My book is out today, Fancy That

And so, my new short story, Fancy That, is available as an eBook on Amazon NOW!

I'm exceptionally happy with how it turned out and here is the blurb for it:


Was there life outside my little box?

Tom and Pat have known each for over fifty years but only been friends for three when someone (or something) comes into their life and changes everything.

A charming short story for Christmas and beyond about friendship, hope... and a dog called Zelda.

From the author of Cara Ward’s Weighting to Live series.


It is available worldwide on Amazon and for the UK link, click (here) and for the US link, click (here).

I am now taking a few days completely off, which is very rare for me and oddly, a little difficult as you well know if you've ever read this blog that I struggle to find balance, but I shall be back soon with more word counts, samey blog posts and waffle.

Until next time,
Cara x

Excited.

Yes, this is a new blog post but nothing much has changed as I still can't find balance, I'm still working myself to the point of exhaustion but I'm still happy about it.

I am actually going to keep this short for once and, brace yourself, it won't even include a single bullet point. 

Since my last post I have been pretty much editing short story number one and have got on with it so well that I'm releasing it as an eBook on Amazon next Saturday titled, Fancy That!

After spending lots of time searching for a pre-made cover for it, I ended up making it myself as I realised my story is pretty specific and I was looking for a needle in a haystack. I'd heard of Canva before, and even messed about on it a bit in the past, but it wasn't until this project that I really started to use it more and after a relatively short amount of time, I'd made the cover for it which ended up costing... wait for it... one whole dollar - and that was only so I could get the silhouette of the Alsatian. Fabulous.

I'm exceptionally happy with how both the cover and the story itself has turned out and now that I have just five full days till publication, the jobs I have left to do are:

- Read through it again in the morning.

- Ask Mum to read through it again.

- Work on the blurb for it, a dedication, acknowledgements and all that jazz...

- Never-ending book admin. 

Starting from tomorrow, I will be posting a picture with a quote from Fancy That on both Twitter and Instagram, which I made up this weekend using elements from the cover.

And that's it... told you it was going to be a short post.

Until next time, 

Cara x

The scales have tipped

I promised there would be another blog post sooner than the gap between the last and, here we are, a mere three weeks later, but I am going to hold my hands up and say that I have resigned myself to the fact that I will never find balance. The scales have tipped and I'm heavy with productivity and exhaustion, BUT I LOVE IT. I've realised that I'm truly at my happiest when I'm working on projects I am passionate about and, as I currently have three of them on the go, you can then only imagine my elation. The exciting thing about it all is that I'm working towards something I want more than anything in the world, and I am doing it on my own too, which, for some reason, makes it even better. Maybe I have been single too long and am set in my ways, but to be able to make the most of every single moment of the day is just so exciting. Yay for the word exciting repeated at any available opportunity!

As per, I'll try (and fail) to keep this post brief and summarise my writing life using some good old fashioned bullet points:

• In the week after my last post (starting 15th October), I tarted up the short story I mentioned in my last post and sent it to my mum; the person whose opinion I value the most. She really liked it, which made me a very happy bunny. I mean, I would have kept going regardless of whether she liked it or not, but it doesn't hurt that she did like it. The best thing about my mum is that she will be totally honest and give me valuable constructive criticism. I spent the week after that (22nd October onwards) editing it and by the end of the week, I had a solid story that I don't think needs much more work and currently stands at 7,519 words.
• I decided to put that short story aside for two reasons: 1. I needed space from it in order to hopefully gain some objectivity and be able to make any final edits to it. 2. I decided to write another short story (lol). The idea for this new baby came to me on 23rd October whilst I was at work. It was just a regular Tuesday when suddenly, someone's name on Twitter sparked an idea and in the space of 5 minutes whilst I waited for a meeting to begin, then again just before bed, I had somehow written 704 words. As I was still working on short story number one at the time, I put it aside until this Wednesday 31st October where I quickly edited through the 704 words I had written before work and sent it to Mum to get her opinion. She said it showed promise - I thought so too - and, as a result, I have spent the last few days working on it so, as per, here is my word count breakdown: On Wednesday evening, I wrote 705 more words of it. The following morning, I wrote another 726 words and that evening I wrote 1,245 words. Yesterday morning I wrote 862 words and last night, even though I wanted to write more, I was so tired that I chilled out instead. Having the break last night meant that I more than made up for it this morning and ended up finishing the thing. It currently comes in at 5,931 words in total, meaning that this morning I wrote 1,689 words. Even though it naturally needs work, seeing as it only a first draft, I can't wait to get my hands on it and really to go town on the edit.
• On a side note, I am still working on the BIG project but progress has been sporadic. Some mornings I would work on it and feel really happy with what I managed to achieve but on the morning of Monday 22nd October, I suddenly felt really sad (hello hormones!). Instead of pushing through it and persevering, I listened to my body and watched fun stuff for 30 minutes then decided to read through short story number one and by the time I was getting ready for work, I felt elated. And so, the moral of this story is to not push yourself to stick to self-imposed rules and in the moments where you really need some time out, that's ok and it's perfectly fine to switch up what you want to do. Writing is what I'm passionate about and I've got to go with it and not work on X project only because I'd already planned to do it. I can change my mind and decide to work on whatever I want. It is MY choice, no one else's, and it's all still working towards the same goal.

My plan for the next week or so is to work solely on short story number one and to hopefully find a cover for it. I'll probably go for another pre-made cover, just like I did for my Weighting to live series. If all that goes to plan, I will work more on the administrative side of things, like the blurb, release date and logistics etc. As of this moment, I'd ideally like to self publish it by the end of the month/1st December, but I'll do some research first to see what would work best. My hope after that would be to release short story number two on Boxing Day as that worked so well last year when I released Curing my Incurable Eczema.

I want to keep this blog updated as much as possible, although this is mostly just for me as it's nice to be able to read over what I've been able to achieve, so I'll definitely be back soon with another update.

How very formal this was.

Until next time
Cara x