Trying Something New

I hinted that I would be trying something new earlier this year (was that only three weeks ago?). I wanted to see if I could do it before I told you about it.

And I can actually do it, so what have I been doing? I’ve been writing two stories at the same time.

And it isn’t that hard either. With one exception.

I knew that I had three months to write some stories, before I had full time work for a couple of months, so I wanted to see if I could write three stories at the same time. I had a Racing Harts story to write, an Urban Fantasy story, and a fairytale.

The only reason I wanted to try this, was because I can only write for about an hour a day before my brain goes to mush. It was a gamble; would I be able to write three stories?

The answer is no. And here is why. The fairytale and the Racing Harts story were both contemporary romances, so I couldn’t switch between the two stories comfortably. But I am able to switch between a contemporary romance and an Urban Fantasy with no issues, so I have been writing two stories a day since 5th January.

It’s been an interesting experience, but it also gives me twice as much to think about and plot out before my next writing session.

And then I got news, I have a part time job, working 20 hours a week, mostly in the afternoon, which meant that my original idea of focusing on my writing this year is still happening.

I’m looking forward to my new job, I’m moving back into office work, which is somewhat scary, but also exciting. It means that I’m inside all day, even in winter, so no more finding sunny spots to start the day.

I hope to continue writing two stories at a time, with plans to write the fairytale next, then the Men in Kilts series, so there could be a few new books out next year.

My publishing plan this year is to publish Finding Sam Healey (tentatively April 2025), Carol’s Christmas (July/August 2025) and Faith’s story in Racing Harts (October/November 2025).

I’m looking forward to sharing my successes with you all.

Moving Forward

A lot of reflection is done at this time of the year. Looking back to see what went well, what didn’t, how things can be improved, and a writer’s life isn’t any different.

What went well this year – the launch of Second-Hand Daughter. It actually went better than I expected, and I can’t explain why. I wonder if it was the topic, discovering your husband had a secret second life you had no idea about. Anyway, the book sold okay (not thousands, that will be in years to come) but it sold well.

What didn’t go well was the launch of Compromising Positions – this is a fun little romance, but for some reason, I didn’t sell many copies at all. Another writer friend of mine launched her contemporary romance at the same time (November) and she didn’t make many sales either. We both have to wonder if it was too close to Christmas, and people were looking at big ticket writers for their books. It’s hard to say.

As a writer, we often bombarded with so many mixed messages. Write to market / don’t write to market. Write from your heart / don’t write from the heart. Write what you know / write something new / don’t reinvent the wheel. This year, I followed my own thoughts and feelings, and now, more and more people are saying, follow your own goals. I published two books this year, the most I’ve published before. And I loved every minute of the writing and editing process, until I have worked on the piece entirely through and think it’s shite. Then I put it out into the world, and let it float away into the abyss of Amazon / Kobo / Draft2Digital to be swallowed up in the millions of other books out there.

I’m really pleased with both of the books I produced. I’m looking forward to putting more out there next year, which will include Finding Sam Healey, which I am currently editing, and then Carol’s Christmas. Whether I start publishing the Racing Harts series I’m not sure, but I intend to write three books next year.

I wrote three novels this year. The Dragon story, which is part of a five book series, and needs a lot of work, because it became a never-ending story. That doesn’t work in the publishing world, but that’s okay. It needs work.

I also wrote 2 other novels, in the Racing Harts series, Fatih and Hope’s stories. And I hope to have Grace’s started in January. I have ideas for about five other stories, which are all up in the air at the moment, so I’m not sure what will come next, but I’m hoping to write my Ice Planet sequel, featuring the son of Kelvaras and Vyvica.

I’m contemplating splitting off my fantasy / science fiction books under a separate pen name, but again, not something I am fully decided on just yet. If it happens, I’ll let you know, because you’ll want to follow one or the other, I don’t expect everyone to follow me on both. There will be the odd one or two of you, like me, who will read just about anything. I read a large variety of books, and can’t say I’m solely a romance reader. If I have a thriller, I will enjoy the storyline even without romantic elements. But that’s a whole other blog post!

I will list out my goals for 2025 on 6th January, I intend on having a decent break this year. No laptop, no notebooks, just 10 – 14 days of nothing but reading. We’ll see how that goes then aye?

Anyway, I hope you all have a lovely Christmas. Stay safe out there and look after one another. Look forward to catching up with you all in the New Year.

Multiple Beginnings

So, I did a thing this week. It was rather an epic thing. If not the smartest thing I’ve ever done.

I love my job, I really do, but there is one aspect of it I don’t like, and we’ve had to be doing it since the end of last year. And that is mowing. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind mowing, but when you’re mowing a rest home. No, let me rephrase that, Push mowing a rest home lawn.

For weeks, I’ve been stressed about mowing and weed-eating the lawns. I struggle with weed-eating, because it hurts. I have tennis elbow which started about the same time we started mowing the lawns. Anyway, I know what stress looks like in my body, and my eyebrow was starting to twitch. I also noticed that my multivitamins weren’t working quite like they used to, so I brought more vitamin b to help me with my stress.

But it all came to a head on Tuesday, when we were supposed to mow. I hadn’t had a lot of sleep the night before, and to be honest, I was looking for a fight. So, I started one, with my boss.

And then I quit. I told her where she could stick the job, and I told my boss in Auckland as well.

To start with, I wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do, and after talking with my immediate boss (who is an absolute sweetie to be honest,) she made me promise that I would think it over before I made a final decision. After an epic walk home, I had a sleep. I literally slept on it.

That night, I wrote a formal letter of resignation to my bosses. If there was a chance of not mowing, I probably would have stuck around, however, that wouldn’t have happened anytime soon.

While I’m sad to be leaving my job, I’m looking at this as an opportunity to move forward, find something new to do, and look at doing part time work so I have more time for my writing and other business ideas that I have.

And while I’m nervous, because I don’t have anything lined up, I’m also confident that something will come up that will make me as enthusiastic as I was about gardening.

And talking about new beginnings, I also started writing Hope’s story, the next character in my Racing Harts story, and I’m already 18k in. I’m taking part in NaNoWriMo, and so far, I’ve clocked in over the daily limit to get the story done by 30th November. I’m quite excited about this story, and even though it is the second story in the trilogy, I have a feeling that it will eventually become the third story, so I am kind of aiming it that way as well.

I hope you all have a good week out there. Think of me, and if you know of any part time work, let me know.

Back to Writing

After two weeks of not writing, I am now back into it. I was trying to decide whether to try and write and finish a book before the end of the year, and decided, why not.

I started writing Hope and Thor’s story, the next in my Racing Harts series. Hope is currently the middle sister, and she races Sprint cars. However, I have decided that after writing the third story, Grace (the eldest) and Hope might swop ages, and Grace will become the middle child, only because Grace, who races Rally Cars, will fit between, race and time wise, between Faith and Hope. The motorbikes race over the summer, then the rally cars over the winter, then sprint cars during the speedway season. But that’s a problem for future Karen.

And to make things more interesting, I’m doing NaNoWriMo. That stands for National Novel Writing Month. It’s because November is a quiet month in the United States, where this idea came from. I’ve participated in SoCNoC which is Southern Hemisphere version when KiwiWriters was a thing.

What does NaNoWriMo actually mean? Well, it means that you write 50,000 words over the 30 days of November. Some people will cringe at that and think it must be hard. Some will wonder why I would put so much pressure on myself. I, myself am wondering why I wanted to do this, but then I look at Hope and Thor, and I know how much I enjoyed writing Faith and Cole’s story, that I wanted to continue. And if I finish before December, it means that I wrote three novels this year. Which is pretty darned cool and might mean that I have more than two novels to publish next year.

Of course, to overcommit myself further, I’ve signed up for the New Zealand Certificate in Business – a Level 4 study of setting up a small business in New Zealand. I thought that since I want to get serious with my writing, cardmaking, and proofreading, that I really should get some understanding behind me to start the business. I’m scared that I’m pushing myself too much, but if I can just get Hope and Thor’s story written before December, then I can have most of December and January off before pushing into new writing projects.

But we’ll have to see if I get NanoWriMo first.

I’m Finished. Now What?

I finally finished Faith’s story this week. Oh, how that woman tested me. I certainly was losing Faith, but I knew how I wanted the story to end. And dammit, I ended it my way.

So now that’ I’ve finished Faith’s story (one of three sisters who are into racing, hence Racing Harts being the series name), what do I do with the story.

Well, I let it sit. For a while. Some authors jump straight into editing, but to be honest, I kind of like to let mine sit for a bit longer, normally about six months. Then I will pull it out, do a quick read through, making note on sticky notes (which I LOVE), and then I work through and start editing, changing bits here, things there, adding in a dash of spice, a touch of pepper, stir and mix. Then I send it to my critique partners. The read through it, laugh out loud then confirm that it’s a bunch of bullsh!t and I feel terribly bad. No, seriously, by the time I’ve edited it the first time, I think it’s crap. My critique partners come back with thoughts, any comments about plot holes – (what happened to this guy in your story?), and generally their opinion about the story. These are actually very helpful, and after drinking plenty of whisky, I actually allow myself to sit down and read what they’ve said.

The final part of my editing process is going through the story AGAIN, and then listening to it being read on my computer. It really picks up lots of errors and missing words that others had missed, because we sometimes all know where the story is going.

Once I’m happy with the story, I send it to my lovely editor who reads it through and then comes back to me with edits that may be required. Mostly they’re grammatical errors, because for some reason writers write, they don’t talk or do grammar. (Writers don’t math well either.)

So, there you go, that it what happens to my story from start to finish, which generally takes a year from starting writing to publishing it.

Now, I’m not doing much writing, because I am in the process of formatting Compromising Positions and getting it put up for pre-order.

I hope you had a great week. Take care out there.

Catherine

Coming Up with Ideas

Sometimes I get asked how I come up with ideas for my story. So let me tell you about the three that are currently vying to be the next one written, and how I came up with the concept.

First is the Cinderella story. I wrote a New Zealand version of Beauty and the Beast, and I wanted to follow it up with another modern-day retelling of a fairy tale, I just couldn’t decide which fairytale to rewrite. One day, while sitting in the work ute, a story started to formulate in my brain about a woman who has a business that a stepmother is trying to sell out from under her. I have a well-developed plot for this story, but not names, but they will come.

The second story is a follow on from my ice planet story. My original story started from a dream, and this one kind of developed from a half-awake moment, where I thought of a name, Ko’nul, the son of Vyvica and Kelvaras. Ko’nul is the eldest son, the heir to Vyvica’s throne, but he’s a reprobate. He ends up with amnesia and looked after by woman who works in a bar, where he ends up working too. It’s a story of redemption.

The third story, which isn’t quite developed, is the next Racing Harts story, which is Hope. She races sprint cars, and her mechanic is AWOL. But then Thor turns up, and he is exactly as he sounds, tall, blond, beard, braids. He’s American and sent to help Hope with her sprint car, but other than that, I don’t have a real plot for this story yet. But ideas are percolating.

Which story do you think I should write next?

A Car Wreck of a week

Normally I tell you what I did this week past, but instead I want to start by saying I AM OK!

This week has been good, writing-wise, and I came up with another story idea! That’s two stories and one to plot…

Thursday wasn’t such a great day. My co-worker and I were in a car accident, and we both suffered some impressive bruising and a crushing ride sideways in our work van, which is now a write off.

My boss thankfully gave me and my co-worker Friday off, and we are extremely grateful for that. Because I had to travel to Wineborough to catch up with my Dad who has his birthday this week. His first birthday since the passing of my stepmum.

It was a lovely day with Dad, we (my son and I), weeded some of his garden and made things a little easier for him, then took him out for lunch.

And then, to make my poor bruised body feel even more miserable, I have a cold! So a great way to start a week. NOT!

But hopefully this week, I will finish Faith’s story, and then I’m not sure which story to write next.

Hope you had a better week that I did.

Take care out there.

Catherine

Creating New Things

Hello there, how are things? Well, it’s been a busy week. What with work, and stuff.

Actually, work has been quiet lately, I’ve been busy with writing, planning and editing, and it’s been a lot of fun.

I was planning on writing Hope’s story next in the Racing Harts story, but I’m not sure now. The reason? I had a dream the other night, and have a plan for a sequel to my ice planet story – oh, sorry, Shards of Ice. It’s based in the future from the original story, and it’s their son, who’s an arrogant so and so, but he’s redeemable. The story idea is just about all there, but then, so is Hope’s story. And then I have my Dragon shifters story that I need to get back to, but I have a feeling that story might have to be written, divided up and then edited and published in one big heap…only because at the moment, it seems to be a neverending story, and I really want to split it up with different characters in each story. I guess this needs more planning.

I’ve also been working on a personal project for my partner’s sister, I started it two years ago for her 50th birthday, and then ended up in lockdown, so didn’t get to give it to her. I’m revamping it and making it better than it was, and I have to have it finished by next week, because my partner is heading up north to see her.

I also have another personal writing project that I want to work on, it’s a non-fiction book, and it’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. It is something that would benefit all creatives, not just writers. This is still in the planning stages, so won’t be happening anytime soon.

And I’ve also been talking to a friend about websites and colours, and I have some new colours that I want to try out on my website, make it a cohesive site, bring the fonts and colours and covers together. I think it will work, I have the colours, I just need to find time to work on the website now.

I love being creative and having creative time, what about you?

Take care out there.

Catherine

A New Season

Yay, spring is here! Well, not technically, but today is the first of September, which is the first day of Spring, but we’ve had daffodils flowering since April, so perhaps it’s actually autumn???

Well, it has been a busy week for me, not at work, but writing-wise. Had two days off work last week because of rain, which sounds nice, but it isn’t. Not normally, but these two days I used to format up Compromising Positions ebook for Advanced readers, and I put something out in my newsletter about that. If you didn’t get my newsletter, why not? You should be able to sign up if you are on my website.

So, I have a pre-order up for Compromising Positions as well, it will be launched on 1 November 2024. Two books in one year! I know!

Not only that, but after to-ing and fro-ing over my plot in Racing Harts, Faith’s story, I have finally decided on the course of action, and I’m near the finish line, only like 5 or 6 chapters away. Considering I knock out about half to a chapter each time I write, that could be done by next week. And I actually did write every day last week, except for the weekends, because, well, I like to have a break too.

And I am working through the Sam Healey edits. Slowly, very s l o w l y… I’m dragging my feet on that, and I can’t really explain why. I guess I felt that formatting Compromising Positions was more where I needed to spend my time. (I wasn’t procrastinating at all, I promise…)

Anyway, how is your week going? Anything exciting happening in your world?

Take care

Catherine

Post Conference Thoughts

Some of you probably didn’t realise that I hadn’t posted a blog, or any of my usual posts on Social Media last week, it’s because I was at the Romance Writers Conference, creating havoc and merry hell with these two…

Janet Elizabeth Henderson, myself and Carole Brungar

Well, actually, Carole and I behaved ourselves, it was Janet that seemed to be behind all the mischief, she is so much fun, and it was the first time I’d met her, even though we’ve been friends for a few years now. And it was fabulous to hang out with Carole, we’re writing buddies, we check in with each other regularly to make sure we’re on task.

The conference was amazing, full of interesting people, great presenters and amazing talks. I managed to ace it with all of the workshops I attended last weekend, none of them were duds. I got to meet Cathy Yardley, Becca Symes, Sacha Black and Fiona McArthur. They are amazing authors themselves, and Cathy, Sacha and Becca also run Author businesses supporting other writers in their creative endeavours.

On Monday, Mr H and I were chased from Christchurch to Wineborough by a front that caught us at Kaikoura where it rained, blew like billy-o and hailed. Apparently a similar squall went through Christchurch, probably about the same time.

We spent the night in Wineborough before heading home on Tuesday, and then I had to return to work on Wednesday, but I had post conference blues by that stage. I’d felt so inspired and on fire when surrounded by like minded people, but when you are away from them, you feel less like doing things.

This week I’ve also came to the strange realisation that I don’t like writing the last 25% of the story, because I don’t want to put my characters through the dark moment. It’s not a normal thing, but it is for me, I guess it’s some kind of trauma response, but I also recognise that they are going to get back together again, but my characters become quite real within my head, and they are the one’s arguing against it. Now that I know that, I can assure them that it’s okay (even when they do argue against me), and that they will have their happily ever after.

I got Compromising Positions back from my editor, and I have finished those edits. I have it up on pre-order, which I will announce in my newsletter (make sure you’re signed up for that…)

I’ve also started the editing process on Finding Sam Healey, I’m loving this story, and can’t wait to dive back into it.

And so, back to your regularly scheduled program… lol

What have you been up to this week?