Featured Interview With Kae Cheatham
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I’m not a product of my environment—at least not the one I grew up in. Born in Ohio, I lived there through college (Ohio State). After marriage, I lived in Michigan, North Carolina and raised my two children to adulthood in Tennessee. But my abiding passion has always been the American West. When my husband passed on I finally “got the body where the spirit has always been” (as a close friend toasted when I left Tennessee). That spirit place is Montana.
My animal friends have diminished over the years, from three horses, a dog, three cats, and, in Montana, a trusting snowshoe rabbit and pronghorn buck. I still have one horse who has been with me since he was four (he’s now thirty).
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I was reading at an early age (3 or 4) and books were usual gifts from relatives. I got my first library card when I was seven. That was around the time I first started writing—four sentence stories in first-grade print that my mother kept. The stories got longer as I got older. I started writing poetry in 7th grade and have been published in several national journals. Blood and Bond is my 13th published title. I’ve written historical fiction, science fiction and even non-fiction for young readers.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I enjoy so many different styles and subjects, I ccannot make a true list of favorite authors. I appreciate detective and police procedural mysteries, and “literary” novels that don’t take place in urban settings.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My newest print release, Blood and Bond, is the second printing, revised of a title that since 2009 has only been available for eBooks. I corrected glitches from the first printing, and updated a few things.
A brief overview: It’s the 21st Century, but one rancher in Lamp Creek Valley is being harassed by the dark specter of a dead relative, and ancient beliefs that seem to be threatening the environment. He is compelled to face his past in order to quell the mystical chaos that is affecting three families–including his own.
Blood and Bond contains a good dose of the mystical and some romance, too.
Although the first edition received good reviews, I feel it’s stronger now. In all, it’s taken more than fifteen years for me to be satisfied with this story.
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J. R. Lindermuth says
Kae Cheatam has written some books I truly enjoyed reading and reviewing. Hoping for more of her Westerns. Enjoyed the interview.