Rae Stoltenkamp

I write therefore I am

Memoirs of a Feline Familiar

Memoirs Launch

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It is
my great pleasure to announce the launch of Memoirs of a Feline Familiar. I merely acted as amanuensis to Jinx Obsidian Bastet (aka Kastaspella’s
famous feline Familiar). In this memoir he tells us of the hardships a Familiar
has to deal with on a daily basis and spills the beans about the famous and infamous alike.

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ON 22 MARCH the E-book will be completely FREE. Just follow the link below.

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Back Catalogue Secrets II

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The
Main Characters

Brueberon
– A very lonely over-sized dragon in need of a friend.
Clarissa Henry – An extreme reader who
dreams of worlds other than the one she lives in.
Kastaspella – A dastardly witch
who detests Clarissa and hopes to make her life even more miserable than it
already is.
A Book Is Born

My
intention was never to write a children’s book. Before I started working at
Inkhead I actively avoided little children quite simply because I was afraid of
them. Okay, terrified is more accurate a description. As a teacher I stuck with
teenagers. Despite their erratic qualities I related to them very well. Perhaps
I was still a teenager at heart.


Ultimately I assumed my writing would focus on
teen and adult themes. At the time I was already writing the first in my Sci Fi
series and was almost done with the final edit of my debut novel. So I was a
little stunned to find myself writing The
Lonely Dragon. I’m even more surprised now to find myself producing a
sequel. And still more astounded to find myself sucked into writing the memoirs
of a character I considered to be minor. I of course mean Jinx, Kastaspella’s
cat and feline Familiar. Let’s just hope he doesn’t read this as he’d
be particularly miffed that I ever considered him minor. I can assure you, my
thinking on that score has been totally revised.
If you
ask where the idea for The Lonely Dragon
came from, I honestly don’t know. The book wrote itself. Bruberon was the
character most prominent in my thoughts. In my mind’s eye he was like the dragon
from The NeverEnding Story but
without the sophistication and assurance that dragon displayed.
Clarissa’s
character is probably most like my own as she spends a great deal of time
reading and daydreaming. The rest of the story is made up of my love of mixing
fact and fiction till the lines blur.


The front cover came about because I worked with a young artist, Anastasia Scudamore and a group of children she was teaching at the time. The aim was to show them that art can be used as the basis for an income. I provided extracts from the book and the children created the most marvellous paintings. The first edition cover featured every single drawing even though book cover designers were appalled. I very much wanted every child to know their work was appreciated. The new edition still uses a cropped image from one of those paintings.
To
celebrate the fact that Memoirs of a
Feline Familiar (the spin-off inspired by a once supposedly minor character)
is due for release as soon as all the final edits are done, the e-book of The
Lonely Dragon is available FREE until 20 March. 


Enjoy!



Best Laid Plans

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First of all, a very warm welcome to all new subscribers. It’s great to have you here and I look forward to sharing the many facets of my #indie journey with you.

Now, this
may come as a surprise to some but just because I’m self-published doesn’t mean
I’m not working to a publishing programme, self-imposed though it is. Long
before I went on a course which encourages creative types to develop a business
plan I always had a publishing schedule. I love colourful charts so it was
inevitable. My guilty secret is out. I have always completed an annual chart,
marking out Work In Progress, Future Projects and prospective blog posts for up
to 4 months into the future.
Giving myself deadlines helps me achieve goals and I rarely
shift the timelines unless something unforeseen happens. Just last year I rearranged
my teaching timetable so that I have two full writing days a week and on those
days I write from 7am to 5pm, only breaking for meals. I treat my writing as a
job as I’m hoping that it will eventually support me financially. At the start
of 2019 I was working on 4 projects simultaneously: The Robert Deed Collection, a sequel to The Lonely Dragon (The Witch Adoption Project), a related
project about Kastaspella’s cat (Memoirsof a Feline Familiar) and a collaborative collection of poetry. After the
publication of the Deed Collection at the beginning of the year, my publishing calendar called for Memoirs of a Feline Familiar to be
published at Easter. Well, Easter has come and gone and the manuscript remains
unfinished as does that of The Witch
Adoption Project. And it seems highly unlikely they’ll be published before
August. The poetry will have to wait till next year at this rate. So, what went
wrong?
Quite
simply, my health let me down. I’ve always suffered from migraines but have
successfully managed them with the help of homeopathy. Then suddenly in April I
was bombarded by several all at once. For one particular period in May I had
one every day for a fortnight. I can barely function when I have a migraine. Apart
from the debilitating pain, I find them disorienting and frustrating as they
stop me doing the one thing I love doing the most.

But
the migraines do serve as a warning that my creative well is getting
tapped out. Writing is a
lonely business and it can make one insular, too much so if you’re not careful.
My migraines force me to call on friends and family for support and start the
recharge process. They
demand I re-establish a healthy work – life balance. 


As yet
the migraines are not completely gone. Every once in a while I’ll get sparkly
flashes at the periphery of my vision. Then I take a break from the laptop and
have a long draft of water or go for a walk in the fresh air. Currently the
weather in the UK means it’s often a rather wet walk but that doesn’t matter
too much. You’ll be glad to know that while things are not quite fully on track
as yet, there’s a stirring of new project ideas in the old noggin and the well
is filling up nicely. So please bear with me while I heal. I promise the
projects will turn into published books for you to read and review.
If you live in South London then here’s an opportunity to participate in one of my courses later this month. Please email to register as spaces are limited.
24 June – 29 July

2019 & Beyond

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I
rarely make New Year’s resolutions as I’m so busy trying to finish off tasks
already on the go. Everything tends to carry through to the next year,
particularly when it comes to my writing. I know resolutions are meant to be
about the personal but my writing and I are so closely linked that inevitably,
it ends up being one and the same.


This
year is no different. I’ve got several projects on the go. My plan was to
publish a Robert Deed Collection last year which puts all the Deed books into
one volume. Unfortunately due to a spate of migraines during November and
December that plan didn’t quite pan out. I am however very happy to report that
the e-version of this collection is now available for you to buy. Since you are a select bunch you get
the opportunity to purchase it at a reduced price from 1 – 5 February. This is
because February is my birthday month and I love to give presents as much as
receive them. So here for you is the link for this limited offer. http://authl.it/aue
The
paperback version of this is due out in April or sooner if I can sort out
the tricky formatting issues I’m experiencing.
I’m
still working on the sequel to The Lonely Dragon. The title of this is likely to be The Witch Adoption Project [WAP] I’ve started editing the first
draft and aim to have it ready for publication this summer. For those
interested in where this is going you can check out this EXTRACT. Also, if
you have any children aged 10 – 14 then I’d be very happy to have them read the
draft and provide feedback. Please email to state your interest. If anyone else would like to be part of my Advance Reader team please message me to let me know and I’ll add you to that list.


Alongside
the WAP edit, I’m also working on Memoirs of a Feline Familiar. [MFF] This has stalled somewhat as I’ve been so busy bashing
out the first draft of WAP. It is now back on track and I aim to have that
finished as soon as possible and offer it as a free read for all you lovely lot.
Finally,
I’m working on a collaborative poetry collection with Bev Cross, a long time
writing friend who is based in Sheffield. We’re probably going to call the
collection Zoo Nation and it will
contain approximately 20 – 24 poems from the point of view of various animals.
The plan is to have this ready for publication by Easter. We’re also hoping to
convince Nell Farrell to write the foreword.
Other
than writing, I’m still reading. This year is a little different. I only plan
to read 60 books but they must conform to a very specific set of criteria. I
got this idea from Chantelle Atkins, another Indie author, and decided to run
with it. Let’s see how well I do. Have managed to read 3 books which match my
criteria so far. If anyone would like to join me in this challenge please feel
free to ask me for a list of the criteria.