Catherine Banner's Blog, page 9
March 22, 2013
a good day to be writing
It's snowing again here in the North-East of England. Yesterday was officially the first day of spring, but where I live, on the edge of Durham City, the trees are still skeletons and the temperature hasn't risen much above zero. I've always liked writing on days like this when rain or snow is falling outside the window and the wind is howling; it seems like good weather to be inside working on a writing project, and the stormy weather seems to help me think about the story.
When I look up fro...
When I look up fro...
March 13, 2013
making plans
Spring is a good time for making plans, and while on the surface the North-East of England is still firmly locked in winter, I have been thinking ahead. After some consideration, I've decided to aim to finish my draft of The Heart at War by the middle of April. This still gives me about a month to make the final changes and revisions, read and reread the draft, and check that I'm happy with the quality of the writing. I'm going to do my best over the next few weeks to make sure I keep to my...
March 6, 2013
drafting and redrafting
Apologies - it's been a while since I updated the blog, as I've been hard at work on The Heart at War. I've just finished the last major draft. There are still a couple more stages to go through before the book is ready to share with my editors, but this is a big milestone in the process of getting the book finished, and something I thought I would let you know about!I've been asked before about how many times I usually redraft a piece of writing that I'm working on. The answer varies, becau...
February 8, 2013
a quick update on the heart at war
The Heart at War is nearing completion. It's an exciting time, and I'm looking forward to sharing my final draft with my editors, Janice and Amy, very soon. Even more so, I'm looking forward to being able to share the book with readers in the not-too-distant future. I have been working on The Last Descendants for a very long time - almost ten years in fact - and it's strange to realise that I'm nearing the end of an era in my writing life!I thought I would update you on how the work on the d...
February 4, 2013
where i write
Virginia Woolf said that 'A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction'. She worked in this room: 
You can visit it as part of the museum at her old country home, Monk's House. In fact, there seems to be a bit of a fascination with the places where authors work. If you want to, you can also go and see Charles Dickens', Jane Austen's or Leo Tolstoy's desk, which have all been carefully preserved (the last one with a glass box over it to protect his papers and n...
You can visit it as part of the museum at her old country home, Monk's House. In fact, there seems to be a bit of a fascination with the places where authors work. If you want to, you can also go and see Charles Dickens', Jane Austen's or Leo Tolstoy's desk, which have all been carefully preserved (the last one with a glass box over it to protect his papers and n...
February 1, 2013
my favourite writer turns 83
As an author still close to the start of my career, one of the first questions people ask me is: Which writers inspire you? I tend to list those writers who have written books that I admire enough to have read them several times, which makes my list seem rather eccentric: George Eliot, Vikram Seth, Raymond Carver, Thomas Hardy, Anne Tyler, Boris Pasternak, Tobias Wolff, Romain Gary, Virginia Woolf, William Shakespeare, Thomas Malory, Lawrence Sterne, James Joyce, Jerome K. Jerome, J.D. Saling...
January 22, 2013
what is life as a writer actually like?
Recently, I came across a brilliant article by Canadian writer Iain Reid called'Really, how do writers spend their day?'Ian writes that the most common question readers ask him is how writers spend their day, and so he decided to keep a diary. He starts hopefully:
8:52 a.m.I’m anticipating productivity. I have theentireday cleared of other work, responsibilities and commitments. Today I’m a professional writer working on a book! Today I have time for a second cup of coffee.From that second c...
January 9, 2013
at last, i have a website
First of all, a very happy New Year! 2013 is an interesting year for me: not only will this be the year that The Heart at War, the final book in the Last Descendants trilogy, is completed and released, but June also marks the fifth year since The Eyes of a King was published. I am still surprised and quite overwhelmed when I think about the enormous media attention and interest the book received at its release. It was very exciting to be interviewed by national newspapers and radio, to have...
