Caro Soles
NK - When did you start writing, and why writing instead of, say, singing?
CS - Actually, I did start with singing first, but writing soon took over. I wrote as a child, lurid tales of daring do, long story ballads which all ended badly, and even an opera. Very short. It was called Sigismundo in the Tower. No idea what he was doing up there, but he did sing. Briefly. I even managed to win my school’s Essay Competition with a short story. Never been done before, or probably since!
NK - You've written in many genres: SF, mystery, fantasy, horror and more. A lot of writers, the majority, stick to one or two genres. Why not you?
CS - I don’t read just one genre so I don’t see why I should stick to writing just one, either. Writing is about exploring the inner and outer landscape for me and sometimes I like to make up that landscape. My last two books have been mysteries, one in New York City in 1916, one in Toronto in 1985. The one I am working on now is sf and the book coming out next year is literary fiction. It’s all about the story and how it is best told.
NK - You have what today might be deemed a 'space opera', a series of hermaphroditic dancing aliens from the planet Merculian. Where did this wild idea come from?
CS - The first novel I ever wrote was a Star Trek novel, or at least I thought it was. I have the rejection letter framed on my office wall. My main character (and my big mistake) was my own invention, an emotional hermaphrodite from Merculian who had joined the Enterprise after his graduation from Star Fleet Academy. He was everything the military ship was not and this intrigued me. I kept thinking about the idea and eventually, the Merculian sagas were born. There is a strong gay element in the books and originally they were marketed as gay SF. Three will be republished this year and the new one will appear when it is ready. All have dance in the title, since dance features prominently in the stories.
NK - What are you working on atm and when can we expect to read it?
CS - At the moment I am working on the fourth novel set in the world of the Merculians, but this time it is a murder mystery. Who killed the young dancer from a powerful family who was favored to win a prestigious dance competition? It is interesting to think about how a pleasure-loving peaceful society copes with sudden violent death and how their police force operates. This may take a while, though I hope to have it ready to go late this year. And then there is the fifth…lurking in my notebooks so far.
Caro`s latest Mysteries
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Caro's latest Sci Fi
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