We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful W.D. Kilpack III. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with W.D. below.
W.D., thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
I’ve always been a storyteller. Before I could write, I would draw my stories. I remember drawing the starship Enterprise and the Battlestar Galactica, and others, and they would have epic battles, firing on each other. I would draw in the weapon blasts, then the explosions, then erase out the parts of the ships that were destroyed. When I got older, I started writing my stories and drawing them, so I originally wanted to be a cartoonist and create my own line of comic books. Then, when I was nine, I wrote a poem that my teacher, Ms. Adams, entered into a contest (without my knowledge). It won and was published, making it my first publication credit. Still, I wanted to be a cartoonist until I was 12, when my Language Arts and Gifted & Talented teacher, Mrs. Ferrin, told me to write a chapter in a book for every writing assignment in each class, rather than the assigned writing assignments. By the end of the year, I wrote my first fantasy novel, and I was set. I no longer wanted to be a cartoonist. I wanted to be a novelist. I knew I would have to make a living writing until then, so I pursued journalism, which expanded into public relations, then marketing, then technical writing, then proposal writing, before I finally published my first novel. All the while, I was freelancing, but it was a long road between when I got my first publication credit for my first novel… hundreds of publication credits… I stopped counting them.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am an award-winning and critically acclaimed internationally published writer, with works appearing in print, online, radio and television. My first three novels, Crown Prince, Order of Light, and Demon Seed each received the International Firebird Book Award, while Crown Prince and Order of Light received The BookFest Award. Both Demon Seed and Rilari were Editor’s Choice on BooksShelf and, previously, Order of Light was a Top Pick. My novella, Pale Face, received Honorable Mention from L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest. In total, my books have received 18 awards.
I would describe my fantasy novels as “realistic epic fantasy.” Magic is more subtle. The characters have doubts and everyday concerns, on top of the more traditional plot elements. As one podcaster put it, the characters are “living real lives, even though it’s fantasy.” The truth of the matter is, the best sci-fi and fantasy uses distortion and exaggeration to make the human condition that much more apparent. I like that.
I have been editor and/or publisher of 19 news and literary publications, both online and in print, with circulations as high as 770,000. I am a partner in Safe Harbor Films, LLC, where I do the screenwriting and oversee marketing.
I received both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Westminster College of Salt Lake City. As an undergrad, I double-majored in communication and philosophy, while completing the Honors Program. As a graduate student, I earned a master of professional communication with a writing emphasis. I was also a high-performing athlete, qualifying to represent the United States in Greco-Roman wrestling.
I was a communication professor and a nationally recognized wrestling coach for 25 years. I love to cook and have cooked nearly every type of food on the grill, although I also love non-grill cooking Cajun, Greek, and Italian food. I have been getting better with Asian cuisine, but there are differences involved that I am still working on mastering. I am happily married to my high-school sweetheart. I have five children, and helped raise five step-children. He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, where I continue to live.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Creation. I love coming up with characters and worlds, then breathing life into them. I love taking something and turning it on its ear, giving it a different look, a different perspective that people may not have considered. I love taking contradictions and making them work together. I love learning new things through my research. I love having people tell me the things they love about my books. I love it when people are mad at me because of things that happened in my books, because I love eliciting an emotional response.
So, all that said, the work itself is a reward. Having readers “get it” and appreciate it enough to reach out and tell me is just icing on the cake.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
It seems like my entire career has been built on pivots.
When I got on newspaper staff in high school, it was as the staff artist, then the advisor found out that I could write, told me to write a column, then I ended up writing stories, then I ended up being editor-in-chief.
My first job after getting my bachelors was as a graphic designer, then they saw how organized I was (compared to others in my department) and promoted me into management to do the same for the rest of the department, then to rework procedures in other departments.
My first job after getting my masters was as a technical writer. All of my training and experience was on a Mac, but I was given a PC and software to work with that I had never used before. After two days, I was up to speed. This was also about the time when the Internet was first starting to penetrate the business world, and the Tech Support Department wanted to post a page to handle the calls that they got repeatedly. Management questioned the feasibility of investing in it so, as a favor, I wrote a feasibility study for them to justify it. Then management came in and said, “We’re still so impressed with how fast you learned how to work with new software in the PC environment … now we want you to learn HTML programming to run the tech-support Web site.” So I did, and ended up adding webmaster to my list of jobs, which led to transitioning from technical writing in marketing. This was also during the telecom boom, which was a lot of fun but, when it crashed, it REALLY crashed.
So I shifted to the financial industry for more stability. I had to learn a new industry, but I did it. This was during the mortgage-refi boom, which was a lot of fun, but when it crashed, it REALLY crashed.
So I decided to shift to what was my supplemental income, teaching college, and focus there. It was stable, it was fulfilling, and I could be proud of what I was doing. (Which was not always the case, particularly when in marketing and I had to build tools to sell products/services that I did not believe in.)
Now, I hope I’m in my last pivot, where I can do what I have wanted to since I was 12, write my books, and finally get to live my dream.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kilpack.net/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wdkilpackiii/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wdkilpackiii/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-kilpack-84487a13/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/WDKilpackIII
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzT0orMdL12YwqEifT010Pg
- Other: Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/W.D.-Kilpack-III/e/B07TT3RQYT Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19339956.W__Kilpack_III
Image Credits
Alison Kilpack