Cathy Perkins's Blog, page 121

Swapping Genres? by Kathy Ivan

First off, let me say that while I'm a bit waterlogged, everything here in North Texas (at least in my neck of the woods), is fine and we're drying out.  Though I'll admit, I haven't seen this much rain since I lived in Florida—during hurricane season. 
I've been thinking about my suspense writing a lot recently.  Why?  Because I haven't done any—not for a couple of months.  Oh, I'm still writing, and I have a series of books coming out that are contemporary romance—w...

Top 5 Signs That You Are Going To Miss A Deadline

You're starting that sequel. The words are flowing. You're halfway through the book and you are still two months away from your deadline. No problem...

And then, a month or two later you are faced with these obvious signs that you're not going to make it. 


1.)   You spend more time calculating days on the calendar than your word count for the day.

2.)   You consider a few sentences an epic achievement.

3.)   You look at your total word count and t...

JUST GO FOR IT

I was in the second grade when I decided I was going to be a writer. My first full-length novel featured Princess Tina and Prince Val who managed to overcome all obstacles (like whether it was okay if Tina liked macaroni and cheese and Val didn't) to marry each other and live happily ever after in a castle. The people of the kingdom were so besotted by the young couple they declared a national holiday and called it Valentine's Day. The handwritten and self-illustrated (with crayons) book was...

Research and Other Killers

by Janis PattersonI don’t care how hard you research your facts, how meticulously you look things up, you’re going to miss something. And once the book is out someone will call you on it. Sometimes someone will call you on it even if you’re right.
Sigh.
Research is necessary to make your book as true to life as possible – and that is important. Writers who ignore facts show their readers an insulting disrespect.
However, sometimes no amount of research turn up the facts that you need. Until lat...

THE ART OF CONNING

 I’m always interested to learn about occupations as you never know when a character may materialize. Throw in money, scams and Florida, and you have a very interesting story. Recently, I attended a meeting of the local Mystery Writers to listen to author, private investigator and a former federal probation officer Rory J. McMahon speak on financial fraud. He served on the Special Offender Unit that supervised special career criminal offenders on probation. Among those criminals Mr. McMa...

HOW MUCH DO YOU REALLY KNOW ABOUT MEMORIAL DAY?

By Sandy Parks
Every year Memorial Day comes and goes. As a military family, we’ve celebrated in different ways over the years, but I rarely paused to think about the history behind the day or how it has changed over the years. And, yes, there have been changes, right up to the year 2000 when Congress passed THE NATIONAL REMEMBRANCE ACT. Huh, what’s that you say?
This act “encourages people of the United States to give something back to their country, which provides them so much freedom and op...

FICTION AND FURNITURE

Most authors aren’t closet writers.  We want to have our books “out there” reaching as wide an audience as possible.  For that, as we all know, we need PR.  Good ol’ word of mouth, five star reviews (I’ll take four!), book signings, book club talks, blogs like this one, social media chitchat, in short anything to bring our work to the public eye.
 So when an innovative PR idea surfaces, why not grab for the gold ring?  One such golden PR opportunity came to me through...

Building a Character—One Trait at a Time

In the midst of edits for book two of my Gulf Coast Rescue series, I’m revisiting some of my secondary characters with a critical eye. Is that character trait realistic? Is it the right trait?With each book I write, my character development process is as varied as my plots. What worked for the last book doesn’t resonate for this one. I can’t decide if that is a good thing or not, but I have discovered a lot of ways to explore personalities and traits until I find the right combination for tha...

I haven't written much lately...

Years ago, a friend sent me this postcard and it never fails to make me smile. 


The truth is, I haven’t done much writing lately. When I had a day job, I’d dash to my desk and write as soon as I had a spare ten minutes. These days I have the luxury of being a full-time writer and I can - in theory - write all day. In theory. 
What I’ve lost, however, is my ability to dash to the desk and write for ten minutes. These days, I need a clear day. If I have an hour’s appointment in the midd...

The Mousetrap--a night to die for!

April was a busy month. First, my second novel Death at China Rose was published.  I barely had time to catch my breath, before my husband and I were off to Europe. Our first stop was Paris, where Steve ran the Paris Marathon while I somehow managed to keep busy drinking Bordeaux and sampling French cheeses. 
After a week or so of la bonne vie, we took the Chunnel train to London. I switched from French wine to English beer and got ready for The Mousetrap .

As every true mystery f...