We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Katie Charles. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Katie below.
Katie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
Every book I write has a special place in my heart. But I have a book coming out that is coming out soon that I wrote because I couldn’t find it. I am a stepmother, and having a daughter I find it hard to explain why her sister has a different mom, but same dad. Where blended families are just as common as nuclear families now, I wanted to represent that family in a positive light. Not all stepmom’s are evil.
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 come by my penchant for writing through genetics. My mother is a published author, and I grew up watching her work and hearing her talk about her stories. I’ve always had stories and characters running through my head, and finally decided it was time to let them speak.
My first published work was Inspiration Lost and Found in an anthology titled Be Mused. This is a really funny collection of novellas about our muses and how they live in a world just left of ours, and we — the writers — are their jobs. Their assignments. I was sixteen when that was published. Unfortunately, it is no longer available.
I wrote my second novel, Land of Misfit Teens, during my senior year in high school and finished just before I began college. I’ll never forget finishing that book because I was somewhere over the United States in a plane flying home from Maine to California. My Papa Shoes (there is a story behind the name) had died and we had been in Maine to take care of things. I had started the book, but while there I had to write or go crazy. The story just flowed. That book was published when I was eighteen.
I was twenty when I finished Dreams, Now called Picture Perfect and it mirrored my life in that both I and Jamie were in college at the time. While writing that book, I lost my uncle who was more like a big brother to me. So, if you find my books have a lot of raw emotion, this is why. I can’t filter out what’s in my heart, but I can at least give a happy ending to my characters.
While in college, I wrote The Hand You’re Dealt in hopes of helping people understand what it’s like to live with an invisible Illness. In the case of this novel, that illness is Complex Regional Pain Syndrome or Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (CRPS/RSD), a disease I was diagnosed with at sixteen. It is the most painful documented disease in medicine.
I meet my husband on TikTok, Got married June 2021, and we welcomed our daughter July 2022. Being a Mom, and stepmom has been the light of my life. Watching these children grow and thrive and engage with the world. When I started looking for children’s books about blended families and couldn’t find one, I decided to wrote one myself. “My Sister’s Mommy”
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
I am a huge believer in word of mouth, and the power of social media. Talking about books on Instagram, tiktok, youtube, has gotten me to read some books, and has put my books out there as well!
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Hearing that my stories have impacted lives of people who read them. There are people who have emailed me and shared they feel seen with their stuggles because of my books
Contact Info:
- Website: https://KatieCharles.com
- Instagram: biowriter_kc
- Facebook: Katie Charles – Author
- Twitter: Biowriter_KC
- Other: Tiktok: Biowriter
