Victoria Pitts-Caine – Writer of Sweet Small Town Stories of Love and Family

I’m so excited to welcome another friend to Live Vi-Carrie-ous today!

Victoria Pitts-Caine has been featured here before. Her books ALVARADO GOLD, CAIRO, and THE TEMPERING ANGEL have all been reviewed and enjoyed here.

Her latest is NOT BOUND BY TIME and I’m excited to ask Victoria a few questions about the story. She’s also provided us with a short excerpt down below.

Hi Victoria! Welcome. What do you hope readers will take away from this book?

There’s something magical when love finds a way. The reader will discover there is hope and a little fairy-tale enchantment when the characters, even though they are in an unusual situation, manage to travel through time to their true loves.

Who is one of your favorite characters in the book and why?

Camille Windham is my favorite. She’s the first traveler and I took a little bit of my own ancestral background to create her.

Why did you decide to do a time travel?

I read Love of My Heart by Bess McBride and was haunted by the story and the concept. The couple discovers they were in love before in another time. I decided it was a genre I wanted to try. The Time Traveler’s Wife was another favorite.

What else about your book might grab the reader’s interest?

There are three separate but connected stories in Not Bound By Time and there’s a little bit for everyone from Western to World War II to protecting the Scottish regalia in the 1500’s.

How much of the book is realistic?

The portrayal of the characters in their day to day lives and what would have transpired in the time period they’re in is realistic, the traveling through time…well maybe not.

How did you come up with your title?

My desire with the storyline is to explain that time can’t hold someone who has found their soulmate and the characters find a way to be with that person even if they’re in another place and time.

Are the experiences in the book based on someone you know or your real life?

I do not know anyone in the book, but I’m interested in Victorian England and Camille travels from that time. She lives in a castle and is a nanny for her distant cousin’s children.

Who or what inspired you to write your book?

I don’t know if it was an inspiration or a challenge. I’m basically an inspirational romance writer and I wanted to write in a slightly different genre.

What is a one-sentence synopsis of your books?

Time cannot imprison love nor hold it in place.

What other jobs have you held or do you hold besides writing?

Most of my jobs were in the clerical field, but I was an account executive for a recording studio for about five years. I retired as a staff technician after spending seventeen years in the environmental sector.

When did you know you wanted to write?

I wrote some twenty plus years ago, but put it aside to raise my children. When I started doing genealogy, I felt I had a story to tell about my family and wrote a novel, Rachel, based on family history. I may rewrite the book at some point now that I’m more comfortable with my craft.

What books influenced you most in your life?

I was read to as a small child and was captivated by Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys when I able to read on my own. I didn’t go back and read the classics until I was an adult or reading them to my own children. I loved Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books and J.R.R. Tolkein.

How do you make time for your writing?

I actually found more time to write when I worked nine hours a day. I wrote at night and on the weekends. It’s about priorities with me. I’m good working with a plan in mind. If I schedule a writing time, I’m able to stick to it.

What writer would you like to be your mentor?

I had a wonderful mentor during my “growing up years” as a writer. Her name is Elnora King and she wrote under the pseudonym of Dianne King. She taught me so much – not just about writing but about life.

What are you reading now?

I read between three and five books a week and most of those go up for review on Amazon or on my blog. So right at this moment, I’m reading a romance. Tomorrow it might be a mystery/suspense. When I’m reading just for the fun of it, I like Catherine Ryan Hyde. I took a couple of classes from her and enjoy her books. I’m also into the whole Dan Brown thing and anxiously waiting for Brad Meltzer’s next release.

How do you “feed” your writing self?

Anything that brings writers together is a benefit. I think we all feed off of each other (in a good way). I facilitate a class once a week for writers where we read our work and do a short lesson. We share our triumphs and sorrows in life as well as in publishing. The triumphs usually with cake!

Congratulations on your new release! Enjoy the cake (I hope it’s chocolate)!

Victoria’s links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorVictoriaPittsCaine

Blog: http://victoriapitts-caine.blogspot.com

Website: http://vcaine.homestead.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/VictoriaPittsC

Email: alvaradogold9@gmail.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1377310.Victoria_Pitts_Caine

Bio:

Victoria Pitts Caine is a native Californian. Her varied interests include genealogy and exotic gemstone collecting both of which she’s incorporated into her novels. While her genre is inspirational, she has branched out into other areas such as her current release, Not Bound By Time and a YA mystery/suspense.

The author has received recognition from: Enduring Romance Top 10 Picks for 2008, William Saroyan Writing Conference, Byline Magazine, Writer’s Journal Magazine, HI Families Magazine and The Southern California Genealogical Society. Her first novel, Alvarado Gold, was published in 2007. To complete the trilogy which began with Alvarado Gold, Cairo was published in 2013 and The Tempering Agent in 2014.

She is the mother of two daughters. Victoria and her husband enjoy travel, church service and emergency radio communications.

Excerpt from Not Bound By Time:

The year was 1942, and Randolph Mitchell, along with several of his fellow soldiers, marched down a road pockmarked by shelling in London. He shuddered as a light mist fell around him. Late summer had gone.

A captain at twenty-two, Randolph’s first glimpses of war lay around him. Bile rose in his throat at the devastation. Is this what years of military boarding school has brought me to? He bent to retrieve a bit of paper. Printed roses danced on the edge, and with nowhere to discard it, he pocketed the small scrap of the life people there once lived.

When the men arrived in town earlier, Randolph spotted the young woman gazing into a merchant’s window. She carried herself with an air of importance. Ribbons and lace accented her oddly-layered clothes of multicolored fabrics. Such elaborate attire was ill-suited because people were starving and only making do. Randolph dismissed her unusual manner of dress. Who could she be? So out of place, yet so beautiful.

His troop moved up the street, and as he surveyed the area, he forced himself to forget the woman, but when he approached the shop, she turned, and their eyes met. Randolph Mitchell lost his heart in that split second, but it would take his head a while to figure it out. His eyes pursued her as she picked her way through the rubble of the bombed-out buildings.

“Hello,” he ventured.

As a delicate pink color rose from her neck, she turned her eyes toward the window. Randolph sauntered to stand beside her and glanced at their reflection. He stood a good foot taller than she. His wrinkled uniform caused a pang of self-consciousness, but his desire to speak to her quelled his embarrassment. “I’m Randolph Mitchell, US Army.” He smiled, studying her porcelain complexion and bright hazel eyes, hoping for a welcome response.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be talking to you,” the woman said.

“It’s safe. We’ve been sent here to protect you. Or err… your country.” Randolph took his cap off and grinned at her. “I, ah, we might make sure you get home. Do you live close by?”

The young woman’s face blanched as she shook her head. “I used to live here.” She sighed. Then she backed away, turned around, and started running.

Randolph clenched his fists. He had to find out.

“Wait! I didn’t mean any harm!” He called after her. “Your name? At least tell me your name!”

“Camille Windham,” came from her lips, and her name planted itself in Randolph’s heart.

She scampered down the walkway away from Randolph, leaving only her name.

I’ve know Vicki Caine for several years now and am thrilled to be able to tell you about her and her books.

Victoria Pitts Caine is a native Californian and lives in the bountiful San Joaquin Valley. Her varied interests include genealogy and exotic gemstone collecting both of which she’s incorporated into her novels. While her genre is inspirational, she likes to refer to herself as a Christian Romance Adventure Novelist.

The author has received recognition in both fiction and nonfiction from: Enduring Romance top 10 picks for 2008, William Saroyan Writing Conference, Byline Magazine, Writer’s Journal Magazine and The Southern California Genealogical Society. Her first novel, Alvarado Gold, was published in 2007.

Victoria is a former staff technician for the environmental sector working in air pollution control. She is the mother of two daughters. Victoria and her husband enjoy travel, church service and emergency radio communications.

Q. Why did you pick Inspirational romance as your genre?

At first, I wanted to write an adventure novel. I didn’t see myself as a romance writer, but I learned quickly if I didn’t have a genre, I wasn’t going anywhere. I added a romance to my first book, Alvarado Gold, and because of my beliefs and preferences in what I read myself, inspirational was the next step.

Q. Who is one of your favorite characters in your books and why?

There is a little bit of “me” in all of my female characters. Addie Brown is about as close to me as any of my heroines since the book is based on a family story of my own. I’m technically Addie in the family breakdown of the six cousins in the book.

Q. How long does it take you to write a book?

It usually takes me about two years. However, I have one on the back burner I haven’t gotten beyond the first chapter. It is written in a style I’m not familiar with and it takes me to a different place that takes considerable thought.

Q. How did you come up with your titles?

Alvarado Gold came from the name of the small town near where my family originally settled in Texas. Cairo, which is the next book in the series, follows Addie and Gary on an ill-fated vacation to Egypt. The Tempering Agent is also set in Egypt and is the third in the series. The title for that book came from the agent mixed into clay that gives it strength and stability. Alvarado Gold is available on Amazon and Cairo and The Tempering Agent will be released this year from PRISM BOOK GROUP

Q. When did you start writing?

I wrote a story for an adoption magazine years ago and was urged to have it published in a national magazine. When I didn’t get any takers, I set writing aside for another twenty years until I started attending a writing critique group.

Q. How hard was it to find a publisher?

I think the real question for me is: was it hard to find the right publisher? I wanted my three books to be with the same house and when I saw that wasn’t going to happen I looked for a long time to find a house to take the other two. I actually was just short of signing a contract when I realized I couldn’t do everything that particular publisher wanted. As they say, good things come to those who wait because my current publisher is awesome.

Q. What’s new with your writing?

I’m excited to announce I’ll have an Easter novella coming out next month with PRISM BOOK GROUP. The name of the story is Like a Lily. I don’t have the exact release date but it will be available on their website and Amazon the first part of March.