By Leah, Year 10
Waterstones welcomed New York Times bestseller Rachel Caine to their store this passing Monday. Caine was signing copies of her new anthology of short stories, Midnight Bites, and was also discussing her writing experiences.
Starting at 4 o’clock, the event was packed with avid fans and writing enthusiasts. Rows and rows of people sat and listened as she spoke. Rachel Caine is the author of the best-selling Morganville Vampire series, a series containing 15 books, along with the Weather Warden series and the newly released Great Library series.
“I started writing when I was 14 years old.” Reminisced Caine. “I decided at 14 that I would start writing a TV show I particularly loved because they weren’t doing what I wanted them to do.” Within two episodes she had started writing a whole new story. However, it wasn’t until Caine was 28 when she had her first thoughts about publishing her written works.
Rachel Caine discussed with her audience the ins and outs of writing; creating characters, rewriting and publishing. The crowd of people were engaged in her words, the experiences of someone so successful, educating them in the art of writing. For people hoping to pursue a career as an author, this was very informative for possible future encounters.
“At a certain point if your books aren’t selling so well the publisher will say that stores don’t order them in anymore.” She said. “When you write something else you have to change your name so that the store will buy your writing.” Caine writes under two other pen names, Roxanne Longstreet and Roxanne Conrad, but a mass amount of her novels are published under Rachel Caine.
After the engaging Q&A, a signing session occurred. Fans queued in excitement as they waited for their books to be signed. Free goods were handed out to everyone: including a custom tote bag for the new book, badges, novel extracts and sweets. Caine greeted every fan with love and happiness, thanking them all for attending the event and reading her work. The smile never left her face as she listened to people’s tales of how they loved her books. It was obvious how much she was pleased with the turn out of the event.