Tag Archives: Where The Light is Hottest

Where The Light is Hottest Book Tour

Posted on by
Reply

The best thing about having your book published is the reception it gets. When the reviews start coming in and people tell you they read it and enjoyed it. That is gold. Where The Light is Hottest went on a blog book tour with Rachel’s Random Resources. I cannot recommend doing this enough. It’s a wonderful experience and the dedicated book bloggers and influencers make such a difference to the book community.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kim (@stratospherekawaiigirl)

An excerpt and introduction from Let Us Talk of Many Things.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 𝙑𝙞𝙠’𝙨 𝘽𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙃𝙖𝙫𝙚𝙣- 𝙇𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙡𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧87 (@littlemissbooklover87)

An interview with the amazing and supportive Honest Mum.

A piece in The Sunday Times all about my inspiration behind the book. Both print and online.

Writing about finding inspiration for A Knight’s Reads

Another great piece in Futures.

A great review on Bookmarks and Stages by Lou.

I wrote a guest post on persistence for Mai’s Musing.

Another review in Rambling Mads.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by CurlingUpWithaCoffeeandaKindle (@curlingupwithacoffeeandakindle)

Great review on Becca’s Book Ramblings.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Stephanie (@stephsbookland)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kelly P (@teaandbooks90)

Another great review on Portable Magic.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kim 🌈 Bookstagram (@duckfacekim09)

An extract and intro in Novel Kicks.

On finding inspiration on A Knight’s Read.

Another excerpt and introduction at Bookish Jottings.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by L.M.D (@thebookishhermit)

A fantastic review from Beyond The Books with the lovely Sharon.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kerry Foyle (@redhead_reviews1)

An interview at the Portobello Book blog.

Another great excerpt on Celticl Lady’s reviews.

A great review on Reading For Leisure.

Stacey-Ann Say shared an extract.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kirsty Whitlock (@bookwormwhitlock86)

#Giveaway plus #ThreeTwoOne quickfire questions with Catherine Yardley #author of Where The Light is Hottest | @rararesources @balavage
Wonderful Women Interview With Writer Catherine Balavage Yardley
Wonderful Women Interview With Writer Catherine Balavage Yardley

Becoming an Author Takes a Huge Amount of Talent. We Deserve Better Than AI and Piracy.

Posted on by
Reply

Last week, thanks to a fantastic article in The Atlantic, I found out that one of my books had been taken from a piracy site and used by Meta to train their AI. Seeing your book on a piracy site hurts a lot. It takes years to write a book. There is a huge amount of sacrifice. Of sleep, time spend with loves ones, and time spent with Netflix. Querying is hard and tough on your mental health. After all of that, your book can then die on submission. Then you have to write another book and start the whole thing from the beginning.

Where The Light is Hottest, Catherine Yardley, Balavage

Authors do not earn a lot of money. At last count the average was seven thousand pounds a year. If you worked out the hours we put in, it is below minimum wage. You have to really love it to be an author. The highs are liking nothing on earth and the lows are crushing.

@balavage It is hard being an author. I know this is a bit of a rant but please bare with me. Leave your comments below. #booktok#writertok#authortok#writingcommunity#authorscommunity#writing#publishing♬ original sound – Catherine Balavage Yardley

Being an author is as hard as any other career. Yes, it has a huge amount of benefits. Working from home, being creative and seeing your work out there in the world. But the work can be tedious. Reading the same book multiple times. Editing it so many times that you want to give up. Then you market it while writing your next one. It is the dream, it really is. Don’t get me wrong, but there is a lot of work involved. If you cannot afford books you can go to the library. Authors get paid when you borrow our books. There is also the Libby library app if you are not near a library. My two books, Where The Light is Hottest and Ember are both on kindle unlimited. I hate to be downer and I know how lucky I am. I feel privileged and happy every day, but please stop stealing our work. Especially if you are a trillion dollar company. We can only write if our books sell. Publishers will not give us contracts if they think we have no readers. Publishing is a business like no other. It is all about the bottom line. Thank you. Please share any comments below.

My First Acting Job Was on River City. I Am Sad to See it Go.

Posted on by
Reply

Scottish soap, River City, is sadly coming to an end. I got my first acting break on River City. I was an incredibly ambitious 18-year-old who had studied acting at college and was desperately trying to get as many auditions as I could. Auditions are hard to get so I was doing extra work to earn money and get some on-set experience.
An actor didn’t turn up and I was picked out alongside one other woman to audition for a small part with lines. I was the one who aced it, and got my first ever speaking role on TV, and the BBC no less.


The scene was in a cafe. I ordered a drink from Luca, the character that all of the women fancied. My heart was beating fast, and I was happy. Exhilarated. I knew this was a great credit to have. When the episode came out I watched it with my family. I was left with a feeling that anything was possible. A moment of luck gave me my first proper acting credit. In truth, these moments of luck, along with a huge amount of talent, work ethic and perseverance is they key to success in any creative career.


Seeing myself onscreen was a learning curve. I was a teenager with terrible roots, who needed her blonde highlights redone. I was wearing a coat that looked instantly unfashionable the moment I saw it on screen. I cringed when I saw myself, but I delivered my lines well.

The main character in my book, Where The Light is Hottest, is based on my own experiences. Unlike me, Natasha doesn’t quit when things are going well. She continues on going from small town Scotland to big time Hollywood. As acting books go, Where The Light is Hottest, is a no-holds barred, real and raw inside into what it takes to make it as an actor. My acting career was a wild ride that left me with a lifetime of stories. The highs were like nothing else, but the lows were crashing. All thanks to that moment on the set of River City. Thank you. The show is supposed to end in 2026, but people are protesting and there is a petition. Good luck, River City. Long may you burn bright.

Where The Light is Hottest, Catherine Yardley, Balavage


Where The Light is Hottest by Catherine Yardley is available on paperback from all good book stores and ebook.

Being an Author Is a Lot of Work. It’s The Love Of It That Gets Us Through.

Posted on by

At time of writing, my book, Where The Light is Hottest, came out yesterday. It has been a long time coming. It took me a long time to figure out how to write a good book. Writing a book is hard, but one that is readable? Really hard. Anyone who is trying to do that now, keep at it. You will get there in the end.

When you are lucky enough to become a writer the amount of time you spend writing can go down. I am busy marketing and doing publicity for the book. I am also on TikTok, Instagram, Threads, X, YouTube, Facebook and Bluesky. Phew! Then there are interviews, podcasts and articles to write for various publications.

@balavage My second novel, Where The Light is Hottest by Catherine Yardley, is out on Thursday. Here is 10 facts about me. If you have any questions, ask away! #booktok#booksbooksbooks#wherethelightishottest#book#writingcommunity#writersoftiktok#writingcommunity#writerscommunity#authorsoftiktok#authorlife#writertok#authorscommunity#booksworthreading♬ original sound – Catherine Balavage Yardley

While being an author is a lot of work I can say that it never feels like work. I love what I do. I love writing and I also love meeting people. The writing and book community are amazing.

My publisher is busy printing more copies of my book as they ran out of stock. There are only eleven copies left on Amazon. It is also available on kindle unlimited and on ebook. The blurb is below.

Natasha Jones has everything – a successful acting career, an Oscar, a wonderful husband and ‎beautiful kids. But what does she have to go through to get there? From humble beginnings in a ‎small town, Natasha’s path to stardom is paved with setbacks, heartaches and moments of doubt. ‎

In the glittering world of fame and fortune, where dreams are spun from starlight and ambition ‎fuels the relentless pursuit of success, one woman’s journey stands as a testament to the resilience ‎of the human spirit. Beneath the facade of glamour lies a story of unwavering determination and ‎unyielding courage. ‎

Where the Light is the Hottest is a gripping tale of ambition, perseverance and the enduring ‎power of hope. Through Natasha’s journey, we are reminded that the road to success is rarely ‎smooth, but for those who dare to chase their dreams, the rewards are beyond measure.‎

If this sounds like your kind of thing you can make my day and get a copy here. It already has a lot of five star reviews.

Diary of an Author In The Run Up To Publication.

Posted on by

My first fiction book, Ember, came out in 2022. As a baby author my overwhelm was helped by being part of a debut group. I was so grateful to become a published author that I was naive. It was a big rollercoaster of emotions as I tried to make my way. Before And After The Book Deal by Courtney Maum was a lifesaver. Full of great advice. It’s like having someone to hold your hand through a tough journey.

I am two weeks out from publication day on my second book. This is not a drill. Where The Light is Hottest will be out on February 27th. I am excited and stressed all at the same time. I wrote a piece about the book for The Sunday Times. I am also doing a good number of events and podcast interviews in the future.

I don’t think people realise how much work goes into being a writer. There are endless trips to the post office (over £17 to post four books. Yikes), interviews and an endless amount of emails. Months and years can go into the publication of a book. I signed the contract in July 2023. I wrote the first draft of the book nine years ago. I entered it into The Good Housekeeping writing competition. I was upset when it didn’t win but it wasn’t ready then. Nowhere near it. I finally got the book where I wanted it to be by reading other books with the same energy.

Where The Light is Hottest, Catherine Yardley, Balavage

Where The Light is Hottest is based on my experiences in the film industry. It has lots of gossip and backstabbing. It has female friendship and is a feminist tale of survival and what it takes to achieve your dreams.. The main character, Natasha Jones, is Scottish and some of the book is set in Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is also set in London, New York, LA and Gstaad. It is dual timeline, told from the past as Natasha makes it, alongside her friends Scarlet and Claudia from drama school, and in the present as people try to bring her down. She is a famous, Oscar-winning, actress and dark forces are at work. Spreading rumours and sharing stories about her to Popbitch. If any of this sounds like your thing you can preorder here: https://tinyurl.com/Where-The-Light-is-Hottest 

I will be writing a lot about author life. So keep an eye out for more.

Frost Editor in The Sunday Times Writing About New Book, Where The Light is Hottest

Posted on by

Frost editor, Catherine Balavage Yardley, has written a powerful piece for The Sunday Times on her experiences in the film industry. Where The Light is Hottest is based on the real experiences of Catherine and people that she knew. While the book is fiction, it gets to the heart of an industry which is both beautiful and tough. Historically, it hasn’t treated women well. Let’s hope things change.

Screenshot

The first review for Where The Light is Hottest is below. You can preorder it here. It’s out on February 27th.

Why am I so terrified?

‘Where the Light is Hottest’ is an uplifting but unflinching look at what it feels like for a woman to succeed as an actor. Protagonist Natasha is a wonderful creation: tough, passionate and loving in turn, fighting against a male-dominated hierarchy while surrounded by friends and family who are in turn supportive, dismissive and, all too often, downright poisonous in their readiness to betray Natasha and her dreams. I particularly liked her voice: ‘Being liked is overrated. You can’t take shit from people all the time so they’ll think you are likeable.’

As in Yardley’s earlier and equally readable book, ‘Ember’, torrid family relationships play an important role in ‘Where the Light is Hottest’. But I particularly enjoyed the focus on friendship, the struggle for success in a cut-throat, back-stabbing industry, and the fight for female empowerment. As one character says, ‘Do not doubt yourself, Natasha. They doubt us all the time. Be brave and put yourself out there knowing you are just as good as anyone else.’

I also learned a few terrific new words, including a ‘fashiongasm’ and a ‘floordrobe’. 

‘Where the Light is Hottest’ is a great, entertaining and ultimately joyful read. I thoroughly enjoyed its depiction of a woman’s fight for success in an environment where she never quite can relax. As Natasha says in an insightful moment: ‘My life has completely changed. It is everything I ever wanted. So why am I so terrified?’

Where The Light is Hottest, The Second Book From Catherine Yardley, Out in February. It’s Relevant In The Midst of Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni.

Posted on by

I have been holding this in for so long I thought I might combust. My new book, Where The Light is Hottest, is out soon. It is my second book after Ember which came out in 2022, but Where The Light is Hottest is actually the first book I ever wrote. It is based on my experience working in the film industry as an actor, casting director, producer and director.

I am very proud of this book. Especially since it took me six years to write and nine years to get it published. The book is dual timeline and is told through the past, as Natasha starts in a small town in Scotland, and in the present as a successful, award-winning actress. Now forces are trying to bring her down because of jealousy. She’s too rich, too successful and too beautiful. People are spreading rumours and starting a smear campaign. I found it fascinating that this book is coming out amidst the Blake Lively/Justin Baldoni drama. It seems that metoo part two is coming for Hollywood and this book covers the first one, up until the present day. If you loved The Comeback by Ella Berman you will love Where The Light is Hottest.

I hope you love this book as much as I did writing it. Let me know. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Natasha Jones has everything – a successful acting career, an Oscar, a wonderful husband and ‎beautiful kids. But what does she have to go through to get there? From humble beginnings in a ‎small town, Natasha’s path to stardom is paved with setbacks, heartaches and moments of doubt. ‎ In the glittering world of fame and fortune, where dreams are spun from starlight and ambition ‎fuels the relentless pursuit of success, one woman’s journey stands as a testament to the resilience ‎of the human spirit. Beneath the facade of glamour lies a story of unwavering determination and ‎unyielding courage. ‎ Where the Light is the Hottest is a gripping tale of ambition, perseverance and the enduring ‎power of hope. Through Natasha’s journey, we are reminded that the road to success is rarely ‎smooth, but for those who dare to chase their dreams, the rewards are beyond measure.‎

Where The Light is Hottest is out on 27th February. You can preorder it here.