All posts by katemcginn09
Winter’s Icy Caress Free on Amazon Until 10/22/17
#HelpPRchallenge
It’s hard to believe it has been 52 days since Hurricane Maria made landfall on the island of Puerto Rico with Category 4 winds. The hurricane was so large it covered the island leaving no area untouched by its destructive force. Puerto Ricans are in survival mode and spend hours each day procuring basic needs like clean water and food.
I am donating the proceeds of Exodus (Clare Thibodeaux Series, Book 1) from October through November to help in the Hurricane Maria relief efforts, and I encourage my readers to consider helping by donating through the various charities and relief funds to help with our fellow citizens on the long road to recovery. ~ Kate
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OMP Author Spotlight
Each week, the One Million Project spotlights member authors on their website. It’s a great way to discover indie writers and recently published books. Visit https://theonemillionprojectcom.wordpress.com/writers/ each week for updates.
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Update on My Works in Progress
This summer has been super busy for me, and I haven’t made as much progress as I’d planned and hoped on my current WIP’s–Never Show Your Hand (Clare Thibodeaux Series, Book 3) and Not Mama’s Little Girl, Anymore!
I have completed a short story for the upcoming three-volume One Million Project short story anthology for charity. I will continue to update you about when the books will be released. It is scheduled in the November to December 2017 time frame right now. They will be published by Dark Ink Press and will be available on Amazon.com.
Never Show Your Hand is approximately 11,000 words and I am working on Chapter Eight of the book. It has been more of a challenge for me because I am writing it from more perspectives than just Clare Thibodeaux’s. I wanted to offer an inside look at what the other main characters (Wyatt, Lee, and Shanaya) are feeling.
Writing from Clare’s point of view is fairly easy because I’ve been in her head for the past two years. Although I’ve been aware of the motivations of the other characters, it is a challenge to jump into their characters and bring their inner dialogues to the forefront. I think it’s turning out to be an exciting story with intrigue, hidden agendas, romance and those darn plot twists I love so much.
Not Mama’s Little Girl, Anymore! is a story about Natalie Parker. She’s a Southern girl with a bit of sass that she uses to hide a hearty dose of personal insecurity. Natalie has been featured in several of my short stories. Another writer suggested she might make for a good full-length book, so I’ve been working on her story as well.
I am weaving her short stories into a larger story in the ChickLit genre. I am 10,000 words into the book at this time. I will include a preview of the first chapter under the “Kate’s Books” tab. Bite-Sized Stories V. 2 is published on Amazon and includes the Natalie short story, “Mucking Around”. The new OMP anthology I mentioned earlier will include another Natalie short story entitled “Not Mama’s Little Girl”.
Thanks for reading! I’ll get busy writing!!
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On the Nature of Being by John Nedwill
Some writers will use their own names; others, including myself, use a pen name as a way to separate the private from the public persona. Both the writer and the private “Kate” aren’t very different from each other, but “Kate McGinn” gives the other me a little privacy which is hard to come by in a social media world. Thanks for the great blog and a different perspective on why you’ve chosen your alter ego.
Alright, it’s a bit of a pretentious title for a blog, but stay with me for the next few hundred words.
Take a look at the biographical details at the bottom of this article. You’ll notice that it is very sparse – almost no personal details beyond my name and a WattPad account. Compare it to some of the others who write blogs for the One Million Project. Lots of details in those. Now, given the current emphasis on social media and accessibility to readers, why would an aspiring author not want to be contacted? Why would they not want their readers to connect with them?
The answer in my case is simple. Privacy.
You see, I lead a double life. One of them is the ordinary life that everybody else leads – the life of work, responsibility and paying the bills. The other life I have is one of…
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A Distant Shore My Soul Calls “Home”
For the past two weeks, I have traveled across the Atlantic to the Emerald Isle–the land of my ancestors–and I hated to leave. Even now, I marvel at how hard it must have been for my grandparents to board a ship and say goodbye to their homeland. The economic and political conditions of their time were unbelievably difficult,
and like many others, they felt they hadn’t any other choice.
In two weeks, our travels took us to the far-reaching corners of the isle, but a lifetime would be too short a period to see everything which makes Eire a place one will never forget. I hiked the Dingle Peninsula, gazed in awe at the Cliffs of Moher,
and wandered castle gardens. I was giddy with happiness that I was fortunate enough to have another childhood dream come to fruition.
I gazed upon the long-empty homes of my Grandpa Thomas and my Grandma Elizabeth. I met many McGinn cousins who opened their hearts and their home to not only my husband and myself, but our friends who traveled with us. One of my cousins, after we were unable to connect in Galway City, drove across the island to County Monaghan so he could meet us.
Everywhere I 
looked I saw beauty. I didn’t need a filter to make the hillsides green or the sky a deeper blue. The ancient churches provided the texture and shadows for my black and white photos. I had a connection with this country deeper than the stories of my youth. It seemed innate to my very being. It was a siren song to my soul.
I longed to have my own little co
ttage in the country where I could sit outside and watch the cows and sheep graze on the neighboring hillsides. My father would have loved Ireland, and I wish he would have had a chance to go and see it. I am the first of his children to visit and I hope I won’t be the last.
I know I will return…
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LOSS OF A LOVED ONE
Poet Patsy Jawo writes a tender account of her personal journey with loss. #OMPwriter
Losing a loved does not just relate to the physical death of the body. It is also watching loved ones live through illness all the way up until they finally depart. During these times, we may cling to hope whilst at the same time knowing the inevitable could someday happen.
I lost a loved one to cancer in 2004 after 10 years living with it. I found the whole ordeal frustrating, found myself questioning God and even now in 2017 I still feel like I could not save him and often ask myself what if anything I did wrong? I don’t feel as much pain as I used to and though it may sound weird to say this, it was one of the best experiences of my life in terms of how it has helped to shape me and my views. I still cry sometimes but learned a lot from…
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OMP E-Zine Online
The summer issue of the One Million Project e-zine is out. Lots of stories, awesome cover and more about our authors and their new projects.
Kate McGinn - Storyteller 