kate rothwell

1. Habit, habit, habit. Pick a place, a chair, a desk where you only work. Start the work day the same way every time. Maybe play the same piece of music, a theme song for your book. Don't do anything else in that chair, ever. Not even check email or pay bills. Except sometimes that habit thing doesn't work. So then . . . . 2. Make up a Change of Habit kit (easy. Take these ideas and a bunch of others, put them on notecards. Then you can pick one at random) Remember to include a timer with an alarm in your kit. You'll need it or you might end up having too much fun and missing the whole day. 3. Take a walk or run or swim. Do not bring your MP3 player. Think about your book as you go. 4. Do ten minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise. Yo, do a version of this every few hours even if the muse is on your side. 5. Take a bath/shower. Instead of singing, talk aloud about one of your troublesome characters. Or talk to them if you can manage that. (I can't) 6. Rewrite that last...

I just finished another begging letter and am blithely sending it off to a potential donor. No hesitation. So why is it so easy for me to ask for these romance unleashed prizes and yet so hard to push for my books and my friends' books? It really isn't a matter of rejection. I don't actually mind rejection much and, no, this is not a lie because otherwise I would have given up this job years ago. (Rejection's okay; it's utter silence I loathe.) I guess I'm trying to avoid the image that I'm pushy for personal gain. And that whole clique thing of supporting fellow authors. It sometimes is an iffy thing to do. It helps that I'm unambiguous about raising money for this cause. I've met kids with cystic fibrosis (and one of us Unleashed authors has two kids with it). CF is a stupid, horrible condition. Grrr. Go away, CF. Research through CFF isn't just looking for a cure, which would be good enough to win my work, it also has helped make quality of ...

Amanda from Renaissance Learning sent me an email to say sure, they'll donate a machine. That means that someone who takes part in our fund raiser will win an Alphasmart Neo . Yay! Seriously, every writer should have one of those puppies. They are amazing because they're lightweight, easy to use and virtually indestructible. I keep mine under the car seat and pull it out when I have to wait for kids, which is often. The kids use it, they've dropped it (okay, yes, I have dropped it too) and it keeps on working. I stepped on it once. Didn't seem to bother it at all. I love Alphasmarts and not just because Amanda wrote a nice letter. Amazon said no to donating a Kindle, the poo-dads. I hate their stinky Kindles. . . . No, I don't--I love 'em. It's just Amazon I currently hate.

At some point I said I wasn't crazy about Pamela Clare's books. Turns out that it must have been some other Pamela or Clare. The books (and I immediately got another one) are fine . Nothing flashy or breathtakingly original, yet exactly what the doctor ordered just now. Strong voice, fun take on a news room, snappy dialog. I don't like suspense thriller bushwas but I keep ending caught in them. Linda Winfree's up soon, too. I want the kids and the sharks on Mythbusters to go away so I can read again.

and I reprint it. Dear Fellow Bloggers-- I'm part of a group of authors who have planned an event we're calling: Unleash Your Story: Make a Difference. This fun event will bring writers and readers together to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF)—the leading organization in the United States devoted to cystic fibrosis. Our goal is to harness the combined energy of writers and readers to raise $10,000 in the month of September 2008. Cystic Fibrosis is the most common fatal genetic disease in the U.S. Thirty years ago life expectancy for a child born with CF was only five, but through the efforts of the CFF and others, life expectancy and quality of life has increased dramatically. We hope through our fund-raiser to help the CFF continue these efforts and to someday soon find a cure! Writers or readers can form teams or work individually to set a writing or reading goal for the month. Fans, friends and family donate to CFF in support of the participant' s go...

The Truman show syndrome might be the ultimate expression of the ego but that doesn't mean it's a lot of fun. Since this tiny spot on the interwebs is actually all about me me memememememememme.... . About twenty years ago, waking up from general anesthesia, I had that delusion. Those visions coming out from the ether are so much stronger than dreams...are they called hallucinations? Anyway, for however long it took to come all the way to the surface, it was my reality. Seconds, years---didn't matter because it was entirely real, and time doesn't adjust that kind of perception. I walked through a series of doors and, as I went through each, I knew I was watched by millions of people and, I think, other beings. It was one of the most terrifying moment of my life--so frightening, I had trouble sleeping for weeks afterwards because I was afraid I'd land back in a universe where I actually had far too much power and influence. My existence fit something too big. I can...

Not the Papal kind. I'm talking brides gussying up their bridal parties: Botox for bridesmaids. Feh, says Kate the Curmudgeon, the end of this kind of trend is the second best silver lining of the current financial crisis. First best: Accident rates go way down during gas crunches. and then second: Expensive optional cosmetic surgery might go away and beauty standards will allow women over 35 to raise their eyebrows again. People I trust not to be goobers get botox treatments and that's usually the gateway for acceptance. If she does it, can't be all bad. WWMFD [mf=my friend) works for me. But this friend standard isn't changing my mind on botox. In fact, not for most appearance-alterations that involve painful Procedures. It's too much like those National Geographic articles about women putting plates in a hole in their lower lip. Just bizarre. picture borrowed from here. Tattoos? Pierced ears? Eh, yeah, okay, WWMFD eventually worked on me and I don't cast ...