About the Author<\/b>
\nCathy Cole lives in Northern Ireland with her husband, two sons, and Dexter, a dog who thinks he’s her third son. <\/p>\n
After being diagnosed with AS (Ankylosing Spondylitis), Cathy was forced to give up work and began writing. She writes both short stories and novels. Her first short \u2013 a humorous take on giving up smoking – won a national award and was broadcast on local radio. Her next took second place in the University of Winchester “Reaching Out” competition. You’ll also find her work in the 2009 and 2010 A Writers’ Christmas\u2014anthologies published for charity. Her latest short story success was with Bridge House Publishing’s Crime After Crime anthology, released December 2012<\/p>\n
Spurred by the success of her short stories, Cathy turned to writing novels. Her debut novel Where There’s Smoke\u2014published by Fireborn Publishing\u2014was inspired by the bravery of firefighters everywhere, but especially by those who gave so much on 9-11. Cathy has drawn directly upon her family’s experience in the fire brigade in order to bring realism to her story.<\/p>\n
At the moment, Cathy is hard at work on her next novel The Hungry Ghost.<\/p>\n
What inspires you to write romance books?<\/b>
\nLove is what makes the world go round. A book isn\u2019t complete unless it has some element of romance in it \u2013 at least to me. Most of my themes are dark \u2013 revenge, jealousy, murder \u2013 adding a touch of romance stops the book from becoming too bleak.<\/p>\n
Tell us about how you write:<\/b>
\nI\u2019m a panster all the way. I have tried to plot out the story beforehand, but it never works for me. Usually, I\u2019ll have a first line in mind and a good idea of how the story will end up, but the rest is a mystery.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m inclined to jump from scene to scene as they come to me. I use Scrivener to help me keep my chapters and characters under control. It\u2019s a brilliant writing aid. I try to write every day. Sometimes I\u2019m successful, other times\u2026well, I call them \u2018Thinking Days\u2019. When the writing isn\u2019t going well, I take the chance to do research or flesh out characters.<\/p>\n
Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?<\/b>
\nOf course. Doesn\u2019t every writer? I love the way we\u2019re strangers at the beginning of the book, but by the end, we\u2019ve become good friends. I usually write out a detailed background for my main characters. Most of it is never used, but it\u2019s a good way to get to know them.<\/p>\n
What advice would you give other writers?<\/b>
\nWrite what inspires you and don\u2019t give up. Writing can be hard, it can also be lonely, but there\u2019s no feeling in the world like finally completing the first draft of a novel.<\/p>\n
How did you decide how to publish your books?<\/b>
\nIn the beginning, I wasn\u2019t that bothered about getting the book published, I was just happy to have finished it. It wasn\u2019t until a few beta readers told me how it good it was and that I should definitely try publishing it that I decided to do something about it. Being a total newbie, I started subbing to publishers, having no idea I should try and get an agent first. I had a lot of rejections and a few requests for fulls, which kept me going. When nothing came from the fulls, I shelved the book for a while. Then, last year I decided to start subbing again. I immediately got an offer from Fireborn Publishing.<\/p>\n
I've no idea why, after so many rejections, the book finally started to get offers. Maybe it was timing? I am a member of a couple of writing sites, and the writers there helped me craft and refine my query and cover letter until they were the best they could possibly be. That\u2019s the thing about most writers, they\u2019re generous with their time and advice – not many professions can say the same.<\/p>\n
What do you think about the future of book publishing?<\/b>
\nI think the demand for e-books will rise, as will the demand for shorter novels. People don\u2019t have time anymore to sit down to a huge book. That\u2019s not to say that print books will go out of fashion. A lot of people \u2013 myself included \u2013 prefer a physical book. There\u2019s just something about the feel and smell of a book that thrills me.<\/p>\n
What genres do you write?<\/b>
\nRomance, mystery, suspense<\/p>\n
What formats are your books in?<\/b>
\nBoth eBook and Print<\/p>\n
Website(s)<\/b> Your Social Media Links<\/b> Cathy Cole lives in Northern Ireland with her husband, two sons, and Dexter, a dog who thinks he’s her third son.<\/p>\n After being diagnosed with AS (Ankylosing Spondylitis), Cathy was forced to give up work and began writing. She writes both short stories and novels. Her first short \u2013 a humorous take on giving up smoking – won a national award and was broadcast on local radio. Her next took second place in the University of Winchester “Reaching Out” competition. You’ll also find her work in the 2009 and 2010 A Writers’ Christmas\u2014anthologies published for charity. Her latest short story success was with Bridge House Publishing’s Crime After Crime anthology, released December 2012<\/p>\n Spurred by the success of her short stories, Cathy turned to writing novels. Her debut novel Where There’s Smoke\u2014published by Fireborn Publishing\u2014was inspired by the bravery of firefighters everywhere, but especially by those who gave so much on 9-11. Cathy has drawn directly upon her family’s experience in the fire brigade in order to bring realism to her story.<\/p>\n At the moment, Cathy is hard at work on her next novel The Hungry Ghost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6751],"tags":[1413],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wantonreads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27138"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wantonreads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wantonreads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wantonreads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wantonreads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wantonreads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wantonreads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wantonreads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wantonreads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wantonreads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nLink To Author Page On Amazon<\/a>
\nLink to Author Page on other site<\/a><\/p>\n
\nhttps:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/author\/show\/16556248.Cathy_Cole<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CathyColeAuthor\/<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/CathyCole66<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/uk.pinterest.com\/cathyc0928\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"