Introduction - Kathi Wallace

My name is Kathi Wallace and I’m another YA author you’ve never heard of.

That sort of makes me sound like a member of a self-help group, doesn’t it? Like I need an intervention to help me beat an addiction. Well … if you ask my family they might say it’s true.

Writing is a bit like an addiction. Most mornings around 2:30, I slip out of bed, trying not to wake my husband, grab some coffee and sit down to write. Depending on where I am in the cycle of book creation, I fall into draft, puzzle over revisions, or send emails to book bloggers requesting reviews.

At work, I spend my lunch hour checking out the writing world via Twitter (I’m Kathi430, by the way) or reading a few of my writer friends’ blogs. My evenings are a blur of cooking, tidying up, goofing around with my family and mentally plotting my next scene.

There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t do something that relates to my writing.

“Oh my goodness!” My non-writing friends often exclaim. “Why would you subject yourself to that kind of schedule?”

It’s simple. I can’t help myself. There is a special kind of rush that comes from creating another world, a place that lives and breathes, slowly coming into existence as I think and type. It’s exciting beyond belief to hear someone say they enjoyed something you’ve written. And to hold a finished product in your hands … well, it ranks pretty high on the bliss scale.

I have always been a book lover. My earliest memories are of laying on my bed, enthralled, while my grandmother read to me. I learned to read at a very young age and devoured everything I could get my hands on. My mother took us to the library twice a week and to her credit, never complained about it or the stacks of books that threatened to overwhelm my room.

There were (and are) so many wonderful authors to choose from! Edgar Rice Burroughs, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens, Kathleen Winsor, Anya Seton … these are just a few of the authors I loved growing up. Today, I read Harry Connolly, Faye Kellerman, Suzanne Collins, Holly Black and a host of others, including the other contributors to this blog (I just finished Crossed Out by Kim Baccellia).

It only seemed natural for me that reading turn to writing. Thinking back, I can’t actually pinpoint a time at which I made a conscious decision to write, it just seems like something I’ve always done. Short stories for the school newspaper, personalized stories for family and friends as gifts and finally, as an adult, books.

My first book was accepted for publication by Drollerie Press, run by the wonderful Deena Fisher; DP released my Young Adult e-book, Assiniboin Girl last July and will soon release my third book, Summer’s End, also Young Adult. My second book, Keeper of Memories, was released by Swimming Kangaroo (owned by the fantastic Dindy Robinson); Keeper of Memories is available both in print and as an e-book. My books are available from Amazon and of course, from the publisher sites.

Now we’ve gotten the awkward introductions out of the way. You know a few of my secrets – feel free to respond back with some of your own. No, that’s not nosy - when a writer wants to know all about your personal business, it’s called RESEARCH.

;)