We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Katrina Kittle a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Katrina , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I didn’t set out to be a writer until after I graduated from college. I initially trained as a dancer, then studied theatre. I was a threatre major for 3 years before being asked to join the Honors Tutorial Program in English at Ohio University. My poor parents–I went from dance to acting to writing. One “practical” pursuit after another! But they remained supportive and it’s all worked out. None of those studies were time wasted. Ballet taught me the incredible self discipline needed to write. Acting was great training in character development–much of characterization is the same, whether it’s going on the page or on the stage. But most importantly, dance and theatre are professions that focus on studying the craft, so when a story took hold of me that I wanted to write in novel form, I knew I needed to honor my apprenticeship. I knew I needed to immerse myself in the study of the craft of fiction. I’d spent time as an English major studying other people’s books, and that was great training, too, but I dove into learning how to write my own story. The most important thing I did was start drafting the story right away, knowing it was a learning experience. There are a bazillion and one books on writing, and I swear I read them all. I started taking classes and going to writing conferences. I found local writers to share work with and get feedback. Because I had a draft (a deeply flawed and too-long draft), every time I learned something about the craft, I could immediately apply it to the draft. If you’re just thinking about a story in the abstract, you’ve got nothing. But an essential skill I learned was to keep the motto: you can make it better later; first you have to make it exist. I was not interested in speeding up my learning process. I worked on my first novel, Traveling Light, for about seven years before I even attempted to get it published. It found its way into the world in 2000, and became the first of my now six novels.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I mostly define myself as a novelist. I am deeply inspired by the Hemingway quote: “The world breaks everyone, and, afterwards, some are strong at the broken places.” All of my novels are variations on that theme. I don’t write about people getting broken–I write about people putting themselves back together. My books tend to center on social issues I care deeply about, and they may take the reader through some dark places, but they always end up hopeful and redemptive. My novels also feature found and nontraditional families, and non-human animals who are just as important as the human cast. My most recent novel, released in September 2023, Morning in This Broken World, features intergenerational friendships and finding light in dark times. It’s set during 2020 and 2021, and although COVID is the catalyst for the story, it is not the focus of it.

I also teach creative writing. I teach at the University of Dayton, but also for an organization called Word’s Worth Writing Connections. I love teaching all aspects of craft, but I think I’m especially good at motivating stalled and blocked writers, jumpstarting writing droughts, and encouraging people to persist in this crazy-making business. For seven years now, I’ve done a year-long course called The Writer’s 12-Step Program, which meets once a month online–with lots of interaction in between meetings–with the goal to complete a novel draft in one year. Community and accountability are provided, two of the most important things in the writing life. The next 12-Step group will begin in January 2024.

In addition to the writing classes, I’ve also developed what I call my “life classes”–most specifically my Happy Class and Leap and the Net Will Appear: Steps for Creating Positive Change. I occasionally offer them to the public myself, but more often provide them for various organizations and businesses. They came about from trying to support myself while writing fulltime, and now are some of the most fulfilling and fun things I do. A new Leap class begins in January 2024.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I had 5 novels published between 2000 and 2011…and then hit a serious publishing drought and didn’t publish again until 2023. There was a lot happening in my private life during those years–I had breast cancer, my mother was diagnosed with dementia, I moved my parents to a safe community, I prepared my parents’ home for sale, I sold my own home and combined households with the love of my life, I got breast cancer a second time and had a bilateral mastectomy, I lost my mother, I survived a global pandemic–but I’m very proud of the fact I kept writing through it all. I wasn’t finding publishing homes for my work, but I persisted, and I pivoted, developing my public speaking offerings and creating new classes to generate income with no book contracts. I was under no illusion that I was somehow “owed” continued success. I considered if my time in publishing was perhaps over. I tried to “quit” writing and discovered I was a profoundly unhappy person when not writing. I made a deliberate decision to mentally separate my publishing life from my writing life, to keep myself sane and happy. I embraced the joy that writing gives me, and rediscovered what made me fall in love with words and stories in the first place. And, happily, the drought ended with Morning in This Broken World.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I feel like I combined this question with the one above.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.katrinakittle.com
• Instagram: @katrinakittle
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KatrinaKittleAuthor/
• Other: I have a free, fun, monthly newsletter called Kat’s Pajamas that includes book recommendations, thoughts on the writing journey, pet antics, and reasons to be happy. You can sign up at www.katrinakittle.com