If you haven’t seen it yet, there’s a new book of romance novellas out called SUMMER RAIN. Masterminded by Audra North and edited by Sarah Frantz, the book is a fundraiser for RAINN (the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network) and it includes not only a story by me, but also Ruthie Knox, Molly O’Keefe, and a heap of other talented women! I read and loved Charlotte Stein‘s near-future story about lonely woman and the android she mail-orders, and I interviewed her about it here!
Cecilia Tan: Your story about a lonely woman and an android is so very lovely. And by lovely I mean: made me cry. Did you know when you started writing that an android would be the perfect tool to crack open the human heart?
Charlotte Stein: Oh thank you – that’s so cool to hear! I love making people cry…wait. Wait that came out wrong. I meant it’s awesome that I made you sad. Only not that at all. Let me just try to answer the rest of the question before I end up sounding like a sadist…
I’ve always wanted to write android stories precisely because they do just that! I love what you can say about the human condition with them – and from such a fresh perspective. If I was a better writer with more courage I’d write about androids for the rest of my career.
Cecilia Tan: I love the tone of it, as if the narration is all coming from deep inside Moira. Was it hard or easy to find her inner voice?
Charlotte Stein: I never find it hard to get at a character’s inner voice! It’s everything else I struggle with – making that accessible, understandable and interesting to the reader, getting across action and scenery, focussing on more than one tiny detail…
I’m very much a fan of deep POV, to the detriment of everything else.
Cecilia Tan: I love the subtle dig at the “billionaire alpha” trope made in passing in the story. Would you agree your story sort-of trumps all the cheesy wish-fulfillment of the current trend?
Charlotte Stein: The thing I love to do most is take existing tropes and turn them on their head, or come at them from new angles, or focus on things they generally don’t. But the thing is…it’s not because I find those tropes cheesy or hate them. If I’m honest, I love them. My first ever WIP was about sexy vampire brothers vying for one girl.
I’m a cheese merchant – I just like a dose of reality and some humor with it.
Cecilia Tan: Will you write more science fiction or androids in the future?
Charlotte Stein: God I would love to. The trouble is, my science fiction is just not as loved as my contemporaries.
Cecilia Tan: For readers who loved this story, which of your books should they rush to read next?
Charlotte Stein: I would say probably Almost Real! It’s a story set in a future where human cloning is a reality.
Cecilia Tan: Anything else you’d like to tell us about the story or writing for Summer Rain?
Charlotte Stein: Just that I hope people enjoy it, and the antho, and that we make loads for RAINN. It means a lot to me to a part of something for a charity that does so much good for women.
Find out more about Charlotte at her website: https://charlottestein.net/
More about SUMMER RAIN:
Title: Summer Rain, edited by Sarah Frantz
Series: Love in the Rain
Paperback: 434 pages
Publisher: Pink Kayak Press (June 5, 2014)
Language: English
Paperback: $10.99 (ISBN 978-194136100-9)
Ebook: $3.99
What happens when love gets caught in the rain?
In this romance anthology, RITA-Award winning author Molly O’Keefe shows us the power of a city thunderstorm from the top of a skyscraper, while Amy Jo Cousins soaks us in a rain in Spain. New York Times bestselling author Ruthie Knox’s heroine is devastated by a winter storm, while a summer thunderstorm grants Alexandra Haughton’s hero and heroine a second chance at love. Rain sparks self-awareness in the robot in Charlotte Stein’s story and allows Mary Ann Rivers’s heroine to fall in love with her hero and her own art. Rain causes romance between the college students in Audra North’s and Shari Slade’s stories, while romance causes rain in Cecilia Tan’s myth-inspired tale of a sacrifice to a demi-god. Nine romance novelettes, edited by Sarah Frantz.
All proceeds from the volume will be donated to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (www.rainn.org), the largest anti-sexual violence organization in the United States.
Interview with Charlotte Stein (about Summer Rain)
