Many of Carrie Vaughn’s characters start their days sleeping off the previous night’s shapeshifting or bloodsucking, creating earthquakes to fight vast Middle Eastern armies or battling manipulative Greek goddesses.
Vaughn herself starts most of her mornings walking her dog, Lily, a miniature American Eskimo, in her neighborhood in Longmont.
But both Vaughn, 42, and her most frequent recurring character, Denver werewolf/radio personality Kitty Norville, have arrived at a turning point with “Kitty Saves the World,” the 14th — and, Vaughn vows, the last — Kitty novel, due Tuesday.
“It does feel like the right time to end the series,” she said. “It feels pretty good.”
But no spoilers.
“I have to be very careful talking about what happens in the Kitty book. … There’s a big bad guy who has crept in throughout the series, so of course there’ll be a confrontation, actually several confrontations, and she’ll face a whole new set of problems.”
Not into urban werewolves? Vaughn has a new short story on science fiction/fantasy publisher Tor’s website that was edited by a certain fantasy novelist named George.
As in, R.R. Martin.
While still in college, Vaughn wrote the “Game of Thrones” author a fan letter about his serial superhero anthology, “Wild Cards.” He wrote her back. Both of them still have each other’s letters.
“He has such a history with fans and fan letters,” she said.
Years later, via another writer, Vaughn got a personal introduction to Martin, who was getting ready to relaunch the annual anthologies.
That led to Ana Cortez, a.k.a. Earth Witch. In “Nuestra Senora de la Esperanza,” Ana is recovering from being shot in Syria while settling a battle with her earthmoving superpowers. Back in the U.S., she must weigh the dark side of her gifts and journey into Mexico to find the similarly gifted grandmother who bestowed them on her.
Also among Vaughn’s creations is Evie Walker, a mild-mannered comic-book writer who in “Discord’s Apple” comes home to a Colorado town based on Rocky Ford to nurse her dying father, only to confront the magical items his family has collected and protected for centuries — and the powerful opponents who would use them with evil intent.
Vaughn also writes about a teenage superhero character in her young-adult novels, “After the Golden Age” and “Dreams of the Golden Age.” (She’s working on a third to complete the trilogy.)
These are ordinary females with extraordinary powers — but with great power comes great internal conflict.
“I like them to use their relationships and their thinking, Kitty especially,” Vaughn said. “She had to learn to use a gun. She prefers talking to people — that’s her superpower.”
Her characters also tease the outsider issues that Vaughn experienced while growing up in a nomadic Air Force family.
“What I like to write about is how people like that build communities, how they find people who are like themselves. Yes, Kitty’s a werewolf, but she’s pretty gregarious.”
Which might be said of Vaughn, although she self-identifies as an introvert. She usually spends a chunk of each month traveling to fiction conferences, teaching at seminars or giving talks at, yes, science fiction and comic-book conventions.
She loves it, “but it always takes me a couple of days locked in my house to recover.
“I’m gearing up to promote ‘Kitty Saves the World,’ and I’m always convinced that I don’t do enough. But being online makes it easy to look like you’re networking. I blog a couple times a week. On Facebook I talk about what movies I’m seeing, normal life stuff — the same things everyone does on Facebook.” She most recently linked to her review of “Ant-Man” on her website, carriev.wordpress.com.
“I know a lot of people, I talk to a lot of people. I’ve just been putting myself out there in really minor ways for long enough that there’s a critical mass there.”
Kitty the werewolf has had 14 books to build community.
“The number of people listening to her expands, and as she incorporates more experience, she learns to solve harder and harder problems. I’m always trying to make it so the problems are just a little bit too hard.”
Vaughn herself has gone from struggling writer to part of a pack of successful Western speculative fiction writers — Kevin Hearne, whom she convinced to move to Longmont; Mario Acevedo and Hugo Award-winner Jason Heller, both of Denver; Paonia’s Paolo Bacigalupi; Daniel Abraham of New Mexico; and Connie Willis of Greeley, whom Vaughn says she wants to be when she grows up.
But just like some of her characters, Vaughn had to mentally catch up to her own success.
“It’s been such a trip, such a journey. A series like Kitty doesn’t happen to every writer. I’m incredibly grateful, but it was a huge adjustment, internalizing that I’m no longer a struggling newbie writer — it’s a huge mental leap.”
Cape or no cape, she leapt.
And she landed.
“I can afford the good wine now,” she jokes.
Local author
Carrie Vaughn will read from and sign “Kitty Saves the World” at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Tattered Cover Colfax, 2526 E. Colfax Ave.
Author Carrie Vaughn on fan fiction, female heroes and writing life
On the she-roes in her books: “We look around, and we all have great strong women in our lives, and why aren’t they showing up in fiction — and in genre fiction, which is where my real love is?
” ‘The Green Lantern’ has a woman character who’s a pilot, but she’s dolled up like a Hollywood starlet, so she doesn’t look anything like a woman pilot in the real world. I want my characters to suggest women who are doing things like that in the real world.”
On fan fiction: “You can be a sports fan and nobody blinks an eye. But ‘fan fiction’ and ‘fangirl’ and ‘fanboy,’ the more you start to get into geeky territory. But I don’t think it has negative connotations anymore. Even fan fiction isn’t looked down on. There are tribes of fans out there that proclaim themselves proudly — the ‘Sherlock’ series has the Cumberbitches, there are the Browncoats for ‘Firefly,’ there are the Dr. Whovians.”
On writing and struggle: “I don’t know that any of it’s easy. I’ve got three stories on submission now that I haven’t heard back on. Waiting is not any easier now. What’s easier is that I know there’s always more opportunities. It doesn’t feel like everything is resting on one story or one acceptance or one rejection. And that’s where the internalization comes in. It’s not that everything gets accepted now. It’s dealing with (rejection) — and realizing it’s not all going to fall apart tomorrow.” — Susan Clotfelter
