Kathryn Freeman's Blog, page 17

What I learnt this week: 5th November 2015

This should be about fireworks … but it’s not

I’m not a great fan of bonfire night. I jump at the noise of the fireworks going off and however pretty the following display, it’s over far too quickly to make up for standing in the cold (and usually damp) for an hour.

So instead, a few words about Barcelona. We escaped there for half-term week to celebrate my son’s eighteen birthday (okay, that was a bit of an excuse, but I didn’t see why we shouldn’t all enjoy his day). The holiday began with a bang (see, I did get a firework reference in) when a visit to the WHSmiths travel shop in Terminal 3 found Too Charming on the shelf. I resisted moving it to the best sellers section…

Too Charming at WHS Smiths Heathrow, Terminal 3

Apparently the thing to do in Barcelona is watch a football match at Camp Nou. Seriously, it wasn’t just my sport mad family telling me this. It’s the second most visited tourist site! 

It was very impressive, but I was delighted to find many other impressive things in Barcelona that didn’t involve sport. Gaudi put his stamp on some incredible buildings, including the Casa Batllo (I want those chimneys).

He also designed the most visited attraction in Barcelona, the Sagrada Familia, which the Spanish are still trying to finish, one hundred and thirty years later. Target completion date is 2030 and the church is so impressive I’m putting it in my diary to return.

Also well worth a visit are the newer parts of Barcelona, constructed for the Olympics in 1992 like the port, marina and the Olympic park itself, built on the Montjuic hill with breathtaking views across the Mediterranean. Finally of course, there is the incredible stretch of beach, all walking distance from the famous La Rambla.

I fell in love with Barcelona. For its sheer variety, its bustle both during day and night, it’s very hard to beat. Already I can see a tall, dark, handsome Spaniard striding along La Rambla, suit jacket thrown casually over his left shoulder, the breeze ruffling his dark hair as he searches the crowds for …  ah, that’s for the next book I write.

I’ll try to include some fireworks.

What I learnt this week: 22nd October 2015

Another small writing step 

When you start out on a new path, whether it’s a hobby or a career, there is always so much to learn. It can be hugely daunting and at times you feel like you’re only pretending. That’s how it felt when I started writing. For years I wrote words that I didn’t believe anybody else would ever see. I was writing, but with no end game in sight.

Then I received my first contract and suddenly everything changed. I was writing with a purpose and at every turn I was taking small steps on the way to becoming a writer of romantic fiction. My first set of edits with a professional editor, the first time I saw my name on a book cover, my first dive into social media, creating a website. My first book published on Amazon. My first reviews – many good, a few that left me reeling. The time I held my first paperback.

Which leads me to this week, and the first time I saw my book in a bookstore. My publisher, Choc Lit, aren’t one of the big publishers who sell their books through WHSmiths and Waterstones. They sell through independent bookstores and sometimes WHSmiths travel shops. What a thrilling moment then, when a fellow author sent me through this photograph of Too Charming on the shelves of WHSmiths at Victoria Station.

Too Charming at WHSmiths, Victoria Station

And thanks to my amazing mum persuading all her friends to buy my book (!) my local Waterstones have also put both Do Opposites Attract and Too Charming on their shelves. I immediately raced down there and took this photograph (what do you mean, that was so uncool?!).

Waterstones, Staines

The next steps feel a lot higher and the chances are they will never come; seeing a book win an award, hitting the top 100, the top 10. Seeing my book in every high street.

Then again, as Oscar Hammerstein said:

If you don’t have a dream, how are you going to make a dream come true?

So I’m going to carry on pretending to be a writer and taking those small steps. Maybe one day it will all feel real.

What I learnt this week: I’m a writer – but what is my role?

I’m a writer – but what is my role?

I can easily define my role as a medical writer. To produce scientifically accurate, easy-to-read documents that fulfill the guidelines set out by my employer, usually to a set template.

But what about my romance writing? What is my role there? Is it as simple as writing a book? Writing a good book? How do I define good?

I was lucky enough this week to have a wonderful review for my latest novel, Search for the Truth. Here it is if you’d like to read all of it (Double-Edged Words). The words that struck me most were that the book caused tears as well as laughter.

I think that’s my role. If I can make a reader feel, react to my words, then I’ve done my job as a writer, because in some small way I’ve caught at their heart. I’ve immersed them, no matter how temporarily, into my story.

Of course it’s very hard for a writer to know whether they’re fulfilling their role until others read their book. Just because I sit here reading over the last passage I wrote and think ‘blimey, that was okay,’ (yes, it does happen now and then… ) doesn’t mean those words will resonate with someone else.

In the work place we rely on feedback from those we work for to tell us if we’re doing something well, or how to improve. It can be as simple as a ‘well done, good job’ or as onerous as the dreaded annual appraisal I was delighted to escape from when I became self-employed. But though on paper writers work for themselves, actually the people they ultimately work for are their readers.

So if you read a book that captures your imagination, that touches your heart, tell that writer. It’s the only way they know if they’re doing their job.

What I learnt this week: 1st October 2015

How I’ve progressed from The Book

In the beginning it was easy – there was just The Book. The only writing decisions I had to make were within that book; would she have straight or curly hair, would he be cocky or shy? When friends asked how The Book was going, I knew exactly what they were referring to.

Then I got hugely lucky and gained a publishing contract with Choc Lit. Now I was writing books, plural. Not all at the same time, I wish I was that clever, but slowly things became more complicated.

Here I am, two years on, and I’m in the fortunate position of having three books invading my headspace. There’s the one I’ve signed a contract for and hope to start working on next year (sexy racing car driver, inspired by you know who).

There’s the book I finished drafting several months ago and asked a kind friend and my husband (who is kind in many ways but not always when he’s reading my books) to read and critique. They have both come back to me with their thoughts and I’m dying to step into Crumbs again (yes, it’s based in a biscuit company) and sort out the snags.

But … I’m half way through writing another book.

What do I do? My head wants to return to Crumbs, address the issues and get it submitted because that’s the ultimate goal and I’ve always been one for getting the task done. Writing isn’t like decorating a room, though. There I can cheat and cut corners, hiding the dripping paint behind a picture and the smudged skirting behind the sofa (yes, you wouldn’t want me helping you with any DIY). If I cut corners in my writing, there is nowhere to hide.

So I’m shelving all the comments on Crumbs, just for a while, and focusing on finishing my work-in-progress. That’s where my heart is, after all. The characters are alive in my head and I need to get them home.

Submitting a book may be the goal, but for me the satisfaction comes from writing The End.

What I learnt this week: 24th September 2015

I can’t leave before the end

Last Sunday I went to my second football match of the season. I’m not a great fan of the sport but my family is and I won’t let them have a lads day out without me. We went to Southampton, home of the Saints, to watch them play Manchester United. As Man U supporters, they had to sit on their hands so they didn’t leap into the air shouting with glee when their side scored. As a neutral I was hoping for goals and excitement – and I got it. Live sport is so much more thrilling than on the television. The buzz of the crowd can never be captured by cameras, nor can seeing the build up of the goal across the whole pitch, rather than through the man with the ball.

Yet incredibly, with their side only 1-3 down, the Southampton supporters started trooping out after 80 minutes. What? That’s the whole point of sport, surely. Two quick tries, two quick wickets, two quick goals and it’s a different game. Southampton pulled back to 2-3 and in the last five minutes the Man U goalie had to pull out some fabulous saves to win the game. It was gripping, edge of the seat stuff – even for a neutral. Still, I guess the supporters who left arrived home half an hour earlier than the rest of us, and perhaps they enjoyed listening to the action they’d missed on the radio?

I’m craving fruit of a different colour

The apples continue to fall from the tree in their bucket loads. And look how many more of the little devils are still left.

 

I’ve done crumbles and pies and apple betties. I’ve frozen some. Now I’m craving blackberries, rhubarb. Heck, you could even tempt me with a gooseberry…

What I learnt this week: 17th September 2015

The right path

My son has reached the age when he has to consider what he does next. It’s a huge question, and when you’re only seventeen, it’s very difficult to answer. How can you possibly know, really know, what you want to do for the rest of your life when you haven’t really dipped your toe in it yet?

And even if you do think you know, you could be wrong. At seventeen I wanted to be a doctor and was devastated when I didn’t get the grades. I thought my life was over. Thanks to the calm reassurance of my parents I pulled myself together, went on to study pharmacy and finally found my feet in the pharmaceutical industry. Looking back on it now, I’d have been a terrible doctor – I’m useless without eight hours sleep, for one thing. But also I loved working in an office environment, being part of a team of hugely bright individuals, all working towards a common goal. It was challenging, rewarding – and so much fun.

It was also thanks to the flexibility of the pharma company I worked for that I was able to work part-time, so starting me down the path towards writing romantic fiction (umm, did I tell you about my new book?!).

So my advice to my son is to study what he enjoys and not think too far ahead. Life has a way of sorting itself out and fate will, I’m sure, show him his own path.

Meanwhile, I’m enjoying going to the university open days. Last weekend, it was Bath. What a fabulous place – steeped in history and so, so pretty.

  

Sadly I think I’ve ruined it for my son, because I kept saying how wonderful it would be to visit him there…

What I learnt this week: launch of Please Release Me by Rhoda Baxter

Today sees the launch of Please Release me by my fellow Choc Lit author Rhoda Baxter.

Here’s the blurb:

What if you could only watch as your bright future slipped away from you?

Sally Cummings has had it tougher than most but, if nothing else, it’s taught her to grab opportunity with both hands. And, when she stands looking into the eyes of her new husband Peter on her perfect wedding day, it seems her life is finally on the up.

That is until the car crash that puts her in a coma and throws her entire future into question.

In the following months, a small part of Sally’s consciousness begins to return, allowing her to listen in on the world around her – although she has no way to communicate.

But Sally was never going to let a little thing like a coma get in the way of her happily ever after …

If you like the sound of that, you can buy a Kindle version of it here.

 

All three characters in Please Release Me are stuck in some way, so the questions Rhoda has given us for our blog today are all about being stuck.

1. The thing I’m stuck on now…

A title. The book I’m writing at the moment is about a car mechanic who’s guardian to his younger brother. I’m about a third of the way into it and enjoying every minute (which sadly doesn’t necessarily translate into a reader enjoying it, too). I have a rough plot on paper and a more detailed one in my head. I know my characters. Dean is twenty-seven, brash and sexually confident. Lia is older than him by five years, forthright and more rebellious than her role as a maths teacher would suggest. But each time I open up the manuscript to work on it, I’m glaringly aware of the title I’ve given the document. Car mechanic. Catchy, eh? I saved it as that when I first started writing it, hoping a title would come to me, but so far it hasn’t. If anyone has some cool titles out there that might fit, please, please let me know.

2. If I could be stuck anywhere (with anyone)…

It would be Hawaii with Jenson Button … Adrian Turner … Ryan Gosling … oh heck, change that, I’d better say my husband. And if you wonder why Hawaii – here’s why.

And if you wonder why Jenson Button … of course you’re not, but it’s an excuse to include this photo again.

3. Stickers

I’m reaching the age when I can’t function without a pad of post-it notes nearby. If I need to remember to do something, I have to write it down. The trick, of course, is remembering where I put the note …

What I learnt over the summer holidays

If you can’t beat them, join them

When the midwife handed me my second son, I knew I was destined to live in a male dominated household. It would mean an absence of long, leisurely trips round the shops, a paucity of rom coms (I’m allowed to watch two a year – my birthday and mother’s day) and a life-time of picking up crumpled towels and replacing them, neatly folded, onto the towel rail. This summer I realised it also meant watching a lot – and I mean a lot – of sport.

Not that I don’t enjoy sport. My father loved cricket, my brother was (and still is) a big rugby fan. I had a crush on the footballer Emlyn Hughes – and later Michael Owen. Watching Seve Ballesteros storm the fairways (and car parks) in full Spanish flow sparked an interest in golf. I play and love to watch tennis. But there’s enjoying sport and there’s … well, having it dominate your life. It seems my family want to see every football match, watch every grand prix, play cricket every weekend …

So here is my summer, in pictures.

Lewis Hamilton takes the chequered flag at Silverstone

Jenson Button at Silverstone. He was shunted off at the first corner but still stayed around to sign autographs (and make my day)

Watching the Freemans play at our local cricket club. This happened every weekend, but I’ll spare you more pictures.

Southampton vs Everton before kick off. No, we don’t support either side but apparently that doesn’t matter – it’s a premiership match.

Hampshire vs Lancashire one day match at the Aegus Bowl. Because we were on holiday so weren’t playing cricket.

T20 blast finals day at Edgbaston. It started at 11 am with the first semi-final. It ended at 10pm when Lancashire won the final. That’s a lot of cricket.

Whisper it though – I’ve enjoyed every moment. Far easier to embrace their sporting interest than fight it. Far nicer to be with my family than not. Besides, watching the likes of Jenson Button and Jos Buttler this summer hasn’t exactly been a hardship.

Oh, and neither has watching my sons and husband play cricket… (did I just add that in time?!)

What I learnt this week: 13th August 2015

A time for celebration – and thanks

Three years ago my dream was to get a book published. Today I will see my fourth book go live on Amazon (cue excuse to post the book covers…).

Am I as excited as I was the other three times?  You bet I am. Am I as nervous? You bet I am.

Search for the Truth is very special to me because it combines my two careers. While I was working in the pharmaceutical industry (1991- 2011) never once did I think I’d one day be using the setting to write a romance. Like most jobs there were times of stress (I think it’s now called challenge…) but the work was meaningful and varied and the people – the people are why I look back at my time there with such fondness. Many of those I was lucky enough to work with have been just as supportive of me as I’ve worked to forge my new career, encouraging me through the rejections and congratulating me on my publication milestones.

So I’d like to use this blog to thank my friends in the pharmaceutical industry for their incredible support over the years. And I promise that while you were my inspiration, none of you feature in Search for the Truth.

But it’s not just friends in pharma whose encouragement has brought me to this stage. It’s family, both near and far, and friends from other walks of life. It’s fellow writers and of course my publisher, Choc Lit and the lovely Chocliteers. Most importantly, it’s those who have been kind enough to read my books.

To all of you, a huge, heartfelt thank you.

(The present is for illustrative purposes only. Sorry. Writing romantic fiction is huge fun but not very lucrative…).

 

 

What I learnt this week: Thursday August 6th

It is hard to beat a day out in London.

We’re lucky enough to live an hour away from the great city, which means we have no excuse not to make the most of it. This week we went to see War Horse, but rather than just go in for the play I thought I’d take my youngest son for a wander first. I started with Harrods. As a child I remember going twice a year, on the last day of the sales. We couldn’t afford the café so we’d have lunch on the stairs; a pie and a donut from the food hall. My brother and I were bored to death with the shopping, but overawed by the food displays. Sadly my son was suitably unimpressed. Why are you taking me to a supermarket? Was his general objection. Even the vast displays of chocolate didn’t raise a smile. I started to worry. Had London lost its magic?  

 

We left Knightsbridge, walked through Hyde Park and down into Mayfair. Finally he was smiling. A big shop hadn’t done it for him, but cars had; a Bugatti Veyron, multiple Bentleys, Ferraris and Aston Martins. Following an ice cream near Trafalgar square (another smile) we headed up through Covent Garden and, after eating (burger and chips raised the third smile of the day), settled down to Warhorse.

 

A show full of puppets, but after the first five minutes you didn’t see the men and women working them. You only saw the animals. I like to think puppeteers are a bit like authors. For a while they can make you believe the characters they’ve created are real.

The verdict – a big thumbs up both for War horse and for London. It has something for everyone, even teenage boys.