Kerrie Paterson and her secret self came knocking on my country manor door!

Kerrie Paterson travels the world every weekend (and sometimes midweek), accumulating treasure and hoarding her stash of goodies with six million other secret web-net agents aged between nine and ninety. When she’s not doing that – she’s a one in a million aspiring writer!

Lovely to see you here, Kerrie - take it away:

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(The real Kerrie Paterson)

Are there cowboys or country manors in any of your stories?

No country manors, but a sexy Aussie “cowboy”. Will that do? (Well, hell yes!) His name is Toby Fletcher, known by everyone as ‘Fletch’. He’s a bit of a flirt but only because he’s never gotten over losing the love of his life, Toni. While
writing Fletch, I had the onerous task of staring at photos of Hugh Jackman in his ‘Australia’ role for inspiration…

Oh, Kerrie - your poor thing, having to look at HJ so often ...

Will you tell us about yourself and what genre(s) you love writing? 
 
I write contemporary women’s fiction as Kerrie Paterson. As yet unpublished, but trying hard. ☺ 
My first manuscript, Sisters, made it through to the top ten of the 1st round of the RWA’s Emerald Award this year, so that has given me hope that I’m heading in the right direction. I love writing about women and their relationships with their friends and families, not just their romances.  We all need a BFF, right?

 Right. And making it to the top ten is no mean achievement Ms Paterson. Congratulations!

I’m outnumbered in my home in the gorgeous Hunter Valley, NSW – living with my husband, pre-teen son, and demanding cat – all male. I fit writing in between home-schooling my son, driving him around to activities, running my website design business and being keeper of the family knowledge (aka ‘Mum, have you seen my footy shorts / book / nerf gun?’ etc.).  In my spare time, I’m a yoga student and avid reader, and have recently started a geocaching obsession.

(Nobody tell Kerrie that I had to look geocaching up, okay? I’m pretty sure by the intro I gave her that she’ll believe I knew exactly what she was talking about .)
 
My ‘alter-ego’ is also a busy volunteer for the RWA. I’m the webmistress and on the committee.
 
Seriously ,Kerrie - thank you for all you do on behalf of every RWA member, potential member or general browser who takes a look at Romance Writers of Australia (RWA) website. You do an amazing job.

What writing project did you put aside to answer these questions?

To be honest, what I should be working on is Elsie’s Place, a companion book to Sisters. I finished the first draft during 50Kin30days, and now have to go back and layer and add conflict. I’m hopeless at conflict – just ask my wonderful CPs,
SE Gilchrist and Juanita Kees!

What I’m actually working on is the new website for the RWA to be launched at conference.  (How smart is she?) That hasn’t left me much time for writing!

I bet it hasn’t… What are books for? 

Books are a way to travel without leaving your armchair, a way to experience other lives, walk in someone else’s shoes and a way to learn. Books let you fear for your life, fly to the moon, fall in love.

And while I love the convenience of the eReader, to me, I much prefer the feel and smell of a paper copy.

Will you name one entity you feel supports you outside of family members?

Well, obviously, I have to say the Romance Writers of Australia! The friendships, support and knowledge I have gained since I joined three or four years ago has taken me from someone who had a dream to write, but no skills, to being serious
about my writing career.

But  on a more day-to-day level, I have to also say my face-to-face writer’s group, Hunter Romance Writers - http://hunterromancewriters.wordpress.com/.

I was very fortunate several years ago when I’d decided to chase after this dream of ‘writing a book’, and was returning Valerie Parv’s The Art of Romance Writing to the library. The librarian looked at the book and asked me did I know there was a romance writing group meeting at the library each month? She gave me the details, a few months later I very nervously arrived at the meeting and found some new best friends! This group keeps me going with encouragement, goal-setting, workshops, and lots of laughter. I think I would have given up very early on if it wasn’t for these ladies – and best of all, they understand me ☺

Fabulous story - obviously meant to be, Kerrie.

So therefore - Do you see writing as a career?

Yes, I do, in the long term. I’m happy to keep plodding away at the moment, honing my skills and cementing the habit of showing up in the chair to write. But in the next few years, my dream is to be writing as a career.

Go Kerrie! 

You’ve got the best attributes already – you’re caring, you’re savvy, you like looking at Hugh Jackman and I think you were shown a way to your writing buddies and RWA for a reason, but most importantly, you have enthusiasm for yourself, your family - and you see writing as your career.

 Thank you so much for visiting my blog. I hope to have Sisters on my TBR pile very soon.
 
(See you at the Nautical or Nice (costume) Cocktail Party at the RWA annual conference next week– I’ll be the one in the pirate costume - what are you going as?)

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Here’s where you can find and follow the lovely, generous and inspiring Kerrie Paterson and her novels, Sisters and Elsie’s Place:

http://kerriepaterson.com/

Feel free to leave a comment or ask Kerrie a question, we'd love to hear from you!

Jennie & Kerrie

PS
Kerrie – when you get the time, can you please do some more Friday Funnies on your blog? The more the merrier! 

PPS
If you’re an aspiring writer reading this, you might like to check out Romance Writers of Australia too.