Interview with KATANA Author Cole Gibsen


A Backwards Story is happy to be a part of The {Teen} Book Scene's tour for KATANA!  Check out the tour schedule to see the list of events.  On March 12th, check in with A Backwards Story again for my review of this fun title!






KATANA is Cole Gibsen's debut YA novel and launches next week on March 8th.  Her sophomore novel, BREATHLESS, comes out later this month on March 27th.  Um, the fact that one of Cole's novels deals with Japan when I lived in Japan for two years and the other deals with mermaids (I'm pretty sure you all think that I'm a mermaid in disguise by now...) has me so excited! It's like she's writing just for me! 




Check out Cole Gibsen's web site and find her on Facebook and Twitter.





An interview with Cole Gibsen

Having previously lived in Japan, I’m always interested when I see Asian novels! What influenced your interest in Japan and made you want to write KATANA?

The idea for KATANA came to me when I was taking martial arts classes. I couldn’t help but wonder why some people had a natural ability and others (like myself) did not. I wondered if maybe their natural talent was a result of a past life as a samurai or ninja, and my imagination took it from there.

Do you have any experience with the martial arts yourself, or did you do a lot of research for this novel?


I do—though, I’ve never been very good at it. I’ve taken karate, tae kwon do, tai chi, and kick boxing. Lucky for me, my husband’s good friend is a very experienced martial arts instructor, and he was my go to guy for questions and fight scene choreography.

Rileigh is such an unusual name. Is there a reason you chose it?

Rileigh’s name was originally Renee. But I was revising KATANA during my pregnancy and I’d recently purchased a Celtic baby name book to help me name my daughter. We found the name Rileigh in it and, while we went with another name for our daughter, I loved the name so much I couldn’t let it go.

Describe your ideal day/writing environment.

My daughter goes to preschool for two hours a day. It’s during this time I try not to get distracted by the shiny internet and write like mad. A good day for me is 1500-2000 words.

Can you tell us a little bit about any other upcoming projects?

I just turned in the sequel to KATANA the other day—yay! I have a paranormal mermaid romance coming out through Crescent Moon Press called BREATHLESS. And now that I’m done with my contracted books, I’m freed up to work on the bright shiny new idea I have.

Cole, thank you so much for stopping by and teasing us with hints of what is to come in KATANA!  I'd love to have you back this summer with BREATHLESS for Splash into Summer, winkwink/nudgenudge! ^_^


Bookworms, stop back at A Backwards Story on March 11th for my review of this novel! 

Comments

  1. Cole is freaking awesome. I can't wait to read Rileigh's story.

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