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 |  A place to talk about myself, my writing, and any upcoming projects. |
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Hello! I'm not really sure who is ever going to read this because I don't actually know anyone on this site and I highly doubt this is the sort of thing anyone would be interested in reading anyway. I'm writing it for two reasons. The first is for myself, so I have a place to sort of keep track of my progress on various projects and everything. The second reason is because I just got my upgraded membership today, and I want to try and make the most of it, which means finally getting around to using all of the features. On the off-chance that someone is actually reading this though, I'm going to do a little introduction here where I talk about myself and my writing and the sorts of things you can expect to read if you check this out. My name is Cat Voleur, I'm currently 21 years old, and I'm a professional writer. I got my first writing job a few months before I graduated high school. After that I spent about a month taking writing commissions while I looked for steadier work, and I was eventually employed as a ghost writer, where I spent about 3 years. I've quit ghost-writing very recently (and am consequently broke) to pursue my own dreams and perhaps establish a small following. I really enjoyed ghost writing because it gave me the freedom to travel and sort of choose my own schedule, but now I'm looking for something that I can take credit for. It's pretty sad to have steady writing work for 3+ years and wake up one day and realize all of the pieces in your portfolio are things you wrote as an angst-filled teenager. I'm going to take some time, edit some of my old pieces, write some new things, and try to see if anyone is interested in reading the things that I write under my own name. My commission and portfolio sites are, as of this moment, down for some maintenance work, but hopefully I'll be getting it back up soon with links to some of my work on this site. I also have a couple theme blogs run through tumblr and am currently the head writer of Toxic Bubblegum which is a zine published monthly put out by myself and my very talented friend, Alan Johnson. As for what I'd like to do in the future - I guess it just depends on what sort of opportunities I run into. I'm a big believer in just seizing the moment and going with the flow. The one thing I am sure of is that I'd like a career in writing. I sort of lucked into my first job, but now that I have a taste of being a writer I can't imagine being anything else. Ideally I would like to eventually have something published under my own name and become an author, but I'm willing to see where life takes me. I prefer writing in the horror genre, because that's where my real passion is. I look up to a lot of horror writers and if I could do anything, that would be it. I have the most experience writing in romance because that, unfortunately, is where the money is and that's what a lot of my paying gigs have been up to this point. I've been told that my strength is in fantasy. I don't know if that's true or not, but it's what most people tell me. I first got my account here a few years ago, around the time I started writing professionally, and I haven't done a lot since then other than upload a piece here and there. That's something I'm going to try really hard to get better about. I'd like to upload more stuff, get more active in the community, maybe see about meeting some fellow writers. Today is a very exciting day for me because I just purchased my upgraded membership. It was on sale or I might not have done it because I am, as I previously stated, broke. I've really wanted a membership here for awhile and I'm so glad that I finally did it because so far it really has been motivating me to get some stuff done. The first thing I plan on doing is uploading the most recent draft of Silence of the Lamps, which was the first thing I ever put up on the site, and it's undergone a lot of editing since then. After that I'm going to work on getting some more rough drafts up on here, and then maybe attempt to socialize, which is hard for me because even online I get really nervous reaching out to people. Anyway, if anyone read this, I'm sorry I babbled so long and thank you for your interest! Feel free to message me at any time if you want to chat or would like to have me read something or collaborate or anything. I don't bite, I promise. -Cat |
| Just dropping in to let you guys know that I am officially done answering my messages from the GoT event. My inbox is empty, my reviews are all responded to, and I am finished. I am now off to review... I have 4 things picked out out of 15, and then I have a bit more blogging to do. Responding to all those reviews got me thinking about a couple of upcoming projects that I could use some feedback on whether or not to work on and how to go about them. Anyway, thanks for reading, and again, if you want anything reviewed, now would be the time to tell me. Thanks! |
| Hey Guys, Writing.Com keeps sending me emails reminding me to update my blog...which is good because I've sort of fallen out of the habit. The only thing is that I feel like I don't really have anything exciting going on in my writing life at the moment, so there's not a ton to blog about. I've missed a lot of submission deadlines lately. I'm getting the writing done for them, but the editing is another thing entirely. Normally by the time I have it in a presentable format it's the last day for submission, and I don't really feel like I've had the time to comb over the piece and polish it up to the standard I try to attain on my submission entries. It's been frustrating, to say the least. I got some really good feedback about how I should handle my Silence of the Lamps problem, so with any luck I'll get to editing that soon. It won't exactly be a quick fix though, and to be honest it's probably shouldn't be a priority. Still, it's nice to know that I sort of have a plan on what to do when I get around to doing it. I do actually have some writing goals and site goals, but they're mostly kind of vague. I'd like to get back into the swing of actually making submission deadlines again so that I can feel like a more productive writer in a general sense. I'd like to get into some more activities on here and perhaps the biggest thing is that I'd like to flesh out my portfolio. One day soon hopefully I'll find the time to outline those things a little more and make a plan to start achieving them - which is probably something I'll rant about on here in the future. In the meantime I do have two main site things I want to get done. The first is that I'd like to finally finish responding to my backlog of emails (I'm down to the final 50!) and the second is that I'd like to get some reviews done - which is where you guys of course come in. I got one very formal review request after my last blog, but I'm still looking for any items that anyone would like looked over. I need to review at least 15 this next week for my PDG group, and I'd like to get in some for Simply Positive as well. If you guys have anything at all that you're looking for feedback for, please, please let me know. You can submit a formal request through my review page or, even easier, you can just email me. I'll do overall reviews, answer specific questions, really anything you need looked at. I can get reviews from the request thread or the forums, but I do prefer answering requests if and when there are any - so by all means let me know. In the meantime, I will be getting through those last 50 emails! So if you've been waiting for a response from me since early July....keep tuned. I'm going to do my best to finish tackling them today. |
| Hey guys! I am going to try to get through some more of my email today.... it has really piled up on me and I'm getting through the older ones dead slow. I will get to all of them eventually though, I promise! I got just a little bit of writing today. Am still experiencing some lack of focus. I got my submission binder reorganized, which I'm hoping will help a little. I normally follow my inspiration pretty closely, but since that seems to be getting me nowhere at the moment I'm going to try just going from the list of what is due first and tackling one thing at a time - then try picking out some new portfolio pieces. Not a perfect system I'm sure, but I figure it's worth a shot. I'm also going to be doing some review soon here in a couple of days. I haven't really done any reviewing since the Game of Thrones event ended, but I need to get at least 15 done for the Paper Doll Gang (I'd hate to skip a month.) So as always, if any of you guys have anything you'd like reviewed, let me know and I'll give it a read! In the meantime, I'll be trying to write and answering a few messages. Thanks for reading. -Cat ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| Hey guys. Since the Game of Thrones event I've been taking it sort of easy and just playing around with some stuff, but it's been a couple weeks and I feel kind of stuck. I don't know what projects to work on or how my time would best be spent. Putting up new stuff, working on old stuff, maybe doing something else entirely? No matter what I do lately I feel like there's something more productive that deserves my attention instead. One thing that I've been thinking about is going back to revise Silence of the Lamps. I'm sure you guys are all sick to death of hearing about how much attention that piece gets....but I got a couple more reviews for it during the event for the review bashes, and it got me thinking - so as I always do when I'm sorting stuff out - I am going to rant about it a bit here. The one complaint that I get about the piece consistently is the introduction/exposition. The story about how Jane and John met and fall in love is too slow for most people - and this (sort of) includes myself. I've known since I wrote it that it would be the weak point of the story,Way back when I first wrote that part I thought that the story was going to be a lot longer, and for structural reasons I needed to have it in there, to foreshadow about the marital issues, Jane's insecurities, and sew distrust between the two protagonists. As I decided to make the piece shorter it became more of a character piece - and it was at that point I started feeling like it was coming along more naturally, when I decided to focus more on Jane, what she's going through, how it changes her, and how she's grown as a person. I then made the rather unpopular decision to keep to the love story in the beginning - and up until now I have defended that decision. The more people suggest I take that section out the more I wonder if I should in fact be defending it. So far my argument for the section has been the following: As a character piece, the romance was a vital part, not because of how it tied in or what it added to the story (and I do think it adds something to the story, just maybe not enough to support how long it is) but because of how Jane feels about that part of her life. It's been on her mind, it's a secret she's been keeping from everyone, it bothers her, and the whole point of this piece is closure - not just on what happened in the hotel and the loss of her husband, but also for the insecurities she never had the time to address with him. This has been her first opportunity to tell her story and she believes from the bottom of her heart that telling her story will be the last thing she ever does. As a person in mourning, she'd want to make it more of a love story - she'd subconsciously want that to be the focus. Writing fiction in the first person is really hard for me. I've been dabbling in it a lot (especially lately) but it can be very trying. It took me years to hone the skill of knowing what information to include in my stories because only about 10% of the development for the situation ever gets put in there. I know so much about the lives of my characters and the world that they're set in, and it's hard to show that to the audience and hint at it rather than explaining it in the detail I had to explain it to myself first. When I write from the point of view of one of my characters I feel like it's important to write it like they would write it if they were real - and they are in fact very real to me. The issue with that is I sometimes know better than my characters what to include and what not to include - which can make it tricky and can turn entire pieces into relevancy gray areas. Do I make the best story I can - regardless of how my narrator would tell it? Do I live with the job of constantly knowing that my story is imperfect to stay more true to my narrator? Is there a balance in there somewhere that I just haven't found yet? How do I find that balance? The one thing that has kept me true to this particular draft of the story is that I finally feel like this is the way Jane would want it. I think it's perfect in terms of capturing the tone and thought patterns I wanted my audience to see in her. As a character piece, I think I nailed it....but maybe I should stop looking at it as a character piece and start trying to polish it into a legitimate story. I've always given writers the advice that their opinion matters most, and that they're main concern should be with telling the story they want to tell. I try to follow that advice myself so as not to be a hypocrite, and that's why it's taken me so long to address this issue. What I wanted was a character piece told in the voice of my character. A conflicting piece of advice that I give out however, is that there is often truth in numbers. I've talked more than once on here about overcoming criticisms and taking opinions with a grain of salt, but one thing that I have learned is that if a wide variety of people tell you the same thing, it's probably something worth listening to. I think I'm at a point now where that's something to consider applying to this story. For the record, I think I'm right about the romance section adding to the idea that this is a character piece. What I think I'm wrong about however is this being a character piece. If I cut that out and changed a couple things, maybe it would be a proper short story. That's not what I wanted when I wrote it, but maybe it would be better. So anyway, I don't know what to do with the thing from here. I could leave it as a successful character piece and walk away, or I could try to make it a better short story. Alternatively I could take the story back to it's roots...flesh it out and make it more of a book. It's already 12k words (more or less) and it's not like I covered everything I wanted to address. I could talk more about the history of the hotel, add the rest of my cast back in, delve properly into the things living on the ghost floor...those were the concepts that sparked the idea anyway and they're glossed over because I wanted this to be about characters. I don't know. I just really don't know. I feel stuck with this one and I don't know what the best way to get unstuck is. Sometimes just writing about stuff helps me work it out, so maybe just by doing this I've started to figure it out. Maybe I'll have an answer when I wake up tomorrow. In the meantime if any of you have suggestions, ideas, opinions or anything really, feel free to let me know. A push in the right direction or a sign I'm not overthinking this would make a world of difference to me right now. I want to get better and to learn from the feedback I receive - that's why I'm on the site in the first place. I'm just really afraid that I'll mess this up. For some reason people really seem to respond to this story and I'd hate to ruin it now. I've worked really hard just to get this teeny, tiny collection of readers and it would be shattering if people lost faith in me this far in by tampering too much with the one thing people really like. Anyway, that's it for me. I'm going to work on some new things for a bit (or try to) before I go to bed. Thanks for reading, skimming, and for any feedback. It's always appreciated. You guys are always appreciated. -Cat |
| Hello everyone! I am back! (Sort of.) The Game of Thrones event has concluded. I'm both sad and relieved - and hoping that I will be invited back to compete with House Stark again next year. To be honest, I didn't do as well as I would have liked. Between being sick and being misdiagnosed and having family come stay and needing to work.... I feel like I barely did anything to help my House. In any case, the chaos is over and I'm more or less back to a regular schedule. I'm still not feeling great but it's better than it was and hopefully I'll be able to get back to my normal writing amounts. I've got some anthologies and stuff I'd like to submit to this month, so I'm going to try and get my zine stuff done early and then focus on that. I found two places to submit short stories that I think would be perfect for me and one of them accepts multiple submissions....so I think it's going to be a busy month  In more news that is specifically related to WdC though, I have really missed you guys. Hopefully I'll get to hear from some of you soon. In the meantime I still have about 40 reviews to respond to from the first week of that event.... I hope things have been going well for all of you, and by all means feel free to message me now that things are dying down! |
| I've been falling behind in a lot of things these last couple weeks, a lot of which has to do with the incredibly addicting yet stressful world of the Game of Thrones event (and, yeah, okay, also Pokemon Go.) I just wanted to give you guys a quick heads up about some stuff though and let you all know that I have been working on some other things. First off, I'm still seeking publication. I've been meeting submission deadlines left and right, so while I haven't exactly gotten anywhere I'm trying and I am keeping on top of it. Secondly (and this is sort of GoT related after all) I am in the process of responding to emails and reviews. My anniversary bash was on the 2nd and I'm still trying to get replies to everyone. I still have 36 left to go but if you've done a review for me, I promise promise promise I will get back to you. I seriously appreciate all the reviews I get and I will eventually write back to you if you've sent me one, so just be patient. The third bit and perhaps most exciting piece of news is about this item:
It's just recently been featured in the horror newsletter here: "Horror/Scary Newsletter (July 13, 2016)"  It's my first piece to be featured other than, you know, that one that gets attention all the time.I haven't gotten to read the other stories listed yet (and realistically won't get a chance to do so until after July) but you should check them all out and then remember not to spoil them for me, because I always look forward to the time I can sit down with a glass of wine and read the editors picks. Thank you guys so much for your patience with me as I remain inactive due to this event. I will eventually come back, I promise. I hope everyone is doing well! -Cat |
| Ugh, Okay, so I'm swamped with stuff, and I'm going to get back to it in a minute and then resume my blogging hiatus, but I just had to get some stuff off my chest. Why would you intentionally badmouth a writer to someone that you know enjoys that writer? I did a review for someone who thanked me for using Tolkien as an example over Martin, and then even though he was thanking me he went on this rant on how much he dislikes Martin and it was pretty harsh. It's like....okay. I'm not going to take it personally every time someone doesn't like Game of Thrones, because I think everyone is entitled to their opinion and there are some HUGE problems with the series....but like, why on earth would you complain about it to someone who's a fan? There are so many widely popular shows that I just hate with a passion. For instance, I hate Supernatural. My boyfriend loves it, my friends love it, my parents love it, and I think it's absolute garbage. Their attempts to put new spins on legends actually cheapen the originals for me, they've ruined some of my favorite things, I don't like the characters, I don't like the arcs, I hate that I have to hear about that show all the time. But when I complain about it, I don't find a Supernatural fan to complain to because it's rude. I come here and I vent or I vent somewhere else and let anyone who might be reading it and who likes the show that they're absolutely allowed to like it. That's a valid opinion and I won't ever think less of someone because they like the show. Hypothetically, if I requested a review from someone who liked Supernatural (and it was obvious because let's say their username has Winchester in it and they have a quote from the show on their bio and tell me they'll get to me review late because they're participating in a site wide Supernatural event) and then they compared my work to like, I don't know, Doctor Who, I wouldn't thank them in a way that puts down Supernatural because I know it's something they like - and why would I want to initiate bad fandom feelings with someone who just went out of their way to review for me? I just... I'm sure he didn't mean to make me feel bad for liking Game of Thrones, but it sort of pinched a nerve. I thought it was kind of insensitive, honestly and it's like... I didn't want to engage too much on it because it's not important. Not everyone has like the things I like, I just wish that they would be respectful of the fact I like them, you know? Anyway, that's my little courtesy rant. Back to hiatus until the end of this event. Go House Stark! |
| Hey guys! Haven't been updating much and that's not about to change any time soon. Game of Thrones is starting up soon and I'm doing my absolute best to meet all my submission deadlines early so that I have more time to fight for House Stark. (Also, I'm running late on Submission deadlines anyway.) I've got some exciting stuff going out soon, but it is pretty much eating up all my time, and July is pretty much already accounted for. If you don't see me around for awhile, that will be why. Hope things are going well for all of you and I'll talk to you sometime....most likely in August. All the best, Cat |
| Hey everybody. Just wanted to let you know I"m still alive and well, despite my inactivity. The Game of Thrones event is practically upon us, and I still have a ton of work to get done before I can even pretend to be ready. I have a contest entry to finish up, one I haven't even started yet but would like to enter, and then I've got to get my portfolio sorted out (big time.) They do special occasion reviews for extra points in the G.o.T. event and my account anniversary is on the second day... so it's going to be a lot of attention on my portfolio which is only sort of half done, plus I'll be getting a ton of reviews for items I haven't found time to edit. I also want to get a couple more SCREAMS!!! entries squeezed in if at all possible, since Murmurationis Cotidie won't be seeing any attention for the entirety of July I imagine. I have offline work to do as well. I have a few more submission deadlines to meet, site maintenance to do, I need to figure out what's going on with the zine, and this is my last week to you know, finish my portfolio site. Things are piling up and I am definitely starting to feel the pressure. I probably will not be keeping up with the Blog during July. I probably won't be keeping up with anything during July, I'll just be scrabbling to get all these events done. Anyway, just do you guys know I'm doing fine, I'm just a little busy. A lot busy, actually. |
| I finally finished my House Stark template. I also finished a lot of my other GoT themed templates, but of course I won't be needing those until after July. I had an idea, and I was wondering if anyone cared to weigh in. I'm thinking about starting a book item for all my templates. Since I can store a ton of templates in my review tool it's not like I need to store the code for them anywhere, but first of all I like backing things up (just in case) and second all I think it would be cool to have a place to display some of my template designs (plus it would make them easier to get matching art for... in those instances where I do need matching art.) Also, when people requested reviews it would be super fancy if I could be like "Request accepted. Would you like a themed review? My selection of template themes can be found here:" and then there would be a bitem link to a book with all my templates. It's not like I get a ton of review requests, but I do like being fancy and the templates (aside from custom sigs in a few cases) are basically already done (because I'm a nerd who likes coding these things.) I think it would be a lot of fun, but... I don't know. Is it dumb? |
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