FAQs

Meet Keena Kincaid

GENERAL QUESTIONS

Do you have a mailing list?
Will an email list do? I can’t remember the last time I snail mailed.

How do I find out about your next book?
Check the ‘newsroom’ or coming soon sections of the Web site. That is where I post information about what I’m working on, as well as publishing details when they become available. I’ll also send out details in the newsletter.

How can I get your autograph?
The best way is to come to a book signing or author event. If you don’t want to wait, or if I’m nowhere near you, click here to request a signed bookmark. If you’d like for me to sign your book, simply mail it to me (please include return postage) and I will be glad to sign it and return it.

Are you available to speak at conferences for romance writers?
Yes. I have a workshop called “The Dirty Little Secret of Character Development.” If you’d like for me to speak to your group, please email me at keena@keenakincaid.com.

ABOUT ME

What books to do you read for fun?
Oh, wow, I just realized how big a geek I am. I’ve been known to pass a rainy afternoon with the “Domesday Book.” I read all genres, so what’s on my nightstand depends largely on my mood. I just finished Manda Scott’s series on Boudicae, a nice mix of history and fiction, and I love Robin Hobb’s “Farseer” series. Jennifer Cruise is always a favorite. Of course, like the rest of the world, I’ve read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Favorite films?
Not surprisingly, one of my all-time favorites is “The Lion in Winter” with Katharine Hepburn, Peter O’Toole, and a very young Anthony Hopkins. A little less predictable for my friends is my affinity for “French Kiss.” It’s fun. It’s romantic, and it’s set (mostly) in Paris. I adore Paris.

Favorite food?
I would eat a slice of New York-style pizza every day for the rest of my life if I could. It’s probably fortunate that I live in the Chicago area where NY pie is non-existent. Otherwise my clothes wouldn’t fit.

Who is your favorite storyteller?
My five-year-old nephew. He tells some of the most outrageous and entertaining tales I’ve ever heard. I never know what’s going to happen next, but I always know that he didn’t do it.

Where do your ideas come from?
From a twisted corner of my mind where my characters live and hound me to tell their stories. The seed of my current book, ANAM CARA, lay buried in a piece of white limestone that had been nicked from Hadrian’s Wall and was now part of a pub’s wall. The answer to the idle rumination—if walls could talk—led to the story of Liza and Bran.

Have you been to Carlisle or any of the places you write about?
Yes, most of them. I find travel energizing, and love soaking up the feel of a place until it affects my writing. I spent two months in Carlisle when I first began working on ANAM CARA. During the same trip, I ended up visiting most of the areas that are mentioned in the book, including the Orkney Isles.

What are you working on now?
I’ve just finished a story with the working title, “The Ties That Bind,” which shows us what happens when Aedan returns to Carlisle five years after the events in ANAM CARA. I hadn’t planned on writing about Tess and Aedan, but they pestered until I gave in.

Do you write in chronological order?
The writing process would be so much simpler if I did. When a new story comes to me, I tend to write whatever scene or bit of dialogue comes to mind first. At some point, I get a sense of the whole story and put scenes in proper order.

Is it easy for you to write a book or do you have to work at it?
It’s both. I know that sounds like a cop-out, but it’s the truth. The ideas are effortless, but the process of writing them down, filling in the details and making sure it all makes sense is the hardest thing I have ever done.

Do you plot out your books in advance?
No. I try, but my characters always take my stories in a different direction than I planned. Typically, I start with an idea or question, such as “what would happen if a man remembered all his past lives but his soul mate did not?” After the first few scenes, the story takes on a life of its own and all my carefully made notes are useless.

What’s more difficult for you: Plot? Or Character?
Plot and character are twins who take turns at being difficult. Usually the plot comes fairly easily in the beginning. After the initial euphoria, though, characters become difficult. There’s a getting-to-know-them process that can be quite frustrating. Then once I know my characters, I realize the plot has to change because my heroine or hero would never do this or say that.

Is it difficult for you to kill a character?
Yes. Especially the nice ones.

ABOUT ANAM CARA

What was your first idea for the book?
I set out to write a murder-mystery with a minstrel as the sleuth. Bran was to stumble across a dead girl on his way to Carlisle. An outsider, he naturally falls under suspicion and has to solve the mystery to save his own life. At some point in the writing, Bran acquired a younger brother with a chip on his shoulder the size of Stonehenge, then began wooing the local innkeeper, which turned out to be a lucky break for all my intended victims.

Did you do a lot of research for the book?
Yes and no. I studied history in college and medieval history in graduate school, so much of it is innate by now. I don’t do a lot of upfront research, but as I move through the story, I double-check the details to ensure they are as accurate as possible.

Who is your favorite character?
I adore Bran and Aedan. Both are the kind of guys who get stuck sideways in your heart. I have to say, though, Liza is my favorite in ANAM CARA. We know little about the daily lives of most women in the Middle Ages, but the glimpses we do get reveal most were not of the damsel-in-distress ilk. Liza is my tribute to the strong, capable women who did the unexpected and were successful despite the times in which they lived.