Author Interview: Cat Hellisen

I would like to say a very big, thank you! to Cat for doing an author interview with me.

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Q: Can you tell us a little about your book, When the Sea is Rising Red?

Felicita is a privileged girl who grows up in a colonialist society where she is automatically a higher caste because of her ability to do magic, while at the same time her life is strictly controlled. All her life she's been brought up to believe the Great House rules on everything from her place in society to her expected obedience.

She ends up running away from an arranged marriage and trying to re-invent herself after a faked suicide. While living in a squat and trying her best to adjust to her new life, she becomes snagged in the plans of the lower-caste Dash, who sees her as an opportunity to unleash a magical revolution and destroy the higher-caste families he hates.

Ultimately she has to work out where her loyalties lie ? with the family who brought her up, or with the family who took her in. It's about realising how much people lie to you to get what they want, and about making your own decisions and owning them no matter what.


Q: Where did the idea for this book come from?

I originally wrote another book set in the same universe, and Felicita was one of the side characters. I wanted to find out her story -- about why she thought so differently to the people around her --so I ended up having to write it. It's the only way I would ever have known.

Q: I absolutely love the cover. Did you have any say on what it looked like?

Thank heavens not, because if I had, I can assure you it would not have been a tenth as awesome.

Q: I know when I am writing reviews on my blog (or cleaning) I have to have music in the background. Do you listen to music when you write? If so, could you share a few of your favorite songs?

I do! Uh, far too many different things to mention, because it all depends on mood (book-mood, not my mood). Currently I'm listening to a lot of older Patrick Wolf, Placebo, and Tricky.

Q: If you could see your book, When the Sea is Rising Red made into a movie, who would you cast?

Oh boy. This is probably where I should mention that the last recentish movie I watched was Deathly Hallows pt 2? And before that Deathly Hallows pt 1? And before that Half-blood Prince? (Wait, you're spotting a theme here, aren't you?)

Okay, how about Lily Cole as Felicita?

Q: Are you working on anything else? Would you share with us?

I'm pretty much always working on something else, but bizarrely enough right now I am taking a small break. I just sent my agent, the lovely Suzie Townsend, a not-quite-a-sequel to When the Sea is Rising Red, and I'm dreamstorming a ghost story about necromancers and the King of the Dead.

Q: Where can we find you online?


 http://cathellisen.com and https://twitter.com/#!/hellioncat


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In sixteen-year-old Felicita’s world, magic is strictly controlled—or so those in power like to believe. After her dearest friend, Ilven, kills herself to escape an arranged marriage, Felicita chooses freedom over privilege. She fakes her own death and leaves her sheltered life as one of Pelimburg’s magical elite behind. Living in the slums, scrubbing dishes for a living, she falls for charismatic Dash while also becoming fascinated with vampire Jannik. Then something shocking washes up on the beach: Ilven’s death has called out of the sea a dangerous, wild magic. Felicita must decide whether her loyalties lie with the family she abandoned . . . or with those who would twist this dark power to destroy Pelimburg’s caste system, and the whole city along with it (source)

Again, thank you for taking the time to do an author interview for my blog.. And again, I LOVE the cover of this book!!

Happy Reading!!