BIO:
Cathrine Swift is an indie author and Youtuber with a passion for intentional living and steamy fanfiction.
Recognizing how authors have changed her life, she hopes to utilize her growing talent to do the same. To change the world, for at least one person. She's dedicated her adult life to learning, practicing her craft and uncovering her true voice through heartbreak, hardship and human interaction.
Cathrine lives in Alberta, Canada with her husband and wild toddler.
When and how did you know you wanted to be a writer?
From a young age, I grew up with a love for stories. I wish I could pinpoint the exact magic moment, but when I think back...I was always just...writing. And I never really looked back.
I kept writing and writing, promising myself one day I’d have something good enough to send to a publisher. But life and “real” work always got in the way–even though I spent every spare minute I could on lunch breaks or after shifts on my mini Acer laptop.
It wasn’t until my daughter was born that I got the idea for Let it Reign, my debut novel that I self-published on June 29th, 2022 that I pushed through on my dreams all the way to the end.
Did you have any influencing writers growing up?
Oh, so many. My top three would have to be Beverly Cleary (Ramona and Beezus), Patricia C. Wrede (The Enchanted Forest Chronicles) and Nora Roberts. Of course ‘The Author Who Must Not be Named’ as well. . .but we don’t talk about her.
Are any of your
characters based on people in real life?
Not outright. Aspects of people, things they’ve said, or the way my relationship with them has impacted me, but never have I put anyone directly in a book.
Not yet, anyway.
Where do you draw
your book inspirations from?
Everywhere and anywhere, and usually at the most inconvenient of times, haha.
In November of 2021, I half-woke up long enough to roll over and got a momentary flash of inspiration about a girl at Christmas fake dating her gay best friend and falling in love with his twin brother.
I don’t know where it came from, but I grabbed my phone, wrote the idea down and the character names (which had come to me with the ‘vision’ too) and then forced myself to go back to sleep. In December I wrote the first draft (74,000+ words) in 25 days. I’ll be publishing that later this year for the holiday season.
The book I’m releasing this summer, Words & Music, was inspired by a paparazzi photo of actor Arthur Darvil walking across the street I saw while scrolling through Doctor Who related pictures on Pinterest one night. And within thirty minutes I had a basic outline and the first scene written.
Do you use a
basic outline when starting a new story or do you let the characters lead the
way?
I am a PASSIONATE outliner. I have to have everything plotted out. And I would say a good majority of the time I stick to most of it.
However, my characters tend to throw me a few curve balls here and there, creating subplots or whole entire characters I had no idea existed. So I try to roll with the punches as much as possible.
Sometimes it feels a little bit like trying to find your drunk friends at the end of a night out and getting everyone safely in the cab to go home.
When you are
picturing the characters in your book, do you have a cheater photo for
inspiration?
I write books the way I would like them to be adapted for the screen, so usually I have a dream cast of actors and actresses picked out during my outlining process and typically go from there with character descriptions.
Many people read
as a form of escape and relaxation. What is your favorite way to sit back and
relax?
Ummmmm...relaxing is something I struggle with, being a Type One, perfectionist, overachiever. But I really am trying to teach myself.
I love scrolling TikTok when I want to laugh or learn something new. And if I’m really starting to feel burned out, I will turn to cinema (I love movies) or Dramione fanfiction.
Who are your
favorite current authors to read?
This might be an unpopular answer, but I’ve been so busy writing the last five years especially and taking care of my daughter that I’ve truly neglected even finishing a proper book.
I’ve done a few ARC’s and some beta work for very dear friends in the indie author community, but other than that...zilch I’m sad to say. (Unless you count children’s bedtime picture books, of course.)
What are your
favorite books by others?
Anything by Patricia C. Wrede. Since I was a child, her writing has captivated me. She writes the most epic and empowering princesses.
Do the locations
in the stories have any meaning to you?
Kinda! Of the three books I will have published by the end of 2022, two are set in fictional places, but Words & Music is set in London, England (mostly), which is somewhere I’ve always wanted to visit.
Do you write in
single or multiple POV?
Both. Because I write the way I envision the story would be told on screen, I tend to lean more toward mult-POV, but if I want to keep it simple or I want to keep my word count low, I will force myself to stick to one single character's mind.
It’s a struggle though, especially when I’m so connected to my characters and I can hear all their voices.
What do you find
to be your best research tool?
YouTube has been an absolute lifesaver, especially when it came to figuring out the ropes of how to self-publish and do this whole indie-author thing.
It actually inspired me to create a channel of my own, something that I’ve wanted to do for a very long time.
Do you write
under a pen name? Also, do you write under more than one name?
I do not, and I probably never will for two reasons– the first being I can’t imagine trying to run another author platform on top of the one I already run, and the second is that I truly love my name.
Even if it does get spelled wrong, all the time.
What genre do you
write and why is this your preference?
I like to say that I write multi-genre romance. I suppose this probably isn’t correct and that I write romance in various sub-genres.
The truth is, I love all genres of film, television, and literature, but there is something so fascinating to me about all the different ways people fall in love. How people, sometimes against all odds, stay in love. Fight for it, for themselves and each other.
Those are the kind of stories I want to tell.
Tell me something
about yourself outside of writing. Jobs, accomplishments, family, quirky
traits...what led to you being you?
I am married to my junior high sweetheart and we have a four-year-old daughter I am about to start homeschooling this September.
I was a lifestyle and wedding photographer for nearly thirteen years, but when author life became too busy I had to hang up my camera, at least for now.
When I’m not mom-ing or housewife-ing, I love spending time with my best friends and reading really well-written, really smutty fanfiction or catching up on the latest Marvel movie/show.
What advice would you give to an aspiring writer?
Once you start taking yourself seriously, and you get out of your own way, there is nothing that can truly stop you.
Roadblocks and hard days will come, of course, but those don’t have to be permanent. A really good way of ensuring that you get out of those bad times easily is by surrounding yourself with amazing and like-minded people.
The online writing community is a wonderfully safe and encouraging place and you can turn to us whenever you need emotional or mental support–because no one understands exactly how you’re feeling than other artists.
How do you deal
and process negative book reviews?
Oh...poorly, for sure. I’m not good with them, certainly. They absolutely haunt me, so I try not to read them?
But...at the same time, I don’t want to avoid them completely because there could be some helpful information in them? I think I’ll probably grow a bit thicker skin over time, but for now, I cry.
But I sure don’t let it stop me from writing. I’ll never give someone the power to make me stop.
What is the most
difficult part of your writing process?
The impatience. I see everything SO CLEARLY, and as much as I love the act of sitting down and typing and the click-click of the keys as my nails run across them, I just want to READ the story I’m writing already.
I don’t want to write it. Well, I do. But I want it to be done so I can enjoy it. And my readers too, of course.
What do you need
in your writer’s space to keep you focused?
Having a baby who is now a toddler has forced me to adapt in a very real way to what I think I need to stay focused. A candle is nice. Background focus music is nice. Sitting at my desk is really, really nice.
But if I want to actually accomplish things before I turn 90, I learned quick that I just had to write when I could, where I could, how I could. I wrote and edited the first five drafts of Let it Reign on my phone. In the dark. With one hand because I had a nursing child on top of me for a great majority of it.
And now that she’s an energetic wild toddler, focus isn’t something I get often. I just make the best of every day I can.
If you could spend a day with another popular author, whom would you choose? And why?
This answer is kind of a cheat…but, honestly, I would love to gather all my fellow indie author friends and spend a weekend with them.
We would have so much fun and learn so much from one another.
Do you listen to music when you write – what kind of music is your favorite?
I actually prefer to write in silence, but if there are other people around—which there almost always is— and I’m too overstimulated, then I’ll throw my headphones on and listen to something vibey to whatever I’m writing, but it has to be instrumental.
What is your kryptonite as a writer? What totally puts you off your game?
Imposter syndrome can definitely take me down a peg or two.
Fortunately, I am stubborn and don’t know how to actually give up. (Though sometimes that is a whole other problem.)
Have you ever killed off a character that your readers loved?
Ummmmm. Almost exclusively. That's just what I get for writing such loveable characters, I suppose. Hehehe
How do you celebrate after typing THE END?
Learning to celebrate and not just moving straight into the next project is something I’m working on.
When Let it Reign came out, I organized a small party for myself at a friend’s local bakery. They shut it down to the public an hour early and everyone got dressed up and hung out for a while. It was really nice.
I hope you enjoyed this interview!
Check out all my interviews/reviews for Cathrine Swift!
https://readingbydeb.blogspot.com/2022/07/author-at-glance-cathrine-swift.html
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