Heart-to-Heart with Claerie Kavanaugh - author of Duet Rubato

Posted on 27/12/2023 09:15:50

author : Kavanaugh, Claerie

As part of #TheMagicBookCornersWednesdayatWIW, The Magic Book Corner is here today with the lovely Claerie Kavanaugh, author of two wonderful books Duet Rubato and Queen of Thieves

Here is our little Heart-to-Heart:

1. Hi Claerie and welcome to The Magic Book Corner. To begin could you please tell our readers here a little bit about yourself?

My name is Claerie. I'm a freelance editor and indie author. I've been freelancing for the last three years and published my first two books last year. Queen of Thieves is a YA fractured fairytale retelling of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves and Duet Rubato is an LGBTQ second chance romance. When I'm not writing you can usually find me travelling, jamming out to the latest Broadway soundtrack, trying new foods, or playing video games. I got my first ever PlayStation for Christmas and, being a giant Disney nerd, I'm obsessed with Kingdom Hearts.

2. Your novel Duet Rubato is the first in the Duelling Hearts Saga. Could you please tell the readers here a little bit about it?

Duet Rubato is a second chance romance with a theatre backdrop. Here’s a brief summary: Ten years ago, Catie and Addie were best friends- and maybe more. But a tragic loss and a rash decision sent them tumbling out of each other’s lives. Now struggling to keep a roof over her daughter’s head, Catie attends one last audition and wins the lead role, only to find out Addie is the show’s assistant director. Catie can’t afford to walk away, but what do you do when relaunching your career means opening your heart?

3. Is there a sequel coming? And if yes, what is it about?

Yes there is a sequel coming, several actually. First, I’ll be releasing a middle grade spin off featuring Catie’s daughter, Lyssa. It will be a cozy ghost story. After that well, I don’t want to give away too much yet, but expect several more holiday stories and at least one sequel all about the next step in a happily ever after. Hint: “First comes love, then comes…” :)

4. Do you have any publishing date in mind?

For the Halloween story, I’m currently racing to finish it in time for a September release. My lovely editor @natalialeigh at @enchantedinkpublishing has agreed to squeeze me in to make this happen!

5. You write lesbian romance. Why choose this particular genre?

Simple. I write what I want to read. I didn’t even know lesbian romance was a category until I discovered it via fanfiction. Everything sort of tumbled from there. Growing up, I never saw myself represented in the media, neither my disabilities (cerebral palsy, epilepsy, scoliosis. Yep, I‘m just that lucky :P). nor many examples of LGBTQ+ families and relationships. I think it's extremely important to show diversity in the media. Writing DR was a big part of how I came to terms with my sexuality. The more we can expand people’s horizons as creatives, the more opportunities people have to see themselves, and the better the world will be!

6. How did Duet Rubato come to be? What is the inspiration behind it?

This kind of ties into your next question, but in short, I love second chance stories. I love morally gray characters who get an opportunity to correct their mistakes, and fanfiction introduced me to a love for romance and complicated relationship dynamics. Duet Rubato was my attempt at combining those things. My most common source of inspiration however, is music. I've always been a Broadway baby, but any type of music can be turned into a good story if you listen closely enough. A lot of songs have some semblance of a story already, so I love imagining who those characters could be and expounding upon that idea to see if they can turn into a novel. Duet Rubato didn’t come from any particular song source, but I do have a playlist dedicated to it on my website.

7. Why the musical theatre world?

I realized I had never written a book about theater before and I really wanted to try, since theater and writing are two great passions of mine. In the first draft, setting the romance around the impending opening of a show really helped me with plot structure. In my experience as a theatre kid, it took two-three months to mount a show, so that gave me a time frame to work in, and because there are certain things that have to happen to open a production successfully, I already had some key scenes in mind where the two leads could interact. Since I was new to romance, setting it in a world I loved helped ease some of the anxiety I felt regarding how to make the love story interesting.

8. Your book also has another little star, next to the main two leads – Catie’s little daughter, who is downright awesome too. How is it that you decided to introduce a little girl in the story too?

Aww, thank you! I’m so glad you enjoyed Lyssa! Hopefully you’ll like her even more in the spinoffs. As for how I decided to include her in the book, that’s actually a bit of a funny story. So, anyone who has read the little summary I pasted above or any of the information on the sales page of Amazon knows that the big steak for Catie is that winning the lead role is the only way she's gonna be able to keep a roof over her daughters head. But to keep the role she has to face a really large fear of hers. In the first draft, Alyssa didn’t exist, so I got about a fourth of the way into the book and Catie was thinking about giving up. I realized that she didn’t have anything to fight for other than herself, so if she wanted to give up, she really wouldn’t have lost anything in terms of personal stakes outside of the relationship. Even though the crux of the story is the romance, it was really important to me that both of the characters had something to lose outside of the relationship so they felt full and well-rounded. Thus, her daughter was born.

9. Duet Rubato makes readers feel. Was that your intention?

Yes! That was absolutely my intention when I wrote this book. Of course everyone knows that romances have happy endings, otherwise it’s not a romance. But I wanted to show that not every relationship is perfect and that ups and downs don’t mean that two people are any less right for each other. There are plenty of wonderful books out there the focus on whether or not the main couple is going to get together. However I felt that since everyone knew they were going to get together in the end, it was more important to me to focus on whether they could stay together through all the trials and tribulations of what was going on in their lives.

10. And speaking of intentions, what readership is your book intended for?

My book is intended for anyone who loves second chance stories, redemption arcs, and LGBTQ relationships.

11. And what should a reader expect when picking it up?

A reader should expect an emotional roller coaster, lovable characters, and hopefully, some important lessons about facing your fears and never giving up.

12. You have also written a novella - The Queen of Thieves. Could you tell us a bit about it?

Queen of Thieves was an interesting book. It only took me about two weeks to write, end it was sort of my “test the waters” book to see if I could self-publish something and if I even enjoyed doing it. It was originally supposed to be a part of an anthology, but the stars didn’t align and I eventually decided to publish it on my own. It’s a twisted retelling of Alibaba and the 40 thieves and even though it’s just over 20,000 words long, I’ve gotten some really encouraging responses from it and I may expand it in the future.

Those who are unfamiliar with it, here is the blurb:

If saving your family meant becoming your nightmare, could you do it? Everyone knows Yaksah, The King of Thieves, is not to be trifled with. His swiftness and stealth are legendary. Nothing valuable is safe from his nimble, sticky fingers. But the King and the city of Vymn aren't all they appear. Yaksah has a secret... and Ahd, a simple woodcutter, could expose it to the world. Keeping it though, gives Ahd an upper hand over Yaksah like no one's ever had. It may save his life… or destroy them both.

13. This is book one of the Forgotten Fairytales Series. Are you planning on a sequel?

Eventually, I will be writing 2 to 3 more instalments in the series, but each of them can be read as a standalone. For now though, I’m going to focus on my romance books.

14. Which brings me to my next question. Are you a plotter or a pantser?

I’m definitely a hard-core planner. I can’t get anything done if I don’t know where I’m going LOL.

15. On a little more personal note, have you encountered any obstacles and difficulties in your writing career? And how did you overcome them?

Oh boy! I have experienced so many interesting obstacles throughout my writing career. But the one I’m gonna focus on here was a blessing in disguise. Way back when I was looking for editors for DR, I ended up working with someone who had previously had jobs at three of the small publishers I was looking at submitting to. After a very thorough and kind review of my story, she gave me some very frank but also extremely helpful advice. She said that the publishers I was looking at would likely require me to change my main character’s sexual orientation in order to successfully sell the book to their intended audience. I thought about it for some time, but ultimately decided that that was not something I was comfortable with. Not only would it jeopardize a large part of the foundation of the steaks in the story, but it would also feel completely disingenuous to that character. From there, I had to decide what to do and that would me lead down the path to self-publishing. I will be forever grateful to the editor who gave me that advice, because she saved me from giving a book that was very personal to me to a publisher that might not have stayed true to my original vision. Now I have all the control, I get all the profits, and I can decide what does or doesn’t fit my image as an author. I’m not making bank from my books, not yet. But I’m happy and I’m going to continue telling the stories I needed to hear as a teen/young adult/new adult, and that is what counts.

16. And lastly, is there any advice you would give to other Indie authors out there? Or perhaps a message to the readers?

My best advice for new writers would be just keep practicing. Focus on writing what you love at least at first because that more than anything will fuel your passion going forward. If you're on the first draft don't worry about any steps after it; just enjoy the ride of writing. And always, always keep learning your craft. This is my favorite quote from Richard Bach "A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.”

About the author: Claerie Kavanaugh

Claerie Kavanaugh loves YA fantasy, historical fiction, and adult contemporary romance. She has been writing seriously since her sophomore year of high school, but her love of words started as early as first grade. She graduated with a BA in English and a minor in Technical and Professional Writing. She has been published in Fantasia Divinity Magazine and Curiositales Magazine. Her first two books Queen of Thieves, a YA fantasy, and Duet Rubato, an LGBTQ romance are both available for purchase.

Subscribe to her newsletter for exclusive access to behind-the-scenes info and early looks at my next WIP. Broadway musicals are her soul-food. When she's not writing, you can find her singing, traveling, trying new foods, and helping other authors polish their works as a freelance editor.