Cate Dashwood's Blog

It's a classic writing problem: you're going along, minding your own business and writing the hell out of a scene that eventually finishes. You pat yourself on the back for a scene well done, but then realize in terror that you must do the impossible -keep writing and answer the dreaded question "What happens next?"It sounds like a simple question, really. At its most basic, writing a story is answering that question over and over again. But I found myself at this particular block last week.

I know what you're thinking. Here I am, blogging about writing, and now I've got you reading a post abouthow to stopwriting. Hold on now, that's not exactly what I'm talking about.I've spent the past five weeks plotting out Book #4 in the Dugan Siblings series. It's Kieran's story, and it's one I want to tell. But no matter how much I tried to follow Rachel Aaron's steps and write out characters, I just wasn't excited about where the story was going. The conflict didn't seem conflict-y[image error]

I'm a fan of the Kardashians. There, I said it. It's a not-very-guilty pleasure to watch their show and follow their antics on Snapchat. So when my amazing friend Anna gifted me with one of Kylie Jenner's lip kits, I nearly screamed.Kylie's lip kits sell out pretty much immediately, and I had given up hope of ever getting one. Thankfully Anna surprised me at dinner. None of the guys with us understood my glee but us three girls sure did! And you better believe I immediately ran to the

A long, long time ago (ok, not really THAT long ago) I used to blog about fashion. Besides writing and reading, it's one of my other passions and something I genuinely miss blogging about - though honestly I could no longer devote the time it takes to blog and write books - but I can blog about it once a week!I'm looking to update my wardrobe starting with my shoes - and I'm desperately in need of some new pumps. They need to be classic, but still sleek and fashionable - and alas, the pair

I almost called this post "The Business of Publishing a Book," but changed it. There are smarter bloggers and writers than me who have written extensively on the ins and outs of independent publishing.But there were a few lessons I learned the hard way that I kept thinking to myself,I should really warn other would-be writers about that.I always knew this writing and publishing journey I'm currently on would be a learning experience. I also knew the hardest part about the whole thing would be...

It's a new year, and that means new books. Two new ones, if my plan works out right, which means I need to get to writing something more than a blog post. I finished my third book on August 30 last year. Since then, my concentration has been editing, re-editing, proofreading, formatting and releasing three books - and that's all before marketing and promoting them once they've been released. It's an exhausting process, but one of the benefits was that it gave me a moment to breathe. Writing...

It's happening. Finally, after months (ok, years) of planning, writing, editing and crying (kidding...sort of), my first two books are being released next Tuesday (you can preorder them on Amazon now!). They're being let out into the cold, cruel world, where people could hate them and write all sorts of nasty reviews. My fiction work will be public, something I have never done before. It's a dream realized, and yet it's a very scary dream. I waffled when people would ask me when my books wou...

Writing my books was a long (eighteen months and still going) process. It was exciting, but also challenging. On those days when I couldn't write another word and I was sure I was the worst writer to walk the planet, I needed a distraction - something positive to focus on. I chose my book covers. You might be wondering why an e-book needs a good cover (though the paperback versions will have similar covers as well). Think about the last time you ordered a book for your Kindle or other