KT Literary Podcast Transcript (Sept 2020)

Interview with KD Edwards on kt literary' 'On the Podcast'
September 16, 2020:

Renee: “Welcome to the KT Literary Podcast, I’m your host Renee Nienan. Joining me today is KD Edwards, author of The Tarot Sequence. Earlier in the year, I did a little bit of sound engineering for an interview between Keith and his agent, the indomitable Sara Megibow, and I had so much fun listening to them, I knew immediately I needed to get Keith onto our show. If you're a fan of Keith’s work, you’re in luck because we get granular about his writing process and how the world of Rune and Brand came to be. And can I brag about the slight spoiler about the highly anticipated next book, The Hourglass Throne that I don’t think’s been talked about anywhere else? If you are not yet a fan of Keith, don’t worry, you will be after listening to this episode and reading his current books The Last Sun and The Hanged Man. I highly recommend the audiobooks! Enjoy!

Renee: “Keith, welcome to the KT Literary Podcast!”

KD: “Thank you for having me.”

Renee: “Thank you so much for joining me today! I am so excited to talk with you about your urban fantasy series The Tarot Sequence; first book The Last Sun, the second book The Hanged Man and do we have a title on the third book yet?”

KD: “We do, we just, the current working title is The Hourglass Throne. We just announced it.”

Renee: “Oh I love that!”

KD:”Yeah, I’m pretty excited about it.”

Renee: “Wow! Oh that’s really good. So how does this is totally off script and I’m just throwing (KD Laughs) this at you right now, sorry, how does the, where does that fit into the tarot imagery?”

KD: “It’s actually, um, it is not fit the tarot imagery. I created, I actually probably oh my god since half way through the first book i started leaving hints about this. There was, used to be a court called Time, um one of the Arcana called Time, and it’s a court that is now destroyed. It was destroyed centuries ago um and this is, i’ve been leading to this for like, this is my third novel and this is the conclusion to the hints that i’ve placed in the last two novels. So The Hourglass Throne is returning.”

Renee: “That is so exciting.You pretty, I would say famously um have talked about this um being a very large series. (KD: “mmhmm”) Can you talk a little bit about that?”

KD: “From the beginning I knew where I wanted to go um i am um i am a firm outliner, i believe in having a heavy outline, it’s the way i write, but also lets me imagine the different story arcs i want to tell and there are three separate story arcs um built into the series and each of them fit within a trilogy. I didn't even plan that in the beginning, to have three trilogies but it just worked out perfect and i know where i want this to begin, i know exactly where i want this, this major storyline to end and it’s nine novels long. (laughs) so from the beginning (Renee: “wow”) that was my goal and it wasn't an easy one and um my, my agent Sara Megibow is just a one of the most amazing people in the known universe and she (Renee: “Here, here!”) from the beginning she said we’re not just gonna sell you as um an urban fantasy author who’s gonna tell a bunch of books, we’re gonna sell you as someone who has nine novels they want to tell.”

Renee: “Wow! A lot of agents would be afraid of that.”

KD: “I uh yeah and she jumped right into it. It was probably the first week i worked with her was probably one of the best weeks of my life. It was just like a dream.

Renee: “Awww I love. I you know, i can't, i can't say i wouldn't say anything different about my first week working with her or any week since. She’s the greatest (KD: “She is.”). Um three trilogies though is huge and getting a publisher to commit to nine books….”

KD: “Fingers crossed, um they, they (Renee laughs) we started off with a contract for two books and then the thought was because then the pandemic hit and it just everything fell apart and (Renee: “right”) we were gonna um we had finally decided well if things have been going well, my sales have been really good, the audible version has been really strong its drawn a lot of attention to the print version because they really compliment each other and the goal was i'm just gonna go ahead and write the third book and then we’ll bring it to them and and sell it and before i could even do that they came to me and asked me for two more books. So that was pretty rewarding knowing that you know Amazon on the audible side and Pyre my publisher both basically said yes we absolutely go ahead two more books here’s your contract (little laugh) so now you know four books are under contract so if everything keeps on going well”

Renee:” You’re almost halfway there (KD: “almost halfway there”) that’s amazing! (KD:”Yeah”) that's perfect! And things are only going to keep picking up steam with this story you know as you go through each trilogy.”

KD: “Yeah, yeah I think so. I think I avoided the sophomore slump with the second book. I was really worried about that, but the feedback most people; including me (little laugh); will say they like the second book better than the first so my goal (Renee: “Wow”) is the third book is going to (sighs) i want i love my readers, they are constantly in touch with me, they talk with me all the time, they send me artwork and they know when my birthday is and they're so amazing and i want nothing more than to knock their socks off with the third book. The third book is the is huge it's the end of the first trilogy and it's the one where the most secrets come out than any other book in the series.”

Renee: “I had heard you say that so i was doing a little bit of research before (KD laughs) we got into this episode and you mention the third book in the trilogy being the one where Rune’s secrets (KD: “Yeahhh”) Rune’s your main character (KD: “yeah”) actually come out.”

KD: “It’s, it’s gonna be those are gonna be some intense scenes to write cause we if you had asked me about nine books and three trilogies and the first trilogy specifically is about Rune to a certain extent is an unreliable narrator. He is keeping something from the reader and the readers are picking up on this and they’re looking at the hints im leaving and they're trying to figure it out, it does come out it’s very clear by the end of the first trilogy what Rune was keeping from the audience. And then the second trilogy is gonna be about the things that are still being kept from Rune, the things he’s never been able to piece together about you know the real reason why did why was his court destroyed and what is what is this conspiracy that he seems to be drawn into and then the third trilogy is all breaking all the rules thats whats thats what you know the end of a good series you break the rules, you go big and it's all endgame stuff.”

Renee: “Yes! Oh I’m so excited. I love it! So are you then a plotter or a pantser with this kind of massive undertaking? How, how do you tackle that?"

KD: "I am absolute plotter I can't imagine I have the deepest respect for people who are pantsers people who can sit in front of a computer without an outline or with just like a page of handwritten notes and write an entire novel I can't imagine that because my whole series is built on deep world building and lots of secrets and lots of hints um to when those secrets come out. I don't I don't think I could do it without an outline. I am a massive, massive plotter. "

Renee: "Like like how many pages are we talking per book?"

KD: "Well each book is I don't know if I have an answer to that (Renee laughs) each book imagine each book is 100000 words long um my outline is usually 45000 words so the (Renee: "WOAH!") outline literally the size of half the book and I've got the combined outline for the whole series. I once put it together just to see how many words it was and it was well over 300000 words. Um so I've been (Renee laughs) you know this is an idea that's been in my head for years well over at this point well over a decade (Renee: "wow") I've been building towards writing these novels so that's a decade worth of brainstorming and thinking of funny one liners because one of my characters is known for his one liners (Renee: "Yes") and it's been I've waited a while to get to this point."

Renee: "So is anything different now that you're working on The Hourglass Throne is your plotting has your plotting has gotten any different?"

KD: "Absolutely different, (Renee: "Really?") yeah like I'm doing something completely new for me and so for the last two books usually what happens is I come to the point where the deadline is nearby and I start panicking (Renee laughs) and I go and I go through a couple couple of months with like absolute terror and blaming myself and feeling bad about it and the thing is especially now that two books are out they both went well and it occurred to me that maybe I need to lean into this (laughs) so when I spend as I mentioned I spent years on outlines, years before I even start writing and especially for book 3 there are parts of this that I planned you know a decade ago so what I decided to do was you've got a strong outline, your two months away from the deadline take maybe a day off a week from work and lean into it and do all your writing in two month. Focus because you've got got this huge safety net this huge outline and I thought try to enjoy the experience instead of blaming yourself for waiting till the last second and it's been amazing. I like literally I've never written so many new words in a single day that I feel good about I've never (Renee: "wow") it feels like I'm in a movie like cause I'm moving so quickly  through the novel I feel like I'm actually living what they're going through and I'm not sure I can go back to another way of writing cause it's been it's just it's just working too well and I'm thinking my god why did I wait so long I could be doing two books a year at this rate if I do it this way.``

Renee: "Oh my gosh I'm sure your fans would be thrilled to hear that! That's.."

KD: "It would, that's the only way I'm gonna get a chance to tell another story like a young adult series or something like that. Like (Renee: "sure") so it's in pretty pleased it's been a, the last month, this month and October are it's been a really nice season for me."

Renee: "Wow. I, I think it's a testament though to, I mean I would not say that you are a pantser (KD laughs) I would say you're because you do have that outline and you're writing what you know so well."

KD: "That's a big part of it too (Renee: "yeah") I know the characters and you know how they think and they feel like real voices inside your head (Renee: "yeah") and they're fighting to get out on the page."

Renee: "You've just taken your training wheels off (KD: "yeah") and strapped a motor on the back (KD: "I know") of a rocket (they both laugh)"

KD: "It'd be, it'd be nice to think I could  step up my pace and write a little bit quicker. I've always wanted to do that."

Renee: "uh so I Also did hear that you might experiment with different povs in the next book?"

KD: "I am and part of that's because it works really well for the third book to have a different pov especially one that is centered around the villain because I, I wasn't you never until you actually start writing a villain you're never sure how it's actually going to end up on page and I just wrote the first scene with the villain and I loved em. Even writing it like I when I like something as I'm writing it I know I'm onto something (Renee: "yeah") so the I'm gonna have another point of view that's closer to the villian and in my novels usually the villain the only time they're they're on screen is when they're interacting with rune; the main character; (Renee: "right") and you're leaving so much off the table of what happens as to part of that story so that was the decision I made and also the point of view is going to be Quinn and Max and I never really realized when I set out to write this I was completely unprepared for the reaction the secondary characters would cause with my readers and they really a lot of them really love Quinn and Max (Renne: "Yeah") and they're sort of a more a younger, more hapless Rune and Brand. (Renee: "Yeah!") so I want to start I want them to have their own point of view for what I'm calling interlude chapters and I'm hoping it leads to something more because i think they are currently going to a magical boarding school um in New Atlantis and I'm thinking I kinda want to tell more stories with them so if this goes well I can see it branching out to something else."

Renee: "Like a whole ya series?"

KD: "I'm thinking, I'm thinking about it (Renee: "Yay!") I'm thinking about it yeah."

Renee: "Oh that sounds perfect! I'm a, I'm a sucker for magical boarding schools."

KD: "I've wanted to do that ever since Harry Potter (Renee laughs) thats been one genre that I can't wait to tackle and at some point I mean I've been developing an outline for magical boarding school for, for years and I have like a whole big, huge folder that and at some point like woah wait I've got some characters that people love (Renee: "Wow") and I love at a magical boarding school combining those two outlines I think I might be stumbling onto something that's gonna make me pretty happy so."

Renee: "Oh! Well anything with Max makes me very, very happy so Yay! (laughs a little) (KD: "yeah") um so this is a less exciting question for me, but I do feel that I need to ask it (KD: "Yeah") um you hinted on social media book 3 may include a character death, do you have any comments (KD chuckles) on that, can you tell me anything about it?"

KD: "I a, I am so aware of the fact that I am blessed with readers who care a lot about the series and there some of them are probably screaming right now heh if they're (Renee laughs) listening to this and I have to be careful on this, I have to say because one of the things I didn't expect was how much people would care, not just about the main characters and the main people in their orbit, but even secondary characters who barely have a couple of scenes they're people who you know people who they have a really, have a relationship with them, you have a relationship with characters in books you spend a lot of time reading um or rereading and yes this is the big climax in my first trilogy and there, it's, I've been very good up until now but (sighs) at some point I mean it is a dangerous city that they live in and (Renee: "sure") it's inevitable that there's a good chance they'd be losing someone at some point so I guess the only thing I can say is I would ask the readers to trust me on this one um and know that I certainly wow am I taking it seriously cause I'm very aware of now that, now that I actually have readers and it's just not me writing in a little room by myself i'm very aware of the impact I have on those readers when I take characters they may love away from them, so (Renee: "yeah") it's not a thing I'm doing casually and it is a big part of the story though in the sense of it makes sense."

Renee: "yeah (KD: "to me" laughs) it's your Gandalf in the mines of Moria moment right?"

KD: "It's, it's gonna be a hard moment for me to write but it's important and I, hopefully readers will trust me that I'm not going to you know it's obviously you know there are certain characters everyone loves and (Renee: "yeah") they're such and integral part of the story I really can't do without them so I just hope that readers have faith in me but it's kinda I think one of the reasons I started talking about it is because I know that there are a lot of readers who care a lot about this story and it's almost like a trigger warning um in advance and I'm I wouldn't I've never used trigger warnings on my stories though I've recently been swayed to absolutely 100% I will never publish another novel again without those up front um and this is one of my informal trigger warnings (laughs) be prepared (laughs)"

Renee: "You have been warned (KD: "Yeah") oh man. Well, that's so exciting we could just talk about your books forever, but I also do want people to get to know you a little bit. Um what brought you to writing and how long have you been writing?"

KD: "I uh I don't even know of a point when I didn't want to write. From the beginning (Renee: "Wow") I mean very beginning I was always a good reader um and I had a lot of my mother's friends had leftover books from their kids and they would just give me like cartons. I remember once I opened up this huge box and in it was contained with those old hardcover blue bound Hardy Boys books (Renee: "Ohhhhh") a full box! (Renee: "that's I can tell you exactly what those smell like") oh no and like so Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys um you know those were probably I want to write a Hardy Boys type story one day because that was at the beginning. I did a lot of fantasy reading when I was a kid and also a lot of um TV watching because I would come home from school and my mother would have soap operas on in the background so I would watch bits of General Hospital and One Life to Live and which you know I still credit to this day with my ability for  dialogue because those shows are nothing but dialogue (Renee: "wow") you know 1 hour 5 days a week you gotta give those writers credit (Renee laughs) so from the beginning I've wanted to I wanted to mimic what I was watching when i was young to everything was copycat and eventually I just started doing my own stuff, but this is, this is what I've always wanted to do. This is my dream to finally get to this point and it's been, it's exceeded every expectation I've had for what it would feel like."

Renee: "Oh that's fantastic. That's so good (KD: "yes") because sometimes you hear the opposite um and it's truly heartwarming to hear that it has been for you. (KD: "yeah") um where did you get the idea for this? Um and I known you have I know you have discussed this in other places, but how, how did you come to tarot as such a you know interesting hook for this series?"

KD: "I think part of it was because tarot is so rich in archetypes and my writing is all about archetypes. I have certain characters I write over and over um from the beginning when I was young and a lot of them have rownd up in this story and Tarot cards are the same way the major Arcana are they are of you know fortune and religion and justice and strength and I, I thought it was something that I could use as a springboard for kind of leveraging something people know about but also adding in my own world building around it and I think that was my why I wanted to do the serious cuz I would read these amazing urban fantasies you know from Jim butcher and Ilona andrews and Patricia Briggs you know like basically you know the royal family of urban fantasy and I would say I want stuff with a queer influence, I want something with gay characters, I want people who I look in a mirror and that's what I see coming back at me and that's what I started to do and it worked (KD laughs) I wasn't sure from the beginning I always I mean I'm from an older generation and I thought are people ready for this? Are they gonna like an urban fantasy that's so um immersive in the gay male experience and now it's going beyond that with other spectrums of the gay community, the Queer community and I think it was sarah; my agent; who the first time I said but you know what will the mainstream readers think about this and she goes Keith this is mainstream, this is mainstream urban fantasy, this is what where we are and indeed I found readers I had expected to find so."

Renee: "Oh I love that and what kind of age range do you find your fans are? Like to me it's pretty broad right? (KD: "yeah") like everybody loves Rune."

KD: "Yeah, I do gotta say that ive been pretty lucky with that. (Renee: "yeah") It is really the spectrum. I thought if I was lucky it'd be popular with gay men you know that, that was my target audience and I think by far my biggest readership is usually a woman and it's usually 20's and 30's it seems that's and I, I mean but it's all over the place people reach out to me and they send me messages and they go through my website or they put things on goodreads and it seems like its all over the spectrum and god knows I'm thrilled about that. I'm thrilled when people email me and they say they wanted something like this because it's about them, they can see their own experiences in this, they can see found family that they wish they had in it and that's there's no better feeling from that, or when you get an email from someone in you know um Mongolia or Russia or Romania (Renee: "wow") saying that it's really hard to like my aunt sent me this from the united states because they had trouble getting where they are and you hear things like that and it's you realize you've stumbled into something that's much bigger than you it's no longer you in a room writing you're part of something that you're not just sharing with the readers, the readers are sharing back with you and that's been the most amazing thing about this."

Renee: "Oh I love that. I cannot wait for that fan crowd sourced tarot deck that has to happen right?"

KD: "I, you know what I think it is because one of my readers, Jake Shandy, is a fantastic artist, he's been doing um tarot cards um from The Tarot Sequence and he just did Mayan um one of Lord Tower's companion today I think it was and it was just gorgeous and one of the things i think i gonna be doing is opening an uh a merchandise store. It's nothing I ever planned on doing but the (Renee: "Wow") readers keep on asking me for it and I figured that it would be a relationship with me as a creator something that would give money back to um new artists, young artists and also someone who wants to run the store on my behalf and if all those three things can happen then you know Jake's tarot card deck we could actually create that and people could actually buy it if they want and I love celebrating ah uh artists um especially amateur artists out there or, or unpro- you know people who aren't selling professionally. I love giving them a chance in promoting their work and the cover of a novelette I did Scenes From Quarantine it was all user art um (Renee: "Wow") that just means a lot to me."

Renee: "Oh so beautiful! I love it! I will um link to Jake's social media in the description so that people can go look at his art and look at what he's…."

KD: "Yeah, yeah cause he does something called um a comic, a graphic novel series called Battleborn which is wonderful, it really is. He deserves a nod if you can give it."

Renee: "Absolutely! We'll put him in the description for sure. Uh what are some of your other creative outlets beyond you know writing and creating a fandom and (laughs) giving people jobs and all of that?"

KD: "Oh um it's kinda funny you mentioned that. I just hired an archivist. (chuckles) what I call an archivist. I've hired someone, a freelancer, um a reader who knows more about my books than I do. (Renee: "Wow") I would always go to her for questions because I couldn't remember like did I ever write this or is this one of the things I deleted and um the would always answer me and I finally came up with a I'm like you gotta get compensated for this, this is amazing, so she's my official archivist so now but…"

Renee: "I uh That's a you've arrived, you have an archivist!" (they both laugh)

KD: "Um I feel sorry I forget your original question. (laughs) it's a fun answer."

Renee: "What else do you do? (KD: "Oh what I do") What do you do for fun? Anything creative?"

KD: "I (sighs) it's right now I have a full time job and being a full time writer it can be a little bit exhausting having to (Renee: "Sure") my readers keep me energized and they keep me motivated and they keep me constantly excited it's like every day I get positive reinforcement um (Renee: "wow") via twitter. Twitter is the social media I use the most.."

Renee: "Can I just put that, can I put a pin in that?"

KD: "Yeah"

Renee: "Every single day you get positive reinforcement on twitter? (KD: "yes") that's incredible!"

KD: "Well, I took a really, usually the people I follow on twitter are my readers so I (Renee: "wow") I have this little microcosm of people who like me, they talk about books i like, they're friendly and they're supportive to each other. A lot of the Readers created a Discord channel on The Tarot Sequence and they're friends and I hear all the time that I have a new best friend who lives in France um because (Renee: "wow") they met through the channel and all because of I took such care to cultivate this it's really like this nice, supportive bubble I'm in (Renee: "wow, that's amazing") you know I try to well it does it can be a good thing if you use it right i think social media can. In this case it's, it's like I said it constantly, constantly reinforces my sense of I want to write today because people are excited and they're happy with me, but other than that the quarantine has changed the rules for everything. I mean I'm sure you know that. I've been working from home since April um I came down with pneumonia before even everyone else went into quarantine and I'm pretty sure that it was I went to LA and I went to Texas um (Renee: "That's right.") yes and (Renee: "We did our retreat, yeah.") and I got sick right afterwards (Renee: "ohhhh") and those were two hotspots afterwards and to this day I'm pretty sure I did (Renee gasps) have coronavirus before they even really knew what it meant or that it was already spreading across you know the whole United States, so I was fine afterwards. It was great and (Renee: "Okay") the, so my experience started about two weeks before everyone else being in quarantine and I can't believe when that happened I was like everyone thought what two weeks and will be over (chuckles) (Renee: "Right") but it turned out that working from home is a pure joy. I love it, I don't mind, it does make the work day a little bit longer because you find yourself checking emails and stuff in the evening. There's no line between day and night anymore. It feels like or for someone like me who also writes the whole experience just created I, I didn't expect it to be so good, so you asked like what do I do to relax now? I stay at home. You don't really have much else to do um netflix um especially foreign television shows I, I have been binging. I've gone through my entire to be watched list and now I'm looking at a lot of Scandinavian shows they're awesome, German shows they're awesome, French shows and it has completely changed the way I look at tv it's been amazing."

Renee: "Oh that's great. Can you give me some of the greatest hits? I'm assuming like Dark and The Returned and all those good ones?"

KD: "Absolutely, Dark and The Returned are two great ones.  There are a lot of great um uh Ragnarok was one that had come out recently uh sort of a play on modern day Thorish type figure. um there are a lot of great Danish political dramas out there. Borgen is really good, Occupied is really good, between and that whole part of the country and in maybe parts of the world um I, I could go on like my netflix queue is just full of things that I've been just getting addicted to." Renee: "That's really nice. Yeah, I and we're gonna run out of new tv soon so" KD: "I'm scared about that. (laughs) I'm already thinking about what am I going to go back and rewatch? Probably The Arrow. The Arrow's one of my favorite tv shows ever, so I'll go back and rewatch that from scratch and farscape (Renee: "I love it") and older sci-fi."

Renee: "yes, yes. Uh my husband and I just started uh the HBO one (KD: "Lovecraft") yeah well Lovecraft Country is like (KD: "Yes") blowing my mind every week and I'm obsessed with it. No, we just started Raised by Wolves I think (KD: "Ohhhh") produced by Ridley Scott and it feels very alien, very alien."

KD: "Okay, I'm gonna put that on my queue tonight. I've heard about that. I just HBO for Lovecraft Country yeah Lovecraft Country (Renee: "Oh do that one first that one's phenomenal) I've seen the first two episodes and it just blew my mind."

Renee: "I know! Um structurally it is what I think is so fantastic about it is that every episode, those first two really kind of go together, but then since then every episode has had kind of its own genre kr it's own like take on a genre, like the third one is a haunted house story and the fourth one is their adventure like uh treasure hunting story and so they each have a slightly different tone um and the character work is impeccable, so highly recommend that, can't recommend that enough, so anyways sorry we got in the weeds (KD chuckles) uh (Renee laughs)"

KD: "I could talk about that forever so"

Renee: "Oh good me too. Alright since we are a literary agency and a huge part of what we do revolves around queeries, I always love the opportunity to turn this around and to query our clients um so are you ready for query corner?"

KD: "Go for it"

Renee: "Alright, can you describe for me The Hourglass Throne, your work I progress, in three words?"

KD: "Atlantean found family"

Renee: "Awwww. I, that's, that's the whole series (KD laughs) that's, that's the way that I would pitch it to people too, the whole thing is about finding your people (KD: "yes") who will love you and will stand by you it's good. Oh my gosh! Okay, uhhh what time of day are you most productive?"

KD: "Only recently (chuckles) only recently the morning. I've been getting up at 630 or 7 and writing before work and that is so unlike me it's (Renee laughs) I don't even recognize myself, but it's been working."

Renee: "Quarantines been making everybody do weird stuff."

KD: "I tell you if you had told me I would gladly be jumping out of bed at 630 in the morning I would have thought only if I hadn't gone to bed technically (laughs) you know if it's a continuation of something else but"

Renee: "Um do you prefer print, e-book, or audiobook?"

KD: "E-book. E-book all the way."

Renee: "Love it. Uh less to move, less to pack in a box and move."

KD: "Yep and you can search a Kindle as you're reading."

Renee: "Oh that's right, yeah okay. And highlighting things is far less destructive for Kindle."

KD: "Yes"

Renee: "Uh coffee or tea?"

KD: "Iced mochas. Coffee (Renee: "mmmm") espresso."

Renee: "Yeah love it. Do you have any pets?"

KD: "No pets."

Renee: "Alright, uh what is your favorite movie?"

KD: "(sighs) I don't know if I have a favorite movie, but the one that's always meant the most is Beautiful Thing an old um queer friendly British comedy."

Renee: "I have never heard of this."

KD: "It was it's very old, its very old and it was from a period where there really wasn't much out there which (Renee: "wow") is why I think I always remember it."

Renee: "I will have to put that on my list. uh what do you listen to when you're writing?"

KD: "My readers send me playlists on spotify and I've been um adding those to my library and then playing those and I also have my own music that I listen to, but lately while I'm writing The Hourglass Throne I've been listening to their, their playlists on what they, in inspired by what they've read in my series."

Renee: "Oh my gosh that's fantastic! I feel like I need to join this community."

KD: "Well, well they're amazing! They really are and they actually when people find out I do that they ask for my link so they go into my library and they pull the sound and we kind of all share with each other."

Renee: "Oh my gosh would you mind if I put that in the show notes?"

KD: "Yeah absolutely."

Renee: "I would love to do that. Um so is it more character based, are their lists more character based or plot based or location based?"

KD: "Everything um (Renee: "Okay") usually it's for instance I did a free novella between Last Sun and Hanged Man and there was a joke about '9-5' in there so on one of the playlists (Renee laughing) '9-5' starts playing. I just screamed when I heard that. Like they,  they surprise me all the time, my readers and a lot of times it's the feeling of the relationship between the three main male characters between Brand, Addam and Rune. They do songs inspired by that. More often than not when I get a playlist there's something that works perfectly for the scene I'm writing."

Renee: "Oh that's so cool. Um what are you reading right now?"

KD: "Ilona Andrews uh she has a new book out and she is probably, she's just or she I say she, but it's a husband and wife team. They are amazing. They are, out of many books that inspired my, this whole series, my ability to do this series, the Kate Daniel series they did um I just I can't thank them enough. They showed me that it was okay to do a complicated world and throw people in it and not explain what's going on and you know be brave, do that, take a chance and people will follow you and they were right."

Renee: "That's awesome. Okay well this is the final question then. Uh since boundless optimism is a cornerstone of KT Literary, I always have to end our interviews by what's making them happy this week, so Keith what is that for you?"

KD: "I am riding a high because I have an awesome writing group that I've been with for years and there are just fantastic people including four published authors in there who are close friends of mine and the, I presented my, a, my big climax, my midnovel climax yesterday to the writing group and the response was amazing and (Renee: "Oh good!") it was like, like, like humbling, I almost started crying as they were giving me feedback (Renee: "Wow") on it and this, these two chapters in particular in The Hourglass Throne needed to be as good as my battleship chapters from book 2 um which is my current bar for like best thing I have ever wrote and I think I met it so I'm, I'm just on a high because of that. Like I needed, I needed them to really like this and they really liked it."

Renee: "Ohh, I cannot wait! Oh fun is this gonna be for people who find this after The Hourglass Throne is released and they can just go buy it but the rest of us schlubs have to sit here and wait (KD laughs) That is too exciting. Keith thank you for joining me today this has been an absolute delight."

KD: "it really has. I really enjoyed talking with you. This has been great. It's a great way to end the week."

Renee: "Yeah. Me too. Thank you."

Transcribed by steph (electricpurple89)