SFR Author Cara Bristol
answers just the FAQs, ma’am
By Cara Bristol
Since the release of Stranded with the Cyborg in September 2015 and Mated with the Cyborg in January 2016, I’ve done quite a few author interviews. I’ve pulled some of the frequently asked questions.
Where do you get your book ideas?
I’ve always been a daydreamer, weaving scenes involving imaginary friends. What else could I do but become a fiction author? A story starts with a scenario, a fragment of an idea. As I mull over the situation, the story starts to form. With respect to the Cy-Ops Sci-fi Romance series, I read a cyborg sci-fi romance and fell in love with the alpha hero. I thought, I have to write my own. Most cyborg stories involve a government conspiracy—cyborgs created by an evil government. I wanted to do something different, so my cyborgs are cyberoperatives—secret agents fighting against terrorism. The series tagline is, “Saving the girl and the galaxy, one mission at a time.”
What research and/or world-building is required?
First, one needs to recognize how broad the world really is. In sci-fi, you need to account for popular culture, language, clothing, weaponry, government, religion, geography, transportation, and interpersonal relations. Even if you don’t expressly mention those things, they still permeate the world. Take cursing for instance. Our curse words are either religious or sexually based. So what do aliens yell when they’re angry, surprised or excited? It’s probably not g-damnit or f-k.
I’m continually Googling for research and fact-checking. With the Cy-Ops Sci-fi Romance series I’ve had to research bombs (explosions in outer space), space shuttle sizes and runways, gravity, acrobatic maneuvers, what would happen if someone were ejected into space without protective gear, the composition of seawater, types of espionage, what actually makes a cyborg a cyborg, government titles, national monuments, even what someone three hundred years in the future might carry in his pockets.
Do you write full-time? What is your work day like?
I do write full time. I get about 5:30 a.m., grab a cup of coffee and hit the computer. I answer email, respond to comments on my blog, check Facebook, etc. for about an hour, and then I start to write. I’ll work until about 9 a.m. when I break for breakfast and a shower. By 10:30 a.m., I’m back at the computer. I work until about 4 p.m, with a half-hour break for lunch.
Do you have any writing quirks?
Do you have any writing quirks?
I can’t write sex scenes if someone is in the room with me. That’s why my husband and I no longer share a home office. Lol.
Are you a plotter or a pantser? Do you outline?
I’m a pantser. When story idea comes to me, I’ll think about it for a while. When I know enough about the characters and story for the first three to four chapters, I begin writing. I usually know the ending at the start, so I know where I’m headed, I just have to figure out how to get there. As I write, the characters continue to talk to me and shape the story.
When I started Mated with the Cyborg, I knew that I wanted to match up two opposites: the good guy cyborg hero with the “enemy” he’s trying to defeat. He goes “undercover” as an android on the enemy’s space station, and meets the general’s (innocent) daughter and is forced to choose between her and his mission. Why he had to save her and how he saves her was a mystery until I got into book.
What are you working on next?
Captured by the Cyborg (Cy-Ops Sci-fi Romance 3) will be released in March. Dale Homme, a secondary character in Mated with the Cyborg (Cy-Ops Sci-fi Romance 2), is the hero. Carter Aymes, the Cy-Ops director, who appears all three of the Cy-Ops books will likely be the hero of book 4. Also, I’m working on the audiobook version of Mated with the Cyborg, to be released soon.
Mated with the Cyborg Description
Kai Andros’s orders were simple. Get in. Gather the intel on the terrorist organization. Get out. Then he met her. Mariska. Beautiful. Innocent. Ignorant of her father’s atrocities. And marked for death. His orders said nothing about saving her. But he did. He went off-mission. Can a rogue cyborg outrun both Cyber Operations and the terrorists to save the woman he loves?
Mated with the Cyborg is an action-packed erotic sci-fi romance between a man with a mission and a woman with a secret that jeopardizes their lives and the fate of the galaxy.
Cara Bristol bio
Best-selling Amazon author Cara Bristol has published more than 24 erotic romance titles. She writes science fiction, contemporary, and paranormal erotic romance. No matter what the subgenre, one thing remains constant: her emphasis on character-driven seriously hot erotic stories with sizzling chemistry between the hero and heroine. Cara has lived many places in the United States, but currently lives in Missouri with her husband. She has two grown stepkids. When she’s not writing, she enjoys reading and traveling.
