Dragon Soul Press had the chance to interview Katie Kent, an author featured in Chance On Love, Life At Its Best, Reign of Fire, Union, A Winter Promise, Digital Love, and Across Time.
My name is Katie Kent and I live in Oxfordshire in the UK with my wife, cat and dog. I work in journals publishing and in my spare time I am a writer, mainly of young adult short stories.
- What prompted you to begin writing?
- As a child and young adult, I was lonely and struggled with mental health problems. I spent a lot of time reading, and found escapism in books. I also used to make up stories in my head. When I started writing, I found it therapeutic. I dabbled with non-fiction and
had many true-life stories published, mainly in The Mighty. However, fiction is where my main interests lie. I didn’t seriously start writing fiction until a few years ago, as I had low confidence and self-esteem, and assumed I’d be no good. But once I started, I couldn’t stop!
- As a child and young adult, I was lonely and struggled with mental health problems. I spent a lot of time reading, and found escapism in books. I also used to make up stories in my head. When I started writing, I found it therapeutic. I dabbled with non-fiction and
- Do you have a favorite story or poem you’ve written? What’s it about?
- I have a romance story, ‘Bowled Over’, out in an LGBTQ anthology (‘Romancing the
Rainbow’) I helped to edit with Sam Knight from Knight Writing Press. It’s about a girl
who falls for her best friend’s arch-nemesis from their bowling league, and I consider it
one of the best stories I’ve ever written. I also like ‘Crimes Against Time’, published in
2021 in the Cloaked Press anthology ‘Summer of Speculation: Catastrophe’. It’s a time
travel story about a teenage girl who breaks the time travel laws to help save her little
brother when her mum becomes addicted to time travel. Finally, I recently won a flash
fiction twist competition with Fusilli Writing with my story about a policewoman- or is
she?! So I’d like to give a shout out to that one too.
- I have a romance story, ‘Bowled Over’, out in an LGBTQ anthology (‘Romancing the
- How many projects do you have planned over the next few years? Tell us about one.
- I will continue to write short stories, but I am also working on three novels. Two are
complete, but I think the first needs major work in order to be publishable. My second
novel is way too long for a young adult/new adult novel (110k words!) but I plan to pay
for professional feedback and hopefully get it into a reasonable state (and cut the length
down!) to send out to agents and publishers. It’s called ‘Fix Me’, and is a dual POV novel
about obsession and mental illness (it’s definitely not a romance!). Parts of both the
female main characters are taken from my own experiences, so it’s very personal to me.
- I will continue to write short stories, but I am also working on three novels. Two are
- What is your writing process like?
- I usually write on my laptop in bed, propped up by a wedge pillow, preferably with my cat
snuggled up next to me. I work four days a week but on Tuesdays I write for the majority
of the day. On the other days I do half an hour before work. I also usually do half an hour
on one of the weekend days. I find writing opportunities on Duotrope and work on short
stories for those, in order of deadline date. On Tuesdays I also work on one of my novels
and work through the many writing advice books I have, taking notes and doing the
exercises to try and improve my writing.
- I usually write on my laptop in bed, propped up by a wedge pillow, preferably with my cat
- Where do you draw inspiration from?
- I generally find it hard to write without some kind of prompt. When looking through the
new opportunities every week on Duotrope, I write down the ones that interest me and
then as I work through them, I brainstorm ideas on my Remarkable tablet before starting
to write. They are generally for anthologies or competitions with some kind of theme,
which generate ideas. Inspiration comes mainly from my personal experience. My
stories are usually LGBTQ themed, and often feature mental illness storylines. I also get
inspiration from things I am interested in. Time travel features in a lot of my stories, as I
find the whole idea fascinating! My bowling story came about as I like to go bowling from
time to time, and I am currently writing a skateboarding story, as I like to watch
skateboarding on the TV.
- I generally find it hard to write without some kind of prompt. When looking through the
- Who is your favorite author / what is your favorite book?
- I always find this hard to answer, but there are a couple of writers who write in the same
genre as me (LGBTQ contemporary YA), whose writing I admire. They are Dahlia Adler
(her books include Cool for the Summer and Home Field Advantage) and Jennifer
Dugan (her books include Hot Dog Girl and Some Girls Do).
- I always find this hard to answer, but there are a couple of writers who write in the same
- What is one goal you have for your writing future?
- To have a novel traditionally published.
- What do you hope readers enjoy most from your work?
- I hope readers can see themselves in my stories, and that that can make them feel less
lonely. I also hope people will be entertained by my stories.
- I hope readers can see themselves in my stories, and that that can make them feel less
- Where can readers learn more about you?
Dragon Soul Press 