I hate coming up with blog titles!

I do, I know I suck! But really today I just want to write the blog... not stress about the title. And I can't think of a song to use as the title. So, poos to coming up with a title today.

It's been a freakishly odd week. And I'm delighted to report... AUGUST IS OVER. Honestly was I the only one who found this month to be incredibly long and drawn out?? I was well over it by this morning. :)
Thank you spring for arriving in a timely fashion.

Some coolness to tell you about:

First up - The very lovely Holli Moncrieff has given me a blog award! I am most honored. You should pop over to her blog immediately and wallow in her loveliness. A Life Less Ordinary

And (I know, there's more -it's exciting isn't it??), I was interviewed as part of the Crime Watch 9mm series... and yeah it is exciting, take a gander at the other interviewees when you go read mine! :)

There was something else... umm... no, that's right. Best sit on this one for a little bit longer. Forget I said anything.

For those who are interested: this afternoon I spent a good deal of time listening to Lorenza Ponce's Soul Shifter album.
I love it. What I love even more is that Ellie loves it too... so writing time is accompanied by a lot of Lorenza these days. It's awesome!


Have a good rest of your Wednesday.

:)

An interrogation, whoops, I mean interview with EJ Knapp

 Stealing The Marbles 

Today I am torturing or interviewing? – crikey I always get those confused,  a writer who I admire greatly and whose novel Stealing the Marbles comes out on 9/1. (That’s 1/9 for those of us that say the date the correct way around, day/month/year.)

Please welcome EJ Knapp to “I see you”… for your safety EJ there is one rule. Please use the hand rails provided. (I’ve never lost anyone and would hate for you to be the first person to fall off the bottom of the world.)

Everyone comfy? Good… let the games begin!

 Cat: What’s your favorite type of takeaway?
EJ: Well, if I understand your meaning, pizza.
 Cat: Describe your current mental status.
EJ: Stressed but happy as hell.
 Cat: How much of you is in your main character?
EJ: Not much, actually, which is odd.  Most everyone in STM is a riff on someone I know.  Danny is based on a friend who died long ago.  He was a thief of sorts.
Cat: Do you have a favorite coffee?
EJ: Peet’s.  Is anything else really coffee?
 Cat: Where did the concept for your book come from?
EJ: A conversation with a friend the last time I was in Greece.

 Cat: Walk us through a typical day. (Do you make sure you’re wearing your lucky underpants before you sit down to write, or perhaps you prefer commando? While we’re discussing your underpants, budgie smugglers or boxers…inquiring minds want to know. (Okay so it was Dionne who wanted to know.)

EJ: Sorry, but I am underpantsless.  Don’t wear them, haven’t for many years.  I write when I write.  I’m not one of those who make a job out of writing.  I’ve had jobs.  They suck.  Not that I think that doesn’t work, I’m sure it does, and good stories come from it as well.  It’s just not me.
Cat: Do you ever see yourself writing a vampire story? (Team Edward or Team Jacob… or are you more likely to join me by stuffing your head into a gas oven than ever going to the Edward or Jacob place? – Thanks for that one Ericg.)
EJ: Well, I do have an idea for a Southern Gothic story that includes Vampires, Zombies and Werewolves.  Sort of a William Faulkner meets Steven King kind of thing.  Even have a title for the series, if it ever comes to that: Black Pukey Swamp.   Team Edward?  Jacob?  Who the hell are they?
Cat: Who would you turn gay for, or alternately who would you turn straight for?
EJ: I am at a stage in life where I am asexual so that question really doesn’t apply to me.

Cat: Who are your favorite writers?
EJ: Kurt Vonnegut above all others.  As for thrillers, Lee Child.  Barry Eisler, Michael Connelly, Elmore Leonard, Robert Crais.  I hear that Karen Dionne is pretty hot.  And this new writer out of New Zealand of all places, Cat Connor.
Cat: Who inspires you to do better?
EJ: Me.  I am always looking to improve my writing.
Cat: Do you ever put pants on your dog?
EJ: No.  I think that would piss them off.
Cat: Describe your ultimate day?
EJ: A day when I write all day.

Cat: Who is your favorite fictitious villain? Or are you all about the hero? Who do you love to hate?
EJ: Hannibal Lecter has always been on of my favorites.  Sorry to say, not because of the book.  Anthony Hopkins did such a good job that it’s hard to see him in any other light.  I have a character, Devlon Marks, who scares me sometimes.
Cat: Are you planning a sequel, or is your latest novel a stand alone with no plans to continue the characters.
EJ: Danny’s story is his alone.  Though they haunt me, I think I shall let them be.  I don’t think Danny and company will be back.
 Cat: Do you have any quirks?
EJ: Quirks?  Me?  I talk to myself a lot.  Is that a quirk?
 Cat: All time favorite movie and why.
EJ: Die Hard. Independence Day.  Dave.  Pleasantville.  All perfect movies.
Cat: What’s your preferred medium when it comes to writing – pen and paper, computer, typewriter.
EJ: Computer.  It has a delete key.
Cat: How did you enjoy the editing process?
EJ: Loved it.  Learned more in that process than I did in years of writing.  My editor, Jayne Southern, is the best.  She made STM shine.

Cat: If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be and why?
EJ: Greece.  Kefalonia if I could.  San Francisco would be a close second place.  Kefalonia, well you would have to be there to see how beautiful it is.  San Francisco, well, San Francisco just is.
Cat: What is one thing you know about New Zealand?  (Do not mention LOTR. I hates it… I hates it my precious.)
EJ: It’s funny you should mention that as I’ve always wanted to visit NZ.  Not sure what LOTR has to do with it. 
 Cat: Name that one gift (that you truly dislike) that you cannot get rid of because you are obliged to keep.
EJ: Can’t say I have anything like that.
Cat: What’s the worst book you have ever read?
EJ: Wow, there have certainly been a few of them.  Nowadays, I don’t go there.  If it’s bad, it gets flying lessons.  I don’t have time for bad anymore.  There was one, however, more than a few years back.  The 11th Plague or something like that.  It was so bad I can’t even remember the title.  Oh, and there was another one, even got big blurbs from authors I like.  Damn, it was bad.

Cat: Name a book you wish you had written.
EJ: Most anything by Kurt Vonnegut.  Killing Floor by Lee Child.  Neon Rain by James Lee Burke.
Cat: How many novels have you written, both published and unpublished?
EJ: One before STM, buried now, where it belongs.  It was my learning novel.  It went through 7 incarnations and took me 15 years to learn it was never going to go where I wanted it to go.  Man, that story is a mess.
Cat: What were you before you became a writer?
EJ: When do you want to start?  I’ve been a paper boy, a bagger in a grocery store, a roofer, a forestry ranger trainee, an auto mechanic, a factory worker, a long haul trucker, a professional college student, a peer counselor in a street clinic, a drug dealer, an ice cream truck driver, an audio/visual technician, a professional photographer and the IT manager for a San Francisco law firm.  Now I’m just retired and a full time writer.
Cat: What can we expect from you next?
EJ: Meter Maids Eat Their Young.  I hope.  After that, it’s a toss up.

Cat: Do you carry a notebook or keep one by the bed for those sudden brilliant ideas?
EJ: No, I think it was Stephen King who said that good ideas stay with you, the bad ones slip away.  If I come up with an idea I like, it stays with me, haunts me until I write something down.
Cat: What is the most random thing you have ever written with and on?
EJ: The back of a receipt, which I promptly lost.
Cat: If you’re not writing, what are you most likely to be doing?
EJ: Walking in the woods with my dogs.  The woods here in Florida aren’t the same as those in California, nor are the dogs, for that matter but it calms me down nevertheless.

Thanks for coming by EJ and for being such a good sport, especially about the underpants! And thank you much for not mentioning LOTR – I hates it, nasty movie full of horrible hobbitses. As for coffee my lovely... let's not start that debate. :) 

You know what would be awesome? If y’all popped through the Amazon link and purchased a copy of STM. This truly is a book worth reading. This I know- because I have and I loved every second. (might even be a  little something along those lines on the back cover written by me...)

Stealing The Marbles will be available in paperback and e Format from almost everywhere. 

Check Rebel E Publishers website for purchase links.

EJ's blog. 

EJ's twitter

Enjoy!!

Review

Here is a link to the latest (and possibly greatest) review of KILLERBYTE.

Review

And here it is again - on a different site.


It's very early on a Tuesday morning and I am still drinking my first coffee.
I have nothing to add.


Enjoy.

Well that was the weekend.

Happy Monday!
It's sunny and very spring like here in the valley this morning.

I have a few things I need to do today.

The first being come up with a standard set of interview questions - enough so I can mix them up and add variety, but still standard so it doesn't break my brain when I am putting together an interview for some specially chosen author.
(Yes, EJ that means you.)

Then I am going to do a few hours editing. (Still trying to work slowly... I suck at slow.)
At some stage today I'd like to do some writing. Depends how interrupted I get this evening though. There is also the joy of housework that waits for me. (Might manage that nice and early, then it's over with.)

I've managed so far this morning to send synopses for both KILLERBYTE and TERRORBYTE to someone who requested them this morning (and that's all I'm saying - those who are closest to me know what this is about, and that's how it's staying for now), and proof read hubby's resume and cover letter - which was dead-easy cos he's awesome at such things. And the kids are at school/kindy.
Life is good!

So, what are your Monday plans? In all honesty, I don't care if it's still Sunday for you. I just don't. It's Monday here and I refuse to live in the past. :)

Go slow?

I got the first lot of edits back from my nobtastic editor on Sunday. She said not to hurry as she's got a lot on at the moment. She knows me well, she knows how fast I write and how quickly I can turn in edits.
It's not because I have to, it's because that's how I do it. I can't help it. I really love the editing phase. LOVE it.

Knowing she wanted me to take my time... I didn't even read through the manuscript until Monday. But by Tuesday night I'd made the first pass and accepted all the commas, alternate words, etc etc and was already thinking about the comments and things were popping into my head.

"Resist. I must resist." became my mantra.

On Wednesday morning I wrote for a few hours. I'm almost at the end of the first draft of book 4. (bit of a misnomer really... there is no actual first draft. It's not like I write draft one then re-write the entire thing and call it draft number two. The first draft will eventually be the final draft. Once I reach the end on the first draft, that is The End. Everything is then built on top of this version. Sometimes the only thing that remains unchanged is the end.
As I said I wrote - I'm close to the end of one very sticky and truly tricky thread so it was good, I had to concentrate. But once I picked Breezy up from Kindy I was done writing for the day....

Edits and ideas spun in my head. Reality set it, resistance is futile.

So last night I started addressing the comments... I was sure I would just do the first four. Just to satisfy myself that I was doing something and to shut up the voice in my head.

Yeah right.

Let me just say at this point, there aren't that many comments that need addressing. I'm going to have to sit on my hands for a few days to stop myself finishing this before the weekend.  :)

I'm having too much fun by far.

exciting new stuff

Yes, there is exciting new stuff coming...
Just not yet.

I was toying with the idea of sharing the new author pic early, but I'm not gonna! That's right. You'll have to wait until next week... for a shiny new review, a pretty cool picture, and some groovy freebies. :)

As you were.

(I needed to check if the RSS feed to my Amazon author page is working...)


So back to working on the fourth book... and tomorrow I begin the edits for EXACERBYTE.  I can't wait. I love, love, love this part of the writing.

I can do this.

I can.

It's not that hard.

I've been telling myself that all morning.

But just sometimes the nagging doubt creeps back in... what if I can't? What if nothing else measures up?
What if, killerbyte is an anomaly?
Which would be more an issue if terrorbyte wasn't already out there.... but still, it kinda feels like the red-headed step child when sat next to killerbyte. (and really it shouldn't, in my opinion it's better, it's my favorite.)
So after a day of sheer panic and being totally overwhelmed by a review (that you'll all get to see next week) I thrust the two and a half pages at five people I knew would know how to help me process it and the doubt that followed it. Yesterday was also the day I started reading the editorial comments on the manuscript for book 3. (Something I've been looking forward to for weeks... I love the editing phase... this is where it all starts to shine like a new pin.)

Luckily for me...
I'm blessed with very good friends who gave me some excellent advice... so today I wrote as I always have.

:)

Not such a Black Friday.

I'm quite fond of Black Friday's. In the past they've provided much amusement. So I didn't expect anything less of today.

It's been mostly good with pockets of hilarious.

But you get that around here.

I spent all morning writing and not being that thrilled with the direction my MC has taken. I don't know what it is about the last few chapters but I do know I HAVE to write it this way. It needs to run it's course then Ellie will be back on track. Could be that so much has happened in her life that she needs to get all her ducks in a row, and now is when it needs to happen. So, I'm going with it until it resolves. (Or does my head in!) Found something surprising happened in the chapter I wrote this morning. So this may affect things further down the line. Might be some re-writing of already written future books to accommodate this interesting twist. Or, it will swing back by itself and just be a background thing in the future... which will mean much less re-writing.
And none of you are any the wiser, but that's okay. :)

Tomorrow - is a day off.

That's right. No writing, however much it will kill me... unless maybe I can squeeze in a few minutes before guests arrive for dinner. Most of the day will be cleaning, cooking, suit and shoe shopping with hubby...

Have an overwhelming desire to grow indoor plants. I used to. My house used to be very tropical jungle like. It seems like it should be again.

So, add to tomorrow's list... Spider plants and pretty pots. :) (and whatever else I find that I feel like growing)

Enjoy the rest of your black Friday.

PS. We still miss ya.



And then earlier this week: Upper Hutt Leader ran this.

And it's been pretty awesome since!


xx

Let me tell ya a little story about a man named Jed...

Nah, you've heard it before.

Moving right along.

So far this week has sucked monumentally. Hubby's job will no longer exist by Nov and the usual drama that loss of that magnitude exudes. Which has lead to one helluva headache and lack of sleep. BUT - it's not the end of the world. (For we all know a movie deal could scream around the corner and slap me with a large cheque. I know - two words sprung to my mind too... Yeah right!)

Then today came a long and a story about me appeared in the local paper. Half a page on page 3 complete with photo and a small photo on the front page leading to the story.
It's pretty freaking awesome.

Rosemary McLennan did a fabulous job of the story. (pausing to wave at Rosemary because Google search will throw this up, and I know its a bit freaky when that happens! Thank you Rosemary, you are wonderful!!)

Tomorrow I will plod up town and see if I can get a few extra copies for folks down south and the boy in London and my lovely publisher in South Africa - yes, Joanie it will come with Pineapple Lumps.

This weekend we will celebrate the joy with a BIG dinner and lots of wine, because quite frankly we've all had a shit of a week and need to unwind.

You all know what to do, right? Buy my books... tell your friends and family to buy my books... tell your neighbor to buy my books. Hell, tell everyone you meet on the street to buy my books. You won't be sorry. They are very very good. :)
It's not just me that thinks so - let me introduce you to my reviews: KILLERBYTE  TERRORBYTE

And don't forget to check out the Amazon and Mobipocket reviews too.

Of you go now... make me proud.

So you want to write a book?

Howdy you lot,

I love when people ask me what I do. When I say I write suspense/thrillers they usually pause for a long breath. That's if I manage to say it before Breezy does. She likes to tell people first.
She does it like this, "My mum is Cat Connor she writes books. BUY them."
How anyone can resist is beyond me.
It's most often followed by, "MY friend Lorenza Ponce has a new CD out. Have you bought it?" - that's my kid. I'm seeing publicist in her future!

But the point of this wasn't that. The point is... as soon as the words "I write." leave ones mouth one of the following responses is returned.

1. "I could never do that."
- I usually smile and steer the conversation to something they're interested in. :)

2. "I've always wanted to write a book."
- Is trickier. Lot's of people WANT to write but for whatever reason lack the follow through. (Commitment issues?) I'm always torn between encouraging them, and having them turn into a 3 or muttering about how I'm sure they will write when the time is right.

3. "I've written a book, would you read it?"
-You've written a book, that's awesome! If I know you really well, and if I think you are willing to hear an honest opinion, I might consider reading it. It's a big ol' might. If I think you are serious about writing, I will suggest you join Backspace.

4. "I've got this really great idea, will you write it?"
- No. It's that simple. I don't need any input when it comes to my story ideas. What I need is less ideas or faster fingers. :)

5. "I've written a book and am self-publishing."
- Awesome that you've written a book. But I will ask the hard questions regarding self-publishing. Like have you got a REALLY FREAKING good editor? Have you done your homework thoroughly? Do you know exactly what you are getting into? Is this the best option? These days you can self pub via kindle and it costs you nothing. Fabulous! BUT, whatever you put out there in the world represents you. That's right. It does. And it's there for all to see. My advice to anyone considering self publishing (and I know some excellent authors who have self published.) is get a top-notch editor. The worst thing you can do, is publish something - because you can. The product reflects you. And of course then there is the marketing side of things... books don't sell themselves. You think writing is hard? Try selling. :D
I will also suggest very strongly that you join Backspace before self publishing. 

:)

A little input from Breezy.

Breezy and Soul Shifter

Breezy holding terrorbyte

  

Announcing the subtle blog changes and other joy!!

Good morning!

I was so subtle with my changes y'all may not have noticed them, [hearing Bowie music in my head now] - instead of having the one blog page... with rainbow links visible to all etc. I have added pages. I wanted to do it AGES ago but couldn't figure out how. The main problem I now have is... I wanted the pages to have less clutter down the sides etc, but cannot for the life of me get back to the place that changes that! (Stuff on main page is fine, just wanted to limit clutter on other pages!)
If anyone knows how, please enlighten me.

So - now we have a page for each published book, a page of short stories (plus amazon and website links - but I think they should be back on main page... lol), Facebook etc on a page, and music. Now - currently that page is a groovy widget for Lorenza Ponce, who we adore. Yes we do. And Miss Breezy likes to sing Lorenza's songs while we're waiting at various places... bus stops, train stations, in the middle of the street. Yesterday she entertained the bus stop with 'Testify'. :)
Sooner or later (okay probably later) I will add other music.
(For now, if you want to find out what music I truly love you can check out my Amazon store, music page.)

For those of you desperate to read KILLERBYTE and TERRORBYTE on kindle - let me help!
And also for those who would like to know and who often ask me... killerbyte is the first book in the Conway series. Terrorbyte is the second. The third will be out late this year - Gods and Goddess willing.

   Weird how one link dropped in lower than the other and back to front!
  
I now know how many eBooks I need to sell to recoup the cost of rebuilding my broken tooth at the dentist yesterday. It's quite  few, so I'd really appreciate a few sales. :)

If you'd prefer paperback - the links are on your right to Amazon. lol






Or if iTunes is your thing! iTunes-KB  Today I can't locate TERRORBYTE on iTunes which makes no sense, cos it's most definitely there!
If Mobipocket is your thing... KILLERBYTE  TERRORBYTE ...

Make me proud... and I shall reward you with a fabulous new thriller later this year. :)

Now, back to work I go on the 4th Conway thriller.