Ask the Author: Cathy Cash Spellman
Answered Questions (12)
Cathy Cash Spellman
Hi Susan,
So happy you asked this! I've wanted to revisit these characters for years and am actually working on the outline for a sequel that would allow the next generation of all three books to interract with each other! One of these books may soon be on TV and that would be a wonderful way to introduce the next story, wouldn't it?
Certain characters remain in a writer's heart forever, and I would so welcome the chance to follow where their lives can lead.
So happy you asked this! I've wanted to revisit these characters for years and am actually working on the outline for a sequel that would allow the next generation of all three books to interract with each other! One of these books may soon be on TV and that would be a wonderful way to introduce the next story, wouldn't it?
Certain characters remain in a writer's heart forever, and I would so welcome the chance to follow where their lives can lead.
Cathy Cash Spellman
Hi Bev...so glad you like the Donovan family! I always feel as if the characters in my books become my own family members, so it warms my heart that you got a kick out of these newest additions to my "extended family" on their first adventure. The next book in this series will be released in early 2020... this time I'll be following the Donovans and their Bleecker Street Irregulars to the amazingly exotic world of New York's Chinatown. Hope to see you there!
XX, Cathy
XX, Cathy
Cathy Cash Spellman
That's quite a tricky proposition, K.T. I've used many strategies over the years, but here are a few that work well for me.
I keep a detailed looseleaf notebook of timelines and other relevant data (jargon, interplay of characters' stories)... looseleaf makes it easy for me to shift gears or change strategies if I need to. Depending on the story (or the point in the story) I sometimes do a day by day or hour by hour timeline for individual characters' whereabouts at any given moment. I once hung a clothesline-like string across my office filled with clothespins so I could move different colored papers (each color representing a character) around as I needed to!
With a book that covers 2,000 years of adventures, as in Lark's Labyrinths, I run separate timelines for different eras ( ie Crucifixion time, Constantine/St. Helena time, contemporary storyline, etc)
The worst thing that can happen is that something interrupts the mental flow when I'm on a roll ... if I have to drop all the threads I'm weaviing together, to put my head into something else entirely it's not easy to pick up all the threads again and regain the momentum.
I feel I have to live the story in my characters' skin so it's a big responsibility, weird as that sounds! I have to laugh with them, cry with them, be frightened with them, for it to seem authentic to my readers.
People think writing is a sedentary, quiet enterprise but it's really a wild ride!
I keep a detailed looseleaf notebook of timelines and other relevant data (jargon, interplay of characters' stories)... looseleaf makes it easy for me to shift gears or change strategies if I need to. Depending on the story (or the point in the story) I sometimes do a day by day or hour by hour timeline for individual characters' whereabouts at any given moment. I once hung a clothesline-like string across my office filled with clothespins so I could move different colored papers (each color representing a character) around as I needed to!
With a book that covers 2,000 years of adventures, as in Lark's Labyrinths, I run separate timelines for different eras ( ie Crucifixion time, Constantine/St. Helena time, contemporary storyline, etc)
The worst thing that can happen is that something interrupts the mental flow when I'm on a roll ... if I have to drop all the threads I'm weaviing together, to put my head into something else entirely it's not easy to pick up all the threads again and regain the momentum.
I feel I have to live the story in my characters' skin so it's a big responsibility, weird as that sounds! I have to laugh with them, cry with them, be frightened with them, for it to seem authentic to my readers.
People think writing is a sedentary, quiet enterprise but it's really a wild ride!
Cathy Cash Spellman
Dear Beverly...I'm so happy to know which of my books is your favorite!
I think the research really began in my Irish childhood, when the songs and heroic stories filled my romantic heart with the ideas of Irish freedom. I researched seriously for nearly three years, here and in Ireland, and continued the research as I wrote.
One of the most gratifying highpoints for this tale came after it was done. I received a letter from an Irishman, then in his eighties or nineties, telling me he had been at the barricades with Mick Collins on Easter Sunday 1916 and had known the man well. He said the word-portrait I'd painted of Collins in my story was the closest of any he'd ever read to the truth of the man!
Thank you for your beautiful words of encouragement...knowing readers care deeply about my characters and stories is what keeps me writing!
I think the research really began in my Irish childhood, when the songs and heroic stories filled my romantic heart with the ideas of Irish freedom. I researched seriously for nearly three years, here and in Ireland, and continued the research as I wrote.
One of the most gratifying highpoints for this tale came after it was done. I received a letter from an Irishman, then in his eighties or nineties, telling me he had been at the barricades with Mick Collins on Easter Sunday 1916 and had known the man well. He said the word-portrait I'd painted of Collins in my story was the closest of any he'd ever read to the truth of the man!
Thank you for your beautiful words of encouragement...knowing readers care deeply about my characters and stories is what keeps me writing!
Cathy Cash Spellman
So glad you asked, Julie! I have an outline for a sequel that's full of surprises, including the appearance of characters from So Many Partings and An Excess of Love. I fell in love with the characters in my historic novels as I wrote about them and have always wanted to follow their stories into the next generation.
Paint the Wind is being considered for a TV Series right now...if that deal goes through, the sequel to Paint the Wind will be my next book after finishing Book 2 of Lark's Labyrinth.
Paint the Wind is being considered for a TV Series right now...if that deal goes through, the sequel to Paint the Wind will be my next book after finishing Book 2 of Lark's Labyrinth.
Cathy Cash Spellman
Write, write, write! Don't edit yourself until later. Open your mind and heart and let the ideas flow without censure. Let your story take you by the hand and heart and lead you where it wants to go. Even if it seems out of timing or context, a good scene will find its right place in your story. Sometimes, it takes you down roads you never expected to travel! I struggled desperately against the death of a favorite character in one of my tales, but the story wouldn't let me keep her alive. It frustrated and saddened me, but in the end, I knew the death was necessary.
I always begin with a sense of story, little of it concrete except for time and place. I write about my characters in extreme detail early on. I need to know everything about them, physically, mentally, emotionally. The authenticity of their personalities, history and psychology are paramount.
Once my characters are fully formed, I firmly believe they can't act out of characters! They may surprise me at times, but I've never known one to lead me down a wrong road. When they cry, I cry. When they love, I do, too.
I always begin with a sense of story, little of it concrete except for time and place. I write about my characters in extreme detail early on. I need to know everything about them, physically, mentally, emotionally. The authenticity of their personalities, history and psychology are paramount.
Once my characters are fully formed, I firmly believe they can't act out of characters! They may surprise me at times, but I've never known one to lead me down a wrong road. When they cry, I cry. When they love, I do, too.
Cathy Cash Spellman
Hi Gerry,
Great question! The answer gets a bit complicated because I tend to continue researching all during my writing of a story. I feel as if I need to live the times with my characters, so I keep on digging deeper and deeper as the story evolves for me...
Paint the Wind took five years of research and writing, plus five trips to the West. Lark's Labyrinth took more than a decade of writing, studying and delving!
My Irish sagas, So Many Partings and An Excess of Love, brought a lifetime of family history, music and poetry into play, as I'd been steeped in all of it from childhood on, so that helped immensely with authenticity.
Bless the Child percolated in my head for several years before I put pen to paper, but then an intensive two years followed. The Playground of the Gods was a snap, by comparison! It needed no historical research, being contemporary... I had met the kinds of characters who peopled my tale, so it was fun to write them and to have the kind of sexual freedom that contemporary stories allow. The most difficult parts were the aviation and the grandiose architectural ambitions of a billionaire constructing his own Paradise!
Truth is, I get almost as much pleasure from doing the research as from evolving my stories! History is a treasure trove of hidden gems.
Great question! The answer gets a bit complicated because I tend to continue researching all during my writing of a story. I feel as if I need to live the times with my characters, so I keep on digging deeper and deeper as the story evolves for me...
Paint the Wind took five years of research and writing, plus five trips to the West. Lark's Labyrinth took more than a decade of writing, studying and delving!
My Irish sagas, So Many Partings and An Excess of Love, brought a lifetime of family history, music and poetry into play, as I'd been steeped in all of it from childhood on, so that helped immensely with authenticity.
Bless the Child percolated in my head for several years before I put pen to paper, but then an intensive two years followed. The Playground of the Gods was a snap, by comparison! It needed no historical research, being contemporary... I had met the kinds of characters who peopled my tale, so it was fun to write them and to have the kind of sexual freedom that contemporary stories allow. The most difficult parts were the aviation and the grandiose architectural ambitions of a billionaire constructing his own Paradise!
Truth is, I get almost as much pleasure from doing the research as from evolving my stories! History is a treasure trove of hidden gems.
Cathy Cash Spellman
I learned that the Spear of Longinus had been fought over by Kings and Emperors from Calvary through WW II, when Hitler stole it. These powerful men all believed it gave them the power to rule the world! I was entranced and fascinated...once I started researching in earnest, the material was so stunningly rich with pageant, mysticism and murder, I was hooked! It took more than a decade to complete my tale.
Cathy Cash Spellman
Sometimes I find an intriguing fact, while researching...like the story of the Spear of Longinus that pierced Christ's side on the Cross, and that discovery begins the adventure for me. Sometimes, a voice from my ancestral past seems to clamor to be heard, as in So Many Partings and An Excess of Love led me thorough my Irish past.
The Playground of the Gods was different... I was asked by Paramount's President Brandon Tartikoff to create that story to be a movie! When Brandon died suddenly, the film didn't get made, but the story, in my mind, was written scene by scene, more than chapter by chapter, which is why the action never slows down.
The Playground of the Gods was different... I was asked by Paramount's President Brandon Tartikoff to create that story to be a movie! When Brandon died suddenly, the film didn't get made, but the story, in my mind, was written scene by scene, more than chapter by chapter, which is why the action never slows down.
Cathy Cash Spellman
I'm working on a sequel to Lark's Labyrinth. I'm in love with my characters and readers keep asking me what happens to them next! The Sacred Series Mysteries of which Lark's Labyrinth is the first book - and the existence of The Friends of the Hunt secret society - means my intrepid wayshowers can explore mysteries and mysticism all over this world and perhaps, others.
Cathy Cash Spellman
Pretty much everything! I never wanted to do anything but write books. It still seems to me the greatest privilege. I relish the research that lets me immerse myself in other times, psyches, worlds... I feel the writing is almost trancelike...a deep dive immersion into the souls of my characters. I feeI I live their stories with them. If they cry, I cry. If they love, I love.
Cathy Cash Spellman
Years ago, my first writing job was on a local newspaper. The first day I was there the Editor told me in no uncertain terms, "If you get writer's block, you get fired!" I've never had a hint of it since!
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more