. If I wanted to write, I couldn’t afford to be picky or to wait for the perfect situation, the perfect moment. I’ve even written in the darkest hours of the night, sitting by a family member’s bedside in the hospital. So while I might prefer a quiet, calm atmosphere, I will write with whatever accompanying noise happens to be about.

Damn, that’s enviable. Are you an outliner or seat-of-the-pants writer?
Seat of the pants all the way. I’ve only ever written one short piece to outline. Everything else is just butt-in-chair-hands-on-keyboard-type-whatever-pops-into-my-head.

Ah, so your publishers don’t require synopses ahead of time – score! What published works of yours (particularly Eve Kenin’s) can we look forward to in the future (near and/or far)?
My next Eve Kenin book, Hidden, hits shelves in July 2008. Then I have three Eve Silver releases in 2008: His Wicked Sins, a historical Gothic, in August; Kiss of the Vampire in the anthology Nature of the Beast in September; and Demon’s Hunger, a contemporary paranormal, in December.

In which foreign countries/languages would you most like to be published?
I don’t have a particular preference. Foreign editions of my work are always a welcome and wonderful treat. So far, my work has been/is being translated into five languages, and I find that incredibly cool.

Multilingual publication, yay 🙂 Thanks for dropping by, and have a lovely day! 🙂
Thanks for the interview, Tez 🙂

Relevant Links
http://www.evekenin.com/
http://www.evesilver.net/
http://www.myspace.com/eve_silver
http://evesilverblog.blogspot.com/

You can purchase Driven online from: Amazon, Amazon CA & Amazon UK.

You can purchase Hidden online from: Amazon, Amazon CA & Amazon UK.