kate rothwell

 I need a picture for an article and rather than have the reporter haul out to my house, we agreed that I could try. Linda could try, that meant.  Which of them works as a promo shot? best-selling author! Here's my old promo shot. But it's from 2004 so that won't work. I sure looked nice then. Fewer pounds, lots more hair, more subtle wrinkles. This was professionally done. Fast forward ten years. Linda took these this morning at Barnes and Noble. Thanks, Linda! foofy hair! your favorite kindergarten teacher! forehead wrinkles!

No matter what the circumstances, everyone must have a touch of uncertainty that flashes, perhaps unconsciously, through them. Why are we bothering? What will this person want from me? What do I want from her? Will this meeting matter in the long run? Does it make a difference in the short?  There might be excitement in that initial instant, maybe interest that is sometimes even sexual. But this second of impact—less than a second, sometimes longer—is intrusion into the solitude. Chances are you'll soon be thinking of the next meeting, or the next words you’ll say, or which way to the bathroom, or what shall I eat for lunch .  BUT for a tick at that first meeting, perhaps a heartbeat in length, instinct is there and it cuts through the rules and civilization to make one a apprehensive animal.  where did this picture come from? I don't know. No wonder social fear rules some people’s lives. Sometimes that flash is looking into the abyss and realizin...

Chickens are smarter than I suspected and they have definite personalities. This is bad news for me because I really love their meat. But the more creatures I meet and get to know.....sigh. I wonder why more back-yard farmers don't end up vegetarians. I'm talking about the people who name their critters and hang out with them one on one. Big factory farms--not so much. I bet you push any creature into a large enough herd and there aren't individuals any more so they stop being real. The creatures all together turns into something that makes noise, poops and moves, a walking unharvested crop--horror novel time here because that probably includes people. (Mmm. New York lunch crowd takes on a more sinister meaning.) And what about all those words like "harvesting" and "culling"?  The military has nothing on farming for the euphemisms. Oh. My. God. Not only am I turning into a vegetarian, I'm apparently turning into one of those sorts. EEeeiiiiii...

No, I'm wrong. It's Bette Davis. Thanks for the title, Edie and Denise. The rest of you, guess the movie this vaguely echoes. Careers and roles aren't actively stolen....but still reminiscent, okay? Let us say that a few years back, Author A got a note from a fan who wrote about how much she enjoyed the author's work. There's some back and forth and the fan asks author to look at her manuscript. The author did read it and made some suggestions--quite a few as she recalls, although the manuscript was pretty freaking good and the author said so in reviews she left everywhere once the book was published. She got a chance to beta-read another of the fan's manuscript, that one needed more work. By the third manuscript, however, the fan had an editor and an agent and didn't need more feedback. She was also now Author B. That was the end, except for a congrats note here and there, liking posts on facebook--that sort of thing. They were supposed to meet up...

Sandrine tagged me. (and now I'm reading a description of her latest book -- oooo la la!) I signed up to be part of the How Do You Work blog tour. 1) What am I working on right now? Bonnie and I are working on another m/m historical and it's my turn to write a chapter. This one has scenes set in early 2oth century Paris so that'll take some research. I just searched for old photos of Parisian rooftops. Mmm. Pretty. 2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?   I asked someone what I should say about this. "Your books are better," she said. "Or, no, wait. Maybe you should say it's more character driven." "More character driven than...?" "Than whatever they're reading right now." "They're reading this blog." "Fine, then stick with 'my books are better.'" 3) Why do I write what I do? Because it's often a lot of fun and I can't think of anything better to do. 4) ...