Cate Tiernan Birthday: Astro Sign: July 24, 1961 Leo, on a Leo/Cancer cusp Native Residence: Current Residence: New Orleans, Louisiana Durham, North Carolina Marital Status: Children: Newly Remarried 2 daughters/2 stepsons

  Just the Facts   On Writing   Thought Questions   Other Info  

Just the Facts...

1. Hobbies/Interests
   "Gardening, traveling, cooking, eating, sewing, lots of domestic stuff like that. Quiet stuff I can do on my own."

2. Favorite color
   Orange.

3. Favorite TV show/movies
   "I don't actually watch much TV, but I do get sucked into Survivor or American Idol once in a while. Purely for research purposes, of course. I like American Chopper a lot. Love Ellen DeGeneres's show. The Daily Show is hilarious."

4. Favorite teen/children's books
   "Lots of classics-The Secret Garden, The Little Princess, The Jungle Books. The "Little House" books. Fairy tales. The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings. But I read virtually anything I could get my hands on, and my parents didn't censor me. My house today is full of thousands and thousands of books, and I don't censor what my kids read. I do always know what they're reading, though."

5. Family status
   Update: Spring 2007 (maybe April?) Cate Tiernan go remarried. So, now she has her own two daughters as well as her hubby and her two stepsons.

   "I'm single, and I have two daughters who are nine and seven. We live in what we call the Girl House, because it's all girls, all the time. Except the cat I adopted recently became an unwed teenage mother, so now we have three boy kittens in the Girl House. Things are good in the Girl House."

   The cat's name is Delaney. In March 2004, Delaney had 4 kittens, but one died from a heart condition. But Delaney "adopted" a male foster kitten they found abandoned in a dumpster.

6. Hopes & dreams for the future
   I read an interesting reply from Cate Tiernan from a student who was doing a paper on Full Circle online. Cate replied that she hoped, in the future, to get Doctorate in English, maybe even teach. She also aspires to write her own novels, screen plays, and articles for the newspaper.

On Writing....

1. Still read teen books?
   "Actually, I don't. I really don't want to be influenced by them. I do read a lot of younger books, though, mostly to my children but also for fun."

2. Writing schedule
   "Not a strict schedule. I have deadlines that I try hard not to blow. I tend to have a page quota that I try to make each day. Some days I don't make it, some days I do much better. Some days I sit and stare at the computer balefully."

3. About her writing style
   "Hmm. I guess I think of it as being evocative, emotional, personal, funny. I tend to overwrite, and then have to be cut back. I try to be true, emotionally. I try to make sense and feel real. I know I describe things a lot."

   I also read that Cate Tiernan likes to write about her views in her stories, or her hopes for the future.

4. Why did she become a writer?
   "I felt like I had something to say to younger people, and that I could do it well. It satisfies a strong creative need in me. It's fun."

Thought Questions

1. Do you feel that the Sweep series represents the full potential of your writing talent? (As compared to the new series Balefire, which you have much more control and power over.)
   Interesting question! The answer is yes and no. Yes, in some ways, because I loved some things about Sweep and was really happy with some of the writing and the characterizations. And no, because it wasn't all me, all my ideas, and I was sometimes unhappy with the directions or storylines that the editors wanted to pursue. That said, I want to emphasize that every writer needs editors, no matter who they are. And I know that the editors I worked with on Sweep added to its strength and its facets, more than if I had worked on it alone. Now, with Balefire, it's all mine, but I'll still have editorial input, and it will still help and strengthen the series. But it's true I have more say about what happens.

Other Info

Last Modified: Thursday, 01/15/09