Not of This World, or Why Author Cathy Pegau Writes Speculative Fiction

Please welcome Cathy Pegau back to the blog in celebration of her new release, The Demon Equilibrium. It's a steampunk adventure romance, and it's available now. Be sure to come back on Monday for my review. Spoiler - I liked it! 

Not sure about buying the book? If you are in the USA and have access to Hoopla, it's available there! CLICK TO READ.

Find Cathy online:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

About Cathy ~ 

I had stories revolving in my head as a kid, but made little effort to get them down on paper. Home computers were rare way back then, and using my Brother Correct-O-Typewriter was a pain. Funny, then, I thought it too time consuming to use a pen and paper. Now, I will most likely write my stuff out by hand before sitting at the computer to input/edit.

Writing was not the career path I chose when the time came. I thought the arts, while enjoyable, was not the way to make a living. So I went into science. Wildlife biology, to be exact. Yep, plenty of prosperous biologists wandering about in the woods, you know. Obviously money was not high on my list of job perks. But I enjoyed the course work (how many college students can say THAT?) and managed to get short-term positions for a few years. It was fun, hard and sweaty work, and gave me the chance to see and do things I wouldn’t have if I had chosen accounting or even writing. Like get lost in the woods overnight. But that’s another story.

I got engaged, then married–to a scientist, assuring perpetual financial uncertainty. We lived in Oregon for a while, and when he was offered a job in Alaska we jumped at it. So, now we live here with our kids and critters and the occasional moose strolling through the yard. I can’t afford therapy, so I write. I want to do what I want to do, so I write. I want my kids to know that pursuing dreams is important, so I write.

Not of This World

I have been a fan of speculative fiction for as long as I can remember. As a kid and young adult, I read horror, fantasy, sci fi, and played Dungeons & Dragons and other RPGs (old school, with dice, paper, and maps, and a table full of teens/twenty-somethings guzzling soda and eating salty snacks), generally gravitating toward anything that was “other.”

It should be no surprise, then, that my first writings were fantasy stories, or that my inaugural published book was a science fiction romance. (While romance wasn’t part of my typical reading and RPG days, I *wanted* more romance in those media, so I read and write them now.) I suppose crafting stories based on what I’d read and played was my way of checking the “write what you know” box.

But I live in a real world that I should also know about. Why haven’t I delved into non-speculative contemporaries? It comes down to one thing, really: I love making sh*t up.

I love the freedom of creating my own worlds and rules. For Rulebreaker and its associated books, the setting is a cold, snowy planet where my con artist protagonist risks her heart and her life. Just a spaceship ride away is a beachy planet where golden sunsets kiss lavender sands. In The Demon Equilibrium, demons are running around causing all manner of grief, and a faction of hunters who belong to a religious order are making it their business to thwart them. Could my hunters have been after human evil-doers? Sure. Plenty of those to deal with across time and space. But why not kick it up a notch and make the hunters magic users and the baddies demonic? Why not, indeed! The one contemporary I have out, Haunted, has a mystery and a ghost. Because of course it does.

There are amazing authors of contemporary, non-woo-woo books with significant and interesting consequences at stake. How they come up with cool plots and stick to actual real world parameters is a mystery to me. As I mull contemporary stories, my brain goes to “And what if there were mages/aliens/ghosts?”

I won’t say I will never write a non-spec fic contemporary story. It could absolutely happen. But for now, my zone is other wheres, other whens, and other hows. Preferably in some combination thereof.

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When the demonic Horde threatens to unleash Hell on Earth, two women must summon every bit of their shared power to save the world.

Grace Carter, a “source” of magic, has spent the last nine months searching for Maggie Mulvaney, her “catalyst.” The joy of reuniting with her partner—and her lover—is thwarted by her worst fear: Maggie doesn’t remember Grace or their life together. Grace blames the Order of Saint Teresa, the centuries-old organization that trained them to be the strongest demon-hunting duo in generations. But why has the Order done this?

As Maggie and Grace begin to piece their lives back together, they discover that their memories have been masked by someone within the Order. Should the Horde succeed in their plan, those who have committed their lives to slaying worldly demons will be relegated to little more than minions as humans are completely enslaved.

Now, Grace and Maggie must sacrifice everything, possibly even their lives, as they battle to save humanity.

Publisher: Bywater Books
Release Date: Nov. 2nd, 2021
Formats: ebook, paperback
Buying Links: Amazon* | Barnes & Noble | Bywater Books | iBooks* | Kobo
* associate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.