Ask the Author: Cate Parke
Answered Questions (6)
Cate Parke
I would advise an aspiring writer to simply start writing. What do you know a lot about? What do you enjoy doing? Where do you live? Have you traveled a lot or have you lived all your life in a small town with neighbors you've known all your life? Decide what you want to write and then learn, learn, learn how to put a story together. Nobody will do it for you (unless you pay them a LOT of money, that is). It's a labor of love that takes a lot of time and practice...and a tough skin. Just keep reading, talking to published authors and practicing your writing skills. If you have a story in your soul, sit down and write it. If you still have words to add when you've reached twenty thousand words, you may just be on to something!
Cate Parke
Actually, I had it just recently. I have the title for the book, know who the cast of characters are, the settings for the book, the gist of the story and how I want it to end. The trouble is that the characters aren't cooperating to get their story down on paper. So they're still in my mind. One day soon I'll write a series of paragraphs and the book will begin to click into place in my mind. I love the process, but it's frustrating to deal with recalcitrant characters!
Cate Parke
I do what I love. I love to read, and re-imagine stories I read containing scenes I'm less fond of. How would I change them to make them more interesting? There is always something to learn. This is chiefly why I like writing historicals. Nevertheless, my eyes were opened from writing a contemporary with so many features to it, including a British Navy officer and a deployment to the Barents Sea. It also included the preservation of a book penned in the early to mid 6th century. I had four chief questions about the preservation of such a book. Chief among them was such a thing even possible? It turns out that it is! My source was an expert in the field, a dear lady at the Bodleian Library at Oxford University who took time from her busy day to answer each one of my questions. As I say, there is always something new and fascinating to learn.
Cate Parke
I had been toying with a contemporary for quite a while. The character changed names a couple of times, but I settled on a familiar one to my readers...one with a contemporary slant. The story involves an interesting cast of characters, Oakhurst Plantation, an alternative British history, a book penned by the monk, Gildas more than one and one half millennia ago, a hospital and a brilliant young physician, a royal palace, and a Christmas wedding.
Cate Parke
I'm currently working on an historical romance set during the early decades of the 19th century. It will be the 5th book in The Dreams of Oakhurst series.
Cate Parke
I play music. I love pretty much all genres of music, but for historical romance, I play classical music that was typical of the period. That sets the tone for what I'm writing.
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