Newsletter!!!
So very exciting! Following (aka Stalking) my dear friend Mark Yarwood, Markyarwood.co.uk, I am starting a monthly-Bi-Monthly-Annual Newsletter. Send me your email and I will regale with banal emails full of puff and stuff about me, my writing and pretty much anything that affects me in the 60 seconds prior. Please subscribe. I can not implore you enough. Writers need readers like flowers need bees. We are nothing without you. Take a second to add me, you can always send me to your Spam folder later
Cate xx
Cate xx
A Few Words
Thursday 11th October 2018 - So hello again, you faithful few. Tis I, the elusive Cate. Having checked my site stats I am still getting 165 unique user views per week and 458 weekly visits despite not having posted anything in over a year. And have written nothing else since my last post here. Still getting followed on Lit, still getting reviews which make me misty with happiness, still selling a few copies here and there and I still get the odd email asking when something new is coming out.
Which is incredibly humbling. I know that my writing isn't great, that my ideas are not original. And frankly, whose are? Everything now is just regurgitated in one way or another, whether by conscious thought or happenstance. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I can't speak for others, but I don't write because I think I have a new shiny concept, I write because it makes me happy, it gives me the freedom to live a life on paper that I can only imagine, to create, and if I am lucky to make people happy, horny and satisfied. If I am really lucky, all three!
So one year on, Cate is still in the same 9-5, and still not a morning person. Still working on the infamous Christmas sequel (Methinks Christmas 2019 at this rate unless someone lights a fire underneath me!) My best friend is still in prison but I speak to him more frequently than my good friends in the real world - January 2021 until I get to squeeze the life out of him. Ironic really, that his first day of freedom will be his last :-) . Still obsessed with Netflix - Is anyone else watching Dancing Queen and trying to teach themselves to tongue pop? Just me? Meh, you don't now what you are missing.
Just like everyone else out there, the last year has brought me great joy and very grave sadness. Love, loss, anticipation and rejection. Life is just one big Mother-F of a rollercoaster, which frankly, I have never been on as I can't even handle the Waltzers at the local fair. Swings and roundabouts as we say here in the UK. So I have navigated both safely through sheer luck and poor judgement and now I am ready to get back to what truly makes me happy. Writing silly little stories about things I have concocted in my head with a few pinches of inspiration from other writers. Am also outlining a non-erotic story that will hopefully be SFW and planning on finishing some of WIPs I have laying around. No deadlines this time, no need. I have spent too many years setting myself impossible deadlines and failing.
So those are my musings. One year older, not a damn bit wiser and all the better for it. I think what I really mean to say is that I am back doing what makes me happy, even if it isolates me from the real world, and that you can all (All 3 of you!) expect more "New Blog Post" updates on Social Media, you lucky ducks.
Love and Bacon*
Cate xx
* Yes, I stole that from Enty at www.crazydaysandnights.net but doesn't it say it all!
Which is incredibly humbling. I know that my writing isn't great, that my ideas are not original. And frankly, whose are? Everything now is just regurgitated in one way or another, whether by conscious thought or happenstance. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I can't speak for others, but I don't write because I think I have a new shiny concept, I write because it makes me happy, it gives me the freedom to live a life on paper that I can only imagine, to create, and if I am lucky to make people happy, horny and satisfied. If I am really lucky, all three!
So one year on, Cate is still in the same 9-5, and still not a morning person. Still working on the infamous Christmas sequel (Methinks Christmas 2019 at this rate unless someone lights a fire underneath me!) My best friend is still in prison but I speak to him more frequently than my good friends in the real world - January 2021 until I get to squeeze the life out of him. Ironic really, that his first day of freedom will be his last :-) . Still obsessed with Netflix - Is anyone else watching Dancing Queen and trying to teach themselves to tongue pop? Just me? Meh, you don't now what you are missing.
Just like everyone else out there, the last year has brought me great joy and very grave sadness. Love, loss, anticipation and rejection. Life is just one big Mother-F of a rollercoaster, which frankly, I have never been on as I can't even handle the Waltzers at the local fair. Swings and roundabouts as we say here in the UK. So I have navigated both safely through sheer luck and poor judgement and now I am ready to get back to what truly makes me happy. Writing silly little stories about things I have concocted in my head with a few pinches of inspiration from other writers. Am also outlining a non-erotic story that will hopefully be SFW and planning on finishing some of WIPs I have laying around. No deadlines this time, no need. I have spent too many years setting myself impossible deadlines and failing.
So those are my musings. One year older, not a damn bit wiser and all the better for it. I think what I really mean to say is that I am back doing what makes me happy, even if it isolates me from the real world, and that you can all (All 3 of you!) expect more "New Blog Post" updates on Social Media, you lucky ducks.
Love and Bacon*
Cate xx
* Yes, I stole that from Enty at www.crazydaysandnights.net but doesn't it say it all!
Monday 28th August 2017 - So the new job is going swimmingly! Genuinely love it! Not exactly leaping out of bed in excitement but I do get up... so that's a start :) And I'm writing. Submitted a short online a few weeks back in the quais-incest zone and got lots of likes and one frankly terrifying comment, which I'm guessing is part and parcel of the genre. Glad I wrote it but not sure that's where I want to reside if you know what I mean. Also been working of the infamous Christmas sequel which may or may not debut this year. I'm hoping it will but my online plea for Beta readers came to nothing so it may just end being a solo job. Which honestly is fine by me. If readers hate it, it's all on me and if they like it, the glory is solely mine!
I also drifted into previous territory of taking someone elses idea/fantasy and starting the relay. So far she is too busy and too reticent to take the mantle but I'm hoping she (Nanni - I mean YOU!) will see this and take to her keyboard. It's not even about us collaborating, although that would be fun, it's more about showing people who incredible it is to create something that once took root in your mind as a kernel of an idea. Maybe if I had other interests outside of writing and Netflix, I'd be too busy too but I don't.
It's a joy to have a pasttime you love and a privilege to have people respond. I'd missed that. I realise it's my slow writing pace that does that to me and if I want the feedback I need to do the work. So off I go, the blank pages awaits!
Happy Bank Holiday all
Cate xxx
I also drifted into previous territory of taking someone elses idea/fantasy and starting the relay. So far she is too busy and too reticent to take the mantle but I'm hoping she (Nanni - I mean YOU!) will see this and take to her keyboard. It's not even about us collaborating, although that would be fun, it's more about showing people who incredible it is to create something that once took root in your mind as a kernel of an idea. Maybe if I had other interests outside of writing and Netflix, I'd be too busy too but I don't.
It's a joy to have a pasttime you love and a privilege to have people respond. I'd missed that. I realise it's my slow writing pace that does that to me and if I want the feedback I need to do the work. So off I go, the blank pages awaits!
Happy Bank Holiday all
Cate xxx
Thursday 27th July 2017 - So here goes. Life, life sometimes gets out of hand. This is a fact known to all and frequently expounded upon. I could get all emotional and such about it but frankly, I have neither the will nor the inclination. Stuff happens. Left a job, found a job, lost my best friend to prison and unable to contact him - losing my sane voice of reason. Struggled with sleep and too many thoughts of self doubt. Stopped writing altogether, believing my writing to be terrible.
And then I read bits and pieces and thought, it's not great, but it's not terrible and hey, I wrote that! People I have never met have paid money to read it and responded and reviewed nicely! Maybe life isn't all sadness and gloom and maybe, just maybe, I don't suck that hard. So today, I took a step forward and issued a plea for beta readers and editors to assist me in my pledge to be slighter better than average. Maybe you would like to help me, 10 minutes out of your day to critique and criticise! I'm English, I can take it. Anyone prepared to read and respond, please email Catsnackies@gmail.com or follow on Twitter @Cate_Thomas and PM me. I promise to send WIP and established stories for critique and blatant abuse!
Writing is what I want to do and I want to get better, help a somewhat lost cause and maybe get your rocks off in the interim!
Cate xxx
And then I read bits and pieces and thought, it's not great, but it's not terrible and hey, I wrote that! People I have never met have paid money to read it and responded and reviewed nicely! Maybe life isn't all sadness and gloom and maybe, just maybe, I don't suck that hard. So today, I took a step forward and issued a plea for beta readers and editors to assist me in my pledge to be slighter better than average. Maybe you would like to help me, 10 minutes out of your day to critique and criticise! I'm English, I can take it. Anyone prepared to read and respond, please email Catsnackies@gmail.com or follow on Twitter @Cate_Thomas and PM me. I promise to send WIP and established stories for critique and blatant abuse!
Writing is what I want to do and I want to get better, help a somewhat lost cause and maybe get your rocks off in the interim!
Cate xxx
Cate J Thomas
So here's the thing. Ever since I was knee high to a grasshopper I've made up stories in my head and had imaginary conversations with the furniture. As a child, I thought this normal. As a teenager I swiftly realised that I may actually be more than a little weird and tried very hard to stop. Well, I tried to stop the conversations albeit fleetingly but never gave up on the stories. During my twenties, I began conversing with myself in different (bad) accents to alleviate the strangeness but always felt that my behaviour was not exactly the norm. And now, rooted deeply in my thirties I can honestly say I no longer care. I fly my freak flag with pride.
Over the years, I have started over 50 tales spanning a variety of genres and until 2013 I finished exactly zero! And then something amazing happened. I was talking to a friend (a real one!) and told him that I wrote. He, very graciously, asked to read something and I sent him a few of my half finished/barely started fragments. Under his encouragement I wrote and completed my first story ever! He seemed to really like it and KABOOM! my creative fuse was re-lit.
I now have 3 shorts published to Amazon and GoodReads and almost passed out when I hit #86 in the free eBooks chart. I am currently working on 14 new stories, one of which is a full length novel tentatively titled "Slaker" as well as 6 shorts, a massive Historical collaboration with my Cousin about Corsetry and a Novella called the Coffee Girl. Which leads me neatly onwards...
Over the years, I have started over 50 tales spanning a variety of genres and until 2013 I finished exactly zero! And then something amazing happened. I was talking to a friend (a real one!) and told him that I wrote. He, very graciously, asked to read something and I sent him a few of my half finished/barely started fragments. Under his encouragement I wrote and completed my first story ever! He seemed to really like it and KABOOM! my creative fuse was re-lit.
I now have 3 shorts published to Amazon and GoodReads and almost passed out when I hit #86 in the free eBooks chart. I am currently working on 14 new stories, one of which is a full length novel tentatively titled "Slaker" as well as 6 shorts, a massive Historical collaboration with my Cousin about Corsetry and a Novella called the Coffee Girl. Which leads me neatly onwards...
Coffee Girl Books
Back in my early twenties I met a wonderful man named Mark. Mark Yarwood to be precise. And he was a writer. Back then, books were real and made of paper and he painstakingly wrote these huge novels and printed them out and had them bound and everything. I thought he was awesome (I still do and he still is!) and as such I wanted to a) impress him and b) emulate him. So I decided to try to write too. Almost all of it was rubbish, trite, generic and very very badly plotted. Mostly I watched films and rewrote the stories changing nothing but the names. And then one day I watched a fabulous little independent film called "Dream for an Insomniac". Ione Skye became my icon, a creative soul in love with love and coffee. It's a great film with lots of talking and clever musings on life but ultimately nothing huge happens. Regardless, as the credits roll you feel lightened. Happy with life and desperate for a cup of Joe. And I started writing my own tale of caffeinated musings where nothing horrible or outlandish happened, where reality takes a front seat and it's okay if things don't end up with a Happily Ever After. Being a clever, creative type I named it The Coffee Girl, and through the years and various stories started and stopped, it remains the one I can't let go of. So embedded in my mind was it that when I went for my first tattoo I got a girl in a coffee cup reading a book. And when I uploaded that first story and saw the box marked Publisher I knew what I had to use. I'm still dabbling with it, tweaking words here and there but mostly it's an organic thing, I'll have bursts where I suddenly have to stop everything and write another character or add a twist. I hope one day to finish it and share it with you. Alas, writing, for me at least is the equivalent of a drip brew, a long slow process where hopefully, you end up with something wonderful.
Tuuunesss!
So I've added a link to Youtube (Up at the top, right hand side). When I write I like to either listen to music or watch movies. I don't know why but I find that it soothes me. However, the music I listen to when I write is very different to the soundtrack of lurve. So to showcase this difference, I've created multiple playlists to show just how different the aural process is. I hope you like my choices, but feel free to comment. I'd love to know what works for you. Check out More - Inspiration. This week it's the George Harrison tribute at the 2004 Grammy Hall of Fame Inductions. A veritable who's who of musical genius and legacy. Dani Harrison, Tom Petty, Steve Winwood, Jeff Lynne and Prince. This is my Go-To tune when life gets sad, glad or mad. I adore the whole thing but it's at 3.27 that it really gives me chills as Prince plays a guitar with the kind of passion and ease I wish I could write with. It has everything, passion, yearning and genius. Six guitars later and still only on the pentatonic scale... one day, I'll be able to play like this. Even if it's only in my dreams!
