Waikanae author Cathy Kern releases new novel: My View of the Bright Moon

Cathy Kern with her novel. Photo / David Haxton

One December day, at a writer’s group in Illinois, Cathy Kern was instructed to write a compelling opening.

After years of being a motorcycle pillion passenger, she had imagined motorcycle crashes very vividly, so that’s what she wrote about.

That motorcycle crash piece became the opening to her new book, titled My View of the Bright Moon.

Since getting the idea for the book, Kern, who lives in Waikanae, started writing a chapter every month, and at each writer’s group meeting her fellow writers would read her writing.

Over the next three years, her book slowly grew, and at the end, she sent the manuscript to the writer’s group members – and Kern said it was incredibly helpful having them read her writing.

There was a great mix of responses. While some helped encourage her to continue, others challenged her technical skills and a few of them helped edit the final piece.

“They helped me grow as a writer – I now hear their voices in my head [whenever I’m writing].”

She said the biggest challenge when writing the book was that it took over her life – and she wrote for between 14 and 16 hours each day.

“I was thinking about nothing but this book.”

Another challenge for her was knowing when the book was done and when she could let it go, because “there’s always more you can say”.

Cathy Kern's book. Photo / David Haxton

“I’ve told people it feels a little bit like my firstborn.

“Once you have your toddler ready to go to preschool and you just cross your fingers, and you watch them go off, and they’re out of your hands – you just hope they do well.”

She’s had some really good reviews from people, with many telling her it feels as if the characters are alive.

Kern said she has observed over the years how men communicate, how they hurt, and how it doesn’t always reflect what’s going on inside.

“Having four brothers, I have a sense that men’s stories aren’t really told.”

Kyle and Joe, two fictional brothers, are men who are suffering the effects of growing up in a household grappling with addictions.

Another thing that inspired her book was her work in equine-assisted therapy.

After trying out equine-assisted therapy for the first time she discovered a passion for it and trained in it to better understand it.

“It was life-changing.”

Horses, and especially equine-assisted therapy, play a big part in the book, and she’s been told her way of writing it was well done.

“People tell me the writing was really descriptive.”

“That was something I really enjoyed doing – the descriptions to bring [the book] to life.”

The book is available online and you can see where to buy it at books2read.com/b/meqY5l