It’s Guestopia time again! Today, I am delighted to introduce
you to an awfully talented young person whose words you should absolutely read. Immediately. Please meet...
KIT MALLORY
Kit is a YA author living in Devon, UK. She writes speculative
fiction about underdogs, kickass girls who love other girls, and mental health.
Her first novel, BLACKOUT, was shortlisted for the 2016 Mslexia Children's
Novel Competition and longlisted for the 2016 Bath Children's Novel Award. She
has a secret alter ego who works as a mental health nurse, and was almost
certainly a mermaid in a former life.
Awesome! Right, let’s get straight down to business...
Is this your first published book?
Yes! Which is both
incredibly exciting and kind of terrifying.
What’s it called?
Blackout.
Which genre?
It’s YA speculative
fiction; technically dystopian, but in a very near future, close-to-home sort
of way.
Which age group?
14 up, I’d say.
Is it a series or standalone?
At the moment it’s
looking like a duology – I’m working on the sequel right now.
Are you an agented author?
Nope!
Which publisher snapped up your book?
It’s indie published.
How involved have you been in the whole publishing
process of your book?
Very, since I’m an indie
author (and my goodness has that been a massive learning curve!).
Did you receive many, if any, rejections prior?
Yes, quite a few. I got a
lot of really positive – even glowing – feedback from agents, as well as making
it to the shortlist of the 2016 Mslexia Children’s Novel Competition, but
ultimately got a lot of feedback about it not being right for where the market
was at the time. I still believed in my characters and my writing, though – and
in fact the feedback I was getting gave me the confidence to believe that Blackout was worth sticking with. I also
believe very strongly that LGBTQ teens and teens with mental health problems
really need to see themselves represented in more and better ways in YA
fiction, and ultimately getting my story into the hands of those readers was the
most important thing to me, so I decided to release it myself.
What created/what were you doing or watching when
the first idea for this book sneaked up on you?
It was 2012 and at the time I lived up in York (in
the north of England, for those abroad!) – and what came into my head was a
story about a girl who lived in a cellar and who was furious at the world and
everything around her. That girl turned out to be Skyler, and I knew very early
on that hers was a story I wanted to tell. The original inspiration for the
setting and the concept of the Wall came from the Berlin Wall, which I’ve
always been fascinated by, the concept of the UK’s north/south divide, and a long-held
wondering about what might happen when fossil fuels start running out.
I didn’t! I’m very much a
pantser, and I always start with the characters first – I think once you know
your characters well enough to know how they’ll respond in any given situation,
the story starts to unfold naturally. I prefer to work that way rather than
trying to force the characters to behave in a way that fits the plot. It feels
like going on an adventure with them, and I love that.
Once you started, did the story flow naturally or
did you have to step in and wrestle it into submission?
It flowed to a point, and
then it got to a point plot-wise where I had to sit down and really think about
the logistics of what was going to happen next. The point where I tend to get
stuck is the point at which I realise I’ve written my characters into a
predicament I might not be clever enough to get them out of…
How many drafts did you write before you let someone read it? Who was that
someone?
When I was writing the
first draft I shared snippets with a friend who was also drafting a novel. It
took a good couple of years before I was brave enough to show another friend
the whole thing!
Did you employ an editor/proofreader or did you
have a critique partner/beta readers before you started querying?
I have been incredibly
lucky in having a whole bunch of amazing critique partners and beta readers who
gave me feedback on various drafts of the manuscript. I was also part of an
author’s collective to whom I owe an awful lot of credit for helping me develop
as a writer. Blackout wouldn’t be the
book it is – and I wouldn’t be the writer I am today – without the help of my
incredible friends and CPs.
Roughly how many drafts did it take before you sent
the manuscript off into the real world?
At a rough estimate, approximately
twenty million.
How many drafts until it was published?
Forty million? I was
still doing edits even after I got the first proof copy through! That might
have been the biggest learning curve of all, actually – learning to let go once
and for all.
Oh, God, yes. The main bones of the plot haven’t
really changed, but the detail and nuance have changed a LOT. And I basically
learned how to write as I was writing it, so in terms of the actual writing,
it’s changed a bunch.
I haven’t gone back and read it again since it was
published because I know as soon as I do I’ll find something I want to change –
honestly I suspect that will be the case with everything I ever write.
Tolerating the knowledge that it’ll never be perfect – there’ll always be some way I can make it better, and the
more I learn and develop my writing, the more I’ll notice those ways – has been
one of the hardest parts of the whole process.
Getting to know the characters and their voices, I
think. Emotion-driven scenes are my favourite ones to write.
What part do you find hardest?
Complicated plot stuff (you know, the bits where my
characters have to be smarter than I am). Ignoring the voice of self-doubt.
Knowing when to stop editing!
Do you push through writing barriers or walk away?
It depends what they are. If I’m avoiding something
because it’s difficult or anxiety-provoking, I know that facing it head on is
what’s going to get me through it and out the other side. When I’m stuck on a
plot point, though, for example, I know that often the best thing to do is step
away and do something totally different to give myself time to process things
without forcing it. If I do that, I can generally trust that the answer will
come to me at some point (it happened in the shower just the other day!).
Currently in the works I’ve got: the sequel to Blackout, the first in a YA contemporary
fantasy series that needs revisions, a partially-written draft of another
standalone work, and a short story that’s nagging me to be turned into a novel.
So I should be all set for the next five years or so…
Do you think you’re born with the talent to write or do you think it can be learned?
I think it’s a bit of both – I definitely think the
technical aspects can be learned, and no matter how naturally talented you are
you can always learn more and improve your craft. That obsessive drive you need
to not only actually finish a novel but to redraft it over and over until it’s
what you want it to be – that I don’t think you can learn.
How many future novels do you have planned?
*counts on fingers* As of right now, at least five.
Do you write other things, such as short stories,
articles, blogs, etc?
I’m not great at brevity, so short stories aren’t
my natural forte, but I do write them sometimes. I also blog about book stuff,
LGBTQ stuff, and mental health stuff at www.kitmallory.wordpress.com. I’ve just started a new blog post
series over there on writing mental health representation (and I’m taking
requests for post subjects!).
What’s the highlight of being published so far?
Hands down, it’s been
getting feedback from readers that Blackout
has connected with them in some way. People have been really positive about the
representation, which has been amazing because that was something I was really
concerned about getting right. Somebody live-tweeted their reactions as they
read the book on its release day, which was just absolutely delightful; someone
else let me know they’d asked their local library to buy a copy. That feeling –
that I created something that people have enjoyed, that’s made them feel seen,
that they’ve taken the time to share that with me and let others know about it
– it’s been absolutely magical, and without a doubt, it’s made the entire
journey 100% worthwhile.
Give me one writing tip that works for you.
Find your people; the ones who can both lift you up
and challenge you. Learn to love criticism – it’s the key to becoming a better
writer – but don’t forget to embrace and celebrate your strengths and the
positive feedback you get just as much.
I’ve never been convinced about the whole “write
every day” thing. Self-care is the most important thing. If that rule works for
you, awesome; but don’t push yourself to stick to a rigid set of rules because
you think that’s what you *should* be doing.
Blackout’s sequel – I really need to come up with a damn
title! – is my first ever multi-POV novel, with four viewpoint characters.
You’ll get to see through both some familiar eyes and some new ones as the gang
attempt to deal with the aftermath of the first book’s events.
I’ve heard a lot from
readers about who their favourite character in Blackout is (there’s definitely a common theme!) but I don’t think
I’ve talked about who mine is! Although I love all three of the main characters
in Blackout, Skyler definitely has a
special place in my heart. She’s the very definition of an unlikeable heroine –
she’s selfish and stubborn and a total pain in the ass sometimes - but those
qualities, actually, have allowed her to survive in incredibly difficult
circumstances and I love the fact that she knows full well how smart and
talented she is and she never apologises for who she is. At the same time, I
think she grows and changes a LOT throughout the book and that takes a lot of
courage on her part.
Fantastic! What a great
interview. Thank you so much for joining us today, Kit, and we wish you all the
best with Blackout, its sequel, and all the rest that follow.
If you would like to find
out more about Kit and grab a copy of Blackout (which you should), these links
should help:
Amazon US
Books 2 Read
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