Ask the Author: Cathy Hayward
Answered Questions (8)
Cathy Hayward
Hi Jan, thanks so much for getting in touch and I'm thrilled you're enjoying The Girl in the Midnight Maze. I'm just finishing The Last Daughter of Highdown Hall which will be out in March next year and hopefully another book will be out later this year - just waiting for confirmation of that. Take care, Cathy
Cathy Hayward
Hi Jill, lovely to hear from you. Winners are announced for The Secret of the Brighton House competition on 28th November and for The Girl in the Midnight Maze on 31st October. Thanks so much for adding my books to your TBR pile – and congratulations on your book. I do love a vineyard :-) Happy reading, Cathy
Cathy Hayward
I'm currently reading Josie Lloyd's The Cancer Ladies Running Club and it's SO brilliant. I'm particularly resonating with it because I have three children and am the same age as the main character.
On my TBR list is Kate Morton's The Secret Keeper; JoJo Moyes The Last Letter from your Lover; Stacey Halls The Familiars; Emma Cameron A Scattering; Khaled Hosseini The Kite Runner; and Double Lives by Helen McCarthy. I'm also dipping in and out of Mum, What’s Wrong with You?’: 101 Things Only Mothers of Teenage Girls Know. If you have teenage girls (like me) you simply must read this book!
On my TBR list is Kate Morton's The Secret Keeper; JoJo Moyes The Last Letter from your Lover; Stacey Halls The Familiars; Emma Cameron A Scattering; Khaled Hosseini The Kite Runner; and Double Lives by Helen McCarthy. I'm also dipping in and out of Mum, What’s Wrong with You?’: 101 Things Only Mothers of Teenage Girls Know. If you have teenage girls (like me) you simply must read this book!
Cathy Hayward
Just write. Even when it's rubbish I just write anything down. You can't edit a blank page. Even if the words don't get used I feel I'm still exercising my writing muscle.
Cathy Hayward
Being able to escape into worlds of my own creating. That was particularly useful in lockdown when we couldn't travel anywhere and I was stuck with the same people, day in day out at home (and they were stuck with me!). I loved that I could spend the first two hours of the day in the trenches of the Great War or in an Edwardian drawing room in London waiting for a letter from my lover at the front.
Cathy Hayward
The inspiration for The Girl in the Maze came when I was clearing out my late mother’s house in 2016. I didn’t discover anything which helped to explain our difficult relationship and the one that she’d had with her own mother, although I wish I had. But it made me think about what I might have discovered and the book came from there.
Cathy Hayward
I've just finished page proofs for my debut novel The Girl in the Maze which comes out in October 2021. I need to sort out some admin around a launch party and then I'm going back to writing the first draft of my third book. It's set in the 1970s and the present day and I'm about 20,000 words in.
Cathy Hayward
Here are my top tips for budding writers.
1. Go on a creative writing course. I did a two-year, part-time creative writing course but there are shorter online courses, and even book-based courses, which are easily accessible. It helps to focus your writing, gives you a structure and really holds your hand along the writing journey. And you meet other writers too as well as great tutors. My writing tutor Rosie Chard, a published author herself, helped me get The Girl in the Maze ready to send to agents and supported me through the submissions process.
2. Write rough. I try not to think too hard when I write, I just get the words down on the page. It doesn’t matter if you don’t think your writing is any good at that stage. Any words are better than no words. You can’t edit a blank page. Once you’ve got a rough first draft, you can go back and hone it. And you might find out that some of the material you’ve written is surprisingly good.
3. Create a writing routine: Find a time where you feel at your most creative. For me, it’s early morning and I’ve written about my routine on my blog but for others to might be during the day or late at night. Finding a writing place can also be helpful in getting those creative juices to flow – it’s as if the writing gods know that when I sit down at this time in this place, I’m there to write.
4. Write what you know. I started writing about a woman dealing with her estranged mother’s death. That story became The Girl in the Maze. It was only several thousand words in that I realised I was writing about me. My mother, who I hadn’t then seen for four years, had died and I was trying to process her death. If you write what you know, it will be true, even when it’s fiction.
5. Write every day, even if it’s only a sentence. The writing muscle is like any other muscle. It gets stronger the more it’s exercised.
Good luck and keep posted on how you get on!
1. Go on a creative writing course. I did a two-year, part-time creative writing course but there are shorter online courses, and even book-based courses, which are easily accessible. It helps to focus your writing, gives you a structure and really holds your hand along the writing journey. And you meet other writers too as well as great tutors. My writing tutor Rosie Chard, a published author herself, helped me get The Girl in the Maze ready to send to agents and supported me through the submissions process.
2. Write rough. I try not to think too hard when I write, I just get the words down on the page. It doesn’t matter if you don’t think your writing is any good at that stage. Any words are better than no words. You can’t edit a blank page. Once you’ve got a rough first draft, you can go back and hone it. And you might find out that some of the material you’ve written is surprisingly good.
3. Create a writing routine: Find a time where you feel at your most creative. For me, it’s early morning and I’ve written about my routine on my blog but for others to might be during the day or late at night. Finding a writing place can also be helpful in getting those creative juices to flow – it’s as if the writing gods know that when I sit down at this time in this place, I’m there to write.
4. Write what you know. I started writing about a woman dealing with her estranged mother’s death. That story became The Girl in the Maze. It was only several thousand words in that I realised I was writing about me. My mother, who I hadn’t then seen for four years, had died and I was trying to process her death. If you write what you know, it will be true, even when it’s fiction.
5. Write every day, even if it’s only a sentence. The writing muscle is like any other muscle. It gets stronger the more it’s exercised.
Good luck and keep posted on how you get on!
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