Kate Lattey's Blog, page 7

How the timelines work

Here’s a little something I’ve been working on… a timeline that explains how each of my books (and their key characters) tie into each other. I will keep it updated as each series continues, but for now, this’ll do. Click to enlarge.

Further questions? Email me at nzponywriter@gmail.com and ask away!

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Finding a way to the finish

As originally posted on Horse Crossings.

Today has been a big day. I have finally finished, and published, my fourth full-length novel. It wasn’t supposed to be my fourth novel – it was intended to be my second. But my best laid plans didn’t quite turn out the way that I’d expected…

After I wrote and self-published my first novel Flying Changes in 2011, I started work on the sequel right away. Partly because I wanted to, and partly because I was told to. Don’t stop! everyone said. Keep the momentum going. Don’t be a one hit wonder.

Small chance of that. Everything I write is part of a series. I can’t seem to do it any other way, even when I want to.

My first book was optimistically labelled Clearwater Bay #1. It was always going to be part of a four-book series. I had titles for four books, and I had commissioned four cover photos. I knew what happened in book 3. I knew what happened in book 4. (I’ve had the final chapter and epilogue of the last book written for at least two years now.)

There was just one problem. I didn’t know what happened in book 2. Other than the fact that it was called Against the Clock, it was a blank slate, a page without any words.

Looking back, no wonder it was hard to write.

Just skip it, suggested my mother. Move on to the story of book 3. Make it a trilogy instead.

Not terrible advice, except that there was no way I could do that. For the events of book 3 to have emotional resonance, there needed to be time and character development from book 1. I needed Jay, my protagonist, to grow up a little bit more before I could throw her into the dramatic events of book 3. But I was struggling. I looked over the first draft and knew that it wasn’t great. The story leapt all over the place, characters turned up for a few chapters then vanished without any resolution to their part of the story, and the whole plot just meandered along vaguely.

Eventually, I was so disparaged that I couldn’t even look at it, so I decided to write something that would just flow. Something that I had no stakes in or expectations of, just pick a scene in my head and start writing, and see where the storyline would go. I clearly recall sitting in my bedroom in Ireland, visualising that house’s cluttered front hallway, and starting to write.

She ran down the hall, bare feet slapping against the dusty floorboards.

I kept writing, intrigued, as my new heroine ran into the kitchen to find her big sister sitting at the kitchen table, surrounded by overdue accounts.

“Nimble’s caught in the fence! Van cut him out but he’s gushing blood all down his leg, and you have to call the vet.”

It was supposed to be one scene, a writing exercise full of action that would break me free of the net that I was trapped in. It wasn’t supposed to turn into a book, but those characters moved into my head and took over. A year and a half later, I had completed a novel called Dare to Dream.



I released it into the world, and went back to working on Against the Clock. Armed with more skills and experience and the newfound realisation that even pony books can’t be all about ponies all of the time, I started hacking storylines and characters out of the first draft. But then the story just lay there, apathetic and dull and uninspiring. I fumbled around for ideas, and found a few. I added them to the story, watched them settle in and become part of the fabric of that world. They worked, but they were small character moments, not big plot moments. And the plot itself was still feeble. It still didn’t work.

Meanwhile, Dare to Dream was gaining traction. It sold well, and consistently. It got five-star reviews. Readers loved these characters, loved this storyline, and wanted more. And the characters themselves wouldn’t go away either. They wanted their story to be continued. I knew what happened after the events of Dare to Dream, but nobody else did. I wrote the epilogue to the sequel, and it made me cry. So I decided that everyone else should get to read it too. I put Against the Clock aside once more, and started writing Dream On.

Just under a year later, Dream On was released to rave reviews, and I went back once more to Against the Clock. This time I was going to make it work. Armed with yet more knowledge and writing ability, I stripped the story right back to its bare bones, then slowly pasted the character moments back in around the plot. Slowly, slowly, it started to form into a proper novel. It fell into place, just needing me to write some additional scenes and trim back or rewrite a few existing ones. It was almost ready.

There was only one problem – I was really struggling to let go of Dream On. I don’t usually like reading my own work, but I kept going back and re-reading that book, just so that I could live in that world a little longer. I couldn’t help it. I didn’t want to go back to Clearwater Bay and deal with Jay’s smaller, more trivial problems. I didn’t want to go back into first person and not be able to explore different viewpoints, or jump to another character to keep the pace going. And I love the girls in Dare to Dream and its sequel. They’re the kind of people I’d be friends with (are in fact loosely-based on actual friends of mine) and I was still missing them. They’re sisters, with a strong sisterly bond, and I felt as though they were part of my family. It was really hard to walk away, but I made myself do it.

I made myself step back into Jay’s life and take her hand and guide her along the path towards book 3. And eventually she stopped snatching her hand away from me and telling me that her story was stupid and boring and I shouldn’t really bother, and we started working together. And when it got hard and stagnant and I wondered why I was bothering, the voice of one of Jay’s good friends in the book came into my head, as it does hers when things get tough in the narrative.

“Suck it up, buttercup.”

We both took his advice.

Against the Clock is done now. It got auto-delivered to the lovely people who have pre-ordered it on April 19th, and I can sit back and cross my fingers and hope that people enjoy it as much as my beta-readers (fortunately) did. So far, so good.

And so, on to book 3 in the series. I’m looking forward to this one, although it’s going to require a lot of research and a hefty dose of imagination. There are some dark moments in this book, and while I can’t wait to explore them, it’s going to take some work to get myself into the heads of these characters. Because the thing with writing a series in first person is that there are only so many things that can happen to and directly affect one character. For Jay, her journey is as much about learning from other people as it is about herself. It’s about learning to recognise other people’s problems, and understand their opinions, and expand her own view of the world through the framework of how others also perceive it, and how she perceives other people. I’m excited to explore that, and I can’t wait to get to the end. I’m on a roll now, and Jay has decided that yes, she does want her story told. It also helps that the next two books will involve more outside characters, and less internal monologuing. And in those moments that still creep in, when I’m feeling particularly dispirited and wondering if I can be bothered writing these books, I re-read the last chapter of book 4, and I know that it will all be worth it when I get there.

In the meantime, to stop myself from stalling when Jay has a tantrum and refuses to be written (it happens), I’ve started a new series. (Yes, I’m crazy.) I didn’t mean to do it, but I wanted to know how fast I could write a novel. Dream On took the shortest length of time, and it was still almost a year. So I set myself a challenge over Easter to write a novel in four days. Astonishingly enough (even to me!) I achieved it in three days. It’s short – only 30,000 words – but I’m intrigued to see if I can keep it up. To write short, complete novels in very short periods of time is a good exercise for me, and I already have characters and storylines for the next three novels. And these girls all desperately want their viewpoints shared. (Characters can be so bossy!)

You can read First Fence, the first book in the Pony Jumpers series, for free on Wattpad (http://www.wattpad.com/story/35897826-first-fence-pony-jumpers-1) and it will soon be available on Kindle as well, with a sneak preview of the upcoming sequel at the back. I hope to have the sequel out by the end of this month (the first two chapters are up on Wattpad, but the whole book will only be available on Kindle), and the third book in the series out by late May.

As for book 3 in Jay’s story, I’ve already got some scenes written. In fact, I wrote one last night, and it’s included at the end of Against the Clock to whet readers’ appetites for what’s to come. I’m excited to get going on it, because I’ve been wanting to write about these characters and tell this story for years. And now I feel as though I’m ready. It’s their time.

Trouble is, there are a few others out there who want their books written too, and they still won’t shut up…

Filed under: Clearwater Bay series, Dare To Dream, Dream On, writing Tagged: Against the Clock, book, Clearwater Bay, Dare To Dream, Dream On, fiction, Flying Changes, Jay, Kate Lattey, kindle, New Zealand, novel, on writing, pony book, show jumping

PONY JUMPERS series debut

Preliminary covers for the first 3 books in the new series!

Over the long (four-day) Easter weekend, I suddenly realised that I had no commitments. No horse shows to ride or judge at, no Pony Club rallies to organise, nothing that was going to stop me from sitting down all day and writing.

So I decided to set myself a challenge. I was at the point where I’d finally finished Against the Clock after literally years of working on it. By my reckoning, I started the first draft in 2009…so April 2015 seemed like a ridiculous finishing point, although I was super glad that I had finished at last, and the beta readers were enjoying it very much.

At this stage, the shortest time it had EVER taken me to write a complete novel was one year (for Dream On). So I decided to challenge that record, and see if I could write a short novel in 4 days. I set myself a 30,000 word goal, declared my ambition on Facebook so that I would be held accountable to it by friends and followers, logged onto Wattpad so that I could upload my progress in real time, and set to work.

I posted the first four chapters on Good Friday, and another five on Saturday. On Sunday afternoon, I posted Chapter 12 – and that was the END.

Admittedly, I didn’t quite make my word count goal – I think it finished out around 29,800 words. But I figure that’s close enough.

One of the benefits of writing so fast on a holiday weekend was that as I uploaded each chapter, I got almost immediate feedback on it. People enjoyed it, chatted to me about it, shared it to their friends, and encouraged me to write more. I was able to do something fun and nice for people over Easter, and I discovered that I can write a LOT faster than I thought!

Since then, several people have read the book as a complete novel in one hit, and all have enjoyed it (well, those who have let me know their thoughts have, anyway). It was a great exercise in free-flowing writing, just letting characters dictate the story without too much structure, letting it happen in ‘real time’. I had a basic idea of where I was going with the plot, I had a good idea of who the characters were and what their personalities and motivations would be. Some things surprised me, others didn’t. I followed my instincts with characters like Anders, AJ’s brother, who started out as a throwaway line and ended up being a fairly important part of the book.

Knowing that I can write so quickly (and hopefully I can keep it up!) is hugely motivational. I have a full length novel in the works for this year, which I hope to have out by Christmas, but in the meantime I’m planning to get one of these Pony Jumper books written every month for the rest of the year. I have titles (if not quite story ideas) for up to 20 books in the series (yikes).

AJ is the protagonist of First Fence, with her cheeky Connemara pony Squib, and her new best friend Katy is our secondary heroine. Katy will take over first-person narration for the second book, Double Clear, and two more characters (both of whom have cameos in First Fence, so see if you can guess who they are!) will narrate books 3 and 4, before AJ returns in book 5, Katy for book 6, and so on. I have the first three covers done, and although I don’t have a cover photo purchased yet, I can tell you that book 4 will have a green banner at the top and be titled Four Faults. (Yes, there’s a numerical theme!)

I can’t wait to have time to write more of this series, I’m genuinely super excited for it!

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Be in to WIN a free digital copy of DARE TO DREAM

Your chance to read DARE TO DREAM for free is now live on Instagram! Just follow me @kate_lattey, then Like and Comment on this post to go into the draw to be given a free digital copy! Double your chances by tagging someone else – if they start to follow me, then you go into the draw twice.

About the book:

Inspired by a remarkable true story.

Saying goodbye to the horses they love has become a way of life for Marley and her sisters, who train and sell show jumpers to make their living. Marley has grand ambitions to jump in Pony of the Year, but every good pony she’s ever had has been sold out from under her to pay the bills.

Then a half-wild pinto pony comes into her life, and Marley finds that this most unlikely of champions could be the superstar she has always dreamed of. As Marley and Cruise rise quickly to the top of their sport, it seems as though her dreams of winning the Pony of the Year might come true after all.

But her family is struggling to make ends meet, and as the countdown to Pony of the Year begins, Marley is forced to face the possibility of losing the pony she has come to love more than anything else in the world.

Can Marley save the farm she loves, without sacrificing the pony she can’t live without?

Dare to Dream is set on the NZ PGP circuit, has over 50 five-star ratings on Amazon and is a bestseller in Teen Equestrian fiction on Amazon in the USA and UK.

Conditions:

One winner will be drawn for every 10 entries so the more people enter the more chances to win :) Only condition is that you review on social media once you’ve read the book! Entries close at midnight on Sunday 29th March 2015. Giveaway is for a digital copy only, which will be emailed in either PDF or .mobi format (for Kindle/Kindle app). Winners are requested to read the book and post an honest review on social media.

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On writing ‘Strong Female Characters’

I wrote this for the Horse Crossings blog a couple of weeks ago, and will repost it here for anyone who missed it on the other site.

On writing “Strong Female Characters”

What is a Strong Female Character? There’s a lot of debate and discussion going on about that right now across the internet. What constitutes a Strong Female Character? How do you make sure to write one (or several)? There is of course, no hard and fast rule, but let’s start with a definition.

One of my favourite definitions comes from this blog, which quite simply points out that “A female character should have the wits and a big enough part in the story to propel and shape the plot significantly of her own accord. We all enjoy seeing women kicking ass, but we’d enjoy even more watching a woman whose decisions are important and taken seriously by the characters around her.”

This goes for girls too.

Many girls around the world love ponies, and they love to read stories about ponies. The success of the “pony book” genre has hinged for many years on the relationship between a girl and her pony, that unbreakable, magical bond that they share. One of the most popular and enduring pony book series in the English language is Ruby Ferguson’s “Jill” series, which contains plenty of wit, charm and realism, and a wonderful protagonist in Jill Crewe. And although written and set in the 1950s, one of the most endearing things about this series is that Jill herself possesses a great deal of agency.

What is character agency? There are boundless definitions, but here’s one that I particularly like:

The character makes things happen. They move the plot forward. They make choices — even if they are bad ones — that propel the story. They make a difference. They do not wait for the story to happen to them. They do not wait to be rescued. They do not let somebody else handle the hard stuff. If your character is sitting around the house gnawing their knuckles and hoping everything will work out okay, you need to punt them into the middle of the action.

Anyone who has read any of the Jill books can scarcely imagine their heroine sitting around waiting for everything to work out, and it is Jill’s tenacity and determination to get things done that make these books so timeless, despite being set in an era that many of today’s readers won’t recognise.

As Ada Hoffman succinctly pointed out on Twitter: Agency is not about characters being good or bad characters, it is about what the characters are given the opportunity to do.

As a writer of YA fiction, I am very aware of my target audience. (Sure, the books are read and enjoyed by many adults as well, but that’s not really who the books are “for”. Their enjoyment is, in some ways, incidental to my purpose.) The young women of today are growing up in a tumultuous, unnerving and difficult world that is quite different from the idyllic lifestyle that Jill and her friends enjoyed in Ruby Ferguson’s series. Today’s girls are hyper-aware of what is going on around them, of what other people think of them, of society’s expectations for them. They are viewing themselves and the world around them through a lens that is at once incredibly narrow and unbelievably wide.

They are looking for characters that they can relate to.

They are looking for role models.

They are looking for strong female characters.

So there’s that question again – what is a Strong Female Character? How do you know whether or not you’ve written one? This blog provides a useful checklist to consider:

Give her a goal and a reason for having that goal


Give her flaws


Let her change


Have her act under her own initiative.

Notice that none of the above has the slightest thing to do with being physically strong. That’s not what it’s about, although it can be an element.

A quick comparison:

Van, one of the characters in my novel Dare to Dream, is described as physically strong. At eighteen years old, she does the heavy lifting around the family farm, building fences and fixing water troughs and riding horses that others have consigned to the scrap heap for being too unruly and difficult. She’s also emotionally sturdy – stubborn and often tactless, determined and passionate, argumentative and resilient. One of her sisters is warned against ever telling Van that she can’t do something, “because she’ll kill herself proving you wrong” (which interestingly enough, is one of the most highlighted passages in the Kindle book).

Her older sister Kris is the opposite of Van in many ways. She’s physically weak, after a riding accident left her with a back injury that severely limits her capabilities. But more than any other character in that book, Kris is possessed of a great deal of emotional strength. Far more world-wise than her twenty-one years, she has given up on her own dreams to raise her sisters after their parents’ death. She struggles on, day after day, complaining as little as possible, selling the horse that she built her own dreams on in order to help her sisters’ dreams to continue to come true. Kris is a pillar of strength, although she never sees herself that way, and (for me at least) is one of the most inspiring characters I’ve ever written.

I want people to read my books and be inspired. Not just because of the way the characters treat their horses, but because of the way they treat one another. In the sequel Dream On, youngest sister Marley is witness to the ongoing bullying of a rival competitor. Marley has ample reason to despise this rival, because the prior actions that she now is being stigmatised for affected Marley more than anyone else, but she believes that this girl has seen the error of her ways, and doesn’t participate in the bullying tactics. And when she eventually sticks up for her rival and helps her out, she is immediately chastised by one of her friends, who calls Marley “naïve” for thinking that the other girl could’ve turned over a new leaf. Marley’s response is, in my mind, one of her greatest and proudest moments.

“Maybe I am,” Marley conceded, starting to walk away. “But I’d rather be that than a bully like you.”

If any of the young readers of this book felt inspired in that moment, if it gave them pause and made them also feel proud of Marley, and think that “I could do that”, then I have succeeded.

It’s about agency, and it’s about emotional strength, and it’s being unafraid of the opinions of others. I do a lot of work with young people and I see a lot of what they are thinking about and worried about on a daily basis. Being an individual, being confident enough to have different opinions and tastes from other people, being resilient enough to keep getting up when you get knocked down, knowing who your friends are and being self-reliant enough to walk away from bad relationships. Teenage girls are not worried about being able to beat up the world, they just want to be strong enough to live in it with confidence.

The people that young women surround themselves with will have huge impacts on their lives, and this goes for the characters they read about as well. Whether male or female, the characters we write do not have to be physically strong in order to be role models. But if their actions can make us smile, make us cheer, make us want to step inside the book and give them a pat on the back, then I reckon that we’re on the right track.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Dare To Dream, Dream On, NZPonyWriter, on writing

TRANSFORMATION TUESDAY – PART II

Progress in the first 9 months:

We went from this…

To this.

Bring on the bigger fences :)

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Transformation Tuesday

On the 17th of October 2010, I went to see about a horse. I was only recently back from 15-months overseas, and I didn’t have the money or really the inclination to buy a horse, but I was looking for something to ride. When I heard from a friend about an available free lease on a 6 year old Welsh Cob x Thoroughbred, green-broken but good-natured, sensitive but sensible and just in need of some mileage, I thought I’d go check him out. I looked at a couple of photos and a video or two online, and arranged with his owner to see him at a show that weekend.

Just over one year later, not long before Christmas 2011, I bought him.

As JJ and I approach four and a half years together (hard to believe it’s been that long!) I can look back and remember the horse I once had, and compare him to the horse I have now.

The horse I had in 2010 was nervous about meeting strange horses, and would hide when new horses came into his paddock.

The horse I have in 2015 thinks the whole world is there to admire him (horses and humans) and has to be locked away so that he doesn’t pester incoming horses by trying to impress them with his striking looks and vibrant personality.

The horse I had in 2010 didn’t like going out for rides on his own, and wouldn’t canter more than six strides down the beach before getting tired.

The horse I have in 2015 doesn’t like going for rides with other horses as they cramp his style by making him stick to their pace, and will canter a full kilometre down the beach without breaking into a trot.

The horse I had in 2010 couldn’t cope with having his ears touched, and would take between ten and twenty minutes to bridle every day.

The horse I have in 2015 falls asleep when I pull his forelock, and is easy to halter and bridle.

The horse I had in 2010 was hard to catch, and had to be haltered carefully so he didn’t take fright at any pressure on his poll.

The horse I have in 2015 whinnies when he sees me and comes up to me in the paddock.

The horse I had in 2010 couldn’t canter a 20m circle – the closest we got was about 40m in the first few weeks! – and struggled to pick up his canter leads.

The horse I have in 2015 will canter 10m circles, perform effortless flying changes and walk to canter transitions, and is starting to school towards canter pirouettes.

The horse I had in 2010 was just learning to jump, and would frequently run out if he was slightly unsure about taking a fence.

The horse I have in 2015 is a consistent winner in Show Hunter competitions (7 wins from 9 starts this year), and will willingly tackle any obstacle – not only jumps but shrubs, bathtubs, barrels, road cones, wheelbarrows, mounting blocks, etc.

The horse I had in 2010 didn’t know what hard feed was.

The horse I have in 2015 knows exactly what hard feed is, and thinks he should get much more of it.

The horse I had in 2010 thought life was a bit of a worry.

The horse I have in 2015 thinks that life is an awfully big adventure.

The horse I had in 2010 belonged to someone else.

The horse I have in 2015 is mine.

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Monday inspiration

Social media can be a brutal place.

The competition world can be nasty.

But somewhere out there, there are always people who simply love their horses because they are horses.

Not because they are the most beautiful, or the most talented, or the easiest to have around.

Not because they win prizes and take out competitions (not that there’s anything wrong with this).

There are people out there who treat their horses the way they deserve to be treated, and there are people who don’t.

There are people who value a ribbon or some prize money more than their pony’s health or well-being.

And there are people who don’t.

Equestrian, as a sport, can get a bad rap. Across the globe, it is predominantly a sport for the wealthy.

But not always.

Sometimes there are real-life fairy tales. Sometimes dreams come true.

Sometimes there are people who started out with nothing but a Shetland pony and a home-built horse trailer, and gradually through years of hard work and perseverance and tireless determination, make themselves highly competitive and successful riders and trainers.

And sometimes, just sometimes, these people never lose sight of who they were. Never forget being laughed at for not being able to afford a saddle, never look down on others because they don’t have the right gear or the right pony.

Who host camps for young riders every holiday, who spend the competition off-season taming and breaking in wild ponies that would otherwise have gone to slaughter.

My novels Dare to Dream and Dream On are loosely based on the real-life Wilson sisters, of Whangarei in New Zealand. They are all of those things.

And today on Facebook, this message was posted on eldest sister Vicki Wilson’s wall by a young rider.

I just wanted to leave you a public note on your page and thank you for everything that you and Kelly (who has had some long talks with me over the past year) have done for me.

There isn’t a day gone by that I don’t appreciate your generous gift of kindness and I’m not flash, I’m not confident , I don’t have a lot, I don’t compete, I don’t have stables and if you asked me most dressage moves I would look at you blankly … but you guys have always treated me with respect and kindness and understanding that I simply love my ponies for being nothing more than ponies.

Even though I don’t fit in your world, it’s something you don’t find much of in the equestrian world. I see so many people complaining lately on Facebook about riders sabotaging others and rude behaviour, but they forget about people like you guys where it doesn’t matter what you own, who you are, whether you can walk over a trotting pole or jump 1.20m – if you love your horse, you treat people like me as equals.

I think I probably bore you a lot with the basic things like “Look she’s lunging and wearing a saddle and listening to me” but you’re always quick to say “Wahoo looking good!” The confidence in myself and skills has grown from the opportunities you have given me, as small as they may seem to you it encourages me.

 This is something I can never repay you guys for other than to say we need more people to follow your example in the equestrian world.

If that didn’t make you emotional enough, middle sister Kelly responded with this message:

The feeling is mutual – we love the updates about Nala and think the horsey world needs more people like you – to accept horses for who they are and what they can offer and give them a fun and full life even if, like in Nala’s case, it’s just walks on the beach and bonding time. We have always been in awe of how much you do with her and couldn’t have found her a better home – you restored our faith in humans quite a bit with what you have done for that mare.

It is people like these who restore my faith in humanity. We need more of these people in our world.

For more on the Wilson sisters, you can find them on Facebook at Showtym Sport Horses, Keeping up with the Kaimanawas and Keeping up with the Mustangs. Their website is at www.showtymhorses.co.nz and Kelly’s book “For the Love of Horses” is available on Amazon or in NZ bookstores.

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Enter to win a free copy of FLYING CHANGES!

Do you live in the USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, and want to win a free copy of FLYING CHANGES?

Head over to Goodreads for your chance!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Flying Changes by Kate Lattey

Giveaway ends February 28, 2015.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

 

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Twenty-fifteen

2015.

A new year.

I’m hoping for a good one. Fifteen has been my lucky number since I was a kid, when it was the number of my winning raffle ticket at a school gala. I took home a big basket of junk food, the kinds of things my mother wouldn’t usually buy, and although I don’t remember what was in it, I remember the shock and absolute thrill of having won.

I haven’t made any new year’s resolutions, other than to resolve that I will finish and release Against the Clock sometime before my birthday in mid-April, and that I will get another book finished and released before Christmas. (It may be High Jump, the third in the Clearwater Bay series. It may not.)

I saw in the new year at Pony Club Camp, sitting at a trestle table underneath the main grandstand at the Otaki-Maori Racing Club, playing hand after hand of P&A as we waited for the clocks to tick over to midnight. I won a few rounds and I lost a few too. Mostly I finished in the middle, content to be mediocre. The children hung around, summoned by the bell at ten minutes to twelve, and we counted the new year down together. Poured sparkling wine and fizzy drinks into plastic mugs, and clacked them together. Thought about what 2014 had brought us, and what our hopes would be for 2015. And then we all drifted off to bed, knowing that we had several hours of riding ahead of us the next day.

There was a scene (well, a handful of scenes) in the original draft of Dream On that I removed before I published it, because they slowed the story down too much. But I have put them online for any interested parties to read, so if you want to know how Kris, Van and Marley celebrate New Year’s Eve, you can read those deleted scenes here.

I hope 2015 has found you well and will do right by you as the year progresses. Ngā mihi o te Tau Hou – Happy New Year!

Filed under: Clearwater Bay series, Dream On Tagged: Against the Clock, Clearwater Bay, Dream On, fiction, high jump, Jay, Kate Lattey, New Zealand, NZPonyWriter