Transcript
Speaker: Today we are interviewing one of my favorite authors. She has written Dystopia Light, rewritten fairy tales, has a Beowulf-inspired adventure, and has also dipped into time travel.
Speaker: Welcome to Mythic Mirror, the podcast for lovers of myth and fantasy who want to live magical and fulfilling lives. I'm your host, Mary C. Kehoe. And I'm your co-host, Carolina Carter. And we are very happy to welcome to the show, Kate Stradling. Kate, welcome.
Speaker: Thank you. It's fun to be here. Yeah, we were so excited you said yes. um I've been reading The Air and the Spare this week, um and i am absolutely delighted. I want just wanted to say, usually it takes me a while to get into a book, and this one, I just, like, right away, i was it was so enjoyable, and i was so, like, in it.
Speaker: Good. Thank you. yeah So I wanted to start with some broader questions and then get into more book related questions. So first off, what would you say are the themes of your body of work?
Speaker: Generally, themes characters who are looking for where they fit in the world. There are like there are a few like just random themes that I always find in my stuff where like the government is always lying.
Speaker: It's not always a malicious lie, but they're always lying. So it's like a distrust of authority and um just looking beyond the surface of what people say versus what they actually do.
Speaker: I hadn't realized that pattern. And that's funny because I have that in in the book that I'm publishing right now. I have the same thing. And in the book we're reading for our book club right now, it's the same thing. The government is lying.
Speaker: I wonder why. i wonder why that's such a prevalent theme. ah Strange. I couldn't say. It's been lying for generations. Who knows? Right. I think it's just the nature of power structures. Yeah. yeah So how does your experience ah writing a fairy tale retelling differ from when you're writing an original, well, all of your work is original, but, you know, not based on a fairy tale?
Speaker: Rewriting a fairy tale for me is a very different process than coming up with an original story. It's it's more of an academic. I don't think that sounds really pretentious. It is more of an academic exercise to where um every time I've rewritten one, it was it was learning something about story craft. I was taking a an already established framework and teaching myself how to of kind of make a certain part of it shine. Right. So, um, I don't know if you want examples, but, um, yeah if you have been
Speaker: i like all of them, like Brian and bone is a little mermaid retelling and it was exploring point of view and perspective and how a story could be perceived differently based on, who is the focal character The same with That's the Beggar Prince as well. I was i was delving more into that. I have three King Threshbeard retellings, and so they all have different things that they're looking at. So one of them is character motivation that's made in Minstrel. It's like, because the original King Threshbeard is a really...
Speaker: It's not my favorite, right? like it It's a difficult fairy tale because you've got a really snotty protagonist. And so when I did it for Maiden Minstrel, I was looking at what motivations could justify her behavior. And that kind of carried through to the other...
Speaker: retellings as well but that one specifically I was exploring character motivations the I did an urban fantasy novelette that was exploring setting and how setting can be how we can take the same framework and put it in a different setting and it still has those echoes that that are familiar but but then still fit within an urban fantasy setting, like ah a modern setting. And then the beggar prince, again, it was it was a perspective exploration to see how much the story would change if it's told from kind of the, i mean, the King Threshbeard character is kind of the antagonist almost when you read the original tale, even though they end up together.
Speaker: um And then Soot and Slippers, a Cinderella retelling. I was exploring in Medias Rest retellings, where exactly the best place to start a story was and how to balance what the reader already knows with...
Speaker: what the characters within the story know, because everyone knows Cinderella, right? You all come to the book knowing exactly what her character arc is going to be. And so how it it was my exploration of how to um like kind of exploit reader expectations to be able to tell her story and still have a fresh um view to it. And I don't know if I've succeeded with all of these. It's just been amazing.
Speaker: Again, it's like a laboratory where you have a controlled environment. You already have the framework of the story. You can go in and tweak the little bits and see what works and what doesn't and go back and rework and see how um how the story changes and how you remain true to it, and whether it still maintains that essence that made it so iconic in our culture. Whereas when you're writing original, it's like...
Speaker: I guess, keeping with the science metaphor, it's like being out doing field work and just kind of the sky's the limit. You can bring in you know, if you want to explore one thing or another. It's, it's, you have so many choices with original work that sometimes it gets overwhelming. There's there's a comfort in writing fairy tales when,
Speaker: when the decision fatigue sets in with the original story. Yeah, that does bring me to a question I'd meant to ask you of just like, what really sparks that idea for you when you're doing a fairy tale like that? And is there, how much of the story do you discover as you're writing it? Or when, or do you have it all when that idea first sparks? Yeah.
Speaker: So normally with a fairy tale retelling, the idea sparks from something I don't like with the story. um And it's, it's that kind of mental analysis, like how can I reconcile this? So with the little mermaid, it's that every retelling saves the mermaid, um but the original doesn't. So, I mean, and of course I'm,
Speaker: like i was I'm an 80s baby, so my first encounter with it was not the Disney version. It was the Hans Christian Andersen. I grew up knowing that the mermaid was supposed to die in the end. and and having to i mean Of course, when I was little, I was enthusiastic that the mermaid got saved. and As I got older, it was like, no, he wrote it that way for a reason. Why would he write it that way? How can I reconcile telling a story that I can openly love without
Speaker: um kind of, what's the word? Desecrating the original. Not the other retellings are desecrating the original, but but how can I honor the original still and not have that deep melancholy at the end of it? And so...
Speaker: like That's where that one came from. With Cinderella, it was the criticism of her just you know looking for someone else to save her. like She's sitting around waiting for a man to save her, and she's sitting in this bad situation, and why doesn't she leave? and That was the instigating, like why wouldn't she leave? why Why would someone stay in an abusive situation?
Speaker: um And in in the case of my story, she doesn't recognize it as an abusive situation. And I think that's very true for real life as well. And so it's things like that. So just it sparks from typically with fairy tales, it sparks from a dissatisfaction. hmm. Yeah, I was going to mention um your Little Mermaid retelling because I actually had mentioned it in our episode about fairytale retellings and the fact that you chose to keep that original ending. And it definitely lends or it keeps a a depth and it brings up some philosophical and and even spiritual questions with that ending, which I really like. And and then with Cinderella, i
Speaker: I love what you did there with, and I won't give away any spoilers, but the, what, what she goes through and and what she realizes and how, ah just how you wove together what makes her stay and, and the, um,
Speaker: Yeah, just that there's a bit of ah a surprise for her in in that book. And um I really, i really enjoyed it. Yeah, i do I didn't have a question because you answered it. But I did have a question about just how you got started writing. And i did read that there was a time where you kept your writing fairly private. um And just curious, what was behind that for you? And when did you start feeling comfortable really owning the title of fantasy writer?
Speaker: it was ah It was a long journey. So I started writing when I was 13. And it was an escape. I try to be really careful about how I talk about this. i m
Speaker: could not cope with my life. um and writing was a refuge for me. and And I'm careful about saying that because it's not like I was in a terrible situation. It's just that ah
Speaker: I just, on every social circle I had, I felt isolated. And so originally I took my refuge in books, in reading, and then i stopped being able to find things that interested me book-wise, or maybe that was the original dissatisfaction, right?
Speaker: Like um fantasy in particular. My first fantasy series was that I read was Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prudane, and that's kind of a high I've been chasing ever since. I was in fifth grade, and it was...
Speaker: kind of the perfect series for that point in my life and um I don't this is bad i don't read a lot of fantasy because of how how much that particular series affected me and I read a lot of his other stuff and I've i've obviously read a ton of fantasy um but that was my my original my high and um when i So when i start decided to try to write my own stuff, I automatically gravitated towards fantasy because that was such a strong impact on me.
Speaker: And... I didn't feel confident in sharing it. i was doing it again as a refuge. I was doing as an escape so that I didn't have to be caught up in my own thoughts and in my own, um, disappointments with the world.
Speaker: And so anytime i started getting worked up over anything, um, I would kind of retreat into writing instead.
Speaker: and um
Speaker: i I don't say this lightly. it It saved me from a lot of self-harm. And it was very much a a safe space for me as I worked through adolescence and into adulthood. I was in my 20s before I admitted to people that I was writing. So it was something that was kept very private. And I didn't ever intend to publish anything. it's It's never been my goal to be a published writer.
Speaker: and So I had to like step by step ease into all of this. And I'm really sorry, guys. i'm like, oh no, you're suddenly turned leaky. No, that is fine.
Speaker: I think your answer will, I think it, I know it resonates with both of us and I know it'll resonate with our listeners as well. I think there's definitely a type of, person who often runs into, you know, those disappointments and that feeling of isolation. And, and a lot of us find the find that refuge in fantasy. So I think that's one of the reasons so many of us love each other's books and, and continue to find connection through fantasy books, because we're all the same type of person finding each other through literature.
Speaker: Right down to the Lloyd Alexander books. I mean, that is specific. So speaking of a conversation through literature, i wanted to bring up and talk a little bit about your book Death Mark and how it is...
Speaker: a kind of a love letter to the blue castle, um, by Ellen Montgomery. When I was reading it, I could just feel the resonance uh, the blue castle is also one of my favorite books. So i was just like, Oh, she has to have read the blue castle. This has to be like a, echo you know, purposeful echo. And, uh, So then when I got to the end and read your afterward, I just felt so, it really felt like I was in a conversation with you and Ellen Montgomery just through, you know, the decades. So that was very cool. So um do you want to talk a little bit about how that book came into being? So the Blue Castle, I went i went through an Ellen Montgomery phase as a reader where
Speaker: right after I read Laurel Alexander, in fact. um I went right into my Ella Montgomery phase and she was basically like, ah I read everything that I could get my hands on from her, even down to a lot of the short story collections, which she has a ton and I have not read them all because they became very repetitive after a certain point. But, um and i I would reread her stuff, but the ones that I read reread most were the Emily books and the Blue Castle. And it was just one of my absolute favorite, um again, that, that, that search for belonging that the main character of that book goes through. um,
Speaker: and And just, yeah. So then when I got the idea for it, um, to like a lot of my inspired by books come with what if this were in fantasy? And so the, um,
Speaker: the diagnosis that happens at the beginning of Blue Castle. What would a you know death diagnosis look like in fantasy? What's a scenario that could? And so for me, it was instead of a heart condition, my main character has a a magical plague that she gets struck with. and And instead of submitting...
Speaker: to treatments. She's like, heck, if I'm going to die, I'm going to live my life how I want and and sort of sets out on that adventure in the same way that the heroine from Blue Castle does.
Speaker: I don't know if her name is pronounced vi lancy or Valancy from Blue Castle. I always said Valancy and then I was talking about it with someone and they called her Valency. And so I'm always very hesitant now to say her name out loud. I've always said Valency. Yeah, me as well. Valency. Okay, so then there's another one. Yeah.
Speaker: Mary and I do this all the time, though, as like on the podcast, too, we'll be ah talking, will be like, Valancy. How do you say it? Yeah. Or you don't even think like that, like you, or you don't even think there's a question and then Caroline will say a name. yeah like Wait, that's not how I've been pronouncing it. I just rhymed it with Nancy, Valancy. So I don't know. It's just an unusual name and that's part of her character. yeah Which is the opposite of mine because I named my character Nell and she intentionally has a dull name. so
Speaker: That's a not unlike, can i can I talk about your character's names at Elmery? Are we not? Oh, yeah, yeah. You have a quite quite the name for your main character. to Care to share?
Speaker: Oh, um yeah. My main character's name is Doris in the beginning and um it doesn't stay that way. Yeah. Which I feel like I have to say like on the back of the book, like, and she gets a new name. So many books have like these very heroic names for their, for their main characters, especially the girls. And so I didn't want anyone to like put the book that Doris, I'm not gonna read a book about Doris.
Speaker: I'd read a book about Doris. Thank you. Come on. And actually, I found out after I wrote it, after I picked that name, or that name, you know, picked itself, um that it is actually Greek. It's a Greek name for a water nymph, which totally works with her character. So it's it's cool, even when it isn't cool.
Speaker: Right? I think there's something charming about taking names that we wouldn't necessarily... cleave to and creating a character out of them. That's one of my favorite things to do. So that's why I have a heroine named Alberta.
Speaker: Do you ever have that with books where you're reading it and you just disagree for a while and then you'll agree? Like, um for some reason, I have a really hard time with blonde male protagonists where they'll be like, and his blonde hair. And I'm like, no, it didn't.
Speaker: No, it's not. He recast him as the net. He walked in wearing leather pants and I'm like, he do we did not do that. We are ignoring that. That just happened to me. Someone, I can't remember which book it's in, but it said something about, it was the the main guy and it said something about his bangs. And I was like, no, no. His bangs did nothing.
Speaker: This man does not have bangs. He has a fringe hanging artfully in his eyes. Yes, exactly. Because then you're like, yeah are we going with like emo fringe or like full bang? yeah It's like the little half one across the forehead, little monk's fangs. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: You know, I couldn't think of a good option. so yeah or I'll have like a very specific layout in my head and the sequel will say something new about the house. and It'll be like the window over the kitchen sink. And I'm like, well, now I have to redo the whole house. I didn't have a window over the sink.
Speaker: But that's my problem. I've realized that anytime i am any time I imagine a tavern with an inn, or an inn with a tavern, it's always the same layout. Like the stairs are always in the same place. And like other the details change with the book. But like it so I just have one inn in my head.
Speaker: I think I've been able to adapt. So I definitely have trends towards that where I have my my template settings, right? And you just automatically do that. But um because in writing, I try to readt template stuff. I don't want to describe the same type of room, the same type of... so um i I've become more adaptable when reading books with allowing others to make their narrative choices and not cursing them for it. Yeah, that's wise. Very wise. So speaking of unique ah settings, your latest book, which is called Yes, Your Serpentine Excellency. It has a different it's a different time period than a lot of fantasy books are in. And it has a dragon and it's ah just a really fun book. So would you like to talk a little bit about that one?
Speaker: It was a hard time. I fought against the setting on that one. I'll be honest. um The original spark for that story was a forced proximity trope and it doesn't entirely fit the bill because my forced proximity comes with caveats where it's not necessarily forced um but as i was thinking about these different characters and where to put them what time period to put them in i've written a lot of like
Speaker: pre-industrial sort of settings. And I just kept picturing my main character riding a bicycle. And that's really difficult to do in a medieval setting like or in a Renaissance setting in a like...
Speaker: early eighteen hundreds setting, right? it's You associate bicycles with, there's going to be trains and not necessarily cars yet, but they're on the cusp. There's going to be gas power, coal power, cold power you know. um industrial they just they just came along later on the technology scale. And so the the mental image of her riding a bicycle would not go away. And I was finally like, heck with it. 1910s. We'll just go for the aesthetic, but not, not cars. They don't have those. and yeah Everyone's still riding around in carriages.
Speaker: That's so funny. Does that happen often to you where the characters or the story surprises you and just keeps going a certain way and you're like, you you ah have to sort of meet it where it's at?
Speaker: Yeah, I'm an intuitive writer, so i have almost entirely given up on outlining. i do I do macro outlines. So i i have I call it a roadmap where I know certain things I have to hit along the way. But um i don't necessarily know the route that I'm going to take to get there. And if I try to map it out with any sort of detail, there's a detour and it veers off somewhere else. And then I have to, yeah. So I learned fairly early in the process that the stories often...
Speaker: have lives of their own. And it's it's just that like you would get into a scene and something more interesting, you have one ending in mind, but then something more interesting pops into your head like, oh, but what if this happens? And of course you have to explore that, right? Like you can't just, I like it because it it keeps the yeah,
Speaker: It keeps it alive for me to where I'm not, I don't just feel like I'm filling out a form that i've already templated. right Right. Yeah. I am the exact same way. I'll be writing and go, huh?
Speaker: Wow. Okay. That happened. I wonder what that means down the road. ah That's going to change things. but there's some random detail that you include and you're like, why is that there? And then it has meaning later on. was your brain circles back to it and says, hey remember that little detail we put in? It would be really useful here. and it's just fun. It's like you're creating and solving a puzzle at the same time. Yeah.
Speaker: It's like the world is building itself and you're just putting the pieces together. Yeah. That's really cool. Yeah, it's fun. You had described this most recent book as a bit of an outlier for you. Is it what we were just talking about with the setting or was there more to the outlier-ness of it all? um The tone of it is a bit more, i guess, comical. it's It's more screwball comedy influenced. then and i've I've written things where I'm like, this is meant to be lighthearted or humorous. Yeah.
Speaker: But it's, this one I feel like is more, it's just more bantery, more screwball comedy sort of vibes with it.
Speaker: So the setting, the the vibes, the the main character, i think my protagonist is late 20s and I usually write younger protagonists, but where's the fun in that? We've got to have some variety in life. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: So she's she's a bit more established in life, a knows herself a lot better than a lot of my other protagonists do. So there were just a number of things when I was setting it up. And she has cats. I don't think that I've written cats into any of my published books before. Yeah.
Speaker: I know I have some in my unpublished work, but um this one, yeah, the cats kind of took over in some places. I was listening because the audio book came out a couple weeks ago and I was listening to part of it and I was like, i did I put too much cats in here?
Speaker: Cats have a tendency to take over wherever they go. It's not your fault. Yeah. Yeah. So was this one, was it comedic from the beginning or was that sort of a surprise to you? And part two of that question, was there a part that you had the most fun writing?
Speaker: It was definitely comedic from the beginning. Just the setup of it was a main character who's not afraid of anything because it's impossible for her to get stuck somewhere against her will.
Speaker: And a hero who's cursed but doesn't mind being cursed because it's He can deal with it. And so that's just kind of a ah silly setup to begin with.
Speaker: Yeah, I don't remember the second half of your question. That's fair. it but it didn't have any like connection to the first half. It was just something I wanted to get out before I forgot it. But that was just... Oh, no. and Did you have a part that you had the most fun writing while you were writing that book? Oh, the most fun writing. Okay. All right.
Speaker: I really enjoyed writing The the Spoiled Prince. And he's like the worst. But I enjoyed writing the terrible characters in this one.
Speaker: it was just... It was fun to write like without abandon. Usually I try to temper. um i try not to be too mean. I have a really, really cynical, sarcastic st street and that streak. And I try not to let it come out too much in the writing. Because I don't want people to be like, ah she's so mean.
Speaker: But I let it come out a lot more in this one. And it was just, it was just fun. It was like, A form of therapy to it's always a form of therapy to write the characters that just have no mental filter.
Speaker: Right. And they just... And then they get their comeuppance for having no mental filter. and We just finished reading the Devabad trilogy. And we talked about how we loved that in that, in those books, the high priest is actually a genuinely good person. And you have a character like that in this book where the archbishop is a genuinely good, wise person. So um would you like to talk a little bit about him and how he came into being?
Speaker: Yeah. Um, so the archbishop in this, when I was, i have a really big thing about religion, not being portrayed as like the sinister evil. There can be people within it that are making poor choices or abusing their power, but i don't, I don't like the kind of, I feel like it's very cliche to have, Oh, and the church is the behind it all. Right. Um,
Speaker: however much that may have been true in different periods of time throughout history. I just don't like that particular messaging. And so when I was formulating the world for this book and setting up my magic system and trying to find a check for it to keep it in balance, the good obvious choice was religion. But so then I approached it from...
Speaker: from the angle that it was a living religion. So the Archbishop in my book is not magic. He doesn't have any sort of magical abilities, but he's able to, because of his office, sense, like he's he's able to, um,
Speaker: sense the magic in others, right? Like he's able to help them, he's able to alleviate curses, but it's because of his priesthood, not because of his magic. But because that's a living faith, that means that he has to be a good person, because he's a representative of God. And so if he ends up being mean or and nasty to anyone, he's no longer got his authority, he's no longer got his discernment. And um and so that that just automatically crafts a type of character that's going to be just very kind to everyone, despite what their walk of life is, and and just kind of leaving judgment to a higher power instead of enacting it himself. Hmm. And I love how you have religion and magic not being at war with each other, even though yeah when you go to the holy, you know, the hill and it's holy ground, yeah magic doesn't work there, but it isn't an antagonistic relationship. It's like, oh, you can have a reprieve from all the, you know, because in this book, magic has a cost. So it's a it's like a balance rather than an enemy. Yeah. And I think we've all read books where it's,
Speaker: magic versus religion and i mean and of course that's culturally there's the whole witchcraft versus faith um dialogues that have happened throughout the centuries but i just when i set up a system of power um It has to come from a pure source. And so my world building had them magic and faith coming from the same origin point.
Speaker: And that's why they're symbiotic. he Yeah, I love that. That's great. So I have one more question about, we mentioned time travel in the beginning. So I wanted to talk a little bit about Namesake. And it is very different from your other books. I mean, I feel like all of your original works are very, you know, not based on a fairy tale, it are are very different from each other, which I really like. It's like exploring ah a very different world. But this one specifically,
Speaker: uh starts in kind of a modern it's like our our time maybe a little in the future I'm trying to remember yeah it's basically contemporary yeah right right and then she doesn't know if she's in a different time period or on a different planet or what has happened what was what was your first inspiration for that book uh I wanted to write a portal fantasy um and That was, i mean, that was really the the starting point was like, oh, so what, where would this portal go?
Speaker: Back in time is the obvious. And then ah I don't remember what, because it's been a long time. Originally, it was going to be a novella, very short there and back again, just this gal finding her place in the world, as is my...
Speaker: um So her being able to address her teenage angst through this adventure back in time and then being able to return kind of completed where she had previously been broken.
Speaker: and that was that was the original goal. And it... I had a critique group at the time that was like, ooh, this isn't a novella. You're you're going flesh this out properly. So it turned into a a much bigger adventure than i was originally anticipating. It's written way out of scope.
Speaker: um I was also... Like, it was also... So it's written in first person, present point of view, which is not my favorite. I like it better now that i've I've written with it. I generally gravitate towards third person. And I used to openly state my hatred of first person. and And as I was approaching this story, I was like, okay, if I'm going to openly hate something, I need to actually understand it and and do it. And so this was my exploration of that as well and how to
Speaker: Like how to how to recognize the value of a first-person protagonist.
Speaker: and And I do. i I really did grow to to understand it a lot better. And I think just prior to that, I had encountered a lot of and not as consciously written first-person...
Speaker: like
Speaker: I can go off into my philosophy on it, but it's it's like the easy insight into a a character's head, right? Like you're in their head and you you automatically sympathize with them. But I didn't automatically sympathize with a lot of first person characters. And so when I was writing and Jenny, it was...
Speaker: I made her abrasive on purpose because that's the whole point of having the first person is like she, if it were written in third person, she would be insufferable. i don't, I think readers would have hated her. I think I would have hated her, but because it's a first person um and you're getting everything from her perspective, and you know exactly how she feels from moment to moment and why she feels that way. i think it makes her a lot more sympathetic and that, um,
Speaker: that really resolved my own dislike of that point of view to where, don't know, I enjoy it a lot more. I don't necessarily write in it as much, but I do enjoy it a lot more.
Speaker: Well, I would say you you were successful with that one. I i loved it. And ah yeah, I was trying to, I guess she is abrasive, but it all made sense as to why she was doing it. That's the cheat code. Yeah. Yeah. And I have read other books where, and especially when, and maybe this is just showing, you know, that I'm not a young adult, but in some of the young adult, sometimes the character, I just want to just shake them. Why are you making your life so hard? but i would say I would say with namesake, it and all of her choices felt like not only did you understand, but you you agreed like, yeah, this is intense. and And yeah, you probably should do it that way.
Speaker: Mission accomplished. Yeah. That is something that makes me feel not old per se, but older is reading books and the protagonist gets very upset about something and I'm like, I don't know that I'd be that upset about it. I don't think it was that big a deal. Right. Yeah.
Speaker: Yes. Co-measurement. yeah like Yeah. I wouldn't be that bad at him. wow but He's your dad. Talk to him. It's fine. Great. Yeah. Yeah, try communicating. it's It actually works. I did want to ask just, you've obviously written a lot.
Speaker: um I personally feel like there's a lot of pressure on authors now to do a lot of the social media and be present online. And I am just wondering what you do to sort of balance that and protect what made you fall in love with writing in the first place. I have I guess, the dubious blessing of being skeptical of writing.
Speaker: putting stuff online. yeah So I always think twice before making any sort of online accounts. I'm on Facebook and Instagram, but I'm not posting there a ton. I think this last week or the last couple of weeks, because I had um i had the audiobook coming out for serpentine that i needed to post and but normally it's not like that i i get an idea like oh i should post something and it's like no one wants to hear from me so i'm just kind of write it off like i just go back to writing they only want hear from when you have something to announce
Speaker: that's true um i don't have good balance i don't give a lot of my my personal process or my detail like my life details online just because i i do err on the side of caution with how much i'm going to be sharing to a general audience but my more i'm more open in my newsletter um And when I was blogging more ah regularly, I'd be more open there. But don't know. It's just there's there are limits on what you can post, right? Like I'm not going to put my family...
Speaker: out you know I'm not going to talk about anyone's health issues or right like the things that are happening around me and my life is pretty boring and just very steady stable right now knock on wood because I don't want that to change but it's it's like I I would just be posting the same thing every day and that's just a repeat of content so um I just really only post when I have information that i feel is of value to people.
Speaker: I would argue that that's excellent balance. I think that's yeah i think that's amazing. Yeah, having to do, I'm in the middle of trying to do but a bit more of a social media push, and I had been completely off, like zero social media at all for years. So then trying to like throw myself back into it, it is, it's draining. And then, yeah,
Speaker: Yeah, because I don't want to post about my everyday life or my family and and personal things. So you're trying to think of something creative that people might want. And then you're like, well, now all of my creativity is going to this instead of writing books. i don't want to be a content creator. I want to be a writer. Yes, exactly. The energy is better spent in the draft than it is in the image creation software process.
Speaker: But, you know, that could change any day. i could i could, like, just randomly start posting about. i'm I'm redoing my office right now. So I'm like, I could have a series of posts about all the different changes I'm making.
Speaker: It's just too slow. It's happening way too slow. It's like, it would be a month later and they'd be like, she's still on this. Why this is this done? This is real life, eat it up. Yeah, you take four pictures now and then yeah later. When it's all done, you can be like, here, and now that's one post, what do I do next? Right, exactly. Well, to finish us off here, um i we love to ask people about if there's anything that you take from your creation of fantasy or reading fantasy that adds beauty or wonder or joy to your everyday life? That's such an interesting question. like um Because I mean, I talked about it was my refuge and my original refuge. And so for me, I have joy in my current life because I had that refuge to navigate me through darker times. The
Speaker: the
Speaker: One of the benefits I think of writing fantasy is that it lets you see the world in layers. It keeps your curiosity open and you can see joy in small things, um in in the the things that are real and the things that could be real if a what if happened. And so but just, it kind of colors everything in everyday life That's beautiful.
Speaker: Well, so since you're not on social media very much, where can people find you? Can they sign up for your newsletter? Would that be the best thing? um So they can follow me on Facebook or Instagram. I don't tend to cross post.
Speaker: and And you can, my newsletter, I do put out once a month. And there's a sign up on my website. There's a little, you know, sign sheet. It's double opt in. yeah.
Speaker: I try not to abuse that mailing list. I mean, not that once a month would be, but I'm always like, should I send out an email for the new release? No, they'll get it once a month, right? So um that is probably the most consistent place to hear from me is my newsletter. All right, great.
Speaker: We will have a link to your website in the show notes. And Carolina, do you have any more, anything else to add? i have like a hundred more questions, but but mostly just thank you so much for coming onto our podcast and talking with us. And um I'm just, I personally am so excited because I just started reading your books. So I i just am excited to read them all.
Speaker: Thank you. I'm so grateful to have been here you guys are You guys been great. Thank you. Real quick, I almost forgot. Our spark of the week. So at the end of our episodes, we like to just give ah something that sparked joy in us this week.
Speaker: Carolina, do you have a spark of the week? Right across from where I work, this company opened up like a sparkling tea beverage situation, B12 energy drinks. It's rocking my world.
Speaker: I have more energy than I've ever had my life. There's no way I'm going to crash or this will have any negative effects later. yeah That counts, right? Yeah. Sparkling joy. Kate, how about you? So I'm in Arizona, the land of the boiling sun, and we had the most gorgeous monsoon yesterday. It was just like...
Speaker: it was It was actually a really terrible one. like it It blew over a lot of stuff. But I love the sheets of rain coming down because we don't have them very often. It was just ah it was a beautiful, beautiful storm.
Speaker: Destructive, but beautiful. That brought me a lot of joy. I'd like to change my answer because that's a way better answer. No, B12 shots are good.
Speaker: Yeah, we're in Montana, so ah we definitely understand the love of rainstorms. We've got one coming in right now. Mine is that, ah was it yesterday morning? I was watering my little wildflower garden, and I hear a noise right next to me, and a hummingbird came up and flew and just hovered right at eye level.
Speaker: And it was funny because I saw it and was like, oh, I don't want to scare it. So I started like slowly backing this way. And the hummingbird realized I was there and slowly flew backward
Speaker: and like slowly went behind a tree. like you just like, if we just back up, no one will know. Kate, thank you so much. This has been amazing. And we would love to have you on again and continue this wonderful conversation. Thank you.
Speaker: I'd love to talk to you guys again. ya And as always, we are so grateful to be spiraling through this universe with all of you. It's not always easy, but no good story ever is.
