Thursday, November 14th, 2013
Is it Time? Photo Credit: PJMorley, Dreamstime.com
Time is the friend who heals all things. Or the enemy who dries them to dust.
Time flies, marches on, drags or stands still; each tick answered by the tock of passing moments.
Time is stolen – and once in our possession, is frittered away.
Our biggest comfort is spending time. But doing time is to be avoided at any cost.
We make time. It feels luxurious to have a lot of it – except that there’s never enough. Unless we have too much. On our hands.
We think of time in many ways.
But really, what we perceive as time is merely an accumulation of choices. Choose wisely. And may each choice be a revelation of the next. Time.
Filed under: Randomness by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « be - choices - inspiration - mystery - rhythm - time »
4 Comments »
Thursday, November 7th, 2013
Black Cat, Photo Credit: Shipowner119, Dreamstime.com
During this past year, IRL (in real life) got crazy. There were highs, lows, many near misses, and a fair few crashes. Call me Phoenix – I’m still rising from the ashes. Luckily, I’m surrounded by those I love and who love me. Not everyone can put up with a Crazy Cat.
When I did manage to reserve time for writing, I used it to learn about self-publishing. I hope that when you look at Sparks, you’ll agree that it was time well spent. I am very proud of its look, and yes, of its content.
I’ve pulled myself back together, but I was afraid that writer’s block would keep me separated from my stories. Surprisingly, I’ve got the words! But not the discipline. For these first weeks, I’ve had to concentrate on keeping my butt in the chair. Of course, what I’ve written for the new novel is awful, but that’s to be expected. It’s the first narrative of the first draft.
Am I having fun? Is the writing getting better? Do I look forward to my writing time? Yes, yes and yes! Happy landings.
Filed under: OnWriting by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « chaos - crucible - first draft - n2 - stories - storyline - stuff happens - wip »
5 Comments »
Thursday, October 31st, 2013
I got quite a surprise when writing today. One of my characters is gay. I didn’t set out to write him that way. It seems he had a lover who has left him. A personal betrayal, it’s also a betrayal that affects the larger story.
There was only one problem. I had no idea how to write a relationship between gay people. I procrastinated, looked for distractions, tried writing other parts of the larger story. Nothing worked. When I came back to him, nothing had changed. He is gay, and I just had to deal with it. In the midst of spazzing about realistically portraying gay love, I suddenly saw the truth of it.
Love, a spiritual bond, is – of course – shared between spirits. The gender of the bodies inhabited by the spirits is incidental. So it follows that if I’m true to his love story, his and his partner’s genders don’t matter.
It’s not that I’m so naïve as to dismiss the issues that gay couples have. A few such issues may appear in this story – or not. It all depends on how the story writes itself. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
Filed under: OnWriting by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « characters - distraction - love story - spirit - storyline - stuff happens »
2 Comments »
Thursday, October 24th, 2013
I’ve had it with distracted drivers.
Too many folks are texting, putting on makeup, even eating while behind the wheel.
Crawling along crowded streets. Racing down freeways. Dragging the rest of us along, they’re accidents on their way to a happening.
I’ve had it and I’m spoiling for some Face Time. That’s right. I’m seeing red and ready to unleash the Flying Monkeys.The Wicked Witch of the West, the baddest chick in Oz, is ready to rumble.
Then I remembered – she got melted. Sigh… There’s got to be a better way.
Filed under: Randomness by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « distraction - driving - Face Time - flying monkeys - pain - rant - re »
5 Comments »
Thursday, October 17th, 2013
Choices define us. They direct the paths we build on our journeys through life. Even if the choices of others affect us, we still choose our reaction to those choices.
Imagine then, that someone makes a deliberate choice to covertly shape our lives. That choice, unbeknownst to us, constrains all of our future choices. We are so bound by that choice, that none of our own choices can now alter the course we are on. Years go by. Loved ones die. Time lost, lives lost – and we’re stuck in an alternative reality that we didn’t choose; caged by boundaries that we may not even be aware of. Scary isn’t it?
That’s what happens to the heroine in the story I’m now writing. Someone makes such a choice for her. Imagine how she feels when she finds out. What will she do? A hint – think time bomb. And it’s ticking…
Filed under: Journal, OnWriting by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « characters - choice - heroine - motivation »
5 Comments »
Monday, September 9th, 2013
Our normal impulse is to avoid pain. However many of us unknowingly chase after the very thing that causes it. Not only that, but when pain comes, we rarely blame the source. Instead, we blame ourselves, believing that we must have done something to deserve it. That’s a dangerous road, fraught with slippery slopes. No one deserves pain.
As an author, I find that experiencing pain is an opportunity of sorts. I examine it, open my heart to it; envelope myself in the spiritual and emotional devastation of it. Not because I’m a sadist, but so that I am able to fully express suffering in my stories. It’s not enough for readers to understand that my heroine is in pain. I want you to burn from it as she burns. When she curls into a fetal position overcome by blows that strike too fast for her to defend herself, I want her anguish to be your anguish; her tears to be your tears.
Then just when you think she’s finished, she finds the strength to fight back and defeat the pain. I want her triumph to be your triumph.
Pain. Unbearable. Then beaten.
Filed under: OnWriting, Uncategorized by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « broken - dispair - pain - tears - triumph »
3 Comments »
Thursday, August 22nd, 2013
I like to think that we are all connected in a single never-ending story, having an infinite number of chapters; each told from infinite points of view. Some of us take experiences from that story and weave them into finite fictional ones for readers to enjoy.
I’ve taken threads from the never-ending story and woven them into tales of several generations of the fictional San Chapelle family. Sparks was the first thread I unraveled from my ball of yarns and I’m now pulling on the second. Exciting! Let’s find out what the new thread reveals.
Hmmm… Maybe there’s a reason I’m a Cat…
Filed under: OnWriting by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « audience - author - debut - reader - skye pointe - Sparks - stories »
2 Comments »
Tuesday, June 25th, 2013
Sparks – Coming to your fav bookstore!
I’m posting on Tuesday and not my usual Thursday because I have news. Sparks is now in print. It’s coming – here, there, everywhere!
Ask for Sparks at your favorite bookstore. Sparks is being listed in the Ingram book catalogs.
Got Sparks? (I always wanted to say that ;-))
Filed under: Sparks by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « conflict - finance - greed - heroine - literary - love story - secret - Sparks - suspense - tension - thriller »
2 Comments »
Thursday, June 13th, 2013
Stuff happens.
Sometimes it’s bad stuff. Sometimes it’s bad stuff we bring upon ourselves.
Mistakes. We all make them. But each of us responds to them differently. I hate making mistakes. So when I’ve made one, I make darn sure I get the most out of it.
No burying it under the rug. Why trip over it again and again? Instead, I dissect it. I examine it. I put it on a pedestal and study it from all sides. Then when I’ve learned everything I can from the %@#%##!#! mistake, I toss it aside and move on.
Oh sure – I’ll make other mistakes; but not that one again. Done and done.
Treating mistakes that way makes room for the good stuff. Because you see, stuff happens.
Filed under: Randomness by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « choices - mistake - stuff happens »
4 Comments »
Thursday, June 6th, 2013
Change is inevitable.
Change is unavoidable.
It is our collective past choices that determine the direction and result of change. Those collective choices put some of us square in the eye of a hurricane, and others of us thousands of miles away from where it strikes. Those choices land some of us in the lap of luxury, and catapult others out of their safety net and into homelessness.
Choice.
Chance.
Change.
The only sure thing about choice and change is that none of us knows, when making a choice, what change it will bring. We could make the best possible choice – and because of the influence of the choices of others – get the worst possible results. So why even bother to choose?
On the other hand – why not? Since we don’t know where choices will land us, we may as well make the ones that bring joy into our hearts. That way, even if the worst possible change happens, at least there’s happiness along the way.
And who knows? If we all choose joy…
Filed under: Randomness by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « choices - choreography - dance - harmony - journey - st »
4 Comments »
