Hey friends!
I’m starting up a new occasional series of posts where I introduce you to an author friend of mine! Some you will have read before. Others you won’t already know, which is why I want to highlight them.
I’m starting with my friend Kathy Bates (who, for obvious reasons, writes under a little bit different name!). Kathy began coming to Rockwall Christian Writers Group many, many years ago. We helped her through one wonderful book before life shifted and she couldn’t attend often. Then I moved away for a little while. A couple of years ago she contacted me again. She’d written another book—which finaled in the 2022 Action/Adventure category of the Writers League of Texas’s manuscript contest! That’s a huge accomplishment!
I was honored to be able to help her polish this story, which has now been published. It’s a YA story about a girl and her horse (as you’ll hear about below). If you know readers who love that kind of story, please check it out!
When did you know you wanted to write? How did you begin?
I wrote for years for my eyes only—no instruction, no direction, just an inspiration to pick up a pen. In those days I had a young family and could only dabble with a class here and there: creative writing, poetry…again, just for me, just for fun, just to share space with a company of like-minded students over the ages of five and three.
Fast forward to a stent with journalism. Yes! I thought. I’ve found it! I curled my toes over the sides of a pool of journalism classes and dug in. But journalism wasn’t to be, after all. Being the embellisher that I am, I was good at twisting every feature assignment into a porky story rather than the newsworthy report it was intended to be. To adorn with bespangle is a problem in the journalistic pond. When my instructor published what became my four-part series about street drugs, he took a seat beside me and said, in all sincerity, “You need to decide if you want to write journalistically, or creatively.”
That day a seed was planted. There are distinct style differences between creative writing and journalism, but I’d never thought of it as a choice. It was like I’d needed permission. I started my first novel—a book that went nowhere.
What gave you the idea for your most current book?
I like to write for middle grade and young adults. I was ready to a new project. Something, I reasoned, that I would’ve reached for as a youth. That meant it had to be about a horse. And a girl. A girl and a horse—I was that kid. Horses…horses…horses.
I scribbled notes, scenes, some dialogue points, and drew out my characters. But the flavor was missing. It didn’t come until my research plopped me onto a website: Rescue ranch for blind horses, and Bingo! A blind horse! Meat and potatoes. Radar had arrived! and with him, the trajectory of my story, the age of my protagonist, the emotional bent of my antagonist, and location, location, location. The story about a girl and a blind horse became Nightflower of Comanche Mound.
But, along with Radar came the blasted middle of the story, and discovering Radar was short-lived. What about him? How does he…what is…how can… I was stuck. This is where critique partners shine, or get pushy. One suggested I do first-person interviews with each of my characters to unstick me. “—to get inside their heads,” she said. “Even Radar.”
Radar? Uh, how would that lay on the page?
It proved a very valuable exercise. Again, everything changed. Turns out Radar had a lot to say, and letting him ramble peeled back his inner voice. While I didn’t write his thoughts or words or POV into the story, his prattle revealed an attitude, his place as a partner, his trust. It invited some mystery, some strength, some vulnerability. It unveiled the direction I would take him, and weaker, secondary characters floated into the background. Others’ eyes on your work is the beauty of a critique group.
How often do you write—and how much at a time?
I try to be consistent. Morning is my writing time, when I’m fresh and eager. By 2:00, my eyes are watering and my brain is drawn.
Who was your biggest influence as a writer?
Every book I pick up influences me in one way or another, either leaving an impression of style or content I admire, or revealing what I never want my writing to become.
What is the hardest part of the writing process for you? The easiest?
Writing is like sunshine to my soul. Marketing, on the other hand, is where joy stops and clouds gather. It’s the hardest part of life. I’m trying. I’m leaning into it.
How has your faith shaped your writing?
It’s always in my mind that I’m responsible for the words I put down on paper.
I hope you’ve enjoyed meeting Kathy. Check out her book Nighflower of Comanche Mound for the younger readers in your life!