Don't Drink and Fly by Cathie Devitt
Series: The Story of Bernice O'Hanlon part 1
Genres: Fiction
Brook Cottage Books is thrilled to welcome Cathie Devitt to the blog with this wonderful guest post about her creative journey. Find out also about Cathie's book 'Don't Drink and Fly.'
My creative journey
I joined a writers group about 10 years ago. The first couple of groups that I tried I didn’t stick with. One, I felt was just a social gathering with no real focus and the second seemed too pretentious for my writing style, with the focus being heavy discussions on the great works of literary kings. I Found Erskine Writers a local group who were structured and affiliated with the Scottish Association of Writers This enabled me to build a network of friends and contacts in the writing world. In my experience most creative are happy to share their experiences and knowledge to help new writers progress: bit like giving space to learner drivers on the open road. We are not in competition with each other.
Motivated by my success with short stories and plays, I set out to write a novel a few years ago. I have written since I was a child and my motivation has always been to prove to myself that I can write well and that I can build a good readership. Basically I wanted to write the type of book that I would like to read and that just wasn’t out there.
I also studied via a distance learning course in creative writing with Open College of the Arts There are loads of on-line creative writing groups too. Go Google! I also read a fair number of “How to write a novel” books. Anything to postpone actually sitting down and writing one!
As a working mother time to write was short and crammed into any spare moments I could find. I spend a lot of time driving my daughter to activities and events and used the waiting time to read or write. Travelling on public transport gave me some head room. Walking the dogs to get fresh air and exercise blew away the cobwebs on my imagination. Being observant in public places helped me to develop characters. I wrote chapter plans, I used post it stickers on my wall. I wrote in biro in notebooks. I recorded ideas into my mobile phone. I typed on my laptop until my fingers hurt. I treated myself to time away at writer’s retreats and hid away in cheap rented caravans for peace and quiet.
I buried the novel under my bed. I became sick and tired of the protagonist and her problems. I feared failure and I feared success.
I decided break the novel into a trilogy of novellas. At first I felt as though I had failed, but then I thought, “Size really doesn’t matter”. A novel isn’t automatically more enjoyable than a novella, nor a novella better than a short story, nor a short story better than a poem.
What matters, to me, is that I have honed my work to a point where I am happy to have it published to enable readers to meet and get to know my characters, understand the plot and follow the protagonist’s story over the three novellas. I have written them in a way that each can be read as a stand-alone, but by reading the three in sequence, the reader will benefit from all of the jigsaw pieces falling into place.
About my book
“Don’t Drink and Fly” is available from 31 Oct 2014 on Amazon and from all good book shops. Kindle version also available.
Bernice is a witch with many skeletons in her closet. She has an addictive personality, works as a holistic therapist, and struggles to maintain any intimate relationships. Her spells are not always as accurate as they could be, often the result of her having a few too many goblets of red wine.
When mysterious letters start appearing at her door, she begins to think about her childhood and, with the help of her long-suffering friend Maggie, tries to come to terms with her past and the family she left behind. But nothing in Bernice's life is ever simple...
Brook Cottage Books is thrilled to welcome Cathie Devitt to the blog with this wonderful guest post about her creative journey. Find out also about Cathie's book 'Don't Drink and Fly.'
I joined a writers group about 10 years ago. The first couple of groups that I tried I didn’t stick with. One, I felt was just a social gathering with no real focus and the second seemed too pretentious for my writing style, with the focus being heavy discussions on the great works of literary kings. I Found Erskine Writers a local group who were structured and affiliated with the Scottish Association of Writers This enabled me to build a network of friends and contacts in the writing world. In my experience most creative are happy to share their experiences and knowledge to help new writers progress: bit like giving space to learner drivers on the open road. We are not in competition with each other.
Motivated by my success with short stories and plays, I set out to write a novel a few years ago. I have written since I was a child and my motivation has always been to prove to myself that I can write well and that I can build a good readership. Basically I wanted to write the type of book that I would like to read and that just wasn’t out there.
I also studied via a distance learning course in creative writing with Open College of the Arts There are loads of on-line creative writing groups too. Go Google! I also read a fair number of “How to write a novel” books. Anything to postpone actually sitting down and writing one!
As a working mother time to write was short and crammed into any spare moments I could find. I spend a lot of time driving my daughter to activities and events and used the waiting time to read or write. Travelling on public transport gave me some head room. Walking the dogs to get fresh air and exercise blew away the cobwebs on my imagination. Being observant in public places helped me to develop characters. I wrote chapter plans, I used post it stickers on my wall. I wrote in biro in notebooks. I recorded ideas into my mobile phone. I typed on my laptop until my fingers hurt. I treated myself to time away at writer’s retreats and hid away in cheap rented caravans for peace and quiet.
I buried the novel under my bed. I became sick and tired of the protagonist and her problems. I feared failure and I feared success.
I decided break the novel into a trilogy of novellas. At first I felt as though I had failed, but then I thought, “Size really doesn’t matter”. A novel isn’t automatically more enjoyable than a novella, nor a novella better than a short story, nor a short story better than a poem.
What matters, to me, is that I have honed my work to a point where I am happy to have it published to enable readers to meet and get to know my characters, understand the plot and follow the protagonist’s story over the three novellas. I have written them in a way that each can be read as a stand-alone, but by reading the three in sequence, the reader will benefit from all of the jigsaw pieces falling into place.
About my book
“Don’t Drink and Fly” is available from 31 Oct 2014 on Amazon and from all good book shops. Kindle version also available.
Bernice is a witch with many skeletons in her closet. She has an addictive personality, works as a holistic therapist, and struggles to maintain any intimate relationships. Her spells are not always as accurate as they could be, often the result of her having a few too many goblets of red wine.
When mysterious letters start appearing at her door, she begins to think about her childhood and, with the help of her long-suffering friend Maggie, tries to come to terms with her past and the family she left behind. But nothing in Bernice's life is ever simple...
I love the title of the book! That's what got my fingers clicking onto the post. I'll be downloading a sample from Amazon (credit card needs a rest!)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your story, Cathie.