Interview with Cate Masters

Cate Masters has made beautiful central Pennsylvania her home for the past 20 years, but she’ll always be a Jersey girl at heart. A lover of all great writing, she aspires to entertain and enthrall with her own stories. Most days, she can be found in her lair, concocting a magical brew of contemporary, historical, and fantasy/paranormal stories with her cat Chairman Maiow and dog Lily as company. Look for her at www.catemasters.com, http://catemasters.blogspot.com, and in strange nooks and far-flung corners of the web.

[Anne] Thanks for joining me today, Cate! When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

[Cate] First, thanks so much for having me as a guest today Anne!

Good question. I think writing chose me rather than the opposite, lol. When I was a girl, poetry was my means of self-expression. I grew up in a very artsy community with wonderfully gifted friends, so music and art and writing were all part of it. In high school, my love of research took root when my writing expanded to journalism. Fiction followed in my twenties, and I loved it so much, I never stopped.

[Anne] Tell us about your latest book.

[Cate] My Native American historical novel, Follow the Stars Home, came together after meticulous research. Based on the 1879 founding of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, the novel weaves true accounts with fictional characters.

Here’s the story blurb: What’s left for the Lakota when everything around them is changing? Quiet Thunder and Black Bear fear for their tribe’s welfare when buffalo and other game become scarce. A military captain named Pratt promises to teach them white man’s ways so they can become successful. Quiet Thunder follows Black Bear to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, to the Indian Industrial School. The school’s rigid schedule allows little time together, and Black Bear grows more distant as his confusion over his identity grows. Can Quiet Thunder make him believe her love is as eternal as the stars?

Reviewers have described it as: “an insightful and entertaining novel that’s bound to teach you a few things about history. Kudos to Cate Masters for another winning novel. You won’t be able to put Follow the Stars Home down until you turn the last page.” And “Quiet Thunder and Black Bear love each other. But can their love survive them being uprooted from their people, betrayed and lied to by the white man? Will they ever find their way back to their own people? You will have to read this story to find out. But it is a fabulous journey, and you will enjoy it every step of the way.” And “The love story between Black Bear and Quiet Thunder is tenderly told, and well-written.”

[Anne] Sounds very fascinating. What inspired you to write Follow the Stars Home?

[Cate] Like most people, I knew nothing about boarding schools for Native American children. Shortly after moving to Carlisle, Pa., I first learned about the Carlisle Indian Industrial School from a PBS special. I found the episode so compelling, I would purposely drive by the students' graveyard on what is now the Army War College. The school’s founder, Captain Pratt, gave the school its motto: Kill the Indian, Save the Man. In some cases, it just killed the Indian. Students died of exposure to foreign diseases, or sheer homesickness, or sometimes suicide. Many ran away. In fact, many ran away to join the spectacular traveling show Buffalo Bill's Wild West, which was fun to research. So many of the students’ stories were tragic, it was wonderful to give two characters a happy ending.

[Anne] How did you go about researching it?

[Cate] Because it fascinated me, I found myself researching the school before I knew I was going to write about it. The Cumberland County Historical Society has a wonderful exhibit of student photographs and artifacts at its Carlisle museum, which I visited. Later, Dickinson College's Trout Gallery had an exhibit on the school, included photographs of the students, some of their personal effects such as drums, clothing and moccasins.

I wove in Lakota mythology and legend, using books such as Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz' American Indian Myths and Legends, and James Mooney's The Ghost-Dance Religion. Linda Witmer's "The Indian Industrial School" provided a great deal of information about the student's daily lives, along with fascinating photos. Pratt was careful to document students' progress through photographs, showing them as sad savages upon their arrival, and happy, neatly dressed civilians after attending his school.

[Anne] Do you have anything new in the works?

[Cate] In June 2011, Lyrical Press will release Rock Bottom, a fun contemporary. Whiskey Creek Press will release a mainstream novel, The Bridge Between, sometime in 2011. I just subbed a fantasy novel, The Magic of Lavender, and two shorter fantasies to publishers. About a dozen other stories are in various stages. Don’t even ask about the piles of notebooks in the corner, lol.

[Anne] What is your writing process like? Are you a plotter or a pantser?

[CateI like to joke that my muse has ADD. She’s great at throwing story ideas at me, but follow through is a challenge for her. I wish I were better at plotting, but I’m a pantser. At most, I’ll sketch out a rough idea for a story, but the characters usually surprise me and hijack the story line wherever they want it to go.

[Anne] You’ve just been informed that your latest release was a NY Times bestseller and Hollywood wants to turn it into a movie. What actors would you choose to play your main characters?

[Cate] Stories run like videos in my head while I write, so oftentimes I’ll have specific people in mind during the process. I thought it would be fun to create a blog series to show who starred in each. You can view the Casting Call for Follow the Stars Home here: http://catemasters.blogspot.com/2010/08/casting-call-follow-stars-home.html To view the others, enter the key words Casting Call into the search box. The series was a lot of fun, though I need to finish for the rest of my books!

[Anne] What type of books do you like to read when you’re not writing?

[Cate] Pretty much anything. I love finding new authors, and am trying to catch up on a lot of my contemporaries. The TBR pile on my nightstand’s about to fall over, lol, with everything from humor, suspense, paranormal/fantasy, literary and nonfiction works.

[Anne] Where can we find you on the web?

[Cate] Like my bio says, I’m in all sorts of strange nooks and far-flung corners, lol. But the four main sites are: Web site: http://www.catemasters.com, Blog: http://catemasters.blogspot.com/, Facebook fan page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cate-Masters/89969413736?ref=ts and Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/CateMasters

[Anne] Where can we purchase your books?

[Cate] Follow the Stars Home is available in ebook from Eternal Press: http://www.eternalpress.biz/book.php?isbn=9781615721696 and in print from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Follow-Stars-Home-Cate-Masters/dp/1615721703/ref=sr_1_8_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292781427&sr=1-8

[Anne] Is there anything else you’d like to add?

[Cate] I love to hear from readers! Email me at: cate.masters AT gmail.com

If anyone has read my books, I’d love for you to leave a review on Goodreads, Amazon, Fictionwise or the publisher sites. All are linked to my blog and web site to make it easy! :)

Thanks again for having me Anne. Hope you had a wonderful holiday, and wishing you all good things in the coming year.

In the Spirit of Halloween – Guest Post by Cate Masters

Halloween's my second favorite holiday. Its traditions and mystery intrigued me when I was a girl, and even moreso now. Halloween legends, superstitions, myths and beliefs provide an endless wealth of story material.

According to legend, All Hallow's Eve is the one night of the year when the barrier between two worlds of the living and the dead dissolves, allowing visitors from The Other Side. I wove that notion into my Halloween-themed novella, One Soul for Sale, available digitally from Eternal Press: http://www.eternalpress.biz/book.php?isbn=9781926704043 and in print from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/One-Soul-Sale-Cate-Masters/dp/1926704126/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245414332&sr=1-1 Check my blog at http://catemasters.blogspot.com/ to learn how you can win a copy.

Here are some of the spookier superstitions and beliefs about Halloween and souls:

According to an old saying, if a candle's flame goes out on Halloween, then a ghost is visiting you.

If you see a spider on Halloween, it could be the spirit of a dead loved one looking out for you.

Ancients believed ghosts could be weighed down, so used tombstones to keep them in place.

Because some believed spirits could only travel in a straight line, mazes found at the entrance to many ancient tombs may have been intended to keep the spirit of the dead from returning to the world.

Some people believed that a person's soul remained for 24 hours after death. Members of the family, or friends of the deceased, often sat with the body of their loved one to prevent the devil from stealing the soul.

If a dead person’s eyes are left open, he’ll find someone to take with him.

If you touch a loved one who has died, you won’t dream about them.

If you look at your shadow in the moonlight on All Hallows Eve, death will find you.

Thunder following a funeral means that the dead person's soul has reached heaven.

If you see an owl diving on Halloween night, it's coming to take your soul away.

Originally, adults dressed up in furs, masks and cloaks to hide from mischievous spirits who might be looking for them.

Likewise with collecting treats – children went from door to door to collect soul cakes on Halloween, and said a prayer for the dead after receiving food. Others put out food to appease evil spirits and feed any dead who might visit. By 1900, it was all for fun.

One Soul for Sale is a fun read, too. Reviews described it as “outstanding,” a “riveting read… I couldn’t stop until I hit the last page.”

Here’s an excerpt:

Madelyn gazes out the window, adrift as a leaf. “Everything’s on a downhill slide – work, dating, all of it. Sometimes I think I have to sell my soul to get what I really want in life.”

“Well, that’s easy – put it on uBuy.” Gwen shakes her cup to stir up sugar from the bottom.

“You’re such a comedian.” Madelyn reinforces Gwen’s dream at every opportunity. Her friend reciprocates by being Madelyn’s best cheerleader for her art, though lately, her sketches are as uninspired as the rest of her life.

“I try my best.” Gwen’s been revising her standup act for months, perfecting it so she can one day actually perform before a crowd at a comedy club rather than open mike night. Or in front of her bedroom mirror.

Their meager salaries don’t allow for luxury, so neither is a stranger to the allure of uBuy, and both feed their addiction to the site daily. Madelyn finds designer clothing bargains while Gwen goes for vintage. Besides supplementing their wardrobes, Madelyn and Gwen love uBuy for its oddities. The odder an item is, the more appeal it has. Madelyn’s desktop swaying, ukele-strumming hula-skirted Gumby is testament to this. Gwen collects memorabilia of famous comedians; Groucho Marx is a favorite.

On that level, Gwen’s offhand suggestion appeals to Madelyn. “I should list my soul, just for kicks. To see what response I’d get.” People have sold stranger things. Maybe some cute guy would buy it, and who knows where that might lead. She’s already tried online dating, though. Cyberspace, she found, is not a good place to meet strangers.

The notion is erased from Madelyn’s mind by the sight of a stunning man on the sidewalk. Standing by the newspaper vending box, he checks his watch. His dark features are set off by his black shirt, black sport coat and black slacks. He’s so perfect, he looks out of context with his surroundings. When he looks at her, shock waves rumble through her nervous system like an oncoming storm. A rush of heat engulfs her.

“Madelyn? Hey, what’s wrong with you.” Gwen’s voice is distant, as if it comes through a tunnel.

She snaps her attention back to her friend. “Nothing.” In truth, Madelyn knew her universe had just shifted.


Cate Masters writes fantasy/paranormal, historical, contemporary and speculative fiction, described by reviewers as “so compelling, I did not want to put it down,” “such romantic tales that really touch your soul,” “filled with action scenes which made it a riveting story,” and “the author weaves a great tale with a creative way of using words that makes the story refreshing to read.” The proud mom of three adult children, she currently lives in central Pennsylvania with her husband, Lily the dog, their dictator-like cat, Chairman Maiow, and dozens of characters inhabiting her imagination. Visit Cate online at www.catemasters.com, http://catemasters.blogspot.com or follow her on Facebook or Twitter.