Kate Rivet

Hello everyone!

It’s been a couple of months since my last post!  Crazy, but it was actually a much-needed rest from writing.  I’ve written 13 books pretty much back to back to back for so long that my NaNoWriMo failure kind of gave me the push to take a little break.  Tonight marks the first time I’ve written any new words since the one night in Barcelona that I felt like writing a couple hundred words, and surprisingly enough, I’m actually quite pleased with what I’ve gotten down so far.  Instead of working on finishing my incomplete NaNoWriMo project (that I actually DO intend to finish eventually; it’s too far in to fully give up on it!), I began work on the fourth book of my Royals series.  This one is going to be interesting, if I can just figure out how I’m going to make it work.  I have the male royal figured out, I have an idea of what the female character’s profession is, but I have no idea yet how I’m going to weave their lives together.  It will definitely be fun to watch their story blossom in front of me!

As far as my writing goes this year, I’m hoping to get editing on the first two Royals books, and I’d love to publish at least one of them, if not both, by the end of the year.  There’s something about the world(s) I’ve created for these characters that has become such a happy place for me, and I’d love to give everyone the chance to peek into these characater’s lives.

After this royals book and after I finish my NaNoWriMo if I can be motivated enough to do so, I think I’d like to write another story set abroad.  In the book I wrote a few years ago called Modern Love Abroad, I created a character who, like me, was a big fan of Salvador Dalí.  I was jealous of this woman as I wrote her story, because she got to experience some of the things I had only dreamed of being able to — like a visit to Dalí’s house-museum in Portlligat, and a visit to the town of Cadaqués, which was so important to him.  This past year, two days before my 30th birthday, I FINALLY made the pilgrimage to both of these places!  It was a great itinerary — first, a visit to Figueres and the Teatre-Museu Dalí, then a ride into Cadaqués for some free time and lunch if the small group desired, then on to Portlligat to see the home Salvador shared with his wife, Gala.  I had always seen such beautiful images of Cadaqués and had never been able to grasp how something so stunning could be real, and although I’ve been there now and have walked all through town, I still can’t believe it’s real.  The photographs I took of the town are photos that my family and friends and I look at and I can’t articulate the beauty that is so poorly represented by my images.  There is not one photograph I’ve ever seen of Cadaqués that accurately shows how breathtaking it is when you’re walking along and gazing across the beautiful waters at the town stretching into the mountains.

I also enjoyed my visit to Iceland, and have a very vague idea of a book I could set there one day.  I’ve always enjoyed volcanology — probably because I had a great earth sciences teacher back in high school — and I got to see Eyjafjallajökull while on a tour of south Iceland.  To stand at the base of the volcano that closed so much airspace when it last erupted — well, it was a very awesome experience.  I wish I could have seen more volcanos, but now that WOW Airlines is going to have nonstop flights from my home airport (Pittsburgh International), I think I can easily make a couple return trips.  Besides, if nothing else, I’ll have to go back to replenish my stores of Icelandic candy!  They’ve easily got the best chocolate I’ve ever consumed, and I can’t recommend it enough.

Anyway, I’m going to end this post — I think I’ve written enough for one night, and I’ve got to get back to my day job tomorrow!

Until next time,
Kate