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How long have you been writing romance?
About eight years. I always knew I wanted to write something. I didn't
really read all that many romances - though I always loved Jean Plaidy - and
started thinking about writing a straight historical (mostly because I love
history). It didn't take long to discover that there was no market for
straight historicals (unless I was fabulously good or extra-ordinarily lucky
and I wasn't going to count on either!) so I switched to writing historical
romances, and then started writing contemporary romance as well. Once I
started to write romance, I found my own voice and realised that yes, this
is what I want to write. It is definitely the genre I feel most comfortable
in.
As an unpublished writer, did you ever think of packing it in?
Sure did. I went through a bad patch prior to my official separation from my
husband. I wasn't selling, I wasn't even writing much, I didn't have drive,
enthusiasm or energy, my husband had left the country to go work in the US,
and my day job, plus four kids, was hard work enough without trying to write
as well. I thought very hard about giving up my dream and concentrating on
my career as a project manager but I just couldn't do it. I tried one more
time - and hey presto, I sold a book at last.
What/who encouraged you through those years as an unpubbed?
First and foremost my writing partner, critique partner and best friend
Elissa Hare. I met her through the Oregon’s RWAmerica chapter where I was
living at the time and I owe a lot to her. She always told me the hard
truths even when I didn't want to hear them. She told me once that I needed
to re-write the entire first half of one of my books. I reluctantly had to
agree with her, did the re-write with much grumbling - and that book was the
first book I sold!
Also, my mother - my current critique partner. She's taken up writing
romances too, and we have lots of fun reading each other's stories. Again,
she will tell me the hard truths that other people might not.
Nobody is as good as other writers to keep you going. They understand your
trials and tribulations and triumphs better than anyone else can hope to.
What do you attribute your success to?
Submitting heaps and heaps and heaps. Looking back on it, I started
submitting way before I was ready to be published. But I kept on going, kept
on writing, kept on getting my stories out there and eventually one of them
was picked up. That, and to keep on going even when it was really hard.
Did you think On My Lady's Honor would ever get published?
Ha! It was rejected by every single editor in the entire universe until at
last Amy Garvey at Kensington bought it. Even she rejected it when I first
sent it to her, saying that she liked it, but she was over-inventoried just
then. So I left it for six months and sent it back to her, and that time she
bought it. I was about to give it up as a lost cause and concentrate on my
contemporary romances which I'd had a bit of success with (I'd
finaled in
the RWAmerica’s Golden Heart contest and gone through several
revisions for
Malle Valik for Harlequin's Love and Laughter line - now Duets - with
several of my contemporary romances before getting rejected).
Did you get The Call or The Letter from Amy?
The first book I sold (Abide with Me, Precious Gems Historicals, April 2000)
I got The Call. Unfortunately, Amy called me at work, and I just so happened
to be in late that day. I missed the call by about 3 minutes! The phones at
work are toll-barred, and I knew I'd never get home in time to call her in
NY before she was off home for the day. So, I sat up until 1am that night
and called her and she offered to buy the book straight away. It just about
killed me having to wait until 7am to call Mum and Dad and scream my news at
them!
Now I correspond with Amy by email - which I check obsessively every day.
Tell us about your recent acceptances and how they came about.
I was hanging out with my mates in Telecom New Zealand's corporate
communications team after a slow Christmas period. They thought they would
make great musketeers and suggested that I write a story about them. They
were joking, but I wasn't and I sat down and started to write.
On My Lady's Honor, A Lady Deceived and A Lady in Disguise
is a series about
three female musketeers. In Honor the heroine Sophie takes her dead
brother's place in the musketeers to win honor in his name because she feels
responsible for his death. However, when the brother of the French King asks
for her help to save his wife, she has to choose between her duty to the
King and what her conscience tells her is the path of true honor.
Courtney, the heroine in Deceived joins the musketeers to avenge herself on
the man who loved and left her. She incites him to rebel against the King
and causes his imprisonment, but she discovers in the end that mercy, rather
than revenge, is the true justice.
Disguise's heroine is Miriame, a petty thief and all-round scoundrel who
joins the Musketeers to get rich on legal booty. The tone is lighter than
the other two - it's really a comedy of switched identities - but with
serious moments. Out of all three heroines, I like Miriame the best. She's
by far the wickedest.
What's your writing schedule like?
Hectic. All the kids are at primary school, and I have a full-time job in
Wellington, plus I also try to have a life as well. So my day goes like
this: 6am - wake up; 7am - leave for work; 12:30 - go to the gym or take a
walk around the waterfront; 1:30 - back to work; 6pm - get home; 7:30 - put
the boys to bed and start writing; 9pm - send the girls to bed; 9:30-10pm -
go to bed myself. Most Saturdays I go keelboat racing (there's nothing like
falling out of a yacht to get your adrenalin up!) and fishing with the kids.
I also took up diving this year (I'm actually rather lazy, but I do love the
water). I make up more time by not watching TV, doing the dishes or any
other kind of housework (unless I really have to).
What's next for Cathy/Kate?
Brent and I are writing a novella together for Kensington's naughty Brava
line and keeping our fingers crossed that Amy might want to buy it. And then
I recently thought of a good 5 book series for the Ballads line based around
the mistresses of Charles II, so I'm writing up a proposal for those at the
moment. And I've got a romantic thriller on the boil, too...
I still haven't fulfilled two of my personal goals for 2001 - a hot air
balloon ride and white water rafting. I want to do those before I'm much
older.
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