by Brigitte Whiting
My first interview is with Cathy Ostema (Kathleen). She lives in North Carolina, enjoys hiking to waterfalls, writes sci-fi fantasy, and has written a book on healing from cancer (she didn’t/doesn’t have cancer). Her background includes social work, health coaching, and cooking classes. She is attending school for Functional Medicine and loves helping others. Writing is her passion.
Q&A
Tell us about your most recently published book: Sci-Fi Fantasy The Raven's Wolf.
Having grown up with lies and unintentional deceit,
Timeframe for writing this book: A year
How did you begin your writing journey? I started writing a comic strip about an ant family when I was 6 or 7 years old. I wrote it in secret afraid that everyone would laugh at me.
Where do you find your ideas? I keep a notebook of ideas. Most of them come to me while driving alone on long drives. When I’m stuck on a chapter, I’ll go for a drive.
How do you write? I type it all on the computer in Pages. I have notes, writing, and ideas I want to think about, and a page of important character traits.
Where do you write? Anyplace. Most of the time in my office, on the couch with the dog curled up by me, or in a coffee shop. Sometimes I sit up in bed and type because I can’t stop.
What is your favorite part of writing? Least favorite? Favorite: learning who the characters really are. Least favorites: getting stuck and when a character dies that I hadn’t planned ahead of time.
What keeps you writing? Breathing
Which do you find the hardest, the first sentence or the last? The first sentence is the hardest. I want to start at the beginning and that’s never a good place to start. I usually end up chopping off the first half of chapter one and then starting from there.
What were your 1 or 2 biggest learning experiences or surprises throughout the publishing journey? I self-published. I thought it’d be a lot easier to format it and get a cover but I ended up hiring someone from fiverr.com to format it and create the cover. I never realized all the rules on Amazon in order to have my book there. Or how hard it is to get the book in front of people, that’s really the biggest one.
What is the best advice you heard on writing? Read everything, not just your own genre. Never stifle your imagination and take notes.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors? Write because you love writing, not because you want to make a living at it. Write because it fills your heart and soul and you couldn’t exist without doing it. And never stop.
What are you working on now? I’m working on book two of the series.
How can people connect with you? I can be found on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/CathyOstemaWriter/