Guest – Kalayna Price BIC—good for the book, bad for the waist

From Debra: Top Downers! Help me give a rousing welcome to a fabulous new urban fantasy author, Kalayna Price (K-lay-nah). The second in her Haven series, TWICE DEAD is out this month and her new series from Ace/Roc will be out this October.

Kalayna Price's debut novel, ONCE BITTEN, earned rave reviews and reached #1 on Amazon.com's "Fantasy Bestseller List." TWICE DEAD returns readers to a dark, seductive world where magic rules and ancient loyalties collide with modern challenges.

You are not going to believe what this writer does to stay in shape! There are moving pictures. Just you wait.

As any author will likely tell you, novels are written one word at a time. To go from just one word to one hundred thousand words, a serious application of BIC (Butt In Chair) is needed. While BIC gets a novel written, it does lead writers (or at least me) to be rather sedentary. Compound this with a tendency to eat (not so healthy) meals while perched in front of my computer (what, no, —of course— that isn't ketchup on my keyboard) and not only is the novel expanding, but so is the waistline.

Now, I can't speak for anyone else, but the prospect of leaving the computer to go exercise isn't appealing. There is always a looming deadline I need to stay ahead of, emails to answer, blogs to write, or something—anything—that will keep me in front of the keyboard. Okay, I admit it. I just don't like exercising. I own the obligatory exercise machine (don't we all have one we were—sure—we would use, but now resides in some dark corner of the house? Mine's a glider.) but it has such a thick layer of dust on it, I'm sure going near it would cause an asthma attack. I even bought a gym membership once—my checkbook was the only one to get a workout.

But, whether I like exercise or not, it is important. I know that. Not only does exercise keep the waistline in check, movement gets blood flowing to important places, like the brain—which is a good thing when writing a book.

So what is an exercise-hating writer to do? Well, last year I lucked out and discovered a form of "exercise" I actually enjoy: Hoop Dance.

My introduction to hoop dance started around this time last year, and I admit, I wasn't sold on the idea at first. It's rather underground, and (at that time) there were no local hoopers in my area. But my brother saw a hooper at Dragon*Con 2008 and he became obsessed. He made hoops for family and several of our friends and coerced everyone he could into giving it a try. I was reluctant to say the least, but meeting up to hoop was a nice social break, if nothing else, and I quickly learned it was a great work out too. Then we began learning tricks, and I started to really have fun. Oh yeah, and when I mentioned it was a good workout? I recently found out hooping burns approximately 150 calories per 10 minutes of activity (compare that to 180 p/10 mins of running) so yes, good work out indeed.

Fun, social, and good for me? I finally found an exercise I can get into. Now I just have to make sure it doesn't interrupt my writing!

Kalayna Price is the urban fantasy author of the Haven series and of the upcoming Alex Craft novels. She draws ideas from the world around her, her studies into ancient mythologies, and her readings of classic folklore. Her stories contain not only the mystical elements of fantasy, but also a dash of romance, a bit of gritty horror, some humor, and a large serving of mystery. To find out more, please visit her at www.kalayna.com.

Meet KALAYNA PRICE author of ONCE BITTEN

Bell Bridge Books published our long-awaited first adult dark fantasy title this month-- ONCE BITTEN. We think the book is fabulous, of course. But we also think the author is special, too, and wanted you to have a chance to meet her. Help us welcome, Kalayna Price! (BTW, you might be interested to know this novel began life as a National Novel Writing Month book--NaNoWriMo.)

  Hi everyone, and thank you Debra for inviting me to the blog today.

When you tell people you write, there are a couple questions that are almost inevitable. One of the big ones is “Where do you get your ideas.” This is a tricky question, and there is no good answer for it, but since my first book, ONCE BITTEN, recently hit bookstores, I thought I’d try to explain some of the thoughts that went into birthing the book.

I wrote the first draft of Once Bitten in the winter of 2005, and at that time, the sub-genre of Urban Fantasy was just taking off. I loved the sassy, kick-ass heroines, the scary (but many times alluring) paranormal creatures, and the way the books kept me on the edge of my seat for the whole read. I knew I had to write one—I just wasn’t sure about what.

I have a deep fascination with vampires (founded most likely when I read Dracula at age ten) so I wanted a story including the undead. But, not just vampires—I wanted a world filled with the things that go bump in the night: mages, demons, shapeshifters . . . It was when I was thinking about the disproportional amount of werewolves to werecats in fiction that story ideas really started clicking into place. I’m not sure why wolves are the popular lycanthrope creature. Wolves howl in the night, which admittedly adds a level of creepy, especially if you think you are the prey, but isn’t the silent predator—the lion hiding in the Savannah grass, the jaguar stalking from a tree—much creepier? Plus, cats have not only sharp teeth, but claws too. All and all, a big cat sounds like a pretty impressive creature to transform into.

This line of thought led me into my initial world building for Once Bitten, and to my main character, Kita. But, while I wanted Kita’s line to include these impressive big cats, I decided Kita should be something at odds with her world. Something small. Something less dangerous.

A house cat.

I once saw a video of a cat chasing a bear up a tree. Attitude—the average house cat has it in abundance. When I watch my cats, I know there is a part of them that has never been fully domesticated. There is still a bit of the wild in them, a staunch independence, and more than a drop of defiance. I incorporated these traits into Kita, and then loaded her with things her human side had to deal with, like responsibility and living up to other’s expectations. In the beginning of the book, Kita has run from all of her responsibilities, leaving her kind and her clan behind. But, as so often happens, responsibility catches up with her and brings a friend—trouble, and lots of it in the form of an overly curious vampire, hunters on her trail, and demons after her soul.

Writers spend a lot of time asking “What if?” What if your house cat could shapeshift? What if she was pretending to be a pet only because she was on the run from hunters? What if there were worse things than hunters after her? What if they caught her?

I had a lot of fun coming up with Kita and the world she lives in, and I hope people enjoy reading about her as much as I enjoyed writing about her!