I’m a sucker for superheroes, and Jackie and Caitlin have created two incredible ones with Jet and Iridium. They then established a believable, exciting world in which corporate sponsorship is a key component to being a superhero, put together an intricate plot with pleny of twists and turns, added their own brilliant styles that they’ve honed in previous urban fantasy novels, and let those characters lose.
The result was Black and White: a fun, sexy (but not so much if you’re ironically turned off by such a thing), fast-paced romp that brings such a great ending…
I won’t spoil it. But after you read it, I guarantee you’ll want to check out Shades of Grey, the follow up to Black and White.
Below, Jackie and Caitlin tell how the characters they ultimately ended up working on came to be, and their editor discusses how the novel itself came to be a part of Spectra.
JACKIE SAYS:
“When I first thought about writing Jet, I knew she’d have to be so by-the-book that she’d be a model superhero. And that meant she’d have to have a reason for being that way. Was she hiding something? Did following the rules serve a purpose other than being a good guy? As it turns out, the answer to both was “Yes.” Every hero needs a weakness. Jet’s just happens to be a genetic predisposition to going insane. Which is tough for Jet, but lot of fun for me.”
–Jackie Kessler, July 2010
CAITLIN SAYS:
“I knew immediately that I wanted to play the villain–Iridium popped into my head all at once, looks and attitude and backstory. I wanted to give her a traditionally “good” power (the power to control light and light-heat) and invert all of the thematic implications of such a power into a supervillain character. Villains become villains for a lot of reasons, and I gave Iridium what I consider the most powerful motivator–family. She’s trying very hard to carry on a legacy that’s deeply ingrained in who she is, but at the same time she struggles, because nobody is all good or all “evil”. Iridium didn’t really have her own identity when the series started, apart from her supervillain dad, and her finding out who she is and what she’s capable of was the crux of her personal story. Iridium demonstrates that being a villain can sometimes simply mean having a moral code that differs from the majority–but sometimes she does things because she thinks she’s unstoppable and bad-ass, and in the series I knew she’d have to meet the consequences of those actions. Sooner or later, all villains do.”
–Caitlin Kitteredge, July 2010
“Books come to me almost exclusively through agents, but Black and White was one of the great exceptions to the rule. Black and White came to my attention thanks to another editor and former Bantam colleague.
As I recall it, the occasion was the surprise 40th birthday party of the husband of yet another editor friend and former Bantam colleague. There we all were, festively drinking margaritas and noshing on yummy appetizers, and the conversation turned, as it does, to work. How’s your job going, what are you editing that you love and that I need to read, etc. And my former colleague, now at another house, started telling me about this amazing superhero manuscript she had read, that she absolutely adored, and had totally wanted to buy, but which her bosses didn’t think fit her particular publishing program. And how she totally wanted it to find a great home, because it needed a great home, and…
Well, I asked, what was the book? So she pitched it to me. Brilliantly. I came out of that party totally wanting to get my hands on this book. On Monday, I e-mailed the agent and asked for it. And I, too, fell completely in love. And, even more fortunately, was able to buy it. The minute I concluded the deal, I e-mailed my friend, thanking her, and promising her I’d take good care of the book for her. And the authors were kind enough to put her name in the acknowledgements–because without that party, none of this would have happened!”
–Anne Groell, Senior Editor, Spectra
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