Ah, my first blog. There is something so refreshing about starting a new blog. I begin to get ahead of myself, imagining all of the fun and amazing things that I can share with you about the glories of writing, the pleasures and pains within it, why it has transformed my life and made me the person I am. Where do I begin? What was the most memorable thing for me?
I admit I’m getting WAY ahead of myself. I’ll start with the simple facts.
My name is Katherine Silva, Katy for short. I am a newly published author at age 22, (and yes, I say this with extreme pride–don’t judge me! 🙂 ) I have been writing for as long as I can remember and have always wanted to become an author. My journey to get here has been an unforgettable one, a road with as many forks, ditches, hills, and detours as one could imagine. And the road is still going, forever winding into the horizon. The difference is I’ve finally found my vehicle to traverse it; my career, the thing that makes me unstoppable and keeps me going; my writing style.
Finding a writing style can take years upon years. I remember when I discovered mine. I was taking a creative writing class in high school during my sophomore year. The teacher was Ms. Hamilton. Though I only had her for one class, after which she vanished from Maine, never to return, I remember that she was one of the first people who showed me how much fun the writing career could be.
I, like many others, perceived the title of ‘writer’ to be associated with loneliness. Not only loneliness but the inevitable budding friendship with the bottle. Not sure how writers got the solitary drinker vibe. I figured if I did end up doing what I wanted to do, it would be a glorious existence of book signings, movie adaption deals, and thousands of adoring fans. And in my spare time, I’d get wasted. Can’t say my perception has changed much, except for no movie deals, and thousands of adoring fans. haha. I’ve got 92 fans on facebook! That’s something!
Where was I? Yes. Ms. Hamilton. She openly swore in the classroom, played music during our free writing time, encouraged us to pick a goal for the semester and stick to it. In short, we were pretty much in charge of ourselves. I was never happier. My goal was to write a novel. On top of that, I stupidly added writing ten poems and five short stories. Those I finished. The novel, I got 3/4’s of the way through but still received a top notch grade for my efforts. The thing was though that I actually finished it after I was done with the class.
A little bit of history on me is that I have a terrible time finishing my writing projects. My M.O. was to start three or so stories, get around twenty pages on one, maybe six on another and just come up with an idea for another before I’d abandon it and work on something totally different. This one, I finished, wrote the ending out instead of summarizing it. I even spent the summer editing it. And I realized, this can be fun. While everyone else was out tanning and relaxing, I was wiping sweat off my brow in my 90 degree entry way to my house, cranking out page after page on this creation.
That story is now tucked away in a drawer somewhere. I haven’t read it in a long time. The data copy is still on my parent’s old computer in the attic of their house. Since then, I’ve only managed to write two other stories the full way though. I finished another novel the next year, a period history that I wrote in 5 months. The other one is the book that I’ve now published, my supernatural horror novel, Vox: Book 1 of the Monstrum Chronicles.
The last book I figured I’d end up publishing was a vampire book. Despite all of the attention the genre has been getting recently, I actually wanted to write this. I’d recently gotten back into watching old reruns of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Joss Whedon, what a genius you are! I was tired of seeing all of these new books coming out about vampires as romantic interests for teenagers as some high school drama played out. I wanted an adult vampire series, something that actually paid tribute to Anne Rice’s masterpieces of the Vampire Chronicles with a new edge. So I wrote.
…I got very off track. See. I do that. We’ll see if I can work on that.
Anyway, the only other things you’ll need to know about me that will more than likely have some bearing later on will be that I am an ailurophile. I love ale. No, seriously now, I love cats. I’ve grown up surrounded by two or three cats at a time. My whole family is comprised of cat people. At present, I have but one. He is a pesky, highly intelligent grey and white male that I’ve named Lemon Jelly. You’re probably scratching your head asking, “Why in God’s name did you pick that name?” For starters, Jelly was already his name when I adopted him from the animal shelter. Secondly, his eyes are a very brilliant yellow hue.
Second thing you need to know about me: I have a severe coffee addiction. Not enough of it means I’ll probably be as hyper as a Mexican jumping bean. When I’ve had my recommended dosage, I’m actually quite normal. Too much and I’m a Mexican jumping bean again. It’s a complicated addiction. haha
So there. My extremely random introduction to this blog where I’ve failed to tell you what the purpose of it is. Basically, I’m here to brag to you about my book, inform you of upcoming events, my current writing projects and so on and so forth. I’m also going to share with you some writing tips and strategies as well as musings that somehow relate to my writing. Some of it will probably be deep, some will be light-hearted and silly, a good deal of it will be great information you may want to save for a rainy day.
Well, I’d better stop. Until next time,
KSilva
The Kat At Night 