Kate Lattey's Blog, page 9

Some days it don’t come easy… some days it don’t come hard…

The countdown to the release of Dream On has begun. I can’t promise a release date yet, but I HOPE to have it out before the end of the month. Certainly by December 1st at the latest.

And some days it don’t come easy    |   And some days it don’t come hard

And some days it don’t come at all   |   And these are the days that never end…

Essentially, the book is finished. The last couple of times that I’ve completed a final draft, it has been very much that – a draft – and has still needed a lot of work. The original draft of Dare to Dream was quite different from the book that it became, due to a combination of my own realisation of its shortcomings and feedback from other people about what needed to change. The final draft of Against the Clock was so weak that after I reviewed it, I decided that it needed such a large overhaul that it was going to essentially be a complete re-write, not just a tidy-up of a few storylines as Dare to Dream was. So that has been shelved for the moment, although it is still mulling itself over in my head.

Having other people read your work is one of the most terrifying – and rewarding – parts of being a writer. It’s baring your soul to the world, and it’s actually really hard to do (although it does get easier).One of my greatest critics is my mum, who like myself, is an avid reader. Unlike myself, she has next to no interest in horses, and her knowledge is restricted to what she has gleaned from me over the years, and has learned from reading my books. She’s a great person to read my first drafts because a) she’s brutally honest (this is something every writer needs!) and b) she is not generally a reader of YA or pony fiction, so she gets bored quickly if there is too much “pony” in the story. As fun as it is to write competition round after competition round, it becomes tedious to read (something I learned when reading my first draft of Dare to Dream!). So when I handed Dream On over to her to read, I was intrigued to see what she would make of it.

I needn’t have worried… she loved it. My main concern with this book was the ending, because it took me a while to work out how to balance the final scenes. Part of my process is to write the “big” scenes first – the big turning points, the big emotional moments, the beginning and the ending – and then to write the rest of the book around those pivotal moments. I was concerned that, in tying up all the storylines, I had too many “big” moments at the end of the book. I worked hard on that before I handed the draft over, and it has paid off. All of the scenes are still in the story, although one got moved up several chapters. The problem was that they are all quite heavily emotional, and going straight from one to the next was a bit of a feelings overload! You can’t go from one moment of emotional turmoil straight into another – it’s exhausting, and moments that should be powerful pay-offs end up reading as overly dramatic or cheesy.  For every high, there should be a corresponding low, or at least enough time for the reader to bring their emotions back to base level for a few beats, before launching them sky high again. With all that in mind, I was looking forward to seeing what my mum made of the ending of the book – fortunately, she loved it. In fact, here’s a direct quote from her email she sent me directly she finished:

Great ending, and quite unexpected.  Dad saw me put the book down and said “How was it?”, and I couldn’t answer over the lump in my throat, just sat there mopping my eyes – just writing this is making me well up again!  So well done, another great book and I’m sure it will go down a treat.

Yeah, it’ll make you cry again. It made me cry when I wrote it, and that’s something that never happened in Dare to Dream, so brace yourselves.

As long as the planets are turning   |   As long as the stars are burning

As long as your dreams are coming true

Like the first, Dream On also has an epilogue at the end. A book with an epilogue should be complete without it, and the epilogue is just there to give a little bit more polish to the conclusion of the story. Dare to Dream didn’t need its epilogue – it was just a way of saying “this is what happened later.” And the epilogue of Dream On is the same way. The story is complete before it, but the epilogue just adds a little bit more to it. Good epilogues are hard to write. Sometimes they feel superfluous – I felt that way about the one at the end of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, although I did love that final line. The epilogue at the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows actually bothered me so much that I have torn it out of my copy of the book!

I actually wrote the Dream On epilogue before I even published Dare to Dream, and I always knew that this was how the story would end. It was, in some ways, what pushed me on to write the sequel. I cried when I wrote it, and as is evident from the above comment from my mum, she cried when she read it too. She also had this to say about it:

I think the book was pretty complete without the Epilogue, and a great read, but the Epilogue just made it that much more satisfying at the end.

So that’s good. That’s exactly what I was striving for, and there’s nothing quite like the feeling of satisfaction it gives one to receive a comment like that. It’s a big tick in the Achieved box. My friend Heather has also read the final draft, and she loved the ending as well. So that’s two ticks, actually….

Now I’m just waiting on the cover photo, which I have commissioned from Kelly Wilson (she also did my other cover photos, and the back cover design for Dare to Dream - I designed the front cover with the fonts etc) so she’s just waiting for the right day to get the shots taken that she needs. I also have to go through the final draft myself and make sure it’s exactly as I want it, tidy up the handful of typos that Mum and Heather found, wait for my Dad and another friend to finish reading it and give me their feedback, and then it will be good to go!

Like I said…it’s about a week or two away. I can’t wait to see what everyone else thinks – I hope you all love it too.

In the meantime, don’t forget to find me on Facebook and Tumblr or flick me an email!

Work in progress

If you’re waiting patiently (or impatiently) for Dream On, this is good news for you. (If you’re waiting – patiently or otherwise – for Against the Clock, this might not be such good news for you.)  But I thought I should update you all with Dream On‘s progress. I’ve managed to spend a good few hours the last couple of weeks working on it – my new Thursday night ritual of going to the library after work to make myself write without any distractions seems to be working!

So now that I seem to have the plot nailed down (finally) and balanced properly between the A-plot (the “pony” part of the story) and the B plots (the “people” parts of the story), I’m going through what I’ve already written, and filling in the missing scenes. (This is because my writing technique is to write the most exciting and interesting parts of the story first, then come back and fill in the more day-to-day stuff later. For example, Marley’s final show jumping rounds with Cruise in Dare to Dream were written long before the scene between Kris and the social worker – that only came into the story in the second draft, when I read the first one and realised that there was way too much pony and not enough people in the book!)

I’m trying not to do too much editing at the moment, because that’s a really easy way to lose momentum, and to start second-guessing your writing. Some nights I sit down feeling super inspired and ready to go, and other nights I sit down with a scene outline and write a badly directed scene full of uninteresting dialogue. But I write it, and that’s the main thing. Right now, in the first draft stage, it’s not important that the dialogue is witty or that the prose is perfect – just that the scene is written down so that I know what happens and can build on that in the following scenes. I’ll come back to it at a later date and either tidy it up, rewrite it completely or delete the whole thing, if I decide that I don’t need it or can’t make it work. But I just need it written, for now. It’s like filling in the boring parts of a jigsaw puzzle – the plain blue piece that is part of the sky doesn’t look very exciting, but it’s got to get in there to complete the picture. (And just like a puzzle, often it’s those little scenes that are the hardest to do.)

So it’s back to the grindstone, but before I go, here’s a little excerpt from where I’m up to in the reviewing stage. Please note that this little extract is still in its first draft, and may or may not make the final cut, but it made me smile when I read it so hopefully you’ll enjoy it too.

And now…to work.

 

Short extract from first draft of “Dream On”:

“I’m starving!” Marley announced, throwing her schoolbag onto the floor and flinging open the fridge door. “Ooh, you’ve made casserole!”

Kris looked up from her seat at the table. “Don’t eat that! I’m saving it for dinner.”

“I’ll just have less at dinner time,” Marley told her, pulling the dish out and setting it on the table.

“No you won’t. Have some toast or something if you’re hungry.”

Marley pulled a face. “Toast isn’t a proper meal.”

“It’s four o’clock, it’s not time for a proper meal.”

“It is according to my stomach.”

“Nobody asked your stomach,” Kris replied as Van walked into the room.

“There’s a can of baked beans in the bottom of the pantry,” Van told Marley. “Heat them up. I’ll have some too.”

“No there isn’t, they’re in the casserole,” Marley pointed out. “I can see them.”

“So just eat the casserole.”

“Kris won’t let me.”

Van raised her eyebrows at Kris, who grabbed the casserole dish and put it back in the fridge. “Nobody is eating any of this until dinner time. We have company coming and there has to be something left to feed him.”

Marley’s head shot up. “Wait, who’s coming to dinner?” she asked.

EXCITING NEW REVIEW FOR “DARE TO DREAM”!

“Dare to Dream” has just been reviewed by Jane Badger (author of “Heroines on Horseback: The Pony Book in Children’s Fiction” and general pony book expert) and she “absolutely loved” it! She sent me a message this morning to say “I have just finished it – and am writing this with tears in my eyes. Absolutely loved it. Well done.”

She wrote a full review on her blog, and it’s a pretty amazing feeling to have the writer of the world’s largest website dedicated to equine literature (link below), who has read almost every pony book written in the English language, give my book such high praise as this:

“…you absolutely have to read it. This is a book that grabs you and doesn’t let go.

The author involves you completely in her characters’ lives. She has an excellent ear for dialogue. She doesn’t sugar-coat her characters, her horses, or the situations. What you get is entirely believable, and engrossing. You are right behind the characters in their fight to survive.  The ponies are brilliant too. It is not easy to write a good pony – it’s all too easy to have them mere vehicles for the story – but Kate Lattey achieves it effortlessly.

The plot is completely convincing too. I do like a book where I haven’t worked out how it will end well before I’ve got there.

I absolutely loved Dare to Dream. I finished it in tears. It’s moving, wrenching, funny. Goodness, it’s good.”

You can read her full review here: http://booksandmud.blogspot.co.nz/2013/11/review-kate-lattey-dare-to-dream.html

And visit her website at http://www.janebadgerbooks.co.uk/

Dare to Dream – now available in print!

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Print version of “Dare to Dream”

“Dare to Dream” is now available in print for a LIMITED TIME ONLY! I have done one short print run and copies are selling fast, so be in quick to order yours! Email nzponywriter@gmail.com to place your order. Ships within NZ only (sorry but postage rates are insane).

If you want to buy it as an e-book, there are a range of places you can find it, including:

Barnes & Noble:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dare-to-dream-kate-lattey/1116758423?ean=2940045223294

INDIGO:

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/dare-to-dream/9781301911639-item.html

SONY E-BOOKSTORE:

https://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/kate-lattey/dare-to-dream/_/R-400000000000001107689

SMASHWORDS:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/348275

THE STORY OF “DARE TO DREAM”:

“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 knows that he could be the superstar she has always dreamed of. As Marley and Cruise quickly rise 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?”

How the Unicorn Lost His Horn (and other stories)

A few years ago, while working at a girls’ summer camp in New Hampshire, USA, I was struggling to find suitable bedtime stories to read to the campers. After getting bored of reading “Lefty the Wrong Way Pony” over and over again, I started writing my own, based on the ponies who actually lived at the farm.

They were a hit with the campers, and continue to be popular at the camp to this day.

Here are three of the girls’ favourite stories, beginning with the ever-popular “How the Unicorn Lost His Horn”, followed by “Be Careful What You Wish For”, and “The Magic Pony”.

My very talented younger sister did the cover art, which looks fabulous – especially considering she had never in her life drawn a horse before, let alone a unicorn!

You can download the stories FREE here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/347215

It will soon also be available from other online e-book retailers.

I hope you enjoy it!

 

Initial cover design for Against the Clock

Here’s a little sneak peek at what the cover of Clearwater Bay #2 – Against the Clock might look like…what do you think?

Clearwater Bay #2 :: Against the Clock

Been wondering what the sequel to “Flying Changes” will be about? Here’s the back cover blurb to give you a quick preview!

A new season is starting and Jay is ready to prove to the show jumping world that she and Finn are a force to be reckoned with, as she sets her sights firmly on competing at Cambridge Show Jumping Champs.

But first she has to make it onto the team, and she is forced to contend with injuries, peer pressure and her father’s new girlfriend as she battles her way into training camp – only to be told that Finn is far too talented to be wasted on a rider like her.

Overcome with self-doubt, Jay starts to wonder whether she has set her sights and ambitions far too high.

Can she really take Finn to the top, or is she the one holding her back?

Entering phase two…

My new book, “Dare to Dream” (formerly known as Cruise Control), is home from the publishers with a very polite “thanks but no thanks”.

Full credit to the publishers though, they did seriously consider the book and made some very positive comments – “plenty of action and drama”…”a wonderfully developed and strong cast of characters” and “very relevant issues addressed” but have regretfully declined the book as being too much of a ‘niche’ topic (show jumping) for their broader readership.

Which is disappointing, but understandable (and food for thought). So I’m now looking at e-book publishing options for the book, as I don’t think it’s really able to have the show jumping edited out without losing the essential plot, so watch this space…

An excerpt from “Against the Clock”

It’s ANZAC Day and I am putting the day off work to good use by re-visiting the world of Jay and her friends as I work on finishing the sequel to “Flying Changes”, titled “Against the Clock”. Here’s a quick extract from part-way through the book…

When we arrive at the show grounds, I’m happy to see that everyone’s Christmas spirit is alive and well. The jump stands are wrapped in tinsel, riders are sporting Santa hats and fake beards, and the horses’ browbands and saddle blankets are wrapped in tinsel. I notice the Foxhall-James’ truck nearby, easily identifiable from a distance by the large inflatable Santa bouncing off the top of it, ready to terrorise everyone else’s horses. Christmas carols are being blared out over the loudspeakers as we pull into a parking space and whip the ponies off the truck to get tacked up, as our first class starts in twenty minutes.

I give Finn a quick once-over with a body brush before putting her saddle on. I spent hours last night stitching tinsel and attaching sprigs of plastic holly onto her saddle blanket, and I now wrap a strand of silver tinsel around my helmet and tie a red piece into her tail – both festive and functional, warning other riders not to get too close to her ever-ready heels.

Tabby is painting the words to Christmas carols on Trixie’s rump as Alec tightens the girth, elbowing her attempts at nipping him out of the way. “Anyone seen my jacket?”

“In the truck,” Tabby tells him as I check Finn’s girth and mount up.

A jingling noise alerts me to the approach of Tegan, trotting over to us on Nugget. A pair of red felt antlers are attached to his headstall, half a red plastic bauble is stuck to his noseband, and his tail has been sprayed through with silver glitter. She has attached bells to her stirrup irons and to his bridle, and Nugget keeps shaking his head in annoyance at all of the decorations.

“It’s Rudolph the red-nosed show jumper,” I greet her.

“And one of Santa’s tiny elves!” Alec adds as he jumps off the ramp with his jacket in hand, and a red Santa hat pulled on over his helmet. Tegan flips him off as he vaults up onto Trixie.

“Oh come on now, that’s not very festive!” Alec teases her, and we both roll our eyes at him and turn our ponies away, leaving Alec jogging along behind, tightening his girth as he goes.

Flying Changes

Another quote from my first book, “Flying Changes”.  I would guess that anyone who has read the book knows which scene this comes from!