Won't You Be My Neighbor? - Cherie Reich

Hi everyone welcome to Won't You Be My Neighbor. Today I have author Cherie Reich with us. 

Angie: Okay Cherie, you have to dress up for this interview. You HAVE to wear either a Mr. Rogers sweater or Mr. Rogers sneakers--you can pick. I'm picking sneakers because I just got back from Zumba and I'm too tired to change :)

Cherie: Oh, I have to pick Mr. Rogers' sweater. It's iconic. Plus, I like sweaters when it's cool out.

  

Angie: Perfect. It's always good to be cozy during an interview :)

Lets start off with a probing question that will really let us see into your psyche and reveal your soul...If you had to cut out one of the 4 major food groups and never eat anything from it again, which would you pick? (Luckily chocolate isn't a food group :)

Cherie: That's an easy question. Meat. I'm a vegetarian, so I'll happily give it up again.

Angie: Oh my gosh! That was too easy. Hmmm... *rubs chin*... I need a harder question. What fiction character is the most like you in personality?

Cherie: I would say Hermione Granger. I've been a bit of a know-it-all in the past (and present). I'm loyal to my friends, and I would like to think I'm brave too.

Angie: Oh, Hermione’s great. The bravery and loyalty definitely balance out the know it all-ism :)

I want everyone to know a little more about you. So I know you are a freelance editor...What kind of stuff do you edit and what is the most common mistake you see people make?

Cherie: I've edited many different things: horror, romance (and its subgenres), memoirs, nonfiction, science fiction, fantasy, mystery/thriller. I prefer to edit fiction over nonfiction, though, and even though I've edited poetry, I'm not very good at it. The most common mistake people make content-wise is info dumps/backstory; grammar-wise, it is a tie between repetition of words/phrases and homophones (such as it's vs its, your vs you're).

Angie: What do you like most about editing?

Cherie: The absolute power. Muahaha! Okay, no, really I like being able to help a writer take their manuscript and make it stronger and more magical.

Angie: I didn't know you were maniacal :) I think every published author just loves how editors make their books shine. 

Now lets talk about your new book Defying Gravity. I just finished it and it was so fun and well written. Can you give our audience a one or two sentence hook line so they know what it is about?

Cherie: Hehe! Well, I'm creating new worlds, so how can a writer not be a bit maniacal? *grins* And yes, that's what we editors try to do: make a book shine.

As for Defying Gravity, here is the hook: When the SS Perseid crashes on a post-apocalyptic Earth, Linia, a Persean linguist, is captured by cannibals. Her only chance to escape is to befriend Alezandros, a Medusan space cruiser pilot and her people’s mortal enemy, but when romantic feelings emerge between them, it will be easier to defy gravity than for a Medusan and Persean to fall in love.

Angie: Great hook! I loved the Romeo and Juliet-est conflict of Linia and Alezandros relationship. What was your inspiration for it?

Cherie: I originally wrote Defying Gravity for an anthology featuring romantic suspense that could contain other genres within it. I'd been wanting to write a science fiction romance for a while, so I thought "why not?" Although the story was short-listed, the anthology was cancelled in the end. I love the romances with that Romeo and Juliet-type conflict, so it's no surprise I wanted to go with two mortal enemies falling in love. Of course, in the end, I've come to realize it was more Pyramus and Thisbe-like (wall-divided lovers from Roman myth) than Romeo and Juliet, but I'll take it.

Angie: Yes, just in case people freak out your story has a much better ending than Romeo and Juliet.

Cherie: Ah, that's true. After all, Romeo and Juliet is a tragic love story. Mine is a romance with a happily ever after. :)

Angie: I like happy as opposed to tragic! I worry about people who don't.

So for those who don't know Defying Gravity is a novella (only 39 pages). What was different about crafting a short story as opposed to a novel?

Cherie: Short stories, like novels, have similar elements: plot, characters, world-building, theme, etc., but unlike most novels, short stories focus on a small amount of time and less characters. Novellas are a happy medium between typical short stories and novels. You get more elements of a novel, but it's still short enough to read in one sitting. For shorter works, I focus on words that give the most impact to the story and try to keep the pace up without giving too much backstory and description. The reader is more in the moment. Of course, I do similar things with my novels too, although they're longer.

Angie: That is super cool. I do love the ramped up pace and tension of novellas. You have all sorts of cool aliens and races in your story, how did you come up with them all?

Cherie: I majored in Classics, so Greek mythology plays a lot in my creation of the worlds in the Gravity series.

The idea of Linia came from a Star Trek race called the B'Saari. They had these cool powers on bringing people back from the dead and being highly intelligent. Of course, I changed her to a Persean with blue skin and antennae. Then Persea...Perseus...who was Perseus against? Medusa! So we have the Medusans, so I wanted them to have some Gorgon-like powers. It snowballed from there.

Angie: I love that! If you know a little Greek mythology you can pick up on the underlying tensions. And Linia's antennae were very fun. I loved how they changed colors.

Cherie: Exactly! And I love Linia's antennae too. They were fun to figure out what types of colors they might change.

Angie: Awesome stuff. Now for a few more fun questions. If you could take writing lessons from any author, who would it be and why?

Cherie: Good question. There are so many awesome authors out there. I'd have to go with JK Rowling. She spends a lot of time visualizing and plotting her books, which I love because that is what I do too. I'd love to know more about how to do that for series and how to add those key details almost everyone overlooks until the "ah-ha" moment.

Angie: Great pick! She is the master of the "ah-ha" moment!

Okay, now for the last question...It has to be a pageant question, because that is just how I do things around here :) Hmm...let me see...If you could pick only one problem for the United State Senate and Congress to solve what would it be? (Let’s just pretend for a moment that they could miraculously come together long enough to solve it :)

Cherie: *snickers* It'd be amazing that they could get together and fix any problem, but if they could tackle one issue and truly fix it, then I would have to say education. Educate children properly, then we can solve all the other problems.

Angie: I so agree! I wish we could find a way to pay teachers what they are worth, and educate kids who need it most (but I guess all kids need it).

Cherie: All kids need it, at least to some extent, but no child should come out of high school and not know how to read, write, and do basic math, and yet they still do. And teachers definitely need pay raises.

Angie: Amen sister! Thanks for stopping by. You can keep on your sweater if it's cold in Virginia. And everybody can go check out Cherie's books on Amazon.

Cherie: Well, it's been fairly warm this month actually. Weird winter weather, but I'm not complaining. :) Thank you so much for interviewing me! It was a lot of fun!

Angie: You are so welcome! You can check out Cherie’s books on Amazon.

Now I’m going to take my Zumba self to the shower. I’m glad you all can’t smell me over the internet J

-Angie

Want to know more...

Defying Gravity by Cherie Reich

Book Description: Homesick upon the SS Perseid, Linia, a young linguist, thinks she signed up for a mission of peace, but her crew members have another plan: attack the planet Medusa.

Bored with his dying planet, Alezandros, a space cruiser pilot, joins the Medusan Army in his quest for adventure.

When the SS Perseid clashes with the Medusans’ space cruisers, Alezandros and Linia’s lives intertwine. Sucked through a wormhole, they crash upon a post-apocalyptic Earth and are captured by cannibals. In adjacent cells, Alezandros and Linia cast their differences aside for a common bond: escape. But when romantic feelings emerge between them, they might do the unthinkable because for a Medusan and a Persean to fall in love, it would defy gravity.