Kater Cheek's Blog, page 2
March 20, 2016
Alternate (Susan) Cover
I just got a new cover for Alternate Susan, and I'm working with the artist to do a new cover for Mulberry Wands. It's not that I don't like my old covers, it's just that they don't market as well as I'd like for urban fantasy. I was lucky enough to find an artist whose work is great (and she's great to work with!) So when Uncle Sam gave me some of my taxes back, I decided this would be a good thing to spend it on.
My goal for 2016 was to not write any new books. This is an odd goal for a writer, but I realized that I didn't have enough time to write a novel and work on publishing novels at the same time. I have novels that have been languishing on my hard drive, waiting to be shared with the world, and that just won't do. I wrote these novels to share them with the world, not to hide them away. So the year of the monkey is my year of putting my energy into the publishing side of the writer's life.
If you really like the old covers of Alternate Susan and Mulberry Wands, you should buy copies ASAP because the covers will soon change. If you prefer the new covers, you're in luck. I intend to publish a standalone YA novel this year, a middle grade book, an omnibus of the Kit Melbourne novels 4-6, and after that I hope to revise and publish The Heat Stealer, the third Alternate Susan book.
Thanks for everyone joining me in my publishing adventure. Positive responses from readers really makes all this effort seem worth it.
Kater Cheek
My goal for 2016 was to not write any new books. This is an odd goal for a writer, but I realized that I didn't have enough time to write a novel and work on publishing novels at the same time. I have novels that have been languishing on my hard drive, waiting to be shared with the world, and that just won't do. I wrote these novels to share them with the world, not to hide them away. So the year of the monkey is my year of putting my energy into the publishing side of the writer's life.
If you really like the old covers of Alternate Susan and Mulberry Wands, you should buy copies ASAP because the covers will soon change. If you prefer the new covers, you're in luck. I intend to publish a standalone YA novel this year, a middle grade book, an omnibus of the Kit Melbourne novels 4-6, and after that I hope to revise and publish The Heat Stealer, the third Alternate Susan book.
Thanks for everyone joining me in my publishing adventure. Positive responses from readers really makes all this effort seem worth it.
Kater Cheek
January 13, 2016
Hawthorn Hex Interview
Feminist Mage: Kater Cheek discusses Hawthorn Hex
Kater Cheek is the author of seven novels, dozens of short stories, hundreds of book reviews, and a comic book about chickens. She’s just come out with Hawthorn Hex, the sixth book in the Kit Melbourne series. We talk to her about childcare, feminism, refugees, and how they relate to urban fantasy.
This is the sixth book in what is proving to be an enduring series. How has Kit changed as a character since Seeing Things?
Kit has come a long way since the first book. When she started out the series, she had a typical young person’s problems: how to make the rent, how to find love. Now that she’s started a family, she has to balance taking care of her daughter with her work for the Vampire Guild. It’s a struggle that a lot of people go through that’s not well represented in fiction, especially not in contemporary fantasy.
Why do you think it’s underrepresented?
Partly I think it’s because it’s inconvenient. For example, in high fantasy you have this problem with horses that are basically cars that Diana Wynne Jones mocked so beautifully in The Tough Guide to Fantasyland back in 2006. Fantasy horses don’t need to eat, they don’t need to rest. They just take the heroes from place to place, a prop that gives the book that high-fantasy feel, like cloaks and castles.
I’ve seen that in other novels, where the heroine has a baby but it’s merely used as a prop. It’s disingenuous, because raising a baby is hard work, and to pretend that it isn’t is disrespectful to the people who have done it, who are doing it. It requires a lot of time and a lot of skill that has to be learned.
Tessali and Kit have a complicated relationship in this book. Kit seems to seems to feel guilty about how much she needs Tessali, and yet she resents her as well. Do you think readers will respond to this? Most readers don’t have a full-time faerie nanny.
The struggle of how to raise children or not raise children is one I think that all women deal with. Even women who don’t have children (maybe especially women who don’t have children) have thought about how much weight is placed on every decision. No matter what you decide, society will judge you harshly.
My female friends and I joke a lot about how much we’d like to have a wife. Anyone who’s read the series will know there’s a lot of parallel between the karla/spira bond and a traditional marriage. In the Vargel society, the Indel have been conditioned since birth that bonding, becoming a submissive helpmeet to a Vargel, is the highest role they can attain. As in real life, it doesn’t always work perfectly even if both people think that’s what they want.
Kit feels conflicted about having Tessali do this for her, because our society still tells women that their natural place is as a caregiver. And Fenwick has a problem with it too, because he wants to be at home with the kids, but as a man, he’s been taught that it’s his job to earn the money. So they’re all struggling with the conflict between what they want and what they think they’re supposed to want.
Would you say that this is a feminist book?
Oh, yes. I would say anything I write is feminist. I feel very sad when I hear women say a woman’s proper place is to be under the authority of a man. Women who claim that a woman should not have her own authority and autonomy remind me of victims with the Stockholm syndrome.
Being a homemaker was the right decision for me and my family, but I’m extremely aware of the risk, the sacrifice, and of the pressure it puts on a relationship to have one person financially dependent on the other. In a way, writing this book was like an exploration of what the other side of the coin is like.
For me, feminism is not just about deciding whether a woman should have kids and whether she should stay home to raise them. That’s a loaded question, designed to set women against other women. Feminism should be about women helping each other. That’s a strong theme of this book, women trying to help other women, and about how far you can go to help another person without endangering yourself.
In the novel, the Vampire Guild has to make decisions about how many vampire refugees to take in. Did you mean to draw parallels with the situation in Syria when you wrote this?
Not at all. When I first wrote the sixth book in the Kit Melbourne series, it was a very different story. it was called Familiar Battles, and it was about a rather sympathetic witch named Barbara who had an incurable degenerative disease. She had an opportunity to live disease-free forever if she was willing to kill an innocent woman. Kit was a background character in that version. In trying to incorporate her as a main character, I had to abandon the plot and start over from scratch.
When I rewrote the novel, I knew I wanted to focus on Kit and Tessali’s relationship, and on Kit’s career as Dayrunner. I also wanted to flesh out her development as a mage. The plot needed a pressing reason why she had to finish the ward in a short amount of time. I’ve already written later books in this series, so I kind of know where I want the story to go. I had written in Adamiak’s background story that he had been living in Toronto when an internecine vampire conflict caused a lot of vampires to flee to other Guilds. I decided to use that backstory here.
This book took me over a year to write, and when I started it, I knew nothing about the Syrian refugees. In Hawthorn Hex, the vampire refugee situation is made more complicated in that if a city gets too top-heavy, that is, too many vampires per humans, it can endanger everyone in the city. It’s a heavy question. Who do you allow to come into your safe space? How do you balance the desire to help others with the need to keep your own group safe?
What’s next after this?
I’m currently working on an omnibus of the first three Kit Melbourne novels. Its title will be Bindi Magic, and I’m working with a cover artist to give it a fresh look. My next standalone novel will be Parasitic Souls. It’s an emerging adult contemporary fantasy novel about what happens when people develop the technology of transferring a soul into another person’s body.
As for Susan Stillwater, the third book in the Desert Mages series, The Heat Stealer, won’t come out until 2017 at the earliest. I’m pretty busy with work and kids, and I only do one project at a time, so it can take a lot longer than I’d like.
Kit would understand!
Hawthorn Hex is available as an ebook through most formats or paperback through libraries or retailers. For more information on her other books, visit: http://www.catherinecheek.com/fiction-2/
Kater Cheek is the author of seven novels, dozens of short stories, hundreds of book reviews, and a comic book about chickens. She’s just come out with Hawthorn Hex, the sixth book in the Kit Melbourne series. We talk to her about childcare, feminism, refugees, and how they relate to urban fantasy.
This is the sixth book in what is proving to be an enduring series. How has Kit changed as a character since Seeing Things?
Kit has come a long way since the first book. When she started out the series, she had a typical young person’s problems: how to make the rent, how to find love. Now that she’s started a family, she has to balance taking care of her daughter with her work for the Vampire Guild. It’s a struggle that a lot of people go through that’s not well represented in fiction, especially not in contemporary fantasy.
Why do you think it’s underrepresented?
Partly I think it’s because it’s inconvenient. For example, in high fantasy you have this problem with horses that are basically cars that Diana Wynne Jones mocked so beautifully in The Tough Guide to Fantasyland back in 2006. Fantasy horses don’t need to eat, they don’t need to rest. They just take the heroes from place to place, a prop that gives the book that high-fantasy feel, like cloaks and castles.
I’ve seen that in other novels, where the heroine has a baby but it’s merely used as a prop. It’s disingenuous, because raising a baby is hard work, and to pretend that it isn’t is disrespectful to the people who have done it, who are doing it. It requires a lot of time and a lot of skill that has to be learned.
Tessali and Kit have a complicated relationship in this book. Kit seems to seems to feel guilty about how much she needs Tessali, and yet she resents her as well. Do you think readers will respond to this? Most readers don’t have a full-time faerie nanny.
The struggle of how to raise children or not raise children is one I think that all women deal with. Even women who don’t have children (maybe especially women who don’t have children) have thought about how much weight is placed on every decision. No matter what you decide, society will judge you harshly.
My female friends and I joke a lot about how much we’d like to have a wife. Anyone who’s read the series will know there’s a lot of parallel between the karla/spira bond and a traditional marriage. In the Vargel society, the Indel have been conditioned since birth that bonding, becoming a submissive helpmeet to a Vargel, is the highest role they can attain. As in real life, it doesn’t always work perfectly even if both people think that’s what they want.
Kit feels conflicted about having Tessali do this for her, because our society still tells women that their natural place is as a caregiver. And Fenwick has a problem with it too, because he wants to be at home with the kids, but as a man, he’s been taught that it’s his job to earn the money. So they’re all struggling with the conflict between what they want and what they think they’re supposed to want.
Would you say that this is a feminist book?
Oh, yes. I would say anything I write is feminist. I feel very sad when I hear women say a woman’s proper place is to be under the authority of a man. Women who claim that a woman should not have her own authority and autonomy remind me of victims with the Stockholm syndrome.
Being a homemaker was the right decision for me and my family, but I’m extremely aware of the risk, the sacrifice, and of the pressure it puts on a relationship to have one person financially dependent on the other. In a way, writing this book was like an exploration of what the other side of the coin is like.
For me, feminism is not just about deciding whether a woman should have kids and whether she should stay home to raise them. That’s a loaded question, designed to set women against other women. Feminism should be about women helping each other. That’s a strong theme of this book, women trying to help other women, and about how far you can go to help another person without endangering yourself.
In the novel, the Vampire Guild has to make decisions about how many vampire refugees to take in. Did you mean to draw parallels with the situation in Syria when you wrote this?
Not at all. When I first wrote the sixth book in the Kit Melbourne series, it was a very different story. it was called Familiar Battles, and it was about a rather sympathetic witch named Barbara who had an incurable degenerative disease. She had an opportunity to live disease-free forever if she was willing to kill an innocent woman. Kit was a background character in that version. In trying to incorporate her as a main character, I had to abandon the plot and start over from scratch.
When I rewrote the novel, I knew I wanted to focus on Kit and Tessali’s relationship, and on Kit’s career as Dayrunner. I also wanted to flesh out her development as a mage. The plot needed a pressing reason why she had to finish the ward in a short amount of time. I’ve already written later books in this series, so I kind of know where I want the story to go. I had written in Adamiak’s background story that he had been living in Toronto when an internecine vampire conflict caused a lot of vampires to flee to other Guilds. I decided to use that backstory here.
This book took me over a year to write, and when I started it, I knew nothing about the Syrian refugees. In Hawthorn Hex, the vampire refugee situation is made more complicated in that if a city gets too top-heavy, that is, too many vampires per humans, it can endanger everyone in the city. It’s a heavy question. Who do you allow to come into your safe space? How do you balance the desire to help others with the need to keep your own group safe?
What’s next after this?
I’m currently working on an omnibus of the first three Kit Melbourne novels. Its title will be Bindi Magic, and I’m working with a cover artist to give it a fresh look. My next standalone novel will be Parasitic Souls. It’s an emerging adult contemporary fantasy novel about what happens when people develop the technology of transferring a soul into another person’s body.
As for Susan Stillwater, the third book in the Desert Mages series, The Heat Stealer, won’t come out until 2017 at the earliest. I’m pretty busy with work and kids, and I only do one project at a time, so it can take a lot longer than I’d like.
Kit would understand!
Hawthorn Hex is available as an ebook through most formats or paperback through libraries or retailers. For more information on her other books, visit: http://www.catherinecheek.com/fiction-2/
December 15, 2014
Kit Melbourne 6 Progress and Delays
I have rules for myself, and one of them is that I only work on one project at a time. I work on it until it's done, and then I go on to a next project. It's a pretty good rule, keeps me from having a lot of half-finished projects lying around. sometimes the 3/5ths mark of a novel is the nadir of inspiration, for example, and without this rule I might not finish anything.
But I had a novel I wanted to work on that had been haunting me for a while. I have a title for it that I love "Prophet of an Indie God" and it's in an alternate version of America. A really, really alternate version. I had only written one truly second-world novel before, and it was a hot, steaming mess. But this time would be different.
Eight months and 50,000 words later, I decided to set it aside. I got too bogged down with worldbuilding and lost what excited me about the project in the first place. I'm going to finish it, someday, but later.
So I started working on the sixth book in the Kit Melbourne series. I had already written it. It was, in fact, one of my favorites. It deals with a woman dying of an incurable disease, a boy who sees faeries and a girl who stopped aging as a tween. There's a really cute scene at a Halloween festival when a faerie-made costume turns to leaves and grass at midnight, forcing its wearer to sprint home in the all-together.
But I had to throw it all away. When I first wrote it, I was learning to write, and I wanted to explore other characters, but now that I'm publishing this series as the Kit Melbourne series, I feel that each book has to have her as a main character. I tried to insert her in there, but it just didn't work.
So I'm rewriting it with a new plot. Some of the characters bear passing resemblances to the original characters, which will confuse those half-dozen people who read the first version, but it's now darker and more twisted. I hope it will remind people of stories they've heard about or lived through in their own lives. I hope it will resonate. I know it will entertain.
But I haven't gotten very far, so you're not going to see it until late 2015 or early 2016. In the meantime, I plan to publish some stories I've been holding in reserve, and maybe try to edit and format and get some other novels ready for publishing. I plan on publishing at least one thing in 2015, but this one, this book that was once called FAMILIAR BATTLES, this one may take a while.
I hope you agree it's worth the wait.
But I had a novel I wanted to work on that had been haunting me for a while. I have a title for it that I love "Prophet of an Indie God" and it's in an alternate version of America. A really, really alternate version. I had only written one truly second-world novel before, and it was a hot, steaming mess. But this time would be different.
Eight months and 50,000 words later, I decided to set it aside. I got too bogged down with worldbuilding and lost what excited me about the project in the first place. I'm going to finish it, someday, but later.
So I started working on the sixth book in the Kit Melbourne series. I had already written it. It was, in fact, one of my favorites. It deals with a woman dying of an incurable disease, a boy who sees faeries and a girl who stopped aging as a tween. There's a really cute scene at a Halloween festival when a faerie-made costume turns to leaves and grass at midnight, forcing its wearer to sprint home in the all-together.
But I had to throw it all away. When I first wrote it, I was learning to write, and I wanted to explore other characters, but now that I'm publishing this series as the Kit Melbourne series, I feel that each book has to have her as a main character. I tried to insert her in there, but it just didn't work.
So I'm rewriting it with a new plot. Some of the characters bear passing resemblances to the original characters, which will confuse those half-dozen people who read the first version, but it's now darker and more twisted. I hope it will remind people of stories they've heard about or lived through in their own lives. I hope it will resonate. I know it will entertain.
But I haven't gotten very far, so you're not going to see it until late 2015 or early 2016. In the meantime, I plan to publish some stories I've been holding in reserve, and maybe try to edit and format and get some other novels ready for publishing. I plan on publishing at least one thing in 2015, but this one, this book that was once called FAMILIAR BATTLES, this one may take a while.
I hope you agree it's worth the wait.
November 20, 2013
Changer's Turf Progress 2
Well, I've got my proofs of Changer's Turf out, and I've been starting to get the proofs back from my awesome copyeditors. I have a cover snapshot to show you as well.
Goodreads won't seem to let me post photos, so you'll have to go to my blog at www.katercheek.com
Don't forget to check out my giveaway! In honor of book 5, I'm giving away two copies of book 4, FAERIE KILLER to a couple of lucky winners.
Goodreads won't seem to let me post photos, so you'll have to go to my blog at www.katercheek.com
Don't forget to check out my giveaway! In honor of book 5, I'm giving away two copies of book 4, FAERIE KILLER to a couple of lucky winners.
September 13, 2013
Changer's Turf progress
I finished the first draft of CHANGER'S TURF in August, a little over a year after I started. Since then I've been working hard on revisions. I got a new software, called Scrivener, and I can't believe I've ever been so foolish as to attempt a revision without it.
Usually a revision is a messy affair, involving notecards, stacks of tiny printouts of chapters, and various chunks of manuscript cut and pasted (with scissors! and tape!) and laid together on the living room floor, while the cats do their best to foil my efforts. Now I can do it all on the computer.
I'm so fortunate to have a number of amazing writer friends who have been willing to read my draft and give me feedback. When I'm done with this edit, I'll get a working cover so that I can print out proofs for copyediting.
Hope you guys can wait a little longer. (I'm not the most patient person either.) Current estimation is that CHANGER'S TURF will hit the shelves around Christmas. I'll post a cover when I've got it.
Meanwhile, if you haven't already seen my new novel, ALTERNATE SUSAN, feel free to go to my website, where I'm serializing it. If you like it, it's out now. It's the first in a new series.
Usually a revision is a messy affair, involving notecards, stacks of tiny printouts of chapters, and various chunks of manuscript cut and pasted (with scissors! and tape!) and laid together on the living room floor, while the cats do their best to foil my efforts. Now I can do it all on the computer.
I'm so fortunate to have a number of amazing writer friends who have been willing to read my draft and give me feedback. When I'm done with this edit, I'll get a working cover so that I can print out proofs for copyediting.
Hope you guys can wait a little longer. (I'm not the most patient person either.) Current estimation is that CHANGER'S TURF will hit the shelves around Christmas. I'll post a cover when I've got it.
Meanwhile, if you haven't already seen my new novel, ALTERNATE SUSAN, feel free to go to my website, where I'm serializing it. If you like it, it's out now. It's the first in a new series.
June 20, 2013
Alternate Susan
ALTERNATE SUSAN the first book in a new urban fantasy series was born yesterday on Createspace and Kindle. Smashwords version coming soon.
This book takes place in an alternate version of Tempe, Arizona. I wrote it in part because I wanted an urban fantasy that had no vampires, no werewolves, no fallen angels, no Irish fairies, and did I mention no vampires? It's fast paced and has a lot of family drama, with my own special sense of humor intermixed throughout.
Please go and check it out.
https://www.createspace.com/4177391
This book takes place in an alternate version of Tempe, Arizona. I wrote it in part because I wanted an urban fantasy that had no vampires, no werewolves, no fallen angels, no Irish fairies, and did I mention no vampires? It's fast paced and has a lot of family drama, with my own special sense of humor intermixed throughout.
Please go and check it out.
https://www.createspace.com/4177391
March 12, 2013
New Books for 2013
I have some new publications planned for this year which I'd like to let people know about.
Right now I'm working on CHANGER'S TURF the fifth book in the Kit Melbourne series. It's going fairly well. My plan is for it to hit the shelves by September 1, but of course if I can get it out earlier, I will.
To help keep me motivated for the September 1 release date, I'm going to be giving away the other Kit Melbourne books in a series of goodreads giveaways. The first one, for two copies of SEEING THINGS, will begin March 21st if it is approved by the goodreads staff. I will follow that with a giveaway for TREEMAKER, and then DAYRUNNER and FAERIE KILLER. After that I may give away boxed sets.
The other exciting news is that I'm going to publish a new urban fantasy series this year, starting with the first book ALTERNATE SUSAN. The novel itself is finished and has had editing, so it will just need a few rounds of proofreading once I get some hard copies. Right now I'm working on the cover art. You'll be able to comment on the prototypes at www.catherinecheek.com or www.katercheek.com after Easter when I have something ready.
Right now I'm working on CHANGER'S TURF the fifth book in the Kit Melbourne series. It's going fairly well. My plan is for it to hit the shelves by September 1, but of course if I can get it out earlier, I will.
To help keep me motivated for the September 1 release date, I'm going to be giving away the other Kit Melbourne books in a series of goodreads giveaways. The first one, for two copies of SEEING THINGS, will begin March 21st if it is approved by the goodreads staff. I will follow that with a giveaway for TREEMAKER, and then DAYRUNNER and FAERIE KILLER. After that I may give away boxed sets.
The other exciting news is that I'm going to publish a new urban fantasy series this year, starting with the first book ALTERNATE SUSAN. The novel itself is finished and has had editing, so it will just need a few rounds of proofreading once I get some hard copies. Right now I'm working on the cover art. You'll be able to comment on the prototypes at www.catherinecheek.com or www.katercheek.com after Easter when I have something ready.
September 25, 2012
Changing Places/Changer's Turf
Well, FAERIE KILLER, the fourth book in the Kit Melbourne series is out now, in ebook and paperback. Congratulations to the winners of the Goodreads book giveaway, which ended last week. They should be getting their signed copies soon.
But of course, I've already started rewriting the sequel to FAERIE KILLER. And by rewriting, I mean I've been writing an entirely new novel from scratch with only a loose resemblance to the original novel, which was titled CHANGING PLACES and completed in 2004.
It's the crap-faeries who do it. Crap faeries are related to shrink moths (the moths that get into your closet and drawers and make your favorite jeans too tight in the rear). Crap faeries take your wonderful stories and make them suck. You finish the draft of your deathless prose, go to bed, get distracted by life, and when you return to your manuscript, the story has huge glaring flaws that you surely didn't put in there.
When I wrote this series, I wrote books 1-3 with a first person perspective, and I strove for as linear a plot as possible. Books 4-6 I wanted to try something different. For these books, I had four main characters in each one, each with 25% of the story. I'm not saying this was a completely ineffective technique, but it's no longer suitable for a series titled "The Kit Melbourne Novels". Kit has to be the main character, not one of four.
The original book #5,CHANGING PLACES has some good elements that I'll be sad to lose. CHANGING PLACES had a girl who was dating a god, and a vampire who lost her money in the stock market, and a man whose migraines masked the betrayal his subconscious knew about. In the original story, Kit is laid up by a difficult pregnancy, and her brother James takes over for her as Dayrunner.
I don't know if I can keep any of this. I'm still keeping the faerie who works at the Renaissance festivals, and I'm still keeping the modern-day private investigator whose life is an homage to his noir heroes. The vampire still lost her money in the housing crisis (who didn't?) but it's no longer her primary motivator.
It's going to take a year to get the new book, CHANGER'S TURF out and ready for reading. It feels like kind of a waste to throw CHANGING PLACES out and write a new one, but when I reread it this summer, it was clear it wouldn't do. It wasn't my first novel (closer to my 6th) but I wrote it in 2004 and I have a few million words of prose between me and it. Also, I no longer feel that a 4-main-character novel is the best thing for this series.
I do worry that the same thing will happen with FAMILIAR BATTLES, the sixth book in the series. For years I considered it my best novel, but the crap faeries tend to get into everything, no matter how much anti-faerie-powder you spray.
But I'll worry about that later. For now, I intend to work solidly on CHANGER'S TURF, the sequel to FAERIE KILLER so that I have enough of it done to begin posting chapters weekly as soon as FAERIE KILLER is all up on line.
Be sure to visit www.katercheek.com if you want to read the serialized version of FAERIE KILLER or if you want to find links to purchase my other work.
But of course, I've already started rewriting the sequel to FAERIE KILLER. And by rewriting, I mean I've been writing an entirely new novel from scratch with only a loose resemblance to the original novel, which was titled CHANGING PLACES and completed in 2004.
It's the crap-faeries who do it. Crap faeries are related to shrink moths (the moths that get into your closet and drawers and make your favorite jeans too tight in the rear). Crap faeries take your wonderful stories and make them suck. You finish the draft of your deathless prose, go to bed, get distracted by life, and when you return to your manuscript, the story has huge glaring flaws that you surely didn't put in there.
When I wrote this series, I wrote books 1-3 with a first person perspective, and I strove for as linear a plot as possible. Books 4-6 I wanted to try something different. For these books, I had four main characters in each one, each with 25% of the story. I'm not saying this was a completely ineffective technique, but it's no longer suitable for a series titled "The Kit Melbourne Novels". Kit has to be the main character, not one of four.
The original book #5,CHANGING PLACES has some good elements that I'll be sad to lose. CHANGING PLACES had a girl who was dating a god, and a vampire who lost her money in the stock market, and a man whose migraines masked the betrayal his subconscious knew about. In the original story, Kit is laid up by a difficult pregnancy, and her brother James takes over for her as Dayrunner.
I don't know if I can keep any of this. I'm still keeping the faerie who works at the Renaissance festivals, and I'm still keeping the modern-day private investigator whose life is an homage to his noir heroes. The vampire still lost her money in the housing crisis (who didn't?) but it's no longer her primary motivator.
It's going to take a year to get the new book, CHANGER'S TURF out and ready for reading. It feels like kind of a waste to throw CHANGING PLACES out and write a new one, but when I reread it this summer, it was clear it wouldn't do. It wasn't my first novel (closer to my 6th) but I wrote it in 2004 and I have a few million words of prose between me and it. Also, I no longer feel that a 4-main-character novel is the best thing for this series.
I do worry that the same thing will happen with FAMILIAR BATTLES, the sixth book in the series. For years I considered it my best novel, but the crap faeries tend to get into everything, no matter how much anti-faerie-powder you spray.
But I'll worry about that later. For now, I intend to work solidly on CHANGER'S TURF, the sequel to FAERIE KILLER so that I have enough of it done to begin posting chapters weekly as soon as FAERIE KILLER is all up on line.
Be sure to visit www.katercheek.com if you want to read the serialized version of FAERIE KILLER or if you want to find links to purchase my other work.
April 10, 2012
Yet more Proofing-Indie publishing adventures
It took a lot of frustration and exploration to get my book to the point of the first proof. I had been told I had to get my book in PDF form in order to get it on CreateSpace. A PDF converter is easy enough, but I could only convert it as an the 8 1/2 x 11″ document that it defaulted to on word. It took a while to realize that Word has hidden tools that will let you change the paper size and margins. But what paper size? What margins? Well, they say if you want to do something well, a good idea is to copy someone who did it right. Enter Ms. Valentine’s lovely book (which you ought to read.)
Go to my blog to read the rest (with photos!) http://katercheek.com/2012/04/10/proo...
Go to my blog to read the rest (with photos!) http://katercheek.com/2012/04/10/proo...
January 30, 2012
Writing Progress
I've had all kinds of strategies in mind for how to make it as a writer, based on stuff I've been told to do by other writers, marketers, agents. You have to have a web presence, they say. You have to build a blog following. You have to make a name for yourself as a writer or you won't sell. This has been my goal since I first started writing: get my novels published and read.
I've done a lot of things that feel very "writerly" to me, things that are meant to help my writing career. Here are some examples.
Blogging: like this one. Also livejournal (which I just deleted), and to some extent my chicken comic was meant to increase my web presence. Increased web presence leads to increased name recognition leads to increased readership, the common wisdom goes. I'm not sure how true that is. I still write on this blog, because this blog is mostly about books, and I like books, and people who like books should come here and read my stuff. So that makes kind of sense. But I'd rather talk about other people's books than my own. I want you guys to talk about my books, after you read them.
Tweeting and facebooking: Similar to blogging. You have to know how to use social media, they say, they mostly being people who just found out about twitter last week. I still tweet, but I'm not frenetic about it. And I still post on facebook, but not to increase my social network platform, just to say something witty or tell people about my blog.
Writing and submitting short stories: As silly as it is, I once had the follwing train of thought--I need an agent. To find out who I should have as an agent, I should find out who the agents are of people who write like me. This is not public knowledge, but if you're a member of SFWA, you can get this information. You can't be a member of SFWA without sufficient publications. It's easier to get short stories published than novels. I'll learn to write short stories so I can get enough publications so I can become a SFWA member so I can find out which agents I need to submit to so I can get an agent so I can sell my novels.
Silly, I know, but it's better to have a silly plan than no plan at all. And it wasn't completely useless. By learning to write short stories, I got into Clarion, which was an amazing and wonderful experience that I never regret. I also got into some nice anthologies, which is a good experience, and I met some really cool editors. But there isn't as much of a connection between people who read short stories and people who publish novels as I would like. I no longer believe that even writing a brilliant, award-winning short story will help me sell novels.
Going to conventions: Okay, I'm still going to do this. I don't really think it's all that helpful to my goal in bold up there, but they're fun and I meet cool people and I get to travel.
Marketing myself: By this I mean handing out merch and promoting myself, shilling the Kater Cheek name like a hungry and crass real estate agent. Okay, so I have a signature on my email that tells people about my blog. And I have some business cards with my book cover on it that I hand out. But I'm not going to invest thousands of dollars in fliers and what not to give to people, like strip club ads at Vegas. I just don't believe it will be fruitful. Also, yuck.
I have given up this stuff for two main reasons. One, I don't have time anymore now that I'm working full-time instead of being a homemaker. Two, I'm not sure it works.
So here's what I'm doing instead. Are you listening?
Writing the next book.
Yeah. That's pretty much it. Writing, and of course reading (and listening to) books, because I can't not read books. I'm working just about every day on the next book in the Seabingen series. When I'm done with that, I'm going to get the fifth book polished up, which may or may not require a complete rewrite (I hope not) and then I'll do the same for the other books in the series. I plan to have at minimum, a book a year published, and I'm going to shoot for one every six months until they're all out there. I want people to read my books. I want people to enjoy my books. I want people to love them as much as I do. I want to be so popular that hipsters make fun of people who like my stuff, until the backlash comes and they get to enjoy my books ironically.
I'm making good progress on the novel. (Working title: Faerie Killer). I'm about 70,000 words into it, and I think it will be 80,000-90,000 when it's done, so I estimate that it will be ready to go by May. I work on it just about every day, even if I only have a few minutes, and I work on it for several hours on the weekends. I had to pare down, you see, when I realized I no longer had time to fritter away. I had to do what was the most important. Writing the next book.
And to be honest, all that other stuff is boring.
I've done a lot of things that feel very "writerly" to me, things that are meant to help my writing career. Here are some examples.
Blogging: like this one. Also livejournal (which I just deleted), and to some extent my chicken comic was meant to increase my web presence. Increased web presence leads to increased name recognition leads to increased readership, the common wisdom goes. I'm not sure how true that is. I still write on this blog, because this blog is mostly about books, and I like books, and people who like books should come here and read my stuff. So that makes kind of sense. But I'd rather talk about other people's books than my own. I want you guys to talk about my books, after you read them.
Tweeting and facebooking: Similar to blogging. You have to know how to use social media, they say, they mostly being people who just found out about twitter last week. I still tweet, but I'm not frenetic about it. And I still post on facebook, but not to increase my social network platform, just to say something witty or tell people about my blog.
Writing and submitting short stories: As silly as it is, I once had the follwing train of thought--I need an agent. To find out who I should have as an agent, I should find out who the agents are of people who write like me. This is not public knowledge, but if you're a member of SFWA, you can get this information. You can't be a member of SFWA without sufficient publications. It's easier to get short stories published than novels. I'll learn to write short stories so I can get enough publications so I can become a SFWA member so I can find out which agents I need to submit to so I can get an agent so I can sell my novels.
Silly, I know, but it's better to have a silly plan than no plan at all. And it wasn't completely useless. By learning to write short stories, I got into Clarion, which was an amazing and wonderful experience that I never regret. I also got into some nice anthologies, which is a good experience, and I met some really cool editors. But there isn't as much of a connection between people who read short stories and people who publish novels as I would like. I no longer believe that even writing a brilliant, award-winning short story will help me sell novels.
Going to conventions: Okay, I'm still going to do this. I don't really think it's all that helpful to my goal in bold up there, but they're fun and I meet cool people and I get to travel.
Marketing myself: By this I mean handing out merch and promoting myself, shilling the Kater Cheek name like a hungry and crass real estate agent. Okay, so I have a signature on my email that tells people about my blog. And I have some business cards with my book cover on it that I hand out. But I'm not going to invest thousands of dollars in fliers and what not to give to people, like strip club ads at Vegas. I just don't believe it will be fruitful. Also, yuck.
I have given up this stuff for two main reasons. One, I don't have time anymore now that I'm working full-time instead of being a homemaker. Two, I'm not sure it works.
So here's what I'm doing instead. Are you listening?
Writing the next book.
Yeah. That's pretty much it. Writing, and of course reading (and listening to) books, because I can't not read books. I'm working just about every day on the next book in the Seabingen series. When I'm done with that, I'm going to get the fifth book polished up, which may or may not require a complete rewrite (I hope not) and then I'll do the same for the other books in the series. I plan to have at minimum, a book a year published, and I'm going to shoot for one every six months until they're all out there. I want people to read my books. I want people to enjoy my books. I want people to love them as much as I do. I want to be so popular that hipsters make fun of people who like my stuff, until the backlash comes and they get to enjoy my books ironically.
I'm making good progress on the novel. (Working title: Faerie Killer). I'm about 70,000 words into it, and I think it will be 80,000-90,000 when it's done, so I estimate that it will be ready to go by May. I work on it just about every day, even if I only have a few minutes, and I work on it for several hours on the weekends. I had to pare down, you see, when I realized I no longer had time to fritter away. I had to do what was the most important. Writing the next book.
And to be honest, all that other stuff is boring.
