Witch on the Water is the latest novel in your award-winning Rowan of the Wood young adult fantasy series. What can fans expect in this latest segment?

Fans can expect more magic and adventure. Fiana shows her sadistic side and Ms. MacFey has a new love interest. Cullen meets an important person from his past. And Rowan has new help saving the day.

What challenges do you find when writing a series?
The greatest challenge to our writing is making time to write. Up until this point, marketing and touring, plus some side jobs, have taken up so much time that it has become increasingly difficult to find time to write. After reflection upon the results in comparison to the effort put forth, I’ll be scaling back on marketing efforts over the next year, and I’ll be focusing on reading more and writing more.

Tell us about your main character Cullen.

Cullen Knight is a very nice kid, but he doesn’t have too many friends. Only two, really: Maddy and April. Other kids at his school are quite cruel to him, as are his foster family, but he knows that sometimes you just have to take the cruelty of the world. His greatest time is spent reading, getting lost in fantasy worlds where he can be a real knight of the realm. His foster father doesn’t something horrible to him in “Rowan of the Wood,” which robs him of most of his beloved books. This is what leads him to finding the wand and releasing Rowan. Now, possessed by the druid Rowan and having been tortured by Rowan’s vampire wife, Fiana, Cullen is starting to lose patience. He’s more surly in this book, and he wants to get rid of Rowan. He doesn’t want to share his body anymore, magic or not.

You and your husband, Ethan Rose, write the series together. Tell us about your collaborative process?

Ethan and I work so well together. We know how lucky we are. I’m the goal-oriented one of the team, so I’m normally the one who writes the first draft. Ethan takes my draft and revises it, adding in peripheral characters and subplots. Then I take it back for the third draft, and so on. We have very different writing processes, so we do the actual writing separately. We have frequent meetings about the plot and about story arcs, etc; and we’re very respectful of the other’s process. We each have different strengths, so together, we make quite a fine author

How did you come up with the idea for the Rowan of the Wood series?

I came up with the idea for Rowan of the Wood in December 2005. It was shortly after I had seen HP Goblet of Fire for the 5th time at the theatre. My nephews were all about Harry Potter and Batman and Spiderman and other adventurous & magical things. Ethan and I have been long time fans of fantasy—Ethan leaning more toward the Tolkienesque and me with the darker Anne Rice Vampires. I pondered how amazing the success of HP had been around the world and across generations. How much Tolkien’s work had been as well as the Superheros, all transcending generations and cultural boundaries. I thought about what these types of stories/characters have in common, and then it just hit me. Clear as day in my mind: a magical superhero who’s alter ego was a young boy. Then Rowan was born.

Can you share any hints about what’s coming up next for Cullen and his friends in book three?

In Fire of the Fey, we’ll learn much more about the elemental Aidan, and there will be a very large dragon. We also haven’t heard the last of Fiana, so there will be plenty of dark conflict for our band of misfits.

What books were the two of you fans of growing up? Did any author or series inspire you to want to write your own?

For Ethan: Lloyd Alexander & JRR Tolkien, more recently Terry Pratchett, Roger Zelazny & Charles de Lint
For Me: I liked the darker stuff. Anne Rice. Stephen King. V.C. Andrews. Vonnegut. More recently: Charles de Lint, Laurell K. Hamilton & Frank Frank Beddor

My greatest inspiration in my adult years has come from J. K. Rowling, because Harry Potter brought magic back into my life during a very dark time. Those stories got me reading again. The orphan hero, which of course didn’t begin and won’t end with Harry Potter, touched me on a personal level because Ethan was an orphan. Books that featured an orphan hero served as hope for Ethan when he was a boy, and so that’s where Cullen comes from. I wanted to use an orphan hero in our series to inspire those kids who have (or had) less-than-desirable family situations, as there are far, far too many of them.

It’s funny, people hear that Cullen is an “orphan” and see the drawing of him on the cover of Rowan of the Wood, and immediately think Harry Potter; but there is actually much more of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in our books than there is of Harry Potter.

You have some great artwork posted on your website. Tell me about your inspiration for the pieces. Is it available for sale?

They are available for sale. Many things are on our Etsy page, and they’re also available at our weekend events (like Renaissance Faires and Celtic Festivals).

I have always been drawn to the Celtic Green Man, which is why I wove him into our fantasy tale. Taking up the paintbrush again after 15 years has been very liberating for me. I really enjoy creating art, and we’re continually expanding our product base. We just introduced Vampire Slayer Kits, which Ethan hand makes, in honor of the release of Witch on the Water. All our artwork is made my hand with recycled or repurposed materials.

You have a fun way of traveling on your book tour! The RV looks amazing! Can you share with us your plans for the tour and describe the RV for your fans?

We call our fancifully painted RV the Geekalicious Gypsy Caravan, which fans now refer to as the GGC. It was designed and painted by the cover artist: Ia Enstera. The beautiful druid Rowan is on either side, wand at the ready, nestled in the redwood forest. It is a sight to see on the highways of the USA. You can see a picture of it on our homepagehttp://www.christineandethanrose.com”> http://www.christineandethanrose.com

Is there any way that readers can keep up with your book tour on the internet?

Absolutely! Readers can sign up for our monthly newsletter (link on our site). We don’t inundate you with email, as we only send out one newsletter email a month!
We also have BookTour widgets on all our sites, and you can download it to your own website or calendar on our BookTour page.

You do a lot of blogging (and vlogging). Where do you post your blogs and videos?

Our blog is updated daily (yes! exhausting!) at http://www.christineandethanrose.com/blog – please subscribe! If you’re an aspiring author, you’ll be particularly interested in my Publishing 101 blog series.

As for Vlogs, there are available via the media page on our website or on our YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/TheTuberRose

There are some silly ones there, like Bellatrix on the Borderline. Look for a Vampire Single Ladies spoof in November!

Where else can we find you on the web?

Where can’t you find me! I’m everywhere!

Twitter. Facebook. MySpace. Goodreads. LibraryThing. Shelfari.

Please see the social networking buttons on our Virtual Book Club page. (http://www.christineandethanrose.com/bookclub.htm & http://www.christineandethanrose.com/networking.htm)

We also have a Rowan of the Wood group on FB. Please join! http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=45355938861

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