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

Kady, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

Publishing my first book, #HuntedLives, was a risk because I was putting myself out there when I am usually a pretty quiet person with folks I don’t know. Writing the thriller was the easy part. The first time I attended a market days in the Texas Hill County, as a vendor, was scary. I was definitely out of my comfort zone. It was the same when I spoke in front of a group of people for the first time. It was a risk and it forced me to accept being uncomfortable but doing it anyway. And now I really enjoy the events I do, whether speaking in front of a group, signing my books at our local bookstore or the library, or meeting folks at various market days. It’s fun. The risk definitely paid off.

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 was born and raised in California, always loved creative writing. However, I took a logic track in college and studied Computer Science. I’m detail-oriented, think logically, and love math so it was a great fit for me. The bulk of my career was spent working as a Business Analyst/Quality Assurance expert for financial, and other, websites. I was writing throughout my career, but it was technical in nature. Being able to envision functionality and write requirements per the client’s specifications so that it was interpreted the same way by everyone involved, then ensuring the developers wrote the code to the documented requirements, was challenging and fulfilling.

I met my husband, Jose (an Army Aviator), in Washington DC while on active duty in the Navy. After many years of travel, we now live in the Texas Hill Country near kids and grandkids.

Knowing how much I enjoyed writing, my husband suggested that I take a ‘How to Write a Great Novel’ online course to refresh my memory of the things I knew and to learn about aspects of writing I didn’t know. The course was great and covered everything from theme to character development, dialogue, setting, publishing, and even copyrighting. I was so enthused while I was taking the course that I was ready to hit the ground running with my first book, #HuntedLives, the first book in my Mali Hooper Thriller trilogy.

My husband and I lived in Myrtle Beach for a time, our kids/grands were in Texas. We would drive to Texas 3 or 4 times a year to visit everyone and we’d make the a 20-hour drive in one day. It was during one of those visits that I watched my two older grandsons play one of their app games. I would ask them all sorts of questions about the games they were playing – how can you tell who the bad guy is? how do you select the weapon to use? how do you get to the next level? and more – and those conversations spawned the idea for #HuntedLives. I used my IT knowledge and experience and wove it into the trilogy.

Most of the small towns in the Texas Hill Country have monthly market days where vendors go with their products to meet folks and sell their goods. I attend the market days in Boerne and Blanco to meet people, talk about what my books and how I came up with the storylines, etc, and I sign/sell my books.

In addition, I do book signings at libraries, book stores, book festivals, and I participate in book clubs to discuss a book of mine the club has read.

I also speak at various events – ladies luncheons, club meetings, etc – about my writing process, the self-publishing process and why I chose it over traditional publishing, how I got started, obstacles I overcame, and even my journey through having breast cancer twice.

I am most proud of publishing #HuntedLives. My dream was now reality. While I am thrilled with the 3 books I’ve published, including recording the first book for audio (the other two will follow), seeing the first book in print was really special.

I have learned so much and love being challenged. Writing, publishing, marketing,…I’m never bored.

To learn more about me and keep up to date with all I’m doing, folks can subscribe to my monthly newsletter at https://www.kadyhinojosa.com.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

There are many resources that have helped me along this journey.

One of my favorites is www.kindlepreneur.com. This site has articles on every aspect of writing and publishing a book plus it has tools to help you, like a Book Description Generator and a Sales Calculator. There is also a program called Publisher Rocket that helps you easily find keywords and categories for your book. This site has so many good resources on it.

Another one of my favorites is Derek Doepker’s Audiobooksmadeeasy.com. I would have started working on my audio books much sooner had I known about Derek. He’s got a great system and is very supportive.

reedsy.com is a great source to find help you may need (all types of editors, marketers, etc).

mockupshots.com allows you to get creative in how you market your books.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a writer is meeting and chatting with all of the wonderful people with whom I’ve crossed paths. When people tell me they loved my books – the topics, the characters, the plot – or when I read a review, I am humbled.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kadyhinojosa.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kadyhinojosa/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KadyHinojosaAuthor
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorKady