We were lucky to catch up with Kaytalin Platt recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kaytalin, thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

In 2011. I was graduating with a graphic design degree, having grown up in a Middle-of-Nowhere town in South Alabama with limited job prospects, and absolutely none in the design field. But that same year, I visited New Jersey to attend a wedding and decided on a whim to move there. It was in between two major cities—New York City and Philadelphia—and I figured I would have better luck landing a job if I made the leap.

But I was poor. I’d grown up poor and had attended one of the poorest high schools in Alabama. The mere fact I was in college and graduating was partly from spite. In 2006, I had approached my school counselor for help with applying to college and she advised me that college was expensive and I should consider other alternatives for my future. However, I was determined to go, and worked my way through, as well as accumulating a considerable amount of debt.

After graduating, I gave myself a goal to save six thousand dollars and move by June 2012. But, life happens and my family always seemed to need help with one bill or another. By April 2012, I had only managed to save three thousand dollars and it looked as if I would never reach my goal. I knew, deep down, if I didn’t go—ready or not—I would never leave. I would never see all the possibilities my life could be if I stayed exactly where I’d always been.

In June 2012, I packed up what little I had in my car, gave away what didn’t fit, and moved into a room in my recently married friend’s New Jersey home. From there, I applied to every job I could find for months, and the month I ran out of money, I locked in a graphic design and web master position at an engineering firm in Philadelphia.

In taking that leap, in risking picking up my life and transplanting myself in unfamiliar waters, I learned a lesson that I have carried throughout my career—jumping is hard, but falling is easy.

Parts of life are a lot like skydiving. You’re at the edge of the plane door looking down at the ground so far beneath you. It’s frightening. You’re leaping out of a perfectly good, comfortable plane, after all. To jump, you’ve got to talk yourself up to it. You’ve got to convince yourself that everything will be fine. But, sometimes that doesn’t really work, does it? Sometimes fear and anxiety are too loud. Sometimes you’ve got to throw yourself out of the damn plane, for your own good—inhibitions aside. Because once you’re past the threshold—once you’ve jumped—all you have left is the fall.

When you’re falling, you’re willing to do whatever it takes to land, and you will land—albeit maybe a bit banged up and sore in the knees. The hard part is convincing yourself to take that leap of faith or step outside your comfort zone. Until you jump, you’ll never get from where you are to where you want to be. You’ll never land if you don’t kickstart the fall. Even the smallest jump, the smallest change, can start a chain reaction, a snowball leading to a new opportunity, project, or life.

Kaytalin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have been a creative all my life. My mother was an artist and writer of sorts. She never pursued anything professionally, but I grew up watching her draw fairies in a sketchbook, and listened to the story ideas she passionately escaped to inside her head. One day , when I was little, we were listening to an instrumental song, and I asked what it meant if there were no words. She told me I should write down what I thought was happening while the song played… and a writer was born.

In school, I escaped into day dreams, and made a little extra money by charging students for the drawings they were supposed to turn in for literature class. I was the one who painted the home coming floats, designed the flags and t-shirts, and set up for prom.

I am a multi-faceted creator. I am a graphic designer and illustrator, but my passion has always been writing. Its the thing that sets my soul on fire like nothing else.

I started writing The Equitas series in 2009. By 2011, I had finished it, and used it as the basis for my publication graphic design thesis. This kickstarted my freelance career in publication design, and I worked as a freelance cover designer for a Canadian small press until 2013. After that, I branched out and started my own publication design business called Copper Owl Press.

By 2015, I had rewritten the first book in The Equitas series twice. When my father asked how my writing progress was going, I lamented that I was planning to re-write it a third time. To which he said, “Ain’t nothing ever perfect. You might as well do something with what you make.” So… I finished the third and final rewrite, and submitted The Living God—the first book in The Equitas Series—to Inkshares’ 2016 Geek & Sundry Publishing contest. Out of 150 entrants, I landed in the top 6, managing enough pre-orders to have my book published. I did something with what I’d made. Unfortunately, my dad didn’t get to see it. In 2017, he passed away from sepsis complications following esophageal surgery. My debut novel, The Living God, arrived in 2019.

In 2021, I reacquired the rights to my book, and subsequently began publishing the next installments. Around that time, I also joined the Writing Bloc Cooperative. At the time, it was a collection of Inkshares authors and refugees. Entirely volunteer run, it focused on pooling resources to help writers self-publish and produced multi-genre anthologies centered around themes. I had a short story published with them, and later went on to do design work, before joining the leadership team. Being volunteer run, the venture proved to be a time and financial strain on the leadership team.

Eventually, the five principle leadership members, including myself, broke away to start Duskbound Books. Duskbound Books is a unique small press and publication service provider with a vision for helping independent authors achieve their publishing dreams, while simultaneously putting our money where our mouth is behind books we adore.

Throughout the last decade of my design career, I have had the honor of creating so many beautiful covers for authors, developing marketing strategies, social media graphics, logos, and character illustrations—and that’s just the side hustle. By day, I’ve been a corporate-based graphic designer and marketer, rebranding hundred-year-old engineering firms and leading a marketing department at an international pump manufacturer. All the while, I’ve kept my own author career going. Aside from The Equitas Series, I am also the author of a dark fantasy romance duology. The first book, Of Silver and Sin, released in August 2024. It follows Tenele Raider, a monster hunter reluctantly partnered with a creature who feeds on agony and bliss, and who finds herself sharing more than she bargained to keep them both alive when they are betrayed by the kingdom they serve.

The last book in The Equitas series releases April 2025, and I am a mix of many emotions. I would probably have never kickstarted my publication journey without my dad’s comment that night. I would not have taken the leap. The release of the last book, similarly titled The Equitas, will cap an almost twenty-year journey with this story and these characters.

My goal with The Equitas series was to merge all the things I love about science fiction and fantasy. It is a genre-bending portal fantasy following a time mage trapped in a recurring war with a creature bent on destroying the universe—and who stole her husband as his host. Readers join Saran D’Mor across threads of time and multiple worlds as she fights to prevent the end of her world and save the man she loves.

All of my stories are generally very character-driven tales about flawed people and the lengths they will go for the ones they love. But, when I think about what I am most proud of in all of this—in all my vast creative accomplishments—it is listening to my father when he said, “Ain’t nothing ever perfect. You might as well do something with what you make.”

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

As someone who has had their share of people tell me I couldn’t do this or would never achieve that, I love helping others reach their goals—whether that be professionally or creatively. I get so much joy from seeing my peers succeed in their dreams, and love that I can help them reach those goals through the skills I’ve acquired over my career.

If its cover design, I want whatever cover I make for an author to be the best it can be, because I know people judge books by their covers. I want to help authors stand out among the ever-widening sea of books out there. If its character illustrations, I want people to be drawn into the art, enticed to buy the book.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Leaving home was a difficult decision to make, especially since my family obviously would have preferred that I stay. But, when I left, I told them that I had to go. I had to see how far I could reach in this life—how much I could achieve.

I was a poor girl, from a poor school, in a poor county, in a poor state, and, to be honest, no one had any expectations of me. My school counselor didn’t even think I should try higher education. Maybe it seems silly to say that my entire life was built on spite, but it isn’t too far from the truth.

I have a finite amount of time on this earth, and far too many lives I want to live, and far too many stories that I want to tell. My goal is simply to see how far I can go with the cards I was dealt, no matter what anyone says, and to never stop trying to go further.

Contact Info:

• Website: kaytalinplatt.com and duskboundbooks.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaytalinplatt
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KaytalinPlattAuthor
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaytalinplatt/
• Other: TikTok: http://www.tiktok.com/@kaytalinplatt

Image Credits

Photos and designs were nearly all taken or designed by me. One photo, the one of me with my daughter at a signing, was taken by my husband, Scott McCarry.