Cat Connor / Guest Post
Guest post: Writing in chaos and mayhem.
By Cat Connor
Howdy folks,
Let me quickly introduce myself (before y’all start asking who I am).
I’m Cat Connor. A New Zealander living in Wellington and I write thrillers, set in Virginia, USA. I’m writing a series currently known as the Ellie Conway or killerbyte series (but the search for just the right series title is underway.) Not only do I write international thrillers (from a NZ perspective everything is international) but my publisher is in South Africa and a percentage of every sale goes to an environmental fund.
Libby kindly invited me to do a guest post today. Thank you Libby!
This morning I was faced with a blank screen, a twitching right eye, and the knowledge that 5,000 words will finish the first draft of my current work in progress, which I’ve written for NaNoWriMo. And I knew I needed to write a guest post or two.
With joy, I can say I have now finished NaNoWriMo, which is the biggest relief ever. I should have said ‘no’ to Nano this year. But I didn’t. Because I can’t resist a challenge? (It’s either that or Nano is indeed Crystal Meth for writers and I am an addict.)
But having just written another thriller novel while surrounded by kids and life. I confess I dream sometimes of what it would be like to write in an office, away from interruptions and chaos. Rather than in the living room amidst family life and mayhem. Until our youngest goes to school, (she’s 4 in a week, so I have almost exactly one year before she starts school) it will remain a glowing dream, a spark of solitary joy.
Meanwhile, I shall continue to write at a terrifying pace, spend time on blog tours, twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Red Room, Backspace, do interviews, maintain my blogs and websites while taking care of a large noisy family and all the drama that goes with it.
I noticed a few years ago that everything that happens around me as I write feeds into my work. Like it or not, some way or another it all comes together in an explosion of thoughts and ideas. Nothing based on my family as such, but from the flames flickering in the swirling commotion around me.
For all I catch myself writing, “Mummy, mummy, mummy!” Instead of the conversation between my main character and someone else, and spend a lot of time wishing for some peace so ‘I can just get this done’ without backspacing quite so much! I have to wonder if the chaos is necessary.
Could I write Ellie Conway without it? (I don’t think it’s a surprise to people who know me that Ellie has no children!)
About my books:
My latest thriller, terrorbyte, was launched on Nov 10th. And five days later I was told my first thriller, killerbyte, (released in April this year) is a finalist in the 2010 EPIC awards mystery and/or suspense category. It’s been a very exciting month so far.
Killerbyte: A killer with a gift for inventive and macabre deaths… An FBI Agent with an equally unusual imagination and sense of humor…
Available from Mobipocket, Amazon kindle, and iTunes. (world wide)
Terrorbyte: Ellie Conway is back: wisecracking, kicking ass and using her psycho-prophetic talents to grapple with a murderer with ulterior motives, secreted behind a series of grotesque crimes.
Available from Mobipocket (world wide) and Amazon Kindle (USA only).
Cat’s website: http://catconnor.wordpress.com/
Cat’s blog: http://catconnor.blogspot.com/
Rebel e Publishers: http://www.rebelepublishers.com/
Cat’s blog: http://catconnor.blogspot.com/
Rebel e Publishers: http://www.rebelepublishers.com/
I like the guest blogs so much and this is a good one. I haven't read any of Kit's books.