Interview with Carrie Pack

Excited to share an interview today with Carrie Pack, author of Past Imperfect, the second book in the In the Present Tense duology.  This duology is science fiction romance centering characters with mental illness. Past Imperfect comes out on August 9!

A Bit About Carrie

Carrie Pack is an award-winning author with books in multiple genres, including Designs on You (2014), In the Present Tense (2016 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Bronze Award for Science Fiction), Grrrls on the Side (2017 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Bronze Award for Young Adult Fiction) and Past Imperfect (2018). Her novels focus on characters finding themselves in their own time—something she experienced for herself when she came out as bisexual. She’s passionate about science fiction, feminism, and red lipstick. Carrie lives in Florida, or as she likes to call it, “America’s Wang.”

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An Interview with Carrie

How would you describe yourself to a new reader just discovering your work?

I write about characters finding themselves, but they tend to have roundabout ways of doing it. They rarely take the easy route and they’re flawed and imperfect while doing it.

What inspired the In The Present Tense duology?

A lot of things went into it, but mostly it was my love of time travel as a Sci-Fi trope. I have always been intrigued by the concept of time travel, so I wanted to do my take on it.

What do you hope your readers take away from this duology?

A sense of hope. My characters all have varying forms of mental illness and as someone with a history of mental illness myself, I felt it was important to communicate that. Often our brains tell us that there isn’t any hope. But that’s not true. People with mental illness can (and do) find love and fulfillment. They can still suffer setbacks and have friends and family that support them.

Who did you write this duology for?

This is going to sound selfish, but I wrote it for myself. I wrote the book that I wanted, and in the process it turned out to be the book that I needed. It helped me to come out and to make peace with my mental illnesses.

What did you edit out of Past Imperfect?

Oh, there’s one scene I had to cut that I absolutely loved. You’ll have to check my website to read it.

Can you share with us something about Past Imperfect that isn’t in the blurb?

It’s a love story.  There’s a lot of suspense and conspiracy in the duology so it doesn’t get mentioned as much, but both books feature romances. Miles’s romance factors pretty heavily into In the Present Tense but Past Imperfect is Bethany’s love story.

What is your favorite word?

Serendipity

What is your least favorite word?

Obese

What book is currently on your bedside table that you can’t wait to dive into reading?

Adaptation by Malinda Lo. I just started it last night and I was up until 1 a.m. reading it!

What’s next on the horizon for you?

I’m working on a YA horror novella called The Lights that I hope to self-publish this fall. It was inspired by my hometown’s annual Nights of Lights where the entire city is lit up with Christmas lights. In my version, though, the children of the town become possessed by lights and go on a murder spree.

More About Past Imperfect

Now on the run from the corporation that turned him into a lab experiment, Miles finds himself in a fight for his life as he unravels the complicated relationships he shares with ex-boyfriend Adam, whom he still loves, and wife Ana, whose allegiance he cannot trust.

Meanwhile, nineteen-year-old Bethany Carter is on the run from her past and present. Having escaped the same institution that trapped Miles, she must find a way to safely manage the schizophrenia that triggers her time travel while navigating unpredictable bouts of paranoia.

As Miles’ and Bethany’s lives become more intertwined, Dr. Branagan, the man who made their lives a living hell at Longleaf Retreat, will stop at nothing to continue his research, even if it means destroying his subjects in the process.

Get this book

Pre-order the print edition at Interlude Press, and you get the eBook free!

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