Cathy Turney has been a lifelong resident of the San Francisco Bay Area. She was in the first graduating class of the University of California at Santa Cruz where she majored in psychology because she thought she wanted to be a social worker. Her husband (referred to in her humorous stories as MyHusbandTheEngineer) says she is a social worker—that’s what being a real estate broker is all about!
Cathy found that her favorite part of writing her real estate newsletter was reporting on the antics of her dogs. They became notorious; “What have Bubbles and Spot done lately?” was a frequent question as she met people in her neighborhood. Readers wanted more, so she self published Tales of a Codependent Pet Owner—My Life with the Poodle from Hell and a Deaf Dalmation through CreateSpace in November, 2011.
Cathy has won several humor awards and her stories have been published in theSan Francisco Chronicle and Bay Woof Magazine. Recently she was invited to write a humor column for The Martinez News-Gazette and the Digital Concordian. In her column, entitled “A Little Bit Off,” she captures the humor in coping with technology and social media, her left/brain right brain marriage and her codependency on dogs.
Cathy encourages anyone with a story to tell to jot down notes, organize them, start writing and publish! With the amazing technology available today, she says, any writer can share his/her stories with the world.
Cathy’s blog is www.AlittleBitOff.Net
WOW: Welcome to The Muffin, Cathy. Wow! What an adventurous story! Great stories always have some basis in real life. How did you come up with this list of ideas? It makes me curious: Did these things really happen? (smiles)
Cathy: Yes, all those things did happen! You may have sensed that I
am NOT enamored of that car! Laughter is my defense. Fortunately,
MyHusbandTheEngineer saw the humor in the story – especially when the national
Austin Healey organization found it humorous, too, and ran it in their
September “Healey Marque” magazine—which gave my writing relevance in my
husband’s eyes J.
WOW: Isn’t that a great feeling! I know you write a real
estate newsletter and it evolved into a book about your dogs. What was that
process like?
Cathy: The deaf Dalmatian and monster poodle created such
a funny dynamic, and I thought that including some humor in my real estate
newsletter would make clients see me as more than a business person – kind of
convey that I have a life, albeit in servitude to those two! Readers told me
they really looked forward to getting the newsletter because they loved the dog
stories! They encouraged me to compile them into a book, which became “Tales of
a Codependent Pet Owner.”
WOW: Encouragement from fans is so important. It’s a
testament to our writing. I also checkedyou’re your website; great content.
What are some benefits you've discovered about blogging/writing daily?
Cathy: Oh, THANK YOU for your positive comment about my
website!! I post regularly, and I post a “finished product” because I want my
website/blog to be my “portfolio” of writing. I would love to be published in
some major cities’ newspapers and/or national magazines, and feel that if I
look consistent and as polished as possible, I’ll be building my odds. I’m not
interested in the money – I’ll do it for free!! I just love creating laughter
and sharing it (and getting feedback J).
WOW: I agree that it’s important to have a fantastic
portfolio of polished work to pique the interest of potential customers. I’m
wondering how you approach the writing process.
Cathy: Oooooh! Describe my writing process!!! I sure wish
I could formulize it! Wouldn’t that make everything easier?! Here’s what I do,
though: I take notes all the time. If something funny, absurd, annoying,
anything that gets a reaction from me happens, I jot it down—especially the
actual words that seem humorous. So often it’s not what actually happens, but
how it’s related that’s funny. Eventually, I collect these notes from all over
the house, my car, my purse, and categorize them. Then I try to create a story
and keep going back to it to make it funnier and funnier. It’s really
important, I’ve found, to leave the story alone at least overnight. And getting
up from the desk and walking the dogs allows my mind to free associate. A
double benefit! When I think it’s done (or done enough—does a writer ever feel
his/her work is done?!), I send it to a wonderful lady who has a sense of humor
and calls herself “The Grammar Guru!” She catches the boo-boos.
WOW: I need to learn to let the story sit overnight. I’m
usually too eager to jump right in. Cathy, I’m wondering what advice you would
offer writers who may be contemplating publishing.
\ Cathy:
Here’s my advice to anyone contemplating publishing (and writing):
a. Start a blog. That makes you feel that
you aren’t just writing into the ether. Actually, you are, but someone out
there will read it which they won’t do if you just keep it on your desk.
Remember, a book is just a sequence of stories strung together.
b. Join the local writers’ club. I joined
the Mount Diablo branch of California Writers’ Club, and it gets me out among
people with similar goals and I learn from their experiences. I’ve gleaned
marvelous tips from just being there. And they have great, inspiring guest
speakers from whom I’ve learned lots.
c. Try to write a little bit each day—preferably
at least an hour. Make that commitment. It’s so easy to give priority to other
things, but by writing every day you will see progress which will inspire and
energize you to write more. And that’s also how you develop your skill. I can
really see the difference between what I wrote two years ago and now. (And,
unfortunately, I don’t get to write every day J)
d. If there’s a particular genre in which
you write, find the best authors in that area and read them. Aspire to be as
great as they are – anything less will still be great!
e. If you’ve never published a book
before, self-publish! It opens doors. It tells the world that you organized
your ideas, wrote them down and made it through the publishing process—that you
have the drive and commitment to see a major project through to completion. You
can build on that; you’re more likely to get magazines and newspapers to
publish your articles which, in turn, will help open doors with traditional
publishers. I think it’s important to have a hard copy book (Amazon’s
CreateSpace is marvelous!) for your first effort. After that, I think e-books
are fine. And anyone can self-publish a paperback book! The great thing
about self-publishing is that you can be on Amazon and look as good as John
Grisham – no one will know you self-published.
f. Hire a professional proof reader. Your
published book has to be perfect as far as grammar, punctuation, spelling and
syntax go.
WOW: Great advice to contemplate, Cathy! Thanks for
taking time to visit with our readers today, and once again, congratulations on
earning runner up honors in the WOW! contest.
Cathy: Well,
LuAnn, I thoroughly enjoyed sharing my ideas, here! Thank you so much for the
opportunity! And I LOVE WOW!
Interview by LuAnn Schindler.
2 comments:
What a fun interview. I'm looking forward to checking out your blog. Congratulations on the contest.
Cathy: your advice is excellent. Thank you so much for sharing all of that with The Muffin readers. Congrats on your story and best of luck in the future. :)
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