An Interview with Cat Rambo!

Photos from the World Fantasy Convention 2011 in San Diego, CA

Hi, folks! Welcome to my first post on BeforeWeGoBlog! I’m excited to be a part of the time! I wanted to use this space to do more text-based interview with people I think are cool, and I’m hoping you all enjoy this inaugural interview with Cat Rambo as much as I did!

They’re one of the most smartest people I’ve met in SFF! I had a blast talking to them about everything from influenced, D&D, and the time they rented an 11th century castle in Spain for the month of November!

Check it out!

1. What would you say are your foundational influences and why do you think they stuck with you?

A big one will always be Tolkien. My babysitter starting reading the Hobbit to me and I was HOOKED. I talked my grandmother into buying them, at a B. Dalton (I think) in a mid-Kansas mall, the edition that had been pirated in America, back in the days before people understood copyright quite so keenly. I loved the immersion in another world, particularly the Ent Woods. Other influences would come fast and furious in subsequent years: Andre Norton writing female protagonists and Thomas Burnett Swann writing gay ones, to name a couple.

I was a bookworm, back in the days when there were only three TV channels and no Internet, and I read voraciously: H.P. Lovecraft and Robert Heinlein, Michael Moorcock and Theodore Sturgeon, Joanna Russ and Samuel R. Delany. They stuck with me because I lived them so deeply and so often, because sometimes when you’re out of reading, you go back and reread. I think I’ve read the LotR at least a couple dozen times by now.

2. You’ve mentioned playing a lot of D&D. In what way has the game shaped your views and approach to storytelling?

I started playing in a homebrew game at a local bookstore and my character, Princess Arren of Dörmark, was my first taste of experiencing a story through the medium of playing a game. We had a great gamemaster who used Tarot cards instead of dice to determine outcomes, and also drew on his own deep reading in fantasy.

Sometimes I fall in love with characters when I run them. My space opera series has several that wandered over from game campaigns, such as Roxana the paladin as well as Jezli Farris, con-artist extraordinaire. And the fantasy I’m finishing up right now features a character from a D&D game I played during the pandemic.

3. What got you started on The Disco Space Opera series? Has anything about the experience surprised you? What can we expect from book three?

I originally wrote it to self-publish, and then my agent persuaded me to sell it to Tor Macmillan, so that was a bit of a surprise. And I’ve been astonished by how much I love writing these characters, and how thoroughly they live in my head. In book three, they’ve made their way to Coralind, full of gardens and some of the finest cooking ingredients in the Known Universe. They’re trying to deal with a number of troubles from Niko’s past, including a stubborn bank, an embittered former ally, and a new manifestation of their old foe, Tubal Last. Expect exotic food, a good bit of banter, and a lot of partying.

4. You’ve published across indie, small press, and trad–what are the similarities and differences of each approach? Are there challenges or rewards in any path you feel don’t get enough credit?

I think a lot of the difference lies in the role of the author in all the factors that aren’t writing, including editing, cover design, soliciting blurbs, writing marketing copy, etc. If you’re publishing indie, you’re doing all of those or else paying someone else to do it. On the bright side, you’re making all the money… if it takes off. Small press, on the other hand, lets you sidestep some of those, but the mileage will differ a lot from one small press to another. I think if you’re publishing small press, looking at what they’ve published already and talking to other people published by them is pretty important.

With traditional publishing, you’re getting lumps of money (at least, hopefully) at intervals, and you may or may not be involved much in the marketing. Sometimes there may be marketing efforts that you were totally unaware of, like a spatula blazoned with the book’s title sent out to random reviewers that you only find out because you were scrolling through BookTok. (True story). But trad also has a strong hold on a good chunk of the distribution system, particularly chain bookstores. Even there, the author that can do a little hustling on their own is going to do better.

5. What’s one thing you wish you knew earlier in your career?

You don’t have to make everyone happy. I’d like to have learned that about age 11 or 12, I think.

6. Tell me everything about 2023 Wayward Wormhole Workshop, it sounds so cool!! How did it go and what did you get out of it?

I RENTED AN 11TH CENTURY CASTLE IN SPAIN FOR THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER! It was amazing! Challenging at times, but overall one of the best experiences of my life. I invited Tobias Buckell, Ann Leckie, and Sarah Pinsker to come teach with me, and we had a delightful time, including celebrating my 60th birthday. This year I’m doing another one, this time inside the US, in New Mexico, with Minister Faust, C.C. FInlay, Donald Maass and Arley Sorg. The plan is to alternate each year between locations outside the US and inside it, and to always make them fabulous locations that I want to visit, with amazing teachers that I want to hang out with, because otherwise why bother doing them? Can you say #bestlife?

7. What do you enjoy about teaching the craft?

I love that it makes me better at my own craft, that I have to articulate my thoughts and feelings about something in order to talk about it in a meaningful way. I run my writing community as a place where we’re all focusing on writing (and having fun at the same time) and I’m definitely one of the people getting a lot out of it.

8. Do you have a favorite line, paragraph or chapter you’ve ever written? If so, why does it stick with you?

Carpe Glitter, my grandmother Gloria always said. Seize the glitter.

That’s from the novelette Carpe Glitter, which won a Nebula award a few years ago. I like it because the phrase had stuck with me for years after making a joke about it, and it was so lovely to finally get it into a story.

9. What’s coming next for you?

Rumor Has It appears September 24th of this year, and I should also have a couple of story publications, including a flash piece in Lightspeed Magazine and a story about a conversation with a dragon in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

10. Anything else you’d like to add?

Thank you for letting me do this interview! One of the coolest things about the Internet is the chance to meet new people, and it’s been fun getting to know you better after enjoying your first book so much!

Thank you so much for doing this interview!

I hope you’re having a great day!!