We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Katrina N. Lewis. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Katrina N. below.

Katrina, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Life is about taking risks. When I was young, I understood this in theory, but when I realized how much I loved creating, I had to put the saying to practice. It had started in high school, when fan fiction took over the lives of every adolescent, that I began sharing my writing with a small group of friends. It’d mostly turned out to be fan fiction about them with their respective celebrity crushes. As trivial as it may sound now, sharing my work was a risk. They could hate it. They could think I was weird for taking the story in a direction they’d given me complete creative freedom in. They could find intimate parts of myself written throughout the chapter like how I really love the color blue or may have been secretly crushing on the same celebrity. To my relief, it often went over well. It’d been easy to write about White characters, because I’d seen and read it so often. It wasn’t until I’d reached adulthood did I consider writing my own stories – with Black women as the main characters. That was a much bigger risk that I’d been so scared to take. The idea of the sociological term “double consciousness” is real – at least, I think so. Again, I first learned about it in theory in college without realizing that I had actually done so – measured my worth through the eyes of a racist, anti-Black society, but remained exceptionally proud of my blackness. The idea that a young Black woman telling fantastical stories about other young Black women falling in love and riding dragons was radical to me. I’d unfortunately, not seen or read enough of it growing up. For years, I was nervous. Worried about whether someone would want to read my stories. My double consciousness had told me: who wants to read a fantasy romance book starring a woman with night shade skin and twinkling dark eyes? And at the same time, I’d thought: how amazing would that be?
After contemplating for weeks, months, and maybe even years, I wrote my first short story with the intention of sharing it. I’d told myself “life is about taking risks” as I hit publish on my landing page and shared it on social media. I went through all of the emotions. Publishing is scary. Reaching out and networking is scary. Sharing my work is terrifying. This could be a waste of time and money. Do I even know anyone else who reads? I thought of everything, until I had finally closed my eyes, trusted my gut, and did it. Telling stories about Black women going on fantastical adventures and experiencing extraordinary love, I’d learned, was a risk I was willing to take in a predominately White industry in an anti-Black world.
I’m still here and I’m still writing. I’ve found community, both readers and other writers who share similar experiences and want the same things. After telling myself no so many times, I’m proud of myself for taking the risk. The journey has been frustratingly beautiful and I close my eyes and do it time again.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I am a fantasy romance author and creative who writes Black women into happily ever afters. I got into the industry through my love of story telling and history that I loved ever since I was a young girl. Passionate about creating stories that feature diverse characters and worlds, I’m dedicated to crafting page-turners that’ll transport readers to magical realms where they can adventure and fall in love. To date, I have the Heavy is the Head duology published, Heavy is the Head: Love & War and Heavy is the Head: Kingdom Come. The Heavy is the Head duology is a shifter romance series featuring a head strong woman, a dashing dragon prince, his warmongering father and a hell bent princess that tells the story of love, betrayal and magic in a fight for the throne. I also have a Kindle Vella story, Love Bites, completed that I plan to turn into an e-book this year. Love Bites is a vampire novella with all the goodies: forced/arranged marriage, enemies to lovers, luxury romance, and political intrigue. I enjoy writing swoon-worthy and steamy romance, and bad-ass action, so my books are not to be missed!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Being myself! That’s an honest answer. With social media, the pressure to always show up, be a certain way and even “look” a certain way, can be a lot. Honestly, I went in being authentically me, sharing my work, and showing up to the table as myself, and its helped me grow my audience and community of author friends. There’s only one me, so why pretend to be anyone else?

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a writer and a creative is to hear or see readers say “I was looking for something like this!” Regardless of whether they liked the story or not, it feels good to know that there are people out there looking to read something similar to what I’d written. It reminds me of why I write and create. It shuts down any doubt I may have about what I’m doing and who I’m doing it for. Its one of the best feelings! When it first happened, I smiled from ear to ear – maybe even for days!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/AuthorKNL
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorknl/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/authorknl
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@authorknl

Image Credits
Gloria O. Rodríguez @Glorya_Art (Instagram) is the character artist.