Interview with Kathryn Fogleman
Published 2022-01-13.
Who are your favorite authors?
True to any fantasy author worth their salt, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis are at the top of the chart!
Next would be Bryan Davis, Christopher Paolini, and Frank Peretti. For some older authors, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Austin, and Louisa May Alcott.
And, of course, some Indie authors I know and love are F.P. Spirit, A.J. Bakke, and Jess Elliot. >xoxo<
What inspires you to get out of bed each day?
My tiny daughter. She's up and ready to explore her world every morning, and I intend to be there exploring it with her.
Also, Coffee is a great motivator. I love drinking coffee in the morning. I look forward to it.
When you're not writing, how do you spend your time?
Doing what I can to keep my house clean and my family taken care of, usually!
Sometimes I'm on a road trip with my husband. We enjoy driving and visiting new places, seeing friends and family, and finding beautiful places to camp. I find that new scenery helps unleash my imagination and keep the words flowing to paper.
Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
Oklahoma! (And if you sing that stupid song, I will be sorely tempted to throat-punch you)
Western Oklahoma, to be precise.
While few people can withstand the harsh wilds of Oklahoma, my love for creating art with words was nurtured throughout childhood by Oklahoma's untamable nature: Spectacular sunsets that bathe the sky in fantastical colors. A bright rainbow on the edge of black clouds that boil with thunder and lightning. Fierce winds and unpredictable tornadoes that uproot entire towns with unmatched rage. Wild fires, miles long, that roar over the rolling waves of yellow grass, leaving behind blackened dust and ash.
The harshness that is Western Oklahoma has never left me lacking for a story to tell.
How do you discover the ebooks you read?
Word of mouth, mostly. Amazon every once in a while will throw one in my face that surprises me.
Do you remember the first story you ever wrote?
YES! It was called Princess and the Morning Star. It had dinosaurs in it. And prophecy. And a princess, of course. The plot was very weak, and eventually morphed into what is Tales of the Wovlen: the Dragon's Son now.
What is your writing process?
Music to suite the mood, lots of mad typing, lots of deleting, reading it, typing more, telling myself NOT TO READ ANYMORE. JUST TYPE THE D*MN THING ALREADY.... getting coffee. Typing some more. And the cycle repeats itself.
Do you remember the first story you ever read, and the impact it had on you?
The first story I can remember reading and leaving an impact on me was Black Beauty. It made me so mad. My heart bled for weeks after reading it.... actually, my heart might still be bleeding.
The impact it left on me was that harsh realities and happy endings can co-exist. The harshness just makes the happy ending all the more longed for and bitter-sweet when it comes. It makes a book unforgettable if executed properly.
How do you approach cover design?
I stalk it, like a lion in the bush. And then when I go to pounce on it, I get lost in the zebra stripes, and I scream and run in circles like a clown.
What are your five favorite books, and why?
Dracula (Bram Stoker), because it was the best Christian book I've ever read.
This Present Darkness (Frank Peretti), because it was the scariest book I've ever read.
Eldest (Christopher Paolini), because it was the first and only book that kept me up all night and all day.
Boundaries (Dr. Henry Cloud), because it was the most helpful book I've ever read.
Ruins on Stone Hill (F.P. Spirit), because it was the first book that I actually had a fangirl moment over.
What do you read for pleasure?
My own writing. Seriously! If I don't enjoy my own writing, then what does that mean? I also spend so much time WRITING it that I never take the time to actually just read it for enjoyment. So, if I have time to sit down and read something for my own pleasure, I read my own writing.
Sure, I like reading other books. But my own writing brings me a great deal of pleasure.
Describe your desk
Currently, it's the couch, with a blanket and my laptop on my lap, and pillows all around me, and a hot cup of coffee or hot chocolate next to me.
I don't have a desk. My house is too small for one.
When did you first start writing?
I was 10 years old, homeschooled, and was learning how to use a computer and type. I also had to do hand-writing practice and language arts. I had a wild imagination, so I started typing or writing my stories down in notebooks for school. Before long, they started meshing together in longer stories that, by the time I was 16, had turned into a 600 page book!
Smashwords Interviews are created by the profiled author or publisher.
