My Worldbuilding Secrets

Building a fictional world that's vibrant and intriguing is extremely important, no matter the genre, so this past week at Corsets, Cutlasses, and Candlesticks, Katherine Longshore (Gilt, Tarnish) and I shared our tips and tools for creating vivid, believable settings.

Here are the links to our posts:

Building a Believable Story World by Katherine Longshore

The Art of Worldbuilding by Cat Winters

If you have any questions, please let us know in the comments sections.

July Updates: News about My Next Book & Upcoming Events

First of all, thank you to those of you who participated in my Goodreads Q&A this week. The group is officially inactive at this point (I chose to run it for three days), but I'll leave it up there for a while in case you want to check out my answers. If a late question happens to creep in, I'll likely still answer it if I'm not having an overly busy moment. You can also always ask me questions via Twitter, Facebook, and email.

My big accomplishment of the summer, so far, has been sending my brilliant editor, Maggie Lehrman, the finished draft of my second novel, The Cure for Dreaming. If you're curious about that book, here's how I described the plot in that recent Goodreads chat:

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The Cure for Dreaming takes place in 1900 Portland, OR, and it's about a seventeen-year-old girl named Olivia whose father hires a young male hypnotist to remove her rebellious thoughts. Olivia's father is worried she's becoming a suffragist and a "modern woman," and he's terrified she'll turn into her mother, who abandoned their family to return to a life in the theater. The hypnotism cure, however, doesn't go quite as planned...and Olivia has to figure out if the hypnotist is a friend or a foe.  

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The book is still scheduled for publication in Fall 2014, and I'll likely be launching into my intense revision stage this upcoming fall, once I receive my editor's letter. I have no idea what will be appearing on the cover of this one yet, but I'm looking forward to finding out. For now, I have a Pinterest page and a Spotify playlist to share for the book.

If you're in the Portland, OR, area, and you're an aspiring author, please consider joining me for a mansucript critique at the following event:

Saturday, July 20, 2013, 9:00 am:
The Great Summer Critique

 The Dining Room, TaborSpace
5441 SE Belmont St, Portland, OR

I'll be taking a break from appearances in August to spend time with family, but I already have events planned for September and October, with more in the works. You can find them all at my Events Page.

Last of all, I'm happy to report that I proposed an idea for a third standalone YA novel to my agent, and she's thrilled about the concept and title (both of which will remain tightly under wraps for now). I've already started a draft and look forward to working more on the project this summer.

Ask Me Questions in My Q&A Group!

From now through Wednesday, July 10, I'll be available to answer questions at a Goodreads Q&A group. Feel free to ask me about In the Shadow of Blackbirds (including your burning spoilery questions), my characters, The Cure for Dreaming, and writing in general. I'm happy to answer.

Join the Q&A

Giveaway Winners & Next Week's Q&A Group

Thank you so much to everyone who entered my In the Shadow of Blackbirds "Thank You, Readers!" giveaway. I selected my winners using Rafflecopter's random-drawing option, and yes, I deleted any incorrect trivia answers before I even drew the names.

Congratulations to the following winners (whom I'll email directly):

First-Place Prize Pack

Victoria M.

Signed Bookmarks & Bookplate

Heather C.

Sierra W.

Lisa C.

If you didn't win this time around, have no fear. I will certainly run more giveaways in the future. In fact, Christianna at The White Unicorn is currently giving away a hardcover copy of In the Shadow of Blackbirds, plus she interviewed me about the novel and my 2014 release, The Cure for Dreaming.

One other bit of news: From July 8 to July 19, 2013, I'll be answering questions at the "Q&A with Cat Winters" Goodreads discussion group. I'm even allowing a thread of spoilery questions. I'd love to have you join me over there.