Strange old day. Strange old week in fact. My Cloudy Minds Book of the previous post is proving a fount of inspiration. I made this book a little different to previous versions in that I glued a picture into it every eight or so pages, gave most of the pictures fabulous titles to inspire even more fabulous stories and then on the opposite page listed prompts. So far I have pages of ideas for three shorts/novellas/God knows for fabulous/amazing/the best yet stories - only one problem, I haven't actually written a word all week. **Scratches chin - thinks there's a spanner in these works.**
Anyhow, I was determined to write today (the sun hasn't gone down yet so there's still hope) and I blame Aaron Polson for encouraging the procrastinating demon on my right shoulder. Thanks to his blog post, I discovered that if you put your search term in quotation marks on Google then you get posts actually relevant to what you are searching for. Stone me. I swear, I'm the last idiot on the block. So, like all good egotists, I searched for me and I found me, lots of me - yay! - fun at first until half the comments I've left on other people's blogs for the past year started to show up - bored now.
One of the links led me to an old small press newsletter that I used to subscribe to back in the day - Mirage - boy did it take me back. If you click on the link you'll notice that I've chosen the edition of the newsletter where they mention one of my stories and it received a good review. Well, I'm not going to pick one where they didn't mention me. Doh! This idiot is only half-idiotic. Now I feel all reminiscent about all the old magazines that I used to pray to the publication gods that I would get into (and mostly didn't). It's strange because I often feel as if the me then is not the me now... Does that make sense? I certainly think my writing has improved, in fact, I was surprised to find a positive review from way back when. I haven't read any of those old stories in over a decade, and I don't intend to either.
For me there is a dividing line between then (1993-2004) and now (2008 onwards). Sometimes I wish I had dropped the 1990s Catherine J and become plain old Cate.
Gee did this post go on.
19 comments:
Are you trying to tell us something? Is Catherine J going bye-bye?
I used to giggle when I found links to "letters to the editor" I wrote in college. Silly youngster!
Sorry to prod the demon. Wait--that didn't come out just right...
Unfortunately not, I'm sticking with Catherine and her J for now, but I have started sending agent queries out as Cate Gardner and famous author Katy Gardner be damned. :)
I feel that, Cate. I didn't have anything published back in the day, of course, but my friend and I were just discussing the old fanfiction we used to do, and taking about how obvious the difference is from as little as four years ago. Amazing the difference it makes, huh?
I actually picked my Pen Name by googling various permutations of my Actual Name in quotations-- how's that for narcissistic and self-promotional? The Actual Name (Katey/Kate Taylor, as you know-- well except for the married name, but Viswanathan is way too complicated...) has the most insane amount of google results this side of Jane Smith, seriously.
And I definitely need a Cloudy Minds Book now. I mean, I did before, but now it's official.
One of the good things about the old days is that the stories were all in print and not online - God help me if they were still searchable. I'd have no choice but to change my identity. :)
I think it is a procrastinating type week. I did manage to get some writing done yesterday, but only my bare minimum. the muse will strike again, with a sledgehammer. I like Catherine J. Cate Gardener sounds less experienced than Catherine J. Gardner for some reason.
It's not too late to be just plain old Cate!
Jamie, then the name lies ;)
Barry, but Catherine J is so famous already - oh, wait a minute...
Dropping the middle initial would make things easier for me, as I usually forget it ; )
Of course, my convenience is a horrible thing to base such a decision on!
I'd like to drop the middle initial in my pen name, but it's the only link to my real name and the sole justification I have for going by this name yet still asking people to call me Tim (no Monty Python jokes please :) ).
Or what about Cat Gardner? :)
Hey, I've been meaning to ask you what you used for the current projects sidebar? Very nifty.
Brandon
Cat Gardner sounds like a detective/thriller novel writer.
I’m pretty sure I still have a copy of the Dream Zone from around 2000 or so. Ring any bells? Can’t remember the title of your story exactly, but something to do with a beach… I think?
Do you want me to destroy the evidence?
Cate, in case you don't see my comment on Aaron's blog: go here: http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=136861 for all your searching nifty tricks.
Mr Bonehill, I would suggest you should scan and paste said story into the blog - just so we can all see...with Cate's permission, of course...
Natalie Sin without the L is just as cool as with it, unfortunately Catherine Gardner without the J is blah!
Ditto, Jameson. Or rather, Tim. :)
Hi Brandon, the current projects sidebar is just html code that I stole off the internet - I can give you the code if you'd like.
LR, That'll be 'Folly Beach' and damn you, you just made me pull the magazine out of its dust covered box file and read the first paragraph - hideous.
Thanks for the link BT, and I think Mr. Bonehill has far more intelligent things to blog about.
Thanks to Google, we're no longer "borne back ceaselessly into the past" - we get to live with it in a kind of increasingly-crowded permanent present.
The world can live with both Cate and Katy Gardner. And think how much fun it'll be when people start getting confused at launch parties?
At least someone might turn up. ;)
I like Cate Gardner. Cate/Kate is an excellent name. Of course I might be a bit biased; then again I write as K.C. Shaw instead of Kate Shaw--but there must be a zillion Kate Shaws out there. Gardner is a good last name, since it's familiar enough to remember but unusual enough that you're not too likely to get confused with some other, inferior writer. :)
Oh no, Shaw is most definitely a better name than Gardner. I hate my surname with a passion.
Oh and sorry about the blog post I've just posted. HeHeHe.
I better turn down the code offer: If I start playing around with the blog I will never get any writing done :)
B
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