Fans of morally grey characters, you will want to drop everything to read this post. We spoke with Cat Rector, author of The Goddess of Nothing At All, a couple of weeks back, and this is definitely a chat you don’t want to miss!
But before we start, don’t forget to follow her on twitter!
Have you always known you wanted to be a writer? How old were you when you wrote your first story?
I was always in love with stories in all formats. I devoured books, video games, movies, everything. As a kid and a teenager, it never occurred to me that authors were real people or that being an author was a job that I could have. I started writing fanfiction when I was 12 and didn’t stop until I was in college. But despite loving writing, I considered authors to be untouchable and famous in the same way movie stars were, so I didn’t really think of it as a job for people like me. That only changed in my late 20s when I realized that the industry had evolved into something more accessible than what I’d imagined.
What are your favourite genres to read and write, and are there any genres or tropes you wouldn’t write?
I gravitate to fantasy and horror for reading and writing. I love writing things that are fantastical and impossible, and usually have nothing to do with modern technology. I’ll read pretty much anything though, because I believe that reading widely opens you up to ideas you won’t find in any one niche. Personally, there are only two genres I’m less inclined to read. I do not enjoy mystery novels, and I’m very picky about what romance books I read. I’ll probably never write those genres because my style tends towards darker themes and will never star a police officer/detective/private investigator XD
When you close your eyes and imagine an apple, what do you see? An actual apple, a sketch of one, a blackness? Do you think that impacts your writing process?
This question comes up on Twitter sometimes and it’s actually been bothering me for a while XD I’m not sure that my mind fits the descriptions I’ve heard before! If I close my eyes and imagine an apple, I see black, however it’s also possible that I’ll start imagining a faint, opaque apple on top of the black. I feel the same while I’m reading. I still only see the page but it’s as if a small layer of a second reality is over top of that.
Maybe this is why description isn’t important to me as a reader or a writer XD When I write, I insert a layer of description into every draft because I know it’s one of my weaker points.
Which three authors would you say influenced your writing the most?
These kinds of questions are hard for me because I’m a Sampler. I’ll read one book from someone’s bibliography and never read them again, and I do the same thing with movies, music, etc. But having thought pretty hard about it…………
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray was one of the first truly feminist books I read and it made me crave more stories about women coming into their own, carving out their own paths, and finding magic in themselves. It’s dated by today’s standards, but it really helped my work find direction and purpose.
Celeste Ascending by Kaylie Jones is a book that taught me that writing about pain can provide a cathartic experience for readers. The novel itself is a dark contemporary novel that I picked up on a whim at a second-hand store, but it helped me find my niche of exploring darker topics.
And finally, Patrick Rothfuss’ work encourages me to continue building the quality of my prose and description, and to be more intentional about my work. He has the ability to weave words like magic, and I’m always striving towards that.
When you’re building your world, what do you focus on? How do you try to make it come to life?
Worldbuilding for me is less about the specific details like languages and currency, and more about the culture. With all the books I’ve written or am planning to write, I tend to focus on figuring out why people behave the way they do, what’s important to them, their morality, etc. I often end up reading a lot of nonfiction about the cultures I’m writing about or around. Because of my specific focus, I tend to forget details like what the clothing looks like, because I’m very character-driven in all aspects. Oops!
What projects are you currently working on? Can you share any details yet?
I’m working on two things at the moment! First is Epilogues for Lost Gods, which is book two of my Unwritten Runes series. People can find book one, The Goddess of Nothing At All, here, which is a Norse Myth retelling from the PoV of Sigyn, Loki’s wife. It’s a dark fantasy with tons of queer rep, a lot of complicated themes, and will probably make you cry. More info, including a long list of trigger warnings, can be found on my website.
My second project is an untitled queer dark Witch Book that takes place in a fantasy Puritan witch hunt setting, focusing on a bold young witch and a shy farmer boy who have to discover what exactly the church is up to in their little town. It explores themes of faith, religion, the history of witches and medicine, and more! But that’s not coming out in 2022, sadly XD
Three images that capture the aesthetic of your book?
Three songs you would put in your book’s soundtrack?
You can find my entire playlist at this link, but if we’re narrowing it down to three songs for The Goddess of Nothing At All, I’d go with these:
Even Though Our Love is Doomed by Garbage is a very star-crossed lovers type song and gets to some of the heart of this book.
Devil’s Backbone by The Civil Wars is a Sigyn song. Her love for broken Loki is deep and persistent, even when he doesn’t deserve it.
Dear Wormwood by The Oh Hellos is a song that represents Sigyn’s relationship with her father, and to some degree, the rest of her family. She’s been misled and unseen, and it’s no wonder she fell for charming Loki, who saw so much in her that no one else did.
What would be your dream project?
I think my dream project would be working on a book crate edition of The Goddess of Nothing At All. It would be amazing to see my book with a small pile of merch, being unboxed by readers around the world. I’d probably cry like a baby.
Which of your characters would you most want to fight a zombie apocalypse with?
I’d definitely choose one of the later characters in my book, Hel. In Norse myth, Hel is the ruler of Helheim, the land of the dead. I feel like she’d be a very strong asset in a zombie apocalypse due to her power over the dead 😀
You’re stuck on a desert island and you’re allowed only three (LGBT) books. What are you taking?
The cruelest questions are ones like this that make you CHOOSE BOOKS. How dare. Currently, I’d choose Heart and Seoul by my critique partner Erin Kinsella, because if I’m trapped on a desert island, I’d probably need a warm hug of a book, which H&S is. Ummm… A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson and also The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrech, because they’re both dark queer books with (problematic) romantic plots, which I love to bits.
You can collaborate on anything with anyone in the LGBT community: who would it be and why?
I don’t actually have a list of people I’d want to collaborate with! I’m already so lucky to be working alongside Erin Kinsella and Lyra Wolf, as well as entire Discord servers of talented queer writers. I already consider it an honour that I’ve gotten to do this much!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cat Rector grew up in a small Nova Scotian town and could often be found simultaneously reading a book and fighting off muskrats while walking home from school. She devours stories in all their forms, loves messy, morally grey characters, and writes about the horrors that we inflict on each other. Currently, she lives in Belgium with her spouse. When she’s not writing, you can find her playing video games, spending time with loved ones, or staring at her To Be Read pile like it’s going to read itself.
The Goddess of Nothing At All is her debut novel.
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