Annie's Book Stop of Worcester

Annie’s Book Stop of Worcester is happy to shine our Friday spotlight on LGBTQ Romance author Cat Sebastian. Thanks for being here with us, Cat.

Could you please tell us a bit about your writing?

I write historical romance about LGBTQ people, usually in Regency England, but sometimes other places and other times.

Where can people find your work? (Besides Annie’s Book Stop of Worcester –though they should totally check here first!)

Print copies are at The Ripped Bodice and also Barnes & Noble, and ebooks are available at all the usual places.

How can we follow your work and share your awesomeness?

My website is CatSebastian.com and my twitter is @CatSWrites.

For readers unfamiliar with your work, how would you describe what you write?  What can readers expect from A Little Night Mischief?

My upcoming release, A Little Light Mischief, is a novella about two servants who have been done wrong by powerful men and decide to take the law into their own hands. They fall in love while picking locks, stealing things, and engaging in some casual blackmail.

What draws you to the particular genre or style that you write? What do you think draws readers to these kinds of books?

I know we don’t specifically have a subgenre for cozy romances, like we do for cozy mysteries, but I write romances that are light and bright. Nobody’s ever in real peril and I try to keep the angst to manageable levels. I hear often from readers that they enjoy reading about characters who are LGBTQ+, disabled, or otherwise marginalized being happy, even in the distant past. That just isn’t something we encounter a lot in popular culture—marginalized people have to suffer or be inspirational fodder for the non-marginalized main characters—so I’m glad to populate the past with the happy queer people who have been largely erased from history.

What piece of advice would you want to share with other writers?

If a scene is boring to write, there’s a real chance it’ll be boring to read. That isn’t a universal rule, but I know that if I’m bored while drafting or revising, I ought to take a serious look at the scene and see if I can come at it from a different angle, or if I can get rid of it all together.

What are some of your writing-related hobbies, crafts, addictions?

I do too much research that never makes it into the book. I let myself fall down every internet rabbit hole on every topic adjacent to whatever I’m supposed to be writing about. I have a post it near my desk that says “RESEARCH LATER” which is supposed to remind me not to look up what bishops wore in 1817 until I have a functional first draft; otherwise I’ll spend an entire day researching bishops and then a week later I’ll have removed the bishop entirely from the book. But I keep doing unnecessary research, because I enjoy it. Maybe I ought to conceptualize it as a hobby rather than as a waste of time.

Writers very often have furry or feathered or otherwise non-human companions to “help” them through their work.  Do you? What do you have? How do they “help” (or, “not-help”) with your writing?

I have two dogs, one of whom howls mournfully at me when I sit at my desk, because he believes I ought to take my laptop and cuddle with him in bed. Then he likes to arrange himself on my lap, in between me and the keyboard. I’m positive he feels that his contributions ought to get him a cowriter credit on all my books.

Thanks so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to answer our questions, Cat.