Kate Rivet

Hi everyone!

I’ve got some great news to share with you briefly — besides the obligatory Happy 4th of July to my fellow Americans!

I literally JUST finished the edits on Living for Adventure!  It stands at about 20,200 words and has just been sent to my beta reader!  As soon as I get the critique from her and fix any errors she might find, I’ll be taking the cover photo and setting it up on Amazon!  I can’t wait to share this latest novella with you all, and I’m planning to make it a 99¢ book as a thank you for everyone who’s bought my first book and as a great introduction for those who haven’t read my works yet.

I hope you all have a great night, and if you’re celebrating the holidays as I am, that you stay safe but have a great evening!  I’m getting ready to leave for the fireworks here myself 🙂

Until next time,
Kate

Hello everyone!

I hope you’re all enjoying your summers so far!  My vacations are still not here yet, but they’re fast approaching!  First I’m heading to Canada to visit my best friend and attend her wedding, then I’m off to Reykjavík, Iceland — which also features in the novella I’m still working at, now more than ever!

Remember how I was documenting my goal of reading at least 100 books, with at least 50 being new reads?  I’m happy to announce that, as of yesterday, both goals are 100% achieved!  Not only did I read 100 books so far this year, but *85* of them were new reads, instead of just 50!  I’ve read a lot of great books so far, and plan to read a lot more!  Unfortunately, I can’t seem to do a lot of good writing and editing while reading, so I’m putting that on the back burner while I really push to get this novella finished and published before taking off towards Canada!

Are any of my readers out there going on any great trips this summer, or have you been on one already?  I’d love to hear about it!  My perpeptual case of wanderlust is really in overdrive right now, and I really wish that I could take off and explore the world like the heroine in my novella!  Besides my two trips this summer, I wish I could go visit Australia and New Zealand over the winter, but it looks like I may at least get a short vacation in around my birthday — I’m not sure where yet, but chances are good that it’s going to be a city I’ve never visited before, so fingers crossed!

Anyway, I’m going to end this here and get back to the good stuff so you can all take Alex’s journey alongside of her sooner rather than later!

Until next time,
Kate

Hello readers!

I’ve been feeling pretty bummed lately that my editing is taking a backseat to both my day job as well as the gym (I’m making real strides in feeling confident about myself at least!).  As a little treat since it’s been a while since I’ve had anything good to post for you all, I’ve decided to release the prologue as it stands today as a little sneak peek at Living For Adventure!

Want to see what’s in store?  Click here to check out what I’ve got lined up next for you!

I’m going to make this short and sweet so I can get back into the groove of editing what I’ve got ready for you all before I take another night off tomorrow to go enjoy Ed Sheeran live in concert for the second time!

Until next time,
Kate

Hello everyone!  I hope April has been very good to you!  I don’t have much to report, hence why I’ve been somewhat MIA.  I took a lot of this month off because my 9-5 job has been insanely busy as of late, but I also joined a gym for the first time, which is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long while.  I have what’s known as chondromalacia patella, which is also commonly referred to as runners’ knee.  It’s ironic to me because I never ran until last year, though I’ve had this since I was a preteen.  As a result, the winters are especially hard on me, and I don’t do a lot of physical activity outside running around like a lunatic for 40 hours a week at work.  Every year, I gain around 10-15 lbs because of this; it then comes back off when the spring comes and I’m able to start walking again.  I figured that, with the low cost to the gym that just opened up near me, I’d give in and get access to the machines that I’ve always wanted to use when it’s cold or just ugly outside.  I’ve been there probably 6 or 7 times now, and I absolutely love it!  It’s early days, but I’m already feeling stronger, and I’ve lost 5 lbs so far 🙂

I’m planning to spend some of my weekend time working on edits for the next couple of weeks, and I’m thinking I could do an hour or so tonight if I want.  I’m only about 8,000 words from where I want this novella to be before I put it onto Amazon, so hopefully it won’t take me too long to get it done!  I’m pleased with how this came out, even though it was just a short distraction, so I’m really hoping that everyone will enjoy it when it finally comes out.

Other than that, all I’ve done is read a bunch of books!  Don’t forget to check out my reading list up at the top of this page — I’m now into the 60’s number-wise, and I’ve achieved my goal of reading at least 50 new books so far this year!  If you’re looking to learn more about any of those books or even just chat about them, you can always tweet or email me; I’m always happy to talk books!

I’m hoping you’ve all enjoyed some lovely weather this month, unlike the weather here in Pittsburgh!  We had one good weekend, but everything else really has been hit or miss.  Here’s hoping for a beautiful (and not TOO hot) summer!

Until next time,
Kate

The numbers are in, the numbers are in!  After 5 days of giving my book away, I’m shocked to be able to say that I’ve managed to get a whopping TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN books into new hands!  Now, I’ll be the first to say that my book probably won’t be winning any prizes, but I thought it was a good one to put out there, and I’m truly humbled at the response to this sale.  Sales have been sluggish, with most of them coming as soon as the book was released, but I’m so beyond grateful for the opportunity for this book to be out and circulating!  If you’ve read it and you’ve enjoyed it — please continue to pass along word to your friends and please leave a nice review!  Knowing that people are reading my first published book truly makes me a happy camper 🙂

And I can also announce that MY camping for Camp NaNoWriMo is done!  Well — I should say that my first draft is done at 12,396 total words, but I’m planning to go back and edit starting very soon, and hopefully it will round out at just about 20,000 words to qualify as a true novella.  Once I’m satisfied with it, I’ll be getting that one prepped for Amazon as well.  I’m thinking a 99¢ price sounds good for a novella, especially something to get people interested in my writing!  The working title is Living for Adventure, but that’s not set in stone.

Anyway, I really want to say a huge thank you once again to everyone who picked up my book, as well as those who helped me promote the sale.  I appreciate every single one of you helping my dreams to come true!

Until next time,
Kate

Hello everyone!  I’ve been busy on my self-directed vacation from writing for the past month-ish since I finished writing A Royal Risk!  In that time, I’ve read a bunch of great books, including the Dorothy Must Die series by Danielle Paige (it got me hooked right away!).  As of today, I’m at 50 books out of my goal of 100, which means I’ll probably blow that goal right out of the water in no time.  I’ve spent my time thinking of other ideas, which I haven’t been writing down because this was supposed to be a vacation from it all!

But I guess writing is more than just something I do as a hobby — I think writing has truly become a part of my DNA.  I will make every attempt to take a break, but then an idea comes along and I can’t help but start on it.  I get almost a tingly feeling, like an itch you can’t scratch, if I don’t set aside time and write sometimes.  It doesn’t have to be the next great American novel or anything, but sometimes I just need to get started on a project — even if it just sits unfinished for me to come back to one day.

As a result of the subconscious need to start something to write, I began a new short story on April 1st, for Camp NaNoWriMo!  I’ve never done Camp before, but I knew that it was a lot more relaxed than the big event in November.  You can set your own goal for Camp — mine is 10,000 words — and you’ve got the 30 days of April to bang out your story.  I realized a little early on that 10,000 words would be a piece of cake for me, especially since I’ve done 50,000 in 15 days before, but I figured that 10,000 would let me lay the foundation for something that might end up around 20,000 one day that I could sell for either 99¢ or even maybe distribute for free.

Speaking of free, I put my book, Roads to Love, on sale on this week for free.  The sale started today, and it’ll run through Thursday the 9th.  So far, at last check, I’ve moved 26 units today alone.  That’s definitely a daily record, though I wish more people would have picked it up when I ran the 99¢/$1.99 sale previously!  Either way, I’m just glad people are picking up my work and might spread along to their friends to pick it up if they enjoy it!  If you didn’t catch that subtle link earlier, I’ll hit you in the face with it now:

Anyway, back to Camp NaNo – I wrote 2,010 words on day 1, which put me at nearly a quarter of my goal right away.  I was a bit busy the next day, so I only got to 3,001 words, but was now more than a quarter finished with the goal.  The next day was even busier, so I did what I rarely do — allowed myself a day off.  I rebounded yesterday and hit 5,026 words, so I’m now past the halfway mark!  I’ve got an idea where this story is going, and I hope that it turns out what I’d like it to.  The idea came to me slowly on the first, but once it did, I realized that this is a love letter of sorts to my travels and some of the people I’ve met along the way.

My summer should bring lots more ideas for stories — in July, I’m taking a road trip to Canada to visit my best friend and be there for her wedding!  It should definitely be interesting, since I’ve never driven that far on my own before.  After that, I’ll be home for a month (and visiting with my friend Kassie from Chicago, the one whose mother I wrote about a good few posts back now!), then I’m off to Reykjavík, Iceland!  I’m very much so looking forward to all the new things I’ll be exposed to this summer, since they will only serve to strengthen my writing.

Anyway, I hope you’re all having a good weekend — and Happy Passover and Happy Easter to those who celebrate these holidays! — and I will be back to write soon, hopefully when I finish this presently-unnamed story!

Until next time,
Kate

It finally happened!  I finished my 9th book overall, presently titled “A Royal Risk”!  It took me around 3 or 4 months, give or take, and 62,500 words, but the first draft is officially finished.  With much perseverance that occasionally required some deep digging into my creativity stores, I can happily say that I finished something that was close to the edges of my comfort zone.  In this book, I not only invented a new country (it’s called Ängsmark!), but it’s also about a royal family, as the title kind of gives away.  I might be a serious anglophile, but I wouldn’t say that I’m any type of expert on the royal family.  I’ve been outside Buckingham Palace and along the Mall, but I’ve never seen inside the palace (well, except for official photos online!).  My royal family is a lot more laid back, though — their country is small, and they pride themselves on being pretty down-to-earth.  That’s not to say that their lives are completely normal (they have homes in various cities in the country!  they live in a castle in the capital city!), but they like that they have such a close-knit country.

So what’s next for my invented country?  Well, I’m not sure yet!  I’ve been writing things back to back to back for so long that I’m booking myself a solid month or two away from it!  I finished the novel I was working on before NaNoWriMo literally six days before NaNo Madness descended, then I did my NaNo book, edited it, and published it all while starting A Royal Risk!  Three books in a row have definitely earned me a little time to sit back and enjoy one of my favorite pasttimes properly again: reading!  I hope March brings you all something fun to read, just like I hope it does me!  I’ve already read two books since finishing NaNo, and I urge you to keep checking in on my reading list page (on the tabs up top!).

Until next time,
Kate

Hello everyone!

As of last night, I’m at about 45,000 words, which means I’m about 15,000 from the planned end of this book!  I’m now in the place of “where is this going?” in the sense of: where exactly should I set up the big event that will fuel the ending of this story?

At the point I’m at right this moment, I’ve already begun to set things up to be like dominoes.  The problem I’m having is that I’m not sure how many words it will take to cause the other shoe to drop and then to pick up all of the pieces.  I know some authors are good at writing pieces of their work and sewing them together seamlessly, but I’m an author who needs to move in order from Point A to Point B to get my idea down.  I can’t do that Point A->Point D->Point B->Point C and then suddenly, they’re all in the right place as if that’s the way they were initially written.

My original goal was that I’d have this novel finished by the end of February.  I will admit that there were many days where not being under the NaNo-type pressure really killed my vibe and I couldn’t get anything worth writing down this month, but I was really determined to persevere, especially after I passed 10,000.  Every single unfinished piece I have is under 10,000 words and that’s kind of my make it or break it point.  When I finally hit 20, 30, 40k — it just pushed me that much more.  So, I have 5 more days of February and just under 15,000 words to go.  That’s about 3,000 words per day to finish on time, BUT!  I’ve given myself a get out of jail free card!  I took a 5-week course on my new digital SLR camera, and therefore my Monday nights have been unproductive.  The last one was tonight, so my Mondays are now back to normal.  As a result, though, I’m giving myself the first 5 days of March to finish if I need that lifeline.

I’m truly hoping to have something to whet your reading appetites with in the very near future, but I will give you this much: the book is definitely, officially called A Royal Risk at this time 🙂  It could change in the future if need be, however, I think it will work wonderfully with the cards I’m dealing in this one.

I hope you’re all having a great end of winter, though I sure hope you are all warmer than I am!

Until next time,
Kate

Hello readers!

Since I last wrote, I’m well into the 30,000’s — I’m actually at 33,360 words as of a couple of days ago!  That’s pretty good progress for someone who’s only devoting a few days a week to writing right now.  Three weeks ago, I started a 5-week course on photography since I inherited a fancy camera that I’m way out of my depth trying to use.  Believe it or not, I’ve already learned a lot so far and I’ve taken some decent pictures so far, but something has had to give to have time for that plus my full-time job.  Unfortunately, it’s been writing that’s taken a back seat while I’m spending Mondays with my camera, Tuesdays practicing for the most part, and Fridays working late and coming home to try to get something done.

On the bright side, I’m at 23 books read so far in 2015!  One of the books I’ve read most recently has been the most interesting — it’s called The Almost Nearly Perfect People, and it’s by Michael Booth.  It’s a look at all of the Scandinavian countries, plus two bonuses: Finland and Iceland (in case you didn’t know, those two aren’t really Scandinavian — they fall under the Nordic umbrella).  As the book I’m working on now is set in a fictional Scandinavian country called Ängsmark, I thought it would be a good read — especially since I’ve discovered I’m 17% Scandinavian through Ancestry.com and I’ve been considering a job opportunity that would possibly take me to Sweden.  I’ve actually been working on my Swedish lately (Jag talar lite svenska!  Svenska är ett rolig språk!), so this book appealed to me that much more.  It’s nonfiction, and those always slow down my reading speed as I take in the new information, but it was well worth the multiple days I spent reading it between working on writing, work, and my class!

Back to writing, though — as I’m now past 33,000 words, I think I am safely past the halfway point.  Unlike most of my books, where I’ve got the basic story outlined in my own special way, this one has been mostly flying by the seat of my pants.  I have to say, though it’s not always easy going on this particular project, I really am enjoying it!  Having some extra creative freedom is both extremely difficult, yet extremely rewarding!

I hope the winter’s cold is treating the rest of you well — I know I have plans to stay in this weekend, where our high temperature in Pittsburgh will be 10 F on Sunday and the low -1 F!  If this weather does not create the opportunity to stay in and curl up with my computer, I don’t know what will 🙂

Until next time,
Kate

I know I’ve discussed writers’ block before on my blog, but I have found, at least in this project, a new issue: I’m calling it NaNoWriMo Syndrome.

I seem to thrive under pressure.  When NaNo calls for me to write 50,000 words in 30 days, I do more than 50k.  When I had tickets to Barcelona during the last 2 weeks of NaNoWriMo ’13, I wrote 50,000+ words in 16 days.  NaNo ’14?  Cranked out my book in 15 days with 50k+ again.  The first novel I ever wrote (many years ago now!) was written in just about a month, and I think that was 70+k at the time.  I seem to be more motivated when there’s time constraints on completing my work, then I can leisurely go back and edit and expand upon what I’ve written.

I’m not saying that’s the issue with everything I write: a couple of the books I’ve written have taken well over a month, but I’ve seen them progress.  They started frantically, but eventually I just couldn’t keep up and had to step away for a little to get properly motivated to finish.

So, with my 9th book presently in my word processor, I’m trying to break out from the chains of my old habits.  I came up with an idea and got started, and got a good amount of work done before the inevitable slow down.  But there have been more than a few days since I started this project that I’ve written 200 or less words, and I’m okay with that!  I’m about to hit 18,000 words and the book is still on task to be what I set out for it to be.  Unlike a lot of the books I manage to finish, I still don’t really have a concrete layout for it, but I do see where it’s heading and how to get it to that invisible finish line.

I like my main characters and their supporting casts, I like the location, and I like where the story is headed.  When I have all of that set, it tends to be easier for me to really sink my teeth into a project.  That’s not saying that the one or two projects I had on the back burner aren’t things I might like to pick back up eventually and work on, but there was something about those, probably that I had no idea where they were truly headed, that made them much more difficult to really pour my heart into.  I’m really giving this one a good shot, though — one of my favorite books I’ve written yet was actually one that took me probably 4 or 5 months to complete, and it’s one of the ones that means more to me than some of the ones I cranked out and was pleased with.  That particular favorite was one that I could truly find myself stopping in a book store and being intrigued enough to buy it from just the blurb I imagine would be on the back cover.

So, fingers crossed that this project turns out like my 6th book did — I think this one is going to be a favorite down the line as well.

Until next time,
Kate