Kate Kelly's Blog, page 12

Short Story Sale to NewMyths.com

My latest short story sale is a flash piece called The Last Library which has found a home at NewMyths.com. It is due to be published later this year. Ill let you know when it comes online.

Living in a Dystopian Novel

There is a blurring of fiction and reality. The world we live in has changed, in many ways not for the better. We thought we were safe, living in our technological bubble. But all that is changing.

It really does feel as if we are players minor characters in a real-life dystopian novel. We didnt choose these roles. But now we have to let the story play.

Over the years I have written about climate change Cli-Fi Climate Fiction it was called. Nobody reads it any more. Probably because it is...

The MG Sci-Fi void.

I’m currently pitching a Sci-Fi kid’s novel to agents, so I headed over to my local branch of Waterstones in order to try to identify comparison titles. (Similar books that I can reference in my covering letter to give prospective agents an idea of where on the shelves my story would fit.)

This particular book of mine is aimed at the 10+ market, the same market as Red Rock. It’s quite sciency but not science heavy and I’ve made sure that the science in it is accessible. It’s probably best...

Twitter Pitch Contests

Every so often twitter fills up with people pitching their novels in twitter pitch contests. I watch these with interest and sometimes take part. There are a whole raft of contests that run, the main one being #PitMAD but others like #SFFPit and #DivPit crop up at regular intervals.

Over the course of following several of these contests I have made a few observations which I thought I would share with you on the pros and cons of these types of event.

Pros:

1. Distilling the essence of your...

Revisiting Malta

In most of my novels the action moves around geographically. I love writing about interesting places, and I love visiting those places. Whenever I travel it is always with half a mind on how I can incorporate these settings into my fiction.

Red Rock was no exception. The action moves across Europe, and one of the places Danni ends up in is Malta.

I revisited Malta earlier this year, after quite a long gap, and I went back to some of the settings where Danni has her adventures. Malta has...

Guest Author at Literary Edits

Today I have been interviewed as a guest author over at Literary Edits.

You can read my interview here: Guest Author Kate Kelly.

While you are there do check out the author services they offer - from editing and proofreading to reviewing and helping with marketing. The reviewing is free, of course, but I think you'll find all their other services very competitive.

New Short Story Published

My latest short story sale – a Cli-Fi piece called Permafrost, has just gone live over at Issues in Earth Science.

Issues In Earth Science are a teaching resource and they’ve put together a really informative supporting work package for the classroom, so if you want a bit of background science click on the Teaching Resources link at the top of the story.

Enjoy.

The cold bit into me. I forced myself on, step by painful step through the deepening drifts. Numb toes. Numb fingers. Beside me Mitzi st...

What Happened to Cli-Fi?

Six years ago my YA Cli-Fi Novel was about to be launched onto the world, and Cli-Fi (short for Climate Fiction) was the latest buzz.

My publisher pushed this aspect of the story as part of their marketing plan. People were talking about climate change and the threat it posed and more and more authors were exploring climate change related themes in their work. It felt as if fiction was the perfect medium to bring climate change to the attention of the world.

For a while it seemed to be working....

UNBOUND - publishing DRACA by Geoffrey Gudgion

Every author knows the challenge of finding a publisher, and every published author knows that the next, and perhaps even greater challenge is to achieve respectable sales. The era of self-publishing means that over 200,000 new titles are published in the UK every year. Even mainstream publishers with big marketing budgets find it hard to punch through the ‘noise’.

I’d heard of Unbound as a crowdfunding publisher, and when fellow author Geoffrey Gudgion told me that his novel Draca had been ac...

Signs in the Skies

Last night I saw a pink rainbow, arching over the sea. It was dusk and threatening thunder. The approaching rain clouded the surface of the sea and blurred the horizon. Then the rainbow appeared, glowing pink against a dusky sky. I stood and watched until the sun set behind me, the rainbow dulled and the night closed in.

I took this picture but is doesn’t do justice to the magic of the moment.