Category Archives: Writing

2026 Writing Goals

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I sat down the other day and wrote a list of things that I want to accomplish this year in my Writing. I ended up with 10 in my writing planner, and another 17 which I wrote up while at work on Saturday. Some of them overlap, so lets have a look and see what we can make of the two lists.

Attend the Riwaka Fair and sell my books (6 books!) This was on the 2nd of January and I sold 6 books. That’s 4 more than last year. And I even made a couple of connections with people who were interested in writing. I love encouraging people, so I like making these connections and sharing information.

Publish Finding Faith in March – ebook and paperback. I’ve also written the start of a prologue, that I will release in February – I just need to finish it.

Publish Gaining Grace in July – ebook and paperback.

Publish Having Hope in November – ebook and paperback, and I need to create an epilogue to show the girls in the future – not sure how far yet.

Finish writing Quin and Stef – I want to get this done by the end of March2026

Finish writing Revelations I also want to finish this by the end of March

Write and complete Modern Cinderella by August 2026. I already have this outlined, so it shouldn’t take much to write it up.

Write and complete Redemption by September – this is the last of the Angel books, so I can edit and publish them for 2027.

Start writing Simon and Mel starting in October / November.

Edit Quin and Stef (for publication 2027)

Edit Modern Cinderella (for publication 2027)

Edit Resurrection (for publication 2027)

Edit Redemption (for publication 2027)

Earn $500 from my books (Jan to Dec 26)

Establish Alli Harris – create a website, facebook and instagram page for my darker writing (more fantasy and science fiction romance.)

Create an audio book of Cursed Love – This is one thing I want to achieve this year, in my learning a new skill, is recording and editing Cursed Love. I’m actually keen to video me reading it and releasing it on Youtube – but I need to get a bit more confident in front of the camera.

Have 500 people on my Catherine Mede facebook author page, and 500 people in my newsletter list. Currently I have 210 and 310 respectively, so I don’t think 500 is too big an ask.

I think that just about captures everything. That’s seventeen items all up, so I will keep you posted on updates, probably once a quarter, so that we all know where I am at, and you guys can kick my butt if I don’t get things done on time. Nothing like a bit of accountability.

How did I do in 2025?

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At this time of the year, I like to look back over the previous 12 months and determine whether I achieved any of my goals or not. While I didn’t manage to get a lot of my own personal goals (weight loss), I have started on a very determined regime that is working towards that. But we’re not here to discuss how heavy or light I am…you want to know the writing successes I had this year.

I wanted to write 3, maybe 4 books this year. I have written two, and if you count the two half books, I have written three books. I wrote the last of my Racing Hearts series, (Having Hope) and started writing my Tuivale series – Men in Kilts. I am over halfway through Quin and Stef’s story, but I tell you what, they keep giving me headaches those two.

I also wrote Resurrection, the first in my angel story I’m also a third of the way through Revelation. And I’ll start Redemption next year. I’ll be releasing this series under Alli Harris. This story gave me a migraine until November when I really sat down, looked at what I had written, and reworked my plot, so I have a definite idea of where I want the story to go. I will finish that next year and start on the last story in the series.

I wanted to publish three books this year, but I only published two.

I published Finding Sam Healey and Carol’s Christmas – mostly to crickets (as in, there was no one there to purchase them). I felt quite disheartened, because I pour so much love and attention into my stories, and I enjoyed writing them, and several people have said that they enjoyed reading them (and I love hearing from those who have read my books). I did consider giving up writing, but to be honest, I have way too many story ideas that I can’t give them up. I need to get them out.

Carol’s Christmas was my ninth book released, and next year I am publishing my Racing Harts series with Finding Faith coming out first, in March 2026. Gaining Grace will be in June or July 2026, and Having Hope will be in October or November 2026. I’m really excited to get these books out there because I’ve loved writing this series. The characters were so much fun to write and their partners – are so dreamy! I especially like Hope’s boyfriend, but you’ll have to wait to meet him.

My last goal was to write full time, and earn $50k a year, so that I didn’t have to go back to work. Of course, I was unemployed at the time, and I could give writing a lot of my time, and I got into a great routine of writing in the morning, and then finding something else to do with my day. I was applying for job’s flat out, because… well We need money to feed us and pay bills, and I was going for all the weird and wonderful jobs – including a DoC ranger, and an office position at JB HiFi. Instead, I got a job, working part time as an administrator at the hospital, and it threw all of my writing plans out the window. The hours were unusual and I work on a fortnightly roster, including weekends, so I found I was doing slightly less writing than I wanted. But I have to admit that I can do writing while at work, and I frequently do, especially in the weekends.

So overall, I achieved my writing and publishing goals, and I would love to extend myself further but I still need to make that elusive $1000. Will that happen this year?

I’ll share my writing goals for 2026 next week.

Tropes

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It’s all the rage at the moment to talk about tropes when you discuss your book, or to have them in the blurb on the back.

What are tropes I hear you say? A trope is a recurrent theme or a motif, recurring character type.

But you probably know them better by the books that you read.

In romance, you have the Second Chance romance, grumpy sunshine, fake dating, enemies to lovers, forced proximity, opposites attract, love triangle, love at first sight (and a lot more)

In Fantasy, you have chosen one, the quest, reluctant hero / ruler, hidden world, Inconvenient prophesies along with some of the romance tropes if it is Romantasy.

Science Fiction, you’ll find dystopian society, time travel, interstellar politics, alternate universes, creepy robots, genetic engineering, AI concepts.

Mystery books often have the grizzled detective, amateur sleuth, small town with secrets, ticking clock while Cozy mysteries might have a normal woman turns detective, a bakery, maybe even a witch.

Actions stories have treasure hunts, puzzles and riddles, exotic locations, double agent, mandatory chase scene and a lot more (Matthew Reilly excels at fast paced action in his ‘save the world’ troped stories.)

Horror books even have their own – monsters, deals at crossroads, summoning spells (often done whiole drunk), creepy swamps, broken down vehicles, evil geniuses with unusual weapons (chainsaws, machetes).

Do you have a favourite trope? I particularly like second chance romance, enemies to lovers, actually, pretty much all of the tropes available in Romance.

I sat down and tried to work out what the tropes are for my new Racing Harts series, which is being released next year. This is what I came up with:

Finding Faith is Motorsports, rivals to lovers and championship dreams

Gaining Grace is motorsports, second chance romance, and achieving goals

Having Hope is motorsports, He falls first, and keeping secrets.

Which one are you looking forward to reading?

I will be putting the books out in February, June and October next year, and I’m working on a funding program, where you can give as little as $10 per month to have the three books signed and delivered to your door. If that sounds like something you’re interested in, then please let me know.

Prying the Story Strands from the Ether

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Sometimes in writing you strike a problem, like painting yourself into a corner, and sometimes it can be hard to find a way out of the problem I’ve written before about brainstorming and bouncing ideas of other people to see what works and what doesn’t. But this time nothing was sticking.

I’ve recently had this problem with my dark Angel story. I had started writing it, but had crunched to a halt, trying to work out where I wanted the story to go. I’d spent some sleepless nights trying to work out the problems, but unfortunately nothing was coming together. Brainstorming only seemed to complicate matters.

I decided I needed to work out what I had and where I wanted the story to go. I had a fair idea of the storyline, but it wasn’t flowing, it didn’t seem to be cohesive and the storyline kept falling part.

I had a piece of paper and I wrote down what I already had. I had about seven or eight chapters already written, but it kind of felt rushed. Like too much was happening in the first few scenes.

Then I worked out where I wanted the story to go. I knew where I wanted it to start, where I wanted it to head, and the climatic ending.

Then I filled in the gaps.

And it worked out! After working out a sentence or two for each part of the story structure I expanded it out until I had chapters. And this is where a character from the previous book needed to come back into this story, and with the addition of this one character, everything fell into place.

And it means that the chapters I’ve already written don’t have to be ditched. I only need to rework them to fit them back into my story structure.

I think the problem came from pantsing the story, and as I told you before, I am a plotter, and so not taking the time to plot out how I want the story to go was my problem. Unlike pantsers, I don’t feel like I’ve already done the story when I plot it out. I feel like it’s a guideline for me to work from. If I find a new direction to go in, I can, but I have the plotting there to come back to and weave the story together.

This angel story is going to be published under my other pen name, because it’s has more fantasy elements in it – in fact it’s all fantasy crossed with science fiction, but at this stage, I’m only concentrating on getting the story to come together.

I hope to have Quin and Stef and this story finished before the end of the year. Fingers crossed I can get it done.

Changes are Ahead

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Two years ago, I decided that I would have a five year plan to being a well paid author, earning money from my writing.

I’m no where near that now, and I don’t seem to be closer than I was then.

But never fear, I’m not giving up. As I said in my rant a couple of weeks ago, I can’t stop writing, I would honestly go insane with the voices in my head.

Two years ago, I did go wide – which means that I was publishing my books through Kobo and Draft to Digital, which also distribute to other book sellers. I was even in KoboPlus which is like Kindle Unlimited – a subscription platform for people to read my books for free (technically not free,) and I get paid per page they read.

And apart from 15 books, Crickets. Nothing, zip, narder, zero, zilch. Which is quite disheartening really.

So I am shrinking everything back and putting it all through Amazon, which means I can register for Kindle Unlimited, and I will have a bit more success with my books.

Plus, it means that instead of trying to send people in all directions looking for my books, they can find them at Amazon, or on my website. And with Booklinkers, it will send them to the readers nearest Amazon outlet, rather than to the US site that I have been using previously.

This means that I can focus my attention on sending people to one place, my funds can be better spent on advertising for one place, and it means that I can get paid for the page reads of those who have Kindle Unlimited, and hopefully I will find an audience there.

Valuing the Values

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After last week’s rant, I thought I should write about something a little bit lighter in nature. I thought I would talk about who I am, and how I want my writing to reflect that.

I’m a compassionate person who has a lot of empathy for people, and then I work in an industry where empathy is a major characteristic of the workers. I have a soft spot for animals, and if I had my way, I would adopt every stray cat I could. It also makes me vulnerable to people who want to take advantage of my kind and caring nature.

I’m loyal to my family, work family, friends and I’m there for them whenever they need me. I will fight for my family and stand by them whenever they are in a battle mentally or physically.

I’m honest with everyone around me. What you see if what you get, even the weirdo face pulling and strange clothing that I wear. It’s part of who I am and what I do.

These values are what I want to share in my writing.

Cursed Love was about loyalty to a dead partner and ensuring that the curse would not continue through Jinny’s family line. Compassion played a role too, when Ethan found out what she had been through.


Running Away is about loyalty and honesty in all the wrong places –Larissa’s boyfriend lied to her, her employer was dishonest though she tried to be loyal to the company. Harley ran away from the lies that he was facing, but he continued to lie to Larissa, for his own safety.

In Compromising Positions, Jo has compassion for Edward, and appreciates Logan’s loyalty, and the honesty between Edward and Logan as they work through their issues.

Second-Hand Daughter, and Sylvia’s compassion towards Peyton and not wanting her to end up in social welfare care, and their growing loyalty and honesty with each other as the story develops.

Finding Amy Archer – her life was turned upside down by her husband’s lies, and her loyalty and compassion for her friend show you how deep a relationship will go.

Finding Sam Healey – Sam’s life was all about happy childhood memories, but then she discovers her family secret, struggles with the lies she’s lived with her entire life.

Curse of the Taniwha is all about compassion for others, which Rena has an abundance of, but for the wrong person, and then her loyalty lies with her beast.

Carol’s Christmas, it’s her employees who have the compassion and loyalty that Carol seems to lack.

These values are all part of my business plan as well, and will feature a lot through my books in the future too.

And Now for a little Venting

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I had high expectations for Carols Christmas. I’d hoped that the fact I was donating money to charity would help with sales. Except they haven’t.

It’s not the first time I’ve had my expectations blown out of the water. All of my books have done worse than I thought they would. I think Second-Hand Daughter is a slight exception, but not by much.

I wonder if I’m writing boring shit, or stuff that people don’t want to read. I know that I have fans who like my work, and I deeply appreciate all of you.

But this time, I wanted to raise money for Breast Cancer New Zealand, because it is one of the charities I support (the other one being Daffodil Day at the end of August).

As of 19 October, I’ve raised $16 to be donated to Breast Cancer New Zealand. I wasn’t expecting to donate hundreds of dollars, but I had a goal of $50 – I’m not even half way there.

I realise that things are tough financially for a lot of people at the moment, but sometimes I really wonder whether writing is worth the pain that I constantly put myself through, but then I have way too many ideas going through my head to not write. I just don’t have enough time or energy to write everything I think about. (I do make notes of these ideas.)

Thank you for listening to me carry on. I just needed to get that off my chest. Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

Living Your Best Life

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It has been obvious to me lately that we need to be living our best lives.

So what does that look like for me?
Living my best life is being with those I love, doing the things I love, and not taking things for granted.

Stepping out of my comfort zone and trying something new isn’t something that I do often, but when I do, I’m always grateful for the opportunity to try something new. I always yearn to do the things I love, and I’m slowly getting back into doing those things again.

Writing is something that I’m passionate about, and as long as I can write, I will continue to do so. But recently I’ve decided to go back to writing the slightly off the wall books that I’ve always wanted to write, like fantasy and science fiction. Why? Because that is where I really enjoyed the story telling and developing a whole new world (worldbuilding). To a degree I get to do that with Tuivale and my Men in Kilts series, but it doesn’t have that fantasy aspect that takes the story to the next level, adding elements that are otherworldly, or just out of this realm of possibility.

I will continue to write contemporary romance and Womens Fiction, because I still have a lot of what if questions that need answering, but I have a need to express my inner weirdo to get it out of my head and onto paper.

Sickness and Writing

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I’ve been sick this week, and as a result, very little has been done.

You’d think with having time off work because of sickness would allow me more time to get jobs done, which yes, I did clean the house, do the laundry, the multitude of dishes etc, but writing…nothing was done.

This is it takes a certain energy to write, edit, process when I’m writing, and when I’m sick, it’s like my brain is scrambled eggs. It can’t quite comprehend what I am supposed to be doing without trying to figure out who is chasing who, who is using what weapon, and weather cold spaghetti is worth eating…and that’s in my writing.

As I have two stories on the go at the same time, it’s hard enough keeping storylines straight without being sick. Being sick adds a whole new dimension of “what was I thinking” to the entire endeavour.

But never fear, I’m feeling much better. Better enough to get out for a walk and clear my head.

Introducing Quin and Stef

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Let me introduce you to Quin and Stef. They both work at Fixit Engineering

Stef is outgoing and enjoys partying, with Mel and Jody. She has a block of land which she lives on in her caravan. But winter is coming, and her house hasn’t been started yet… Stef doesn’t do cold (sounds familiar) and doesn’t want to live in the caravan over Winter.

Quin lives on his own in a two bedroom house. He plays social rugby on a Saturday over the winter season for the Tuivale team. He’s a bit of an introvert, but doesn’t mind hanging out with his friend Jake.

Quin can pay his mortgage, and his bills, but has very little left over. He needs a flatmate to help him out.

When Stef says she needs a place to stay, Quin makes the suggestion that she move it. It’s only until her house has been built.

I have been pantsing a lot of this story, which is quite strange for me, but I do have a plan for these two. Unfortunately, they’re against fake dating, which was my original plan for them, instead they want to keep their relationship hidden from their workmates, friends and family. This is proving to be very interesting.