Q & A with Heidi Catherine.
The Soulweaver, released 19th January 2018.
Today I have a very special guest. One of the most amazing things about becoming a writer is the incredible people you meet along the way. I have been fortunate enough to have become friends with a really special lady and an incredibly talented author. Please welcome Heidi Catherine to my blog today. Heidi, it’s so nice to have you here today, please make yourself at home.
It’s so lovely to be here with you! I’m a big fan of your writing. A Little of Chantelle Rose was a fabulous read. I really enjoyed it.
Thank you! I’m so glad you liked it! Heidi, I believe your soon to be released debut novel “The Soulweaver” won the Romance Writers of Australia’s Emerald Pro award, what a fantastic achievement, Congratulations! Could you summarise this work in just a few words.
Thank you so much. It was a huge honour to win the award and get such positive feedback from all the judges. I was genuinely shocked. In just a few words, The Soulweaver is a story about a girl who’s haunted by memories of having lived before. As these memories sharpen, she has to choose between the man she loved in her past life and the man she loves now.
Sounds fascinating, I’m so looking forward to reading it. I’ve acutally already read the prequel The Moonchild (which can be downloaded for FREE here: mybook.to/themoonchild ) and it’s got me really intrigued to find out more.
What was your inspiration for this novel?
I was a very curious child and one day I asked my mother what would happen if a widow remarried, only to one day find herself in heaven with two husbands. My quick-thinking mother told me that in heaven there’s no jealousy, only pure love. I really liked that answer and over the years I thought about it a lot. This was my inspiration for writing The Soulweaver and I really enjoyed taking the opportunity to explore the possibility of reincarnation. So this book has been a very long time in the making!
It’s cetainly a fascinating concept.
You have also been named as a highly commended author in The Hope Prize and your story “The Extra Piece,” was published by Simon & Schuster in a collection of short stories. Is there a similar theme in your stories or do they all touch on different aspects?
I must have a short attention span, as the only thing any of my stories have in common, is that they were all written by me! I’ve tackled everything from romance to crime to middle grade fiction. My short story, The Extra Piece, is about disadvantage in the community and although it’s a work of fiction, it’s based on a couple of conversations I had with people who had to escape their country of birth. It’s evoked some really touching responses from my readers. But I have to say that The Soulweaver series is my very favourite thing I’ve ever written. I honestly loved every moment of it.
You have achieved all these amazing, prestigious awards, but the road to publication is often a long and bumpy one, what advice would you give to aspiring writers?
I need to stop blushing before I answer this! Thank you. Yes, the road in my case has been very long and bumpy with lots of dead ends and crocodile infested waters. The advice I often give to aspiring writers is not to do what I did! Don’t write a book that you think will be easy. Write a book that you would love to read. Because no matter how good a writer you are, if your heart isn’t in it, then it will show. Although in my case, writing the ‘wrong’ book was an excellent way for me to learn how to write the ‘right’ one.
What was the most surprising thing you learnt in creating your book?
I learnt that not every detail of a book needs to be planned in advance of writing it. I’d been taught to plot out my stories using a beat sheet, to make sure it followed the standard formula for popular fiction writing. And although this works brilliantly for some people, it really doesn’t work for me. I find that process stifles my creativity and sucks out the joy of writing. I’m far better off to develop a rough story outline, then launch into it, letting the story come to me naturally. I find this a more rewarding way to write as often a big plot twist will jump out and surprise me, hopefully just as much as it ends up surprising my reader. So what works for one writer, won’t necessarily work for another, and The Soulweaver really taught me to trust my instincts. 
If you could spend one day with a character from your novel, or any novel, who would it be and what would you do?
I won’t say one of my characters, as I’ve spent many, many days with them in my head over the years. So instead I’ll say, Casey who’s a character from a book called Make it Count by Tamar Sloan. When Casey touches someone she can see how many days they have left to live. She’s a bit of a recluse and doesn’t like touching people, so basically I’d just spend the day hanging with Casey and trying to ‘accidentally’ bump into her so she can let me know how quickly I need to finish writing my next book (hopefully not too soon!) I’d also quite like to hang out with your character, Chantelle Rose, basically so she can just make me laugh all day. She might even let me in on what happened to her after the book finished as I’m dying to know!
Thank you! I’m happy to confirm that we’ll see more of Chantelle in 2018!
I imagine that this year has been quite a magical year for you, and early next year we have the release of your debut novel, which, may I add, has already got, not just once but twice! a bestseller ribbon during pre-sales on Amazon, any new projects lined up for later on in the year? (Book related or not)
I’m working on Books 2 and 3 of The Soulweaver series, The Truthseeker and the Shadowmaker. These stories follow my main characters into their next lifetimes and will be released by Crooked Cat Books in early 2018. I also have a couple of crime novels and a middle grade novel sitting on my computer, which I’d like to revive. So I have plenty to keep me very busy! It’s just as well that I enjoy what I do.
Thanks again for popping in. I look forward to reading your novel which I have already pre-ordered (buy link: myBook.to/thesoulweaver ) and will appear, as if my magic, on the 19th January.
Thanks so very much for having me on your blog today! I really hope you enjoy The Soulweaver. I have a free prequel novelette available on Amazon that you can read while you wait. It’s called The Moonchild and introduces you to the two main characters from The Soulweaver in the lifetime they lived before the book takes place.
You can find out more about Heidi here:
The Soulweaver order link – myBook.to/thesoulweaver
The Moonchild FREE prequel order link:mybook.to/themoonchild
Website: www.heidicatherine.com
Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/author/heidicatherine
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/HeidiCatherineAuthor
Twitter – @heidicatherine
Instagram – http://www.instagram.com/heidicatherine
