Today the Liberty States Create Something Magical Conference Speaker Interview Series continues with author Kate McMurray:
- What made you want to become a writer?
I don’t remember exactly, but I’ve been telling stories since I was very little. My dad is a big storyteller, which is part of it. But my mother has cassette tapes of me telling rambling stories to a tape recorder when I was three or four years old. I started making picture books for myself in kindergarten. So I think it was preordained.
- Is there one piece of advice you would give an aspiring writer?
Be open to anything. I think one of the biggest impediments to writers is getting in our own way—convincing ourselves we’re not good enough, that no one will want to read our books, that the publishing process is too hard, that any success we achieve is a fluke. Some of the most talented writers I know are also the hardest on themselves. A writing career is hard work and won’t always look how you expected it to, so be willing to put in the time and adapt as the industry changes, but be open to the possibility that you can be absurdly successful and don’t give in to doubt.
- If you could co-write a book with any author, dead or alive, who would it be?
I’m too much of a control freak to co-write, I think, but if Tessa Dare has a gay character lurking around Spindle Cove, I’d be happy to write his romance.
- Who is on your bookshelf?
I have a lot of bookshelves; I own a half dozen bookcases that are packed and stacked with books, and I still compulsively buy them and pick them up at conferences, and I own a Kindle, so… I read a lot, is what I’m saying, and I love books. I read about 40% romance, 30% nonfiction, and 30% everything else. On the romance shelves, I read about 50/50 historical and contemporary, and my favorites included Tessa Dare, Theresa Romain, Grace Burrowes, Sarah MacLean, Kristan Higgins, Jennifer Crusie, K.J. Charles, K.A. Mitchell, Jordan L. Hawk. I’ve been binging on New Adult lately, and also Regency romances. I read a lot of biographies and history and I’ve started reading literary fiction again after reading only genre for a long time. My most re-read book is Jane Eyre, which I’ve read maybe a dozen times, and it remains my favorite book of all time.
- Can you tell us about one of the most memorable moments in your writing career thus far?
Around the time I went to my first RT Convention (2013 in Kansas City), I was reading a lot of self-help books relating to creative careers. I was just coming around to thinking that writing romance could be a viable career and not just a hobby or something I did in my spare time. So I went to the convention, and I had such a great time that I kept thinking, “This. This is what I want to do with my life. How do I make that happen?” Not conventions, per se, but being a part of the book community, being around so many people who loved these books as much as I did, I found that really inspiring, and I think that was a real turning point for me. I was already on my way to building a career that wasn’t just a hobby or whim, but that trip really cemented for me that writing was something I was really passionate about and wanted to do professionally.
- Tell us about your newest release/current work in progress.
I had a busy last quarter of 2015: my first historical, Such a Dance, was published by Kensington. It’s a gay romance set in the Jazz Age between a vaudeville dancer and a mobster. Then I self-published a paranormal from my backlist called Across the East River Bridge, which is an enemies-to-lovers romance/murder mystery that takes place mostly in a haunted museum. Then I had a holiday novella called Devin December come out right before Christmas; that’s a story about a flight attendant and a closeted movie star who get snowed in at the airport on Thanksgiving.
Next up is my second historical romance, available this March, called Ten Days in August. It’s set in Gilded Age New York City (1896) and involves a jaded police detective trying to solve a murder with the help of an outspoken female impersonator.
