Every Moment - Kathy Bosman
Tell us about your writing career (how many books, when did you start writing, did you do any courses, won prizes? – anything interesting)
I always wanted to be a writer. It was a dream as a kid as I loved getting lost in a book. But then life happened and I lost my dream along the way. Then in my early thirties, when I craved mental stimulation while looking after two toddlers, I thought of writing again. I took a course on Writing for Children as I thought I wanted to write children’s books. The course was helpful and I had a tutor who marked assignments, but I didn’t realise how much I still needed to learn. I had another baby and we moved back to South Africa, and life got busy again until a few years later when I had a job at a quiet bookshop and had time to write again. My husband at the time suggested I try an adult novel, so I did. It ended up being a romance. I didn’t think that unusual as I mostly read and watched romance. Then I stumbled upon ROSA online. It was still in the beginning stages, but I gained so much from my connection to ROSA. I learned about writing and then sent off multiple manuscripts to publishers and received many rejections. After about fifty—well, that’s how many it felt like and it’s very possible it was—I had a rejection from a publisher called Astraea Press which is now called Clean Reads. Being so tired of getting rote rejection letters, I complained to the head editor, asking how I could improve if I was never told what I’d done wrong. In hindsight, I think I was most impudent, but it served me well. She promised to work with me and help me. She took my manuscript and edited the first few chapters. She was pretty ruthless but I needed that. I wrote a new novel based on her advice and sent it to her. She sent me a contract. Since then, I have published about fifteen novels under the name Kathy Bosman and a few more erotic romance novels under the name Vicki Ballante. I now have combined the two and mostly write contemporary romance, but also sometimes sweet romance and fantasy or self-help.
Why did you choose to write romance?
Romance makes me happy. It guarantees a happy ending and that’s what drew me to the genre. It puts a person in a good mood when they read it and doesn’t bog you down with a negative way of seeing the world. When I first started writing romance, I was an idealist and believed in “falling in love for life” and happily-ever-afters. Since my divorce, that has changed a bit. Not that I don’t believe in happily-ever-afters, but I think they take work and commitment, and I believe strongly now in women being independent and strong and loving themselves above all else. I like to write romances that show the intimate connection between two people but also books that show how a woman can find the happiness within, too.
What is the name of your story in the anthology?
Every Moment
Blurb:
Recently unemployed, Carla takes up her friend Milly’s offer to house-sit her beach house and look after her dog Katie. Milly assures her that the guy staying there already has a girlfriend and won’t mess with Carla’s tender heart. Carla has come out of another toxic romantic relationship and doesn’t want her heart broken again.
Brit Craig is busy shooting for the lead role in a movie, and he’s not in the mood for having a strange woman in the beach house at such a busy time. But almost as soon as Carla arrives, he’s shocked at his intense attraction to her. Carla finds herself warming up to Craig’s easy and friendly manner way faster than she’d ever have anticipated. And, well, his girlfriend is just a relationship of convenience. But she doesn’t recognise that he’s a Hollywood celebrity.
Is a non-celeb from another country worth Craig risking his reputation and precious time? Carla fears the worst about relationships. Is it even safe to risk an affair with the cute, mysterious friend of a friend?
What was your inspiration for this story?
Oh gosh. I’m not sure. I wanted to write a celebrity romance as I like the thought of a person the world lifts up on a pedestal being normal and longing for the normal intimate connection that most people want.
What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning this story?
My story didn’t require a lot of research. My hero is a Hollywood actor so I did do a bit of research on that and he’s also a surfer—part of his role—so I researched surfing a little. I also looked up on doggy parlours, but I won’t tell you why. You can read the story to find out.
How long did it take you before you began writing this story and then, how long did it take then to complete?
I battled to come up with a story idea and nearly bowed out of the anthology. Then it came to me in one day and I wrote it in about three days. I do have a tendency to write in fits and bursts.
How do you select the names of your characters?
Ugh, this is one of my least favourite things about writing. Sometimes, I look up baby names on the internet, but this time, I just came up with names as quick as I could because I hate spending too much time on it.
How do you like to collect and organise your ideas?
Who says my ideas are organised? Hahaha. I’m not kidding. They sort of form an alphabet soup in my head. I do sometimes write ideas down.
Are you a plotter or a Pantser?
I write by the seat of my pants—pantster. My first draft is very drafty. It can get edited later. Although, in some of my books, like the last full-length I wrote, I did plan ahead a bit. I actually use tarot cards to plot out my novels. They have great archetypes in them. I’m also getting an oracle deck with character archetypes that will help me with character development.
Author Bio:
Kathy Bosman is a multi-published author of several romance genres, one fantasy novel, and two self-help books. She lives in hot and humid Durban, with her three coming-of-age kids, where winter is the best season. As a busy single mom, she freelances as a book editor and runs other side businesses for fun. Finding time to write isn’t easy, but it’s still one of her favourite things to do.
You can follow Kathy here:
Website and blog: http://www.kathybosman.com/
Facebook author page: http://www.facebook.com/KathleenBosman
Facebook interactive profile: https://www.facebook.com//kathy.bosmanauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KathleenLBosman
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5257900.Kathy_Bosman
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Kathy-Bosman/e/B007GCQBNK/
Newsletter Subscription: http://eepurl.com/NokET
Authorgraph: https://www.authorgraph.com/authors/KathleenLBosman
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathy_bosman_author/
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