Cathryn Louis, Author of Contemporary Fiction

Michael Lewis’ book, The Big Short was released over the weekend. I got a copy and sped through it – cover to cover. It is one of the best novels I’ve ever read – except that it’s nonfiction. OMG WTF were the ‘gurus’ of the financial world thinking?

My novel, Sunrise on the Pier, touches briefly on the debacle as incentive for the characters’ actions. Michael Lewis exposes the meltdown in detail, with protagonists and antagonists as colorful as in any novel. As bad as it was, the world is fortunate that the problem wasn’t much, much worse. Even now, some of the major players are screaming like ill-mannered children at having their hands slapped even though they walked away from it with billions of dollars. Many of the rest of us are barely coping with the aftermath.

Next on my reading list, the acclaimed Harvard undergraduate thesis on the subject by Anna-Katherine Barnett-Hart, “The Story of the CDO Market Meltdown: An Empirical Analysis”.

Filed under: Reference by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « nonfiction - novel - reference »
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Sport Boxer, Photo Credit: Sabino Parente, Dreamstime.com

A professional boxer is popularly considered to have hands that are deadly weapons.

Saying “I have a broken heart” is akin to climbing into the ring with one, being pummeled to a pulp, and then saying “I have an owie.”

Heartbreak is not an instantaneous event that leaves a few pieces that can be swept up and put back together with a bit of crazy glue.

Anyone who’s experienced heartbreak knows that it feels like your heart is being torn apart, ripped asunder, or any other appropriately violent expression of pain. In any event, ‘broken’ doesn’t begin to cover it.

Trying to hold yourself together while your heart is ripping apart is a lengthy torture of the worst kind. Not something that can be endured silently. Once it’s all over and you’re left with a damaged, wounded heart, how do you heal it?

Some of us try to shield it by keeping it away from love. I suppose that’s some sort of survival. Seen any zombie movies lately?

There’s no pain, no sadness; but no happiness either. It reminds me of the afternoon teas I witnessed as a child, where all the ladies were chasing their Valiums down with daiquiris or mint juleps. I can tell you they felt no pain – or anything else for that matter.

That’s not the way to heal your heart.

Another reaction is to push the pain off on others. Hurting someone else doesn’t take the pain away – and doesn’t hurt the person who broke your heart.

So again I ask, “How do you heal your heart?”

Contrarily, love is the only cure for a wounded heart. You have to dare to love again for your heart to be whole.

Are you brave enough? I dare you…

Filed under: Randomness by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « boxer - broken - heart - pain - stories »
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It’s the first of March.

Rainy, foggy – the typical San Joaquin/Sacramento Valley spring. I love this blusey time of year – except for the ‘tully fog’. It can spring at you from nowhere between the months of November and as late as April.

It’s like driving through cotton – and impossible to forecast. Once you’ve driven in, you have no idea when – or if – you’ll drive out. So be careful out there.

There are people who love you and don’t want to lose you.

Filed under: Randomness by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « blues - careful - weather »
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I love the water. I don’t care if it’s a swimming pool, lake or ocean. I love being in it. What’s the problem then? I can dog paddle, I know the freestyle stroke and every now and then – I can actually turn my head and breathe. That’s right – I really can’t swim. Unfortunately, I have no fear of the water. It drives everyone I know crazy. But to me, it’s big fun. 🙂

In earlier days, I would swim out a little ways into Lake Ponchatrain and float on the waves as they rolled back in. LP is one of those oxymorons – a salt water lake. It’s actually an estuary, but that’s another story… Then I made the mistake of doing the same thing on Cape Cod one summer. The friend who was watching me got so upset that I made a foolhardy promise never to do it again. …and I haven’t. Sigh… I still love the pool though, and I dive in every chance I get.

When I went to college, I decided to take swimming lessons. I ended up on the diving team because the coach who taught beginning swimming was also the coach of the team. He thought I had the most beautiful swan dive he’d ever seen. Why was a beginning swimmer on the high dive platform? Because the coach wanted us beginners to see how high it was. While we were up there, I asked if I could dive. He said ok since there were four lifeguards spotting us in the pool. In his defense, he probably never thought I would do it. But I did – and it was awesome!!! It felt like flying. I got a rush every time I jumped. I also had a love of tumbling and had no fear trying somersaults off of the platform. Sadly (for me anyway) my involvement with the team only lasted a week because the coach said he grew more gray hair every time I went into the water. From his perspective, it took me too long to come back up.

So what do I do to compensate for the loss of diving? It appears I’ve just moved that behavior to everything else. I dive in – and so far, I’ve been able to swim. Of course, all the water I get in my lungs may be messin’ with my brain – but what the hay? ROFLOL – only kidding! Or am I? 🙂

Filed under: Randomness by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « dive - fun - jump »
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Do you tweet? Do you follow or are you followed?

My tweeting is a solitary affair – just the way I want it. No really – I love it as a private journal. It’s like having little stickies always at hand. I don’t carry a notepad and pen, always at the ready to jot down my next great idea, or next rewriting improvement, or next anything really. Even if I did, they’re never on hand when I need them. Like when I wake up in the middle of the night. No pad, no pen, – no matter how many I leave on the bedside table. I think a hole opens up in the floor at night and a hand comes out and collects them all. I do – however – have my phone everywhere I go. And, its helpful little light. (Maybe I can use it to catch that hand.) So I just pick it up (my phone, not the hand) and dash off little notes to myself wherever I am – even in darkness – except when I’m driving. As much as I love to Tweet, I am so not ready for wings. Just my luck I’d get horns.

Can I write a novel on Twitter? Of course not. But I can leave myself notes about rewriting one. I’m in my third round of rewriting and I love my private little journal. I’ve got things like ‘#sotp char a needs 2 be meaner to char b’ or ‘#sotp expos pg 314 sticks out like meatballs on spaghetti’ (couldn’t figure out an abbreviation I’d remember for ‘meatballs on spaghetti’ – mbs on spag, maybe?). Now I don’t lose those hundreds of ideas that go through my head that I want to remember but never fail to forget. I use hashtags to keep everything organized.

Who knew? Twitter as a private journal. As long as I don’t go over 140 characters, I’m golden. By the way, ‘#blog 1 on tweets’ – done!

Filed under: OnWriting by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « journal - twitter »
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Seeing as how I’m an La. girl, you’re probably wondering why any reference to the Super Bowl is conspicuously absent. That’s because the party’s been on since Sunday.

But now that I’m here, laissez les bon temp roulez! (Yes we know, we know – it should be ‘r’, not ‘z’. But it’s ‘z’ – so get with the program!) As Jim Henderson (Saints play-by-play announcer) said “Pigs have flown. Hell has frozen over”. Only he said that when the Saints beat the Vikings to go to the Super Bowl.

At the Superbowl, Saints fans were all about the ‘Who Dat’!

Colts fans found themselves asking ‘Who was Dat?!?!’

Now that the Saints have won, there’s nothing more to be said. So let’s just stuff Katrina into a Pat O’Brien’s hurricane glass and get back to the party – for all of 2010 and beyond!

Filed under: ILoveLA, Randomness by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « fun - Louisiana »
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A picture came up on the screensaver the other day of a kitten – squating on it’s hind legs, it’s front paws clasped firmly around a Rubik’s cube. It was looking at the cube with a puzzled expression and the caption said “OMG WTF”.

Now it’s my blog picture – had to have it – hope you like it. Props to HumorHound.com.  I needed the laugh. I’d just read through my novel and noticed a conversation in Chapter 19 that – although was appropriate and timely – contained a lot of exposition about the motivations of a main antagonist. So here’s where I beat my head on the wall and try to convince myself that the story is fine the way it is. Though it is fine, it would be so much better if I took that exposition and layer it through the story. #$%!!@!

I’ve already sent out query letters and chapters. So OMG WTF do I do? Sigh… I take the exposition and study the story, identifying the layering points. So what about the chapters I sent out? I decided to figure it out later. Then I started rewriting. About two am, I’ve decided I’ve had enough and OMG WTF? Am I really trying to turn off my monitor with the mouse? Yeah – and getting frustrated when the cursor wouldn’t go down far enough to hit the button. That pretty much says my brain is fried. Until tomorrow then…

Filed under: OnWriting by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « exposition - rewriting »
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I was sitting in the dealership customer lounge waiting for my car to be serviced. Six other people were also there. A news channel was on the television with President Obama speaking about jobs and the state of the economy. I looked around the lounge and saw that everyone was busily involved in other things – listening to music players, on the net, reading, talking. Then the news channel reported a story about someone unfortunately being mauled by a shark. Even though he was heroically rescued, he died soon thereafter. I looked around the lounge during the story. Everyone – without a single exception – was watching it. The channel switched back to President Obama and everyone lost interest again. It switched to another story about a plane landing in Florida that dropped some of its parts onto a mall parking lot. Again – everyone looked up to watch the story. Being a writer, I’m always looking for motivations. What does this mean?

Then I recalled the Sundance Channel show that prompted this blog – The Planet. Psychologists on that show presented the idea that humans have an innate avoidance mechanism that causes us to back away from issues, ideas, occurrences that are too large to process down to an individual level. Is that whatwas happening? Is that why people tuned in to stories about individuals and zoned out on President Obama because he was talking about something that was uncomfortable to listen to because it affects ‘millions of people’ in his words? The shark story was tragic. The airplane story could have been tragic if the parking lot hadn’t been empty. Millions of people out of work is tragic. So it isn’t an avoidance of tragic circumstances. If the psychologists are right, then it is heroic for a person to involve themselves in a overwhelming tragedy. It is that kind of heroism – the courage to step out of the comfort zone despite the overpowering urge not to – that makes for a good story.

Filed under: OnObservations by Cathryn Louis
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I started this blog with the intention of writing about everything else but writing. Why? To get my mind off writing. Hmmm…. Writing to get my mind off writing. Probably not the best idea. I’m sure I’ll get back to the Sundance Channel and The Planet, but right now, I’m stressing over submissions. Why, you may ask? (If you aren’t a writer.) Because this is my first book. I’ve finished it, I’m excited, I started researching literary agencies.

Oh crap. Reality hits, panic strikes, [insert your favorite ‘ow that hurts’ cliche here]. The dreaded submissions package. Though admittedly, I didn’t dread it until now because I didn’t know much about it. Probably best. If I had known how daunting finding an agent would be, I may not have finished the book – or even tried writing it in the first place. It’s like climbing Mt. Everest and finding out it’s only a foothill.

So whats the problem? The first one is – they ask for credentials. I have none. No articles, nothing published – nada, zip, zilch. Not even a degree in anything close to literature. So, is this blog my sneaky way of beginning to build credentials? I honestly don’t think blogs count. It’s just my way to uncrowd my brain. Plus, I like to see my words on paper – even if it’s digital paper. Even if no one reads it but me.

So what can I tell these people? These deservingly critical, ‘tired of the crap I see’, ‘oh hell – not that again’, people. It’s trite to say that I’ve had stories in my head for years and finally decided to put one on paper – even though that’s the truth. It’s arrogant to say that I think I’ve captured a story that is at least as compelling and worthy of publication as are those from all the seasoned authors and long-suffering students of the art – even though that’s my hope.

What can I tell them that will inspire them to ask to see more? All I can do is talk about the book. That really is what it’s all about – the book – this book. Right now, the only credentials I have is this book. (and yes I know the tense doesn’t match…or does it?) I could have taken the ‘smart’ road and built a career from attempting short stories and getting them published. Except that I don’t have any in my head. I had this story, so that’s what I wrote. I still don’t have any short stories in my head. I have another novel, or two, or three…

Filed under: OnWriting by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « author - debut - novel - stories - submissions »
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Blog.  Didn’t think I had anything interesting to say.  Then I wrote a book.  385 pages!  Shocked the #*@! out of me.  So I’m looking for an agent, and run across one that says having a blog is a requirement for submission.  ??  Still didn’t think I had anything to say.  Then I watched ‘The Planet’ on the Sundance Channel.  Guess I have something to say after all.  More to come…

Filed under: Uncategorized by Cathryn Louis
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