Kristen Houghton's Blog - Posts Tagged "cate-harlow"
Great Advance Review for FOR I HAVE SINNED
Book critic A.William Hopper reviews Kristen Houghton's new book, FOR I HAVE SINNED A Cate Harlow Private Investigation
Three months from today on November 1, Cate Harlow will make her literary debut and rock the reading world with her style, intelligence, beauty, sex appeal and passion for solving a murder case on her own terms.
FOR I HAVE SINNED (A Cate Harlow Private Investigation) is the first of a series which showcases this phenomenal female private investigator created by the brilliant writer, also phenomenal female, Kristen Houghton
If perhaps you enjoy a good read, ...prepare yourself for a GREAT read.
Mark your calendar.
"If you've committed a murder in New York City, Cate Harlow has YOU in her sights."
FOR I HAVE SINNED (A Cate Harlow Private Investigation)
“When you get to Hell look for me; I'll be sitting in the hot-tub waiting."
Cate Harlow in FOR I HAVE SINNED
Pre-order FOR I HAVE SINNED at Amazon and Barnes and Noble
As is customary with all my books, 5% of the book sales will be donated to The North Shore Animal League (a no kill shelter) and Shelters With Heart(for victims of domestic violence and their pets).
You'll be helping these fantastic charities as well as getting an exciting, satisfying read.
Three months from today on November 1, Cate Harlow will make her literary debut and rock the reading world with her style, intelligence, beauty, sex appeal and passion for solving a murder case on her own terms.
FOR I HAVE SINNED (A Cate Harlow Private Investigation) is the first of a series which showcases this phenomenal female private investigator created by the brilliant writer, also phenomenal female, Kristen Houghton
If perhaps you enjoy a good read, ...prepare yourself for a GREAT read.
Mark your calendar.
"If you've committed a murder in New York City, Cate Harlow has YOU in her sights."
FOR I HAVE SINNED (A Cate Harlow Private Investigation)
“When you get to Hell look for me; I'll be sitting in the hot-tub waiting."
Cate Harlow in FOR I HAVE SINNED
Pre-order FOR I HAVE SINNED at Amazon and Barnes and Noble
As is customary with all my books, 5% of the book sales will be donated to The North Shore Animal League (a no kill shelter) and Shelters With Heart(for victims of domestic violence and their pets).
You'll be helping these fantastic charities as well as getting an exciting, satisfying read.
Writer Combines Raw Truth With Fiction
"What's in the news is a fascinating story unto itself simply because it is true," said a grad school writing professor of mine. He was right. True stories make for interesting reading and writers have found that combining raw truth in a fictional tale enhances a good book.
For over two years, my new novel For I Have Sinned was a work in progress, a story inside my head that wanted to be told. I wanted to take the ongoing publicly told scandal of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church coupled with the fictitious cold case of a boy gone missing ten years ago, to weave a story that would become a thriller with several twists and unexpected turns.There was truth and fiction, neatly combined.
The fiction part was easy; a missing person cold case concerning a boy who simply disappeared years ago without a trace. A private detective digging into the missing boy's past unexpectedly finds a bizarre connection between her own case and the recent grisly murder of a priest in New York City. The murder details are eerily similar to an unsolved murder investigation she worked on less than a year ago.So far so good.
I had already created the main character, a savvy and determined private detective named Cate Harlow who goes by a strong gut instinct when confronting obstacles. She's smart, relentless, and tough when it comes to solving her cases. But I also wanted to make her a very human and compassionate person; one who, without vanity, reassuringly tells her clients, "I'm very good at what I do. Trust me."
There was the creation of her particular likes such as good Italian food, a nice Merlot, and top-of-the-line sneakers. I added her strong distaste for injustice and cruelty. Finally, I created her one weakness; a passion for sexy, expensive lingerie which she wears under her everyday work outfit of jeans and a hoodie. I made this fictional character into a "real" person, someone people would like to have as a friend and to whom they could turn to in times of crisis.
I fleshed out her character, as well as those characters who make up her personal life; ex-husband Will Benigni,a NYPD homicide detective, current lover Giles Barrett, the city's medical examiner, her level-headed secretary, Myrtle, and her best friend, Melissa, who makes a living through well-heeled male "clients". Fiction is easy for me to write because, believe me, I live my life in a bubble of active, vivid imagination. These fictional people became very real to me.
The truth part of the novel was harder to write because it concerned the harsh reality of the crime of pedophilia, most specifically, the sexual abuse of children by clergy in the Roman Catholic Church. It is a story that has been much in the news over the past several years, a story unto itself. It is so prominently newsworthy that HBO made a documentary, Mea Maxima Culpa, about the years of sexual abuse endured by boys in a Church-run school for the deaf. That documentary detailed only some of the true stories of abuse; there are myriad others.
"Pedophilia," Cate Harlow tells her ex-husband, the seen-it-all NYPD homicide detective, "is a curious word. It comes from the joining of two Greek words; paîs, meaning child, and philía meaning friendly love or friendship. Yet the one word they form together is linked forever in modern infamy as an act so atrocious that simply saying it makes you want to vomit."
The most horrible of sins; childhood innocence lost, lives forever altered.
Many true instances in writers' personal lives find their way into our fictional work. Small or big, an incident remembered can makes its way into a book. The truth in my novel came about because of a neighborhood story I had heard as a child and never forgot. It has stayed in my mind for decades and has occasionally haunted me over the years.
I was perhaps 9 years old when a 12-year-old boy died very suddenly. The wake for the boy was quickly and quietly held, he was buried in a non-sectarian cemetery, and, as if a secret pact had been made, no one, not even his own family, spoke about the circumstances surrounding his death. It wasn't until years later, during my first year in high school, that I learned from his sister why there was so much secrecy concerning his death.
We were walking home from school and passed the church where her family used to worship. She paused and looked at the church steps with absolute anger, then walked quickly on.
"My brother committed suicide. Nobody is supposed to know that, but he did," she told me as we continued on our way. In response to my startled expression, she told me why he had chosen to take his own life; her brother had been sexually abused by their parish priest, a jovial man whom everyone seemed to like. "Our parents refused to believe what he told them. No one but me believed my brother. He just couldn't stand the horror of it happening anymore. He figured dying was his way out. Well, that's that, right? He killed himself to escape."
Neither she nor I ever mentioned it again but the story lingered in my mind. It needed to be told. Rather than write a magazine article about the pain and horror of what the sexual abuse did to the boy and his family, I chose to put the true story in a fictional setting.
For I Have Sinned seemed to write itself at times as I became more involved in the truth part of the story. I researched, then contacted, the organization called SNAP, Survivors' Network of Those Abused by Priests. Their ongoing fight for justice for the survivors of pedophilia is an amazing feat. They took on one of the most powerful organizations in the world, the Roman Catholic Church and made their collective voices be fully heard in the Halls of Justice.
Combining a solid fictional story with a raw and painful social injustice is a painstaking task. That's as it should be.The details have to be on-target and above all, absolutely truthfully documented. I had to make sure that I was completely objective in what I wrote and that this issue was handled with delicacy and dignity. I wanted my readers to know that not all clergy molest children; that there are also good and kind men in the priesthood, not just monsters.
Despite the seriousness of the issues in the book there are moments of humor, joy, and a few scenes of normal sexual encounters between Cate's and her ex-husband. She's human after all and life is made up of tragedy, joy, and the simple experiences of life.
There will be more books in the "A Cate Harlow Private Investigation" series. My character is strong and passionate about helping those who need a good PI. Her strength, her wry humor, and her commitment are what I admire. I like to think I created a good role model for women.
Cate Harlow does have her flaws, the same as the rest of us, one of which is doing things slightly illegally if it helps to solve a case or save a life. She has a healthy fear of danger but she doesn't let anyone know it. There's a quote in the book which I think sums up my character perfectly. While discussing the possibility of an unpleasant afterlife, she turns to her friend Melissa and says with a smile, "When you get to Hell, I'll be sitting in the hot tub waiting."
You'll like Cate Harlow.
For over two years, my new novel For I Have Sinned was a work in progress, a story inside my head that wanted to be told. I wanted to take the ongoing publicly told scandal of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church coupled with the fictitious cold case of a boy gone missing ten years ago, to weave a story that would become a thriller with several twists and unexpected turns.There was truth and fiction, neatly combined.
The fiction part was easy; a missing person cold case concerning a boy who simply disappeared years ago without a trace. A private detective digging into the missing boy's past unexpectedly finds a bizarre connection between her own case and the recent grisly murder of a priest in New York City. The murder details are eerily similar to an unsolved murder investigation she worked on less than a year ago.So far so good.
I had already created the main character, a savvy and determined private detective named Cate Harlow who goes by a strong gut instinct when confronting obstacles. She's smart, relentless, and tough when it comes to solving her cases. But I also wanted to make her a very human and compassionate person; one who, without vanity, reassuringly tells her clients, "I'm very good at what I do. Trust me."
There was the creation of her particular likes such as good Italian food, a nice Merlot, and top-of-the-line sneakers. I added her strong distaste for injustice and cruelty. Finally, I created her one weakness; a passion for sexy, expensive lingerie which she wears under her everyday work outfit of jeans and a hoodie. I made this fictional character into a "real" person, someone people would like to have as a friend and to whom they could turn to in times of crisis.
I fleshed out her character, as well as those characters who make up her personal life; ex-husband Will Benigni,a NYPD homicide detective, current lover Giles Barrett, the city's medical examiner, her level-headed secretary, Myrtle, and her best friend, Melissa, who makes a living through well-heeled male "clients". Fiction is easy for me to write because, believe me, I live my life in a bubble of active, vivid imagination. These fictional people became very real to me.
The truth part of the novel was harder to write because it concerned the harsh reality of the crime of pedophilia, most specifically, the sexual abuse of children by clergy in the Roman Catholic Church. It is a story that has been much in the news over the past several years, a story unto itself. It is so prominently newsworthy that HBO made a documentary, Mea Maxima Culpa, about the years of sexual abuse endured by boys in a Church-run school for the deaf. That documentary detailed only some of the true stories of abuse; there are myriad others.
"Pedophilia," Cate Harlow tells her ex-husband, the seen-it-all NYPD homicide detective, "is a curious word. It comes from the joining of two Greek words; paîs, meaning child, and philía meaning friendly love or friendship. Yet the one word they form together is linked forever in modern infamy as an act so atrocious that simply saying it makes you want to vomit."
The most horrible of sins; childhood innocence lost, lives forever altered.
Many true instances in writers' personal lives find their way into our fictional work. Small or big, an incident remembered can makes its way into a book. The truth in my novel came about because of a neighborhood story I had heard as a child and never forgot. It has stayed in my mind for decades and has occasionally haunted me over the years.
I was perhaps 9 years old when a 12-year-old boy died very suddenly. The wake for the boy was quickly and quietly held, he was buried in a non-sectarian cemetery, and, as if a secret pact had been made, no one, not even his own family, spoke about the circumstances surrounding his death. It wasn't until years later, during my first year in high school, that I learned from his sister why there was so much secrecy concerning his death.
We were walking home from school and passed the church where her family used to worship. She paused and looked at the church steps with absolute anger, then walked quickly on.
"My brother committed suicide. Nobody is supposed to know that, but he did," she told me as we continued on our way. In response to my startled expression, she told me why he had chosen to take his own life; her brother had been sexually abused by their parish priest, a jovial man whom everyone seemed to like. "Our parents refused to believe what he told them. No one but me believed my brother. He just couldn't stand the horror of it happening anymore. He figured dying was his way out. Well, that's that, right? He killed himself to escape."
Neither she nor I ever mentioned it again but the story lingered in my mind. It needed to be told. Rather than write a magazine article about the pain and horror of what the sexual abuse did to the boy and his family, I chose to put the true story in a fictional setting.
For I Have Sinned seemed to write itself at times as I became more involved in the truth part of the story. I researched, then contacted, the organization called SNAP, Survivors' Network of Those Abused by Priests. Their ongoing fight for justice for the survivors of pedophilia is an amazing feat. They took on one of the most powerful organizations in the world, the Roman Catholic Church and made their collective voices be fully heard in the Halls of Justice.
Combining a solid fictional story with a raw and painful social injustice is a painstaking task. That's as it should be.The details have to be on-target and above all, absolutely truthfully documented. I had to make sure that I was completely objective in what I wrote and that this issue was handled with delicacy and dignity. I wanted my readers to know that not all clergy molest children; that there are also good and kind men in the priesthood, not just monsters.
Despite the seriousness of the issues in the book there are moments of humor, joy, and a few scenes of normal sexual encounters between Cate's and her ex-husband. She's human after all and life is made up of tragedy, joy, and the simple experiences of life.
There will be more books in the "A Cate Harlow Private Investigation" series. My character is strong and passionate about helping those who need a good PI. Her strength, her wry humor, and her commitment are what I admire. I like to think I created a good role model for women.
Cate Harlow does have her flaws, the same as the rest of us, one of which is doing things slightly illegally if it helps to solve a case or save a life. She has a healthy fear of danger but she doesn't let anyone know it. There's a quote in the book which I think sums up my character perfectly. While discussing the possibility of an unpleasant afterlife, she turns to her friend Melissa and says with a smile, "When you get to Hell, I'll be sitting in the hot tub waiting."
You'll like Cate Harlow.
I'm the Cate in Cate Harlow Private Investigations...
My name is Catherine and I'm the Cate in Cate Harlow, Private Investigations, P.I. license number 420731-6632. I don't like guns but I'm licensed to carry one and I am a damn good shot if I have to be. Most times, just showing a criminal a gun evens the playing field quite nicely.
You're going to hear a lot about me in FOR I HAVE SINNED. The media was all over that one. That case took a lot out of me emotionally and physically, but I recover pretty fast. I have no choice; I have to earn a living.
I'm not media-shy and I do appreciate the extra business the press coverage brought into my office. But, truth be told, in my business being easily recognized can present a real dilemma. There are many times I just want, and need, to fade into the background in order to help a client or solve a case.
And the cases keep coming in.
In my business I’ve learned to give the clients what they want. I’ve stopped trying to convince them that they’re wasting their money on something their hearts tell them is what they need to know. Rent's got to be paid, car paymets come due, food has to be bought; that's my reality. So if they want proof of a spouse cheating I’ll give them that proof. If they want to find someone or learn about a skeleton in a family closet, I can provide that too.
People pay PIs well because they think that we have some natural psychic ability about situations, but that’s just wishful thinking. A good P.I. is simply a damn good observer. Going into a case I don’t know any more than what I’ve been told by my clients. But the thing that separates me from them is that what their eyes and ears didn’t catch, mine will. I watch people all the time and I can tell them things about themselves their own mothers probably don’t know. Being a successful P.I. has less to do with anything psychic and a whole lot more to do with observation and rational thought.
But enough talk of cases and private investigators. I love my job but I need to get home,open a bottle of wine, and relax. With any luck, my ex Detective Will Benigni will be waiting with a pepperoni pizza, a large antipasto, and lust in his heart.
You're going to hear a lot about me in FOR I HAVE SINNED. The media was all over that one. That case took a lot out of me emotionally and physically, but I recover pretty fast. I have no choice; I have to earn a living.
I'm not media-shy and I do appreciate the extra business the press coverage brought into my office. But, truth be told, in my business being easily recognized can present a real dilemma. There are many times I just want, and need, to fade into the background in order to help a client or solve a case.
And the cases keep coming in.
In my business I’ve learned to give the clients what they want. I’ve stopped trying to convince them that they’re wasting their money on something their hearts tell them is what they need to know. Rent's got to be paid, car paymets come due, food has to be bought; that's my reality. So if they want proof of a spouse cheating I’ll give them that proof. If they want to find someone or learn about a skeleton in a family closet, I can provide that too.
People pay PIs well because they think that we have some natural psychic ability about situations, but that’s just wishful thinking. A good P.I. is simply a damn good observer. Going into a case I don’t know any more than what I’ve been told by my clients. But the thing that separates me from them is that what their eyes and ears didn’t catch, mine will. I watch people all the time and I can tell them things about themselves their own mothers probably don’t know. Being a successful P.I. has less to do with anything psychic and a whole lot more to do with observation and rational thought.
But enough talk of cases and private investigators. I love my job but I need to get home,open a bottle of wine, and relax. With any luck, my ex Detective Will Benigni will be waiting with a pepperoni pizza, a large antipasto, and lust in his heart.
Very Good at What I Fo...
I tell my clients to trust me and that I'm very good at what I do. Seriously I am. Take a case I took two years ago. It was never solved and I don't like unsolved cases.
This is what happened. A year ago, a nursing home director had contacted my office, for help in finding a patient who, it seemed had, as he put it, “simply wandered away”. The male patient had slight dementia but basically was healthy and had never gone missing before. The staff at the home had searched for two days but no one had been able to find him. The director was anxious to keep it discreet. He was adamant; no police, no publicity, I was to work the case alone. A story in the papers about a patient who had been allowed to disappear from this upscale, expensive nursing home would spell disaster for the place and the highly paid director. That was fine with me. Working alone and being discreet is part of being a good private investigator. Besides, I tend to get a lot done on my own. For my discreetness I was paid three times what I usually get for my investigations.
I thought the case was going to be a simple one concerning a missing elderly man. Ninety-five percent of these cases end well; the person is found, confused and a little scared, and returned back to where he lives. I had every confidence that this was going to be one of those cases. As it turned out this was not one with a happy ending.
Two months later I found the nude, horribly mutilated and sodomized body of the missing man dumped in a drainage ditch in the New York State countryside. The story was buried along with the body but for me it remained open. It stayed in the back of my mind.As the media chronicled in FOR I HAVE SINNED, that case was solved and put to rest while I was tying up ends on my last case concerning a murdered priest and a missing boy. The media frenzy on that case being solved made me a temporary mini-celebrity.
The FOR I HAVE SINNED case files are open on my home computer now as I wait for Will to pick me up for a little R&R.
This is what happened. A year ago, a nursing home director had contacted my office, for help in finding a patient who, it seemed had, as he put it, “simply wandered away”. The male patient had slight dementia but basically was healthy and had never gone missing before. The staff at the home had searched for two days but no one had been able to find him. The director was anxious to keep it discreet. He was adamant; no police, no publicity, I was to work the case alone. A story in the papers about a patient who had been allowed to disappear from this upscale, expensive nursing home would spell disaster for the place and the highly paid director. That was fine with me. Working alone and being discreet is part of being a good private investigator. Besides, I tend to get a lot done on my own. For my discreetness I was paid three times what I usually get for my investigations.
I thought the case was going to be a simple one concerning a missing elderly man. Ninety-five percent of these cases end well; the person is found, confused and a little scared, and returned back to where he lives. I had every confidence that this was going to be one of those cases. As it turned out this was not one with a happy ending.
Two months later I found the nude, horribly mutilated and sodomized body of the missing man dumped in a drainage ditch in the New York State countryside. The story was buried along with the body but for me it remained open. It stayed in the back of my mind.As the media chronicled in FOR I HAVE SINNED, that case was solved and put to rest while I was tying up ends on my last case concerning a murdered priest and a missing boy. The media frenzy on that case being solved made me a temporary mini-celebrity.
The FOR I HAVE SINNED case files are open on my home computer now as I wait for Will to pick me up for a little R&R.
Cate Harlow My Alter-ego
FOR I HAVE SINNED A Cate Harlow Private Investigation will officially launch on November 1, 2014. Both the print book and now the ebook are available.
I am certainly excited and happy that sales are going through the roof, so to speak. I love doing signings and meeting readers. It is a dream come true.
http://www.amazon.com/Have-Sinned-Har...
I am certainly excited and happy that sales are going through the roof, so to speak. I love doing signings and meeting readers. It is a dream come true.
http://www.amazon.com/Have-Sinned-Har...
Missing boy, cold case
What really happened to Joshua McElroy? Find out in FOR I HAVE SINNED #coldcase For I Have Sinned
What I Learned From Writing Cate Harlow
March is Women's History Month, a time to celebrate the achievements of women who have made our lives better. It's also a good time to remember the strong women in fiction who have inspired us and made an impact in our real lives. Female characters from Jane Eyre to Jean Louise "Scout" Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird to V.I. Warshawski, , to Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, all are written as females of strength and savvy. They get the job done and are a tremendous asset to those in their lives. I should also mention Lisbeth Salander, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, strong woman who knew how to survive and "take care of business."
You can learn a lot from women in fiction, and you can learn a lot from writing your own strong female character. By creating a strong woman in the Cate Harlow Private Investigation series, I found myself becoming stronger.
When I began to write For I Have Sinned, I had a very definite idea of who my lead character would be and how she would act. Many writers will tell readers that they base their characters on themselves and, in a sense, this is true. However, in many ways, Cate Harlow was as different from me as a hummingbird is from a hawk. Except for some physical characteristics, a passion for tennis, and being pet-friendly, I made Cate Harlow into someone I admired and aspired to be. She would be savvy, strong and very independent in all aspects of her life. Literally, she would take no crap from anyone.
I did give my character some human vulnerability; she has an aversion to dead bodies and death itself. In her business she is very well aware that she's sure to come across death and a corpse or two but she still has an unremitting fear of it. As she says in For I Have Sinned:
Personally, I never get over seeing a dead body. You would think that after a while in my profession you'd become immune to it but that's not true in my case. There's always the very brief startle factor for me. No matter how badly damaged the body may be, it still seems as if it will come back to life again, like some modern Frankenstein. Stupid I know, but that's always my momentary reaction. After that I get down to business and look for evidence.
I also injected humor and compassion into my character to even out the often seedy, dirty parts of her life as a private investigator and gave her a healthy sex life as well. More on that later.
The differences and similarities between Cate and me are interesting. A psychiatrist might have a field day analyzing them. Cate is a woman who walked away from a nice, steady paycheck as a law interpreter to open her own business as a private investigator. I was a high school teacher who began writing every spare second I had while I was still teaching, terrified of not being able to depend on that secure paycheck every two weeks. Unlike Cate Harlow, I needed job security. She handles a gun when needed, I'm terrified of them.
Cate doesn't cook, depending on take-out, microwaveable foods, and a great restaurant named Enzo's, to sustain her. Although I'm not a gourmet chef by any means I do cook almost every day. As far as drinking goes, she does enjoy a good bottle of Merlot which is something Cate Harlow shares with her creator, although she drinks more wine in a week than I do.
Cate is fit, I need to be. Cate juggles two men in her life, I am married to my college love. Cate loves food, and I am always dieting. The more I wrote about Cate Harlow, the more I wanted to be like her. Maybe I was writing the "me I was meant to be." Whatever it was, I began learning some good life lessons from my fictional character, Cate Harlow, Private Investigator.
I began to think like Cate Harlow, analyzing situations completely and thoroughly before making decisions. And I began to play tennis again, a game I loved but had always felt I was "too busy" to play. If Cate can manage to do it with her crazy schedule, so could I. I stopped dieting; I didn't splurge and go food crazy, but I began to do the Cate thing and to enjoy the food I was eating, rather than obsessing about gaining weight.
One very important "Cate change" was taking action against injustice. Like Cate Harlow, I saw the social problems around me, but where she was an active fighter, I was more of a pacifist who avoided conflict. As I began to write more about Cate Harlow and her need to bring those who harm others to justice, I began to see that conflict isn't always bad; it can produce healthy change.
I found myself changing and becoming an advocate for specific causes, such as supporting Shelters with Heart, a place where victims of domestic abuse and their family pets can go to be safe and start new lives. Many women won't leave an abusive relationship because they fear their abuser will harm or kill their dog, cat or other family pet. To support the shelters I donate five percent of sales from all my books to them and willingly speak at fundraisers.
I wrote Cate Harlow as a woman who knows what she wants in all aspects of her life, including sex. She is the one in charge of when, where and who -- a very ready, willing, sensual and equal partner to her man. Let's say that she, like her author, enjoys her erotic encounters as much as she enjoys that excellent bottle of Merlot.
Writing the Cate Harlow Private Investigations series has changed my outlook on being strong and capable. I no longer fear changing careers, I have a healthy attitude for making the most of living, and I use my strong voice and actions to benefit those in need. And, as with my character Cate, my sense of humor has gotten me through some tough times.
Perhaps writers project more of themselves onto their characters than anyone knows. Or maybe writing the character allows the author to become someone she has long wanted to be. Either way, strong fictional female characters can inspire us to be our best even if we're the ones creating them.
Follow Kristen Houghton on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kristenhoughton
You can learn a lot from women in fiction, and you can learn a lot from writing your own strong female character. By creating a strong woman in the Cate Harlow Private Investigation series, I found myself becoming stronger.
When I began to write For I Have Sinned, I had a very definite idea of who my lead character would be and how she would act. Many writers will tell readers that they base their characters on themselves and, in a sense, this is true. However, in many ways, Cate Harlow was as different from me as a hummingbird is from a hawk. Except for some physical characteristics, a passion for tennis, and being pet-friendly, I made Cate Harlow into someone I admired and aspired to be. She would be savvy, strong and very independent in all aspects of her life. Literally, she would take no crap from anyone.
I did give my character some human vulnerability; she has an aversion to dead bodies and death itself. In her business she is very well aware that she's sure to come across death and a corpse or two but she still has an unremitting fear of it. As she says in For I Have Sinned:
Personally, I never get over seeing a dead body. You would think that after a while in my profession you'd become immune to it but that's not true in my case. There's always the very brief startle factor for me. No matter how badly damaged the body may be, it still seems as if it will come back to life again, like some modern Frankenstein. Stupid I know, but that's always my momentary reaction. After that I get down to business and look for evidence.
I also injected humor and compassion into my character to even out the often seedy, dirty parts of her life as a private investigator and gave her a healthy sex life as well. More on that later.
The differences and similarities between Cate and me are interesting. A psychiatrist might have a field day analyzing them. Cate is a woman who walked away from a nice, steady paycheck as a law interpreter to open her own business as a private investigator. I was a high school teacher who began writing every spare second I had while I was still teaching, terrified of not being able to depend on that secure paycheck every two weeks. Unlike Cate Harlow, I needed job security. She handles a gun when needed, I'm terrified of them.
Cate doesn't cook, depending on take-out, microwaveable foods, and a great restaurant named Enzo's, to sustain her. Although I'm not a gourmet chef by any means I do cook almost every day. As far as drinking goes, she does enjoy a good bottle of Merlot which is something Cate Harlow shares with her creator, although she drinks more wine in a week than I do.
Cate is fit, I need to be. Cate juggles two men in her life, I am married to my college love. Cate loves food, and I am always dieting. The more I wrote about Cate Harlow, the more I wanted to be like her. Maybe I was writing the "me I was meant to be." Whatever it was, I began learning some good life lessons from my fictional character, Cate Harlow, Private Investigator.
I began to think like Cate Harlow, analyzing situations completely and thoroughly before making decisions. And I began to play tennis again, a game I loved but had always felt I was "too busy" to play. If Cate can manage to do it with her crazy schedule, so could I. I stopped dieting; I didn't splurge and go food crazy, but I began to do the Cate thing and to enjoy the food I was eating, rather than obsessing about gaining weight.
One very important "Cate change" was taking action against injustice. Like Cate Harlow, I saw the social problems around me, but where she was an active fighter, I was more of a pacifist who avoided conflict. As I began to write more about Cate Harlow and her need to bring those who harm others to justice, I began to see that conflict isn't always bad; it can produce healthy change.
I found myself changing and becoming an advocate for specific causes, such as supporting Shelters with Heart, a place where victims of domestic abuse and their family pets can go to be safe and start new lives. Many women won't leave an abusive relationship because they fear their abuser will harm or kill their dog, cat or other family pet. To support the shelters I donate five percent of sales from all my books to them and willingly speak at fundraisers.
I wrote Cate Harlow as a woman who knows what she wants in all aspects of her life, including sex. She is the one in charge of when, where and who -- a very ready, willing, sensual and equal partner to her man. Let's say that she, like her author, enjoys her erotic encounters as much as she enjoys that excellent bottle of Merlot.
Writing the Cate Harlow Private Investigations series has changed my outlook on being strong and capable. I no longer fear changing careers, I have a healthy attitude for making the most of living, and I use my strong voice and actions to benefit those in need. And, as with my character Cate, my sense of humor has gotten me through some tough times.
Perhaps writers project more of themselves onto their characters than anyone knows. Or maybe writing the character allows the author to become someone she has long wanted to be. Either way, strong fictional female characters can inspire us to be our best even if we're the ones creating them.
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