Happy Birthday, Book Lover! #amreading #ASMSG

It's my birthday, woo-hoo!!! I have had a very busy week, because we celebrated our elder daughter's 5th birthday just a couple of days ago. Naturally it turned into a big celebration involving two parties, two cakes, and lots of crazy kids running riot. Today I am taking the day off (well, sort of, I mean I still have to do some mothering outside of school). I am going out for afternoon tea with a friend.

Now, since I can't very well share my birthday cake with you here online, I have another treat to share: grab your FREE COPY of my brand new short story It's Complicated (A Redcliffe Short Story) while I am in a good mood... hurry! Have a fabulous weekend my friends.

Love Kills (A Redcliffe Novel) #paranormalromance #ASMSG #Supernatural

The Not so Glamorous Life of an Author

I was scanning the newspaper headlines earlier this week when I came across a couple of stories that made my heart sink. The first one came to my attention via The Guardian newspaper. It’s headline read: “Philip Pullman: Professional Writers Set to become an Endangered Species.”

This was terrible! I read the story, nodding in agreement as I went, and then I found a couple of similar features on other websites. The future of our professional writers hangs in the balance. There are thousands of very talented writers out there in the UK, and yet we cannot gain access to the channels that will properly share our voice, our books, and our work.

I am one such writer. I am very talented, very focused, and very good at the process of assembling words into a coherent and entertaining format. My challenge is getting those words in front of people who want to read them. That is a mammoth task indeed. I am not trained in the ways of  business, marketing, or promoting. I am now partaking in an online training course that will show me how best to progress, and how to drag myself from the proverbial writer’s garret, and bring me something that resembles a decent, livable wage.

Being a writer is an incredible experience. During the course of a day I can travel to faraway worlds, meet exciting and exotic characters, and translate their stories. When I step away from the computer, however, I am faced with the heavy burden of being just another nameless person in the crowd. Nobody knows who I am, or what I do. Nobody really cares, because they have not had the opportunity to sample my work.

I have tried for many years to find an agent and a publisher that has the financial means and the business knowledge to put me “out there” in the public domain. Alas, I cannot break through the perimeter fence in order to face these mythical gods of the literary world. It is down to me, just me. I am but a lone warrior, battling to send my books out into the world, and to persuade people to read them and enjoy them.

Did you enjoy this article? Join my tribe today, and I will send you a fabulous FREE book to get you started… (be warned, my vampires do not sparkle, and my wolves will bite!) 

Love Hurts (A Redcliffe Novel) #paranormalromance #ASMSG

Big Plans for a Big 2016 #amwriting #ASMSG

This evening we are preparing to see out 2015, and eager to welcome a very exciting and productive 2016. For me personally this feels like a particularly eventful New Year's Eve, if only as a visualization. Today I have been at home with my children, beginning the slow process of tidying the house and removing all Christmas decorations (I have left my tree up for just a little bit longer, it looks so pretty!) We also spent time with our neighbours, which was very nice as always. And now for a family evening at home, cherishing the safety and security of our place in this hectic world.

My writing plans are well underway for 2016, and I have a rather large project in mind to achieve... all will be revealed in due course. Our Scribe festival dates have been set for October, and there are meetings to attend and more plans to be made for that big event. Much more to come, indeed. See you next year, folks!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Life Behind the Vampire; The Darkness of Love by Catherine Green #ASMSG

The Darkness of Love tells the story of stable boy Marcus Scott and his adventures on the estate of a powerful aristocrat in Victorian England. It takes a darker turn when we discover that the Master of the house, Lord Gregory Stockton, is a vampire and plans to seduce Marcus and turn him into his heir. Marcus, blissfully unaware of this fact, falls into an affair with Lady Stockton when he discovers that she shares the desire he feels for her.

Marcus Scott first made his appearance in my debut novel Love Hurts (A Redcliffe Novel). He is a friend of Jack Mason, and as it turns out, Marcus is something of a mentor to Jack. The two vampires meet during the First World War, when Jack Mason is a young vampire struggling to understand what has happened to him. Marcus teaches him how to live as a vampire without drawing attention from the humans, and the men become firm friends.

While I was planning, or maybe even discovering, the back stories to my vampire characters in the Redcliffe novels, Marcus Scott became very persistent. He is by nature a very charming and irresistible man. When he fixes his ice-blue gaze on you and curves his lips into a mischievous smile, you simply melt before him. Marcus was only twenty-three when Lord Stockton took his human life. Although it was a traumatic transition into immortality, Marcus found that he did, and still does, enjoy being a vampire.

You can read about the human Marcus in The Darkness of Love, and then you can read about one of his vampire adventures in my new short story Christmas with the Vampires, available on Amazon now.

Did you enjoy this article? Join my tribe today, and I will send you a fabulous FREE book to get you started… (be warned, my vampires do not sparkle, and my wolves will bite!)