Blog Archives

Seeking a Haven

Posted on February 7, 2017 by cathleentownsend — 9 Comments

This is part three of a serial. Part one is Air Attack, and part two is Griffin Egg. *spoiler alert* In part one, a teen girl, Amy, and her brownie companion, Morin, help drive off a flock of harpies, saving…

Tagged with: Cathleen Townsend, faerie tale, fantasy, griffin, serial, short story
Posted in My Stories

Griffin Egg

Posted on February 1, 2017 by cathleentownsend — 15 Comments

This is part two of a four-part series. The first episode is available here. *Spoiler alert* In episode one, Gondar and his squad of fae soldiers are nearly wiped out by marauding harpies. They are saved by unlikely allies–a human…

Tagged with: Cathleen Townsend, Faerie, flash fiction, griffin, serial, short story
Posted in My Stories

Air Attack

Posted on January 25, 2017 by cathleentownsend — 7 Comments

“Harpies at three o’clock!” Gondar groaned. He’d already lost three of his squad to enemy scouts, including their only archer. Evasion was their best chance at survival. “Tree cover is better to the right,” he yelled. The five fae sprinted…

Tagged with: Cathleen Townsend, fairy tale, fantasy, free short story, harpy
Posted in My Stories

Resolved

Posted on January 10, 2017 by cathleentownsend — 14 Comments

The woman hovered near the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea. It had taken the selkie considerable work to get her there. “What do you see?” the selkie asked her softly, and her sea-green eyes met his. They were…

Tagged with: Cathleen Townsend, fantasy, flash fiction, Resolved, short story
Posted in My Stories

Merry Christmas

Posted on December 24, 2016 by cathleentownsend — 24 Comments

Just a quick post to wish everyone out in cyber-land a wonderful Christmas. The northern California foothills are beautiful this time of year. The Sierra Nevadas are capped in white again, and the grass has recovered from its summer drought…

Tagged with: Cathleen Townsend, Christmas
Posted in Uncategorized

Rejection Letters

Posted on December 22, 2016 by cathleentownsend — 15 Comments

Even though rejection can hurt, it’s part of writing. No matter who you are or how hard you slaved over your work, not everyone will like your book. You can polish your words until they sparkle, and somebody will still…

Tagged with: Cathleen Townsend, feedback, querying, rejection, rejection letters
Posted in Publishing, Uncategorized

Thoughts from the Querying Trenches

Posted on October 31, 2016 by cathleentownsend — 15 Comments

Querying. Ugh. If there’s an activity for a writer that’s less frustrating, I don’t know what it is. I suppose it could be worse, though. I doubt agents enjoy it any more than writers do, and they’ve basically signed up…

Tagged with: Cathleen Townsend, literary agents, query letter, Query Tracker, querying
Posted in Publishing

Don’t Overlook the Look Pass

Posted on September 30, 2016 by cathleentownsend — 9 Comments

This is such a simple thing, especially in comparison to many other editing skills. Weighing adjectives and adverbs, replacing weak verbs with stronger ones–all this takes real effort and a certain amount of experience. But this one is easy. Just…

Tagged with: Cathleen Townsend, editing, look
Posted in Writing

An Easy, Fast, Ethical Way to Find Online Pics Using Google

Posted on August 17, 2016 by cathleentownsend — 37 Comments

Graphics. We all need them. Okay, once in a while we blog something with our own personal photos, but most of the time I need something quicker than creating images from scratch. So I look for other image sources. You…

Tagged with: Cathleen Townsend, finding images online, Google search
Posted in Blogging

Publish or Perish

Posted on August 9, 2016 by cathleentownsend — 26 Comments

Diana rubbed her eyes and squinted at the monitor. Almost six million hits when she Googled grimoire! How would she ever find the right one? Still, she checked them every moment she didn’t have to wait tables or sleep. She’d…

Tagged with: Cathleen Townsend, flash fiction, short story
Posted in My Stories