Kate's Blog

Playlists

I don't always write to music, mainly because I write when my daughter is napping and we live in a small apartment so I can't blast music. Also, I don't like wearing headphones. But occasionally, when I get a babysitter who takes my daughter to the playground on a beautiful day like today, I can be alone in the apartment and write with music playing. Loudly. Bliss!

So I compiled a playlist for what I'm working on now, which is a women's fiction called Upper East and I shared the first sentence with you a while back. This is a story about two women whose lives collide as they live in the same apartment building. It is also about how we deal with the reality of aging and death, as there is a woman in their apartment building who is ninety-three years old and they both help to take care of her. Anyway, I like to choose my playlists carefully but also from the heart: the songs have to resonate with the story in both tone and lyric. So here is my playlist for Upper East (and if I knew how to link to youtube videos of the actual songs I would, but I am fairly technically hopeless.)

The Best Laid Plans by James Blunt
Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Greenday
Cat's in the Cradle by Harry Chapin
The Crane Wife 3 by The Decemberists
Stewart's Coat by Rickie Lee Jones
Thinking About You by Radiohead

That's all so far. Over and over again. If anyone has any suggestions of songs they think might fit this mix...

As an aside, I played Cat's in the Cradle for my 12 year old daughter awhile back and when we got to the middle of the song, with the line, "What I'd really like, Dad is to borrow the car keys, See you later, Can I have them please?" We both stared at each with tears in our eyes. I love this song--but it makes me teary every time I hear it. Interestingly, I went to college with Harry Chapin's son. What a legacy he had to live with! If you've never heard this song, go to itunes or youtube or somewhere and listen to it. Especially if you're a parent. I guarantee you will be moved.

And I'll leave you with a line I finished with today:

Everything felt precarious, a tottering pile of china, or a tree with too-ripe fruit. Things were going to fall; they were going to bruise or break.

Labels: Harry Chapin, Upper East, writing life, writing news

posted by Kate Hewitt at Friday, March 18, 2011 2 Comments

New covers!

Seeing new covers never loses its thrill for me. As an author I have *very* little control over a cover (ie virtually none) so naturally I hold my breath when I see there's a new one. And generally, with a few exceptions, I've been very happy with my covers. Here is the latest, the UK cover for my July release, Mr and Mischief:






No, wait!! That's not a UK cover! That's my very first MANGA cover, which is super thrilling! It's a Japanese graphic book retelling of Royal Baby, Forbidden Marriage. I love it, green hair and all. But, in case you're curious, here is my new UK cover, which I also love:



Which do you prefer?

Labels: book covers, manga, mr and mischief, Royal Baby Forbidden Marriage

posted by Kate Hewitt at Monday, March 14, 2011 0 Comments

It's The Little Things

Yesterday I received a second round of revisions on my latest Presents, which is always a tiny bit disappointing because really, doesn't every writer want to hear 'It was fabulous. PERFECT.'? The first round wasn't that difficult, but to be honest I thought I'd kinda batted it out of the park. So the second round was a surprise, and they were really just tweaks, and they didn't take long, but ultimately they really made a difference. In this manuscript my heroine is innocent. Not dumb, not TSTL, but naive. And it's hard to write a naive character these days without her seeming stupid. So my editor asked me to take out some of the references to her naivete, because really? We get it. (She didn't say it quite like that, but basically that's what I needed to hear.) And after she said that, I reread the first couple of chapters and guess what? Her innocence was all over the place. Her innocent smile. Her innocent eyes. The hero berating himself for desiring such an innocent woman! Wait a minute. Could she... possible be... innocent?! Yeah, yeah. We get it. And one thing you don't want your reader doing to your book is skimming the page and going 'Enough already. I GET it. I'm not stupid [But your heroine is...]' So I deleted a lot of it. I let her innocence speak for itself without the hero remarking on it too much. And it only took me a day, and it's just tweaks, but I think it makes a difference. Anyway, I should hear back from my editor soon, and you can judge for yourself in about 9 months. Every day's a school day for this writer.

Labels: Kholodov's Innocent, musing, writing life

posted by Kate Hewitt at Thursday, March 10, 2011 3 Comments

Excitement!

So on Saturday night the first line of a new novel just fell into my head. This is a novel I've had a vague idea of for sometime, maybe a year, and it's loosely based on my very interesting apartment building. The first line is this:

People rarely moved in to Number Eighteen, East Ninety-Second Street. Being rent-controlled, PreWar and spacious, people generally only moved out in coffins.

I've been working on so many other things, and this idea has just been percolating in the back of mind for awhile, without me doing anything about it or really thinking of writing it but when that first line literally fell into my head, it opened this dam and since then I've written 17,000 words, which really is amazing for me. The story and characters were all there, in vague forms in my subconscious, but they have literally just poured out on the page, fully realized in a way I've never felt before. I *know* these people. Right away. And writing has been easy, and a joy, and exciting because the output is so amazing! 8k in one day! I've NEVER done that.

So bragging aside, I have no idea if it is as awesome as it feels it is, or if it actually stinks and really, no one cares about the made-up characters in my so-interesting apartment building! But at this point it doesn't even matter, because I love this feeling of writing easily SO much. Being contracted for 4 books a year is wonderful, a gift and privilege, but it's also hard work. Deadlines stare you grimly in the face and you just have to keep typing away even if you're sick, or tired, or stressed by life. And so now I'm just writing for the pure joy of it, and I really hope this book gets published, but in the meantime... I'll just keep letting the words flow.

Labels: news, Upper East, writing life

posted by Kate Hewitt at Tuesday, March 08, 2011 4 Comments

New Cover!

I am so excited to see the cover of my August release, the last book in the Bad Blood Collection. It's called Lone Wolfe and here is the cover and blurb:

Jacob… Master. Untamed. Protector.
After years of lying neglected, the walls of Wolfe Manor tremble as the master returns. Reputation in tatters, Jacob Wolfe licks his wounds alone. When Molly Parker takes her tentative steps across the threshold, she brings with her the light missing from his darkened soul. The lone Wolfe will never be tamed – but she knows that once he loves, he loves for life.



I think this is going to be fantastic series. Thanks to Ros and Michelle Styles for pointing me to the page on the M&B site with the covers!

Labels: book covers, Lone Wolfe, news, writing life

posted by Kate Hewitt at Thursday, March 03, 2011 6 Comments