Cat Adams's Blog, page 2

Newsletter is (hopefully) out for the New Year/Happy New Year's Eve

Hi.

Happy New Year's Eve to you all.

I just approved the January newsletter. It should be going out any minute.  I've been sorting through paperwork and doing important stuff, but I decided to take a break to have a little fun before I lost my mind.

Above is a picture of me from a couple of years ago.  I put it in just to see if the picture ad function worked for me.  I've lost a lot of weight since then (and of course gained some back).

Okay.  Enough loafing.  Back to the paperwork.  UGH.

Happy New Year!

Normal?

Tempus fugit.

Time flies.  Whether or not you are having fun.

Fortunately, this week is a good one.  I have the week off and have been doing stuff around the house and WRITING and doing other business stuff and WRITING SOME MORE.

The Celia book is coming together.  WHEW!  I love that rush when you know EXACTLY what you're trying to accomplish and it starts to come together.

Pages are flowing. YIPPEE!

And now I am off to do more of the other business stuff and then get back to writing.

Wish me good luck.

Oh, and folks, the hack affected my newsletter list.  If you haven't received the newsletter, my guru has put up a new link on the website:  http://ctadamsauthor.com where you can re-sign up.  I'm still trying to work out the link here.

Best.

Cie

Holly Happydays

Wishing you all happiness.

My brother is doing better.  This is wonderful.  My son is doing well.  This is wonderful too.

I am writing.  A lot.  And it is going well.

In fact, I got a call last night that lifted my spirits considerably.  ALL YOUR WISHES has been on the shelves for a while.  I've caught some crap from a couple of readers who are very angry that I killed one of the main characters.  Had a long, heartfelt letter from a reader who swears she will never read my books again because of it.

I have to say, it's been hard.  Between one thing and another, I've even considered finishing this contract and then throwing the towel in altogether.

But then I decided that I would do a novella for my Mom for her birthday.  She's wanted me to write a mystery since I started.  So I did.  For her.  And I started having fun writing again.  (THANKS MOM!)

And last night my friend Pam calls.  I had given her a copy of ALL YOUR WISHES because she and I were together on the vacation to Treasure Island that I used for research purposes for the book.  I thought she might like seeing how that turned out.  I wasn't even sure if she'd ever find time to read it because BUSY LADY.  But I wanted to give it to her just the same.  (Besides, most of my friends and family don't read paranormal.  They love me enough to have picked up a couple of the books, but they have been very disappointed that I don't write what they love to read).

WELL, she called me and SHE LOVED IT.  She said she thinks it's the best book I've written.  She can't put it down.  And she gave me crap about the loss of sleep involved.

And I needed to hear it.  Badly.  Because I'm writing the next one and the echoing silence with regard to my newsletter and the book has shaken my confidence.

AND so, today, I've written seven pages so far.  I'm taking a break to post this, then I'm back at it.

Thanks to the readers.

THANK YOU PAM!

Cie

It's a Mystery

Hi Guys.

Okay, here's the thing.

I have always loved reading mysteries.

So I wrote one for my mother for her birthday.  It was a novella.

And writing it was like falling off of a log.  No worldbuilding.  Regular reality, just add a dead body.

Holy crap.

So I'm working on the book for the contract, and it's going well enough. And I will do more if they want them because I do love the characters, and I do love paranormal.

But I'm going to do mystery novellas direct to Kindle for $.99 too.  Because I can.  And they're fun.  And I really hope people will buy them.

I figure to do one per quarter for the first three quarters of the year--and an omnibus for Christmas.

It will be secondary to the contracted novels.  And they will be novellas--around 30,000 words.

And another joy of the whole thing.  I HAVE LOTS OF THEM mostly finished that just need wrapped up, edited and polished.  WOOT.

And playing with Photoshop to do the covers has been fun too.

But today, for now, I am off and running, back to put Celia Graves in jeopardy and then make her fight her way out of it.  I am SO mean to my characters.

Cie

HACKED OFF

Hi!

I'm hacked off because I was one of the millions/billions of Yahoo users who was hacked.  I started my yahoo email account when Yahoo was brand new.  I've done all of my personal stuff through it since.  I'm now having to migrate all those years of contacts, emails, etc. or delete them and lose the archived information.

I AM TICKED.

This is so not what I needed.  I have other things to do with my time.  It's going to take a major effort AND I will be risking virus infection by going there because my computer at work got infected while there.

GEEZ.

SO TICKED.

But I'm determined to look on the bright side.  At least I will get a fresh start.

But I will never understand why some people get their jollies by hurting total strangers that they're never going to even meet.  What's the fricking point?

Cie

Unhappy Reader

Well, I received the first email from a reader unhappy at the death in the book. 

I am sorry that she was so upset.  The character's death didn't make me happy either. 

I am flattered that the character meant so much to her. 

I am sorry if she will no longer read my books.  That is up to her.

Cie

LAUNCH DAY! MAY IT TAKE OFF LIKE A ROCKET

ALL YOUR WISHES IS OUT!!! WOOT! 

VERY EXCITED.

BUY THE BOOK!

Cie

The thing about characters is . . .

Okay, first off, on the 100 day thing.  I have no idea where I'm at.  But I've been making progress, and I am happier than I've been in a while overall.  Still ups and downs, but at least I don't feel as if I'm stuck any more.

NOW about the writing. . .

I've been doing it.  Eight pages a day average.  Four on each project.  Both are going well.  Both now require a bit of research, which I am about to do.

The thing is, I had to write this HUGE disclaimer at the front of the cozy mystery.  It is set in a small town.  I live in a small town.  They are NOT the same small town.  There is NOT A SINGLE PERSON in this book that is a reflection of any actual real person I know.  Seriously.  NOT     ONE.  I have to say that loudly and repeatedly because I have found that, for some reason, people I know locally want this to be a salacious Peyton Place kind of book that actually mimics reality so that they can try to figure out "who is who".  Nobody is.  For one thing I DON'T WANT/NEED TO GET MY ASS SUED.  For another, most of you guys are really pretty boring.  Seriously.  Get over it.

So, anyway, the characters who ARE in the book are the people who have announced themselves to me.  And as is frequently the case in my imagination, they sprang forth fully formed and they don't give a fat rat's ass whether I like certain things about them.  This is a sample "conversation" in my head with the main character:

ME:  Um, look, I'm not a lesbian.  This is going to make it really REALLY hard for me to write you believably.  Can I maybe. . .

MEGAN:  Tough shit.  I am.  Deal with it.

ME:  But . . .

MEGAN:  No buts.  I am.  You're a writer.  Use your imagination.  Ask people if you're afraid you've gotten it wrong.  But love is love. You've loved people.  I know you have.  Deal.

ME:  But she's BLIND.  I mean, can I at least . . .

MEGAN:  Yes, Beth is blind.  It's harder on her than it is you, believe me.  If she can handle it, you can write about it. 

AND THIS, my friends, is why my imagination always wins.  Because it is filled with hard-asses who are not afraid to stand up for me.  And yes, I know, it does make me sound crazy.  But apparently the characters in my imagination DO NOT CARE if they drive me crazy.  They figure I'm already halfway there.  I'm a writer.

Cie

Crisis of Confidence

I am not perfect.

I will never be perfect.

I try.

I fail.

I try again.

I screw up.

Sometimes, at about this point, I get discouraged and think, maybe I should pack it in.  Seriously, is it time to give up.

Then I get my back up.  Or somebody says something mean and bitchy and I REALLY get my back up.  So I try again.

And holy crapola, I SUCCEED!  WOOT, WOOT, I ROCK.  I'm AWESOME.  I'm so glad I didn't quit.

And then it's on to the next thing.  I feel I've learned.  I've grown.  How hard can it be?

And I fail.

This is life.  Progress is not measured in a directly rising angle.  It's more of a slow up and down climb through the foothills to the mountains, and eventually a vertical climb up to the summit. 

I get tired.  I get discouraged. 

But I'm still climbing.

So far anyway.

And we're off (but you knew that).

Okay, I am not sure how many days I'm in to the program, but I figure I'm just continually trying to change and grow, so it won't matter so much.


I have done my exercises.  I have been taking my vitamins and the Rx.  I have been writing every day.  I sent the first part of the mss off to an editor friend for comments.  I contacted a thriller author to see if he'd be willing and have time to give me a quote a month or so from now.  I have done the newsletter up and got three chapters ready to attach in hopes that the audience will be salivating for the new Celia Graves novel that comes out in a month. 


I have done the motivational and spiritual work that I need to, and ordered the programs and learning materials I need.  I have been working on the household stuff, but have not made as much progress on the repairs as I had hoped -- but will work on improving that as well.


So, all in all, I'm doing well.  I'm feeling better physically and emotionally. 


With regard to the thriller, because I'm thinking of self-pubbing it (my publisher is Fantasy/Sci Fi/UF specialist) (and although if the agent thinks otherwise, I may change my mind) if I do I think I'm going to have a section in the back for FSBB (fun stuff in the back of the book) which will have fun stuff like the drawings I do for the floor plans of buildings, a photo I've taken of the water tower with all of the vultures on it (one day there were 126 of them!  When you consider these birds are BIG -- say 2 ft tallish that's a LOT of birds/feathers/poop); a copy of the bag packed the way I have the heroine doing it to prove that YES it CAN be done.  (She fits a LOT of stuff in that bag.  LOL).  I may change my mind about it, I do change my mind a lot, but it sounds like a fun thing and it would give readers a little insight into the little things I do to try to make sure that the book is relatively accurate.  Not perfectly accurate, but relatively.  (I have not ever been a spy, ergo, I am making some of this up from the seat of my pants--but I have done the research.)


Okay, I have to go.  Writing a reminder to the newsletter guru as it didn't go out yesterday.  I believe she was out planting trees.


Cie