KatYa Mills

This novella is the first in an urban fantasy series I am writing. It was not intentional. A couple of years ago I moved away from the Bay Area in Northern California, and got swallowed up in a perfect storm of memories and feelings. I had lived there for a decade. So I found an apartment and got situated, broke out my laptop and spent my mornings drinking coffee and getting this big emotional monster out in front of me. It cast a big shadow! I knew if I wanted to have a fighting chance at a fresh start, I was gonna have to write myself out from under it and back into the light. I was unemployed, so I had plenty of time and few distractions. I had also been thinking a lot about origins. The female lead in the story is kind of a rootless wonder. Well, she has roots, she just doesn't know where they go. The reader gets to walk hand in hand with her to uncover her origins. Not only was she adopted at birth, but she has preternatural abilities without explanation. There are many more questions than answers. How many of us feel this way, and do not know where we come from? My aunt met with an acquaintance of many years, who inadvertently told her one day that they were distant cousins. He had done his homework and published quite a large volume tracing his family genealogy, and our family was in there! She gave me this book at the precise moment I came to her asking questions about our origins. Which was just after I had drafted this story about a strange girl with unknown origins, seeking her truth. None of this was by accident! And yet it all starts off so random, lending itself to a tapestry of synchronicities. All I had to do was take the time, sit down, and weave. And that's the story behind my book 'Grand Theft Life'.
I did not decide to write a series. I simply have to continue, for there is so much more to be said.

Coffee. I like to get closer to a place where my mind is free-associating. Sometimes just after waking up. I usually write without much of an outline, but ideas which have some sorta emotional connect. My work is character-driven, meaning whatever happens is colored by the POV (point of view: thoughts, feelings, biases, dreams, wishes, desires, interest, sensations, internal experience, intuition) of the main character(s) in relation to their world. I use visual mapping applications and sometimes Scrivener to help see the various parts of the whole. I usually do a little freewriting before I know where I wanna locate myself in the narrative for the day. By freewriting, my heart is given a chance to tell me where in the story I can make the most impact. Because I come into the experience of writing with whatever thoughts and feelings the day has inspired, I hope to use the immediacy of my own life to come to bear on my story. Of course, the process does not always play out this way! That is a best case scenario. I try and stay as flexible as possible with scenes from a first draft, often cutting and pasting chapters relentlessly in my edits until the puzzle comes together the way that feels right. This keeps the editing process fun and sometimes magical!