Please Welcome Catherine Cavendish

Visit Cat at her  website

I'm very pleased to have Catherine Cavendish as a guest today. She's a wonderful writer of horror tales.











Here's what Cat has to say about procrastination:

Methinks I Doth Procrastinate…

Livvy screamed. The shadows had moved…

OK. Not a bad opening line. Well, half a line actually. There it sits. All alone. On page one. Looking a tad lonely as it waits for something else to happen.

You know what it’s like. That first day on a new writing project. The ideas are all there (some of them anyway). If you’re a pantser like me, they’re a bit jumbled. Like spaghetti. But I like spaghetti, so that doesn’t worry me.

I stare at the screen. What’s going on in those shadows? Hang on, do the shadows move – or should it be something in the shadows that moves. My hands address the keyboard (‘hello keyboard’. No, that’s just plain daft). I type: Livvy screamed. Something in the shadows had moved.

Good grief! Is that a cobweb on the ceiling? Must get rid of it. Immediately. Where’s the brush?

Ten minutes later.

No, I don’t like something in the shadows had moved. Too long-winded. Lacks punch. I hit the ‘undo’ button and smile. Yes, equilibrium restored. But, hang on. Why the past tense? Why not the present? Will that work better? What time is it? Must just check my emails…

Half an hour later: Livvy screams. The shadows are moving.

 Um, no. Sounds like they’ve grown legs. What time is it now? Must check my Amazon rankings. Maybe someone’s bought a book?

Five minutes later. Deep sigh. Oh well, never mind. I type: Livvy screams. The shadows move.

No, that won’t do at all. Now it sounds as if her screaming has caused them to move. And if that’s the case, what on earth was she screaming about? Heavens, look at the dust on that table! Must get rid of it.

An hour later, I put the duster, polish and vacuum cleaner away and settle back down to the ever-flashing cursor and the screaming heroine. The shadows move. Livvy screams.

Who is Livvy anyway? Shouldn’t I be thinking about what she’s wearing, what the room looks like, her favourite colour, music, alcoholic beverage, where she went for her summer holidays? I have a picture of her in my mind but… I type: Livvy shook her long red hair and gazed around the modern bedroom with its Ikea pine furniture and peach painted walls. In the backgroun,d her favourite album of the moment, “21” by Adele, was on the final track - “Someone Like You”. Suddenly, she stopped. Stared. Screamed. Something in the shadows had moved.

Well, it’s longer. I have more words on my page. But you can’t say ‘suddenly’ like that. Holds up the action. And let’s face it, that is one long-winded opening. I sigh…

Mimi (my cat) jumps on my lap. A tentative paw touches the keyboard.  An interesting, if unpronounceable, new word appears - nghjkgerghj. Can I work that in somewhere? Only if Livvy turns out to be a Klingon.

I have long thought Mimi has designs on writing her autobiography, but so far, her forays into typing have resulted in gobbledegook.

She turns those emerald eyes of hers on me.  ‘Purrrrrrrrr. Mrrow?’

‘Want a cuddle then?’

‘PURRRRRRRRR’.

Catherine's latest novella The Devil Inside Her

Elinor Gentry’s world collapsed when her husband and only daughter were killed in a car crash two years ago. Her recurring nightmares have left her exhausted and her debts are crippling her. Then, for no apparent reason, the nightmares turn into pleasant dreams and she can start to take back control of her life.

But then a string of horrific and unexplained suicides and a horrifying discovery about Elinor lead her best friend, Marnie, to seek help from the one person who has seen all this before. Hazel Messinger knows that Elinor’s newly found wellbeing is not what it seems.

A demon is at work here and it is a race against time to save Elinor’s soul...

 The Devil Inside Her is available at Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes and Noble and other online bookstores