Dragon Soul Press took the opportunity to interview Katie Fitzgerald, an author featured in the A Winter Promise anthology.

---

I’m Katie Fitzgerald, a former librarian married to a librarian, a homeschooling mom, and a short story author. I write primarily kissing-only contemporary romance and romantic comedy, but I also dabble in mystery, literary fiction, and even light fantasy on occasion. I’m a big fan of bookish tee shirts, song lyric jokes, Flannery O’Connor, Diet Coke, dark chocolate, listening to audiobooks on triple speed, and vintage children’s books.

1. What prompted you to begin writing?
   • I wrote a lot as a child and teenager and took some creative writing classes in college, but a series of discouraging experiences took me away from it for nearly 20 years. I came back to writing after completing NaNoWriMo in 2020 and 2021, mostly just for my own enjoyment and fulfillment.
2. Do you have a favorite story or poem you’ve written? What’s it about?
   • One of my favorite pieces is a flash fiction story published by Havok Publishing’s Wacky
     Wednesday last December. The title is “Mount Rushmore Mania” and it explores what might
     happen if one day, Mount Rushmore decided to form a boy band. The story is filled with
     presidential puns and invented song titles, and it was just a blast to write.
3. How many projects do you have planned over the next few years? Tell us about one.
   • My main project at the moment is a big collection of flash fiction (hopefully 100 stories when it’s done) about a widower, Dave, his daughter, Grace, and their next door neighbor, Fern. The
     stories progress through roughly 20 years in their lives as Dave and Fern become friends, and
     many years later, after a variety of false starts and minor difficulties, fall in love. I didn’t set out to write a book-length project. These stories started out as fun exercises with a little writing group on Instagram, but a few readers became so invested I decided to tell the whole story. No
     release date yet, but I would like to aim for late 2025.
4. What is your writing process like?
   • I am a complete pantser for at least the first half of a story. I typically don’t like to take notes or
     outline or anything. I tend to do a lot of mental preparation before I start writing, but once I have a decent idea in my head of where I want the story to go, I prefer to just dive in. I like to write with some background noise – anonymous chatter, white noise, an ambient room on YouTube – but if there is music, I get totally distracted, whether it has lyrics or not. I have five kids, and I homeschool, so writing time is catch-as-catch-can throughout the day. Most often, I write in the evenings, though sometimes for a bigger project, I’ll snag a chunk of time during the day as well.
5. What is one goal you have for your writing future?
   • One goal I have been working toward the past two years is trying to have a Five-Minute
     Romance published in Woman’s World magazine. It’s a really competitive market, but I keep
     trying in the hopes that someday I’ll send a story they love.
6. Where can readers learn more about you?
   • The best places to find me are on Instagram, Substack, Twitter, and Facebook.