THE CORMAC AND AMELIA CASE FILES by Carrie Vaughn

I met Carrie Vaughn at this year’s Bubonicon and she was an absolute delight. She has written many books, most recently releasing THE CORMAC AND AMELIA CASE FILES,  a print compilation of several novellas spun off from the Kitty series.

Cormac is a former bounty hunter turned paranormal investigator. Amelia is a Victorian wizard wrongfully executed for murder a century ago. Now, her spirit shares his body, and together they’ve become supernatural problem solvers. Detectives. Fixers, if you will. With each new case they wonder – is this one more than they can handle? So far, the answer is no…

For the first time, five previously published stories spun off from the New York Times Bestselling Kitty Norville series, full of mystery, magic, and horror appear together in print – along with a brand-new story revealing just how much attention Cormac and Amelia’s exploits have attracted.

(This collection includes the previously published stories “Long Time Waiting,” “Dark Divide,” “Badlands Witch,” “Fatal Storm,” and “Charmed Waters.”)

Having been in the publishing business for over twenty years, what have you found to be the best part about it, and the most challenging part about it?

I think the best part is getting my work out there and having people actually read and respond to it. I’ve been fortunate to find a good audience, and I really love having a life surrounded by books, readers, and authors. The most challenging is the business side, particularly the submitting to publishers, contract issues, the whole nitty gritty of the hustle. Advocating for myself in a business that’s crazy and chaotic at the best of times is a skill I’ve really had to learn.

I’ll bet. Speaking of hustle, what, in your estimation, makes Cormac and Amelia such a great team?

I think they seem like opposites when you first meet them, but they really have a lot in common when you get down to it. They have wildly different backgrounds — she grew up as an upper-class Victorian lady and pursued the occult with an academic focus. He’s from rural Colorado, very gritty and no-nonsense. A shoot first and ask questions later kind of guy. But despite their differences I think they’re both ruthless in how they go about solving problems. What I’ve really enjoyed about writing them is having them figure out that their skill sets really compliment each other and that makes them a formidable pair. They like having that strength.

I’m sure that’s one reason why readers have followed them this far! You also have a Patreon. What has been the most challenging about setting this up, and what, if anything, do you wish you’d known sooner?

I asked around and got some good advice when I was setting up my Patreon, which focuses on my writing process and has lots of writing advice, so there isn’t too much I’d do differently. The Patreon format really motivates me to post on a schedule and keep engaged with this kind of writing. The challenge now is figuring out how to expand the membership — get more Patrons to discover it. I think of it as a living, evolving version of a how-to-write book, and I hope it’s useful. But as with so many things, it can be a challenge getting the word out.

Always. What are some of your current projects?

The Cormac and Amelia Case Files, of course. This is a compilation of e-book novellas I’ve been doing over the last couple of years, in a new paperback edition. That’s been my big release for 2022. Coming up, I’m hoping to put together a short story collection next year. I have a bunch of novel projects in the hopper right now, some drafts that need revising, and so on. Next step is to throw a few things against the wall and see what sticks!

Order THE CORMAC AND AMELIA CASE FILES