We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kate Church. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kate below.
Alright, Kate thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
I’ve always been the baptism by fire person and with writing it has been no different. In an effort to reawaken my long since dormant creative side, I opened up my laptop in the wee hours of an autumn morning and began typing what was to be my first novel. While I had spent many years behind a keyboard learning the necessary skills to type an appropriate letter, resume or professional email, nothing could compare to that of writing a novel. So, it’s without saying there were significant challenges along the way. However, with each obstacle, I would fall back to what I enjoy most, learning. Every story that is being told or has been told, there are normal challenges of navigating the plotline, but I found most of my challenges came after the story had already been written. It was in the formatting, editing and publishing processes that I struggled the most. Of course, I could have paid someone to taken on the burden on my behalf, but I valued the lesson in learning something new and navigating that world on my own. I take pride in knowing that I put in the work and the outcome, whether positive or negative, is mine alone. Now, that I’ve published three novels and one children’s book, I know there was nothing I could have done to speed up the process because each step, each challenge, needed the time it was given for me to fully understand it and keep moving. It was my ambition and my passion that kept my dream of becoming a writer alive and I would not be where I am today without them.
Kate, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’m a seasoned healthcare worker by day; lover of nature, avid reader and writer by night. I spend my free time hitting the trails and engrossing myself in the world of fantasy fiction. It was as a reader my interest in writing grew, so armed with a love of folklore and medieval history, I decided to create worlds with strong ties to both. With my writing you will find traditional or familiar tropes, but they are fantasy tales with thriller vibes and twists and turns that will keep you on the edge of your seat. I write what as a reader I did not find, and I tell stories that I would want to read.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
Over the years, we are trained to be like one another and fall in line with what is considered the norm. It was in my writing that I had to unlearn this in order to embrace what might be. Being autistic, I’ve never been part of the norm, but I fought for years to appear as such. In was in that deception that I closeted my greatest talents. We are all unique as fingerprints and my colorful nature is what makes my art shine. I love to paint pictures, literally and figuratively, and within my writing you can see a world very different from our own. It is in the smiling faces of readers and my fellow writers that I knew unlearning the lesson of conformity was probably one of the best things I’ve ever done. The world may like us all to fit within a certain mold, but we were never meant to.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
Perhaps this is the most underrated response, but happiness is why I write. I started writing because I enjoyed it and I wanted to tell a story no one else had. Over the years, it has brought me a great deal of joy and excitement and that is irreplaceable. Even if my stories never fully reach the masses, the immense amount of happiness they have brought me is more than enough to make the journey worth it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://katechurchauthor.wixsite.com/katechurch
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kate_church_author/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KateChurchAuthor/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-church