Happy Book Birthday, K.M. ALLAN!

I'm absolutely thrilled to welcome a very lovely author to the blog today as they celebrate the release of the second book in their fantastic YA fantasy series! 

Check it out...
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K.M. Allan is an identical twin, but not the evil one. She started her career as a beauty writer and now powers herself with chocolate and green tea while penning novels and blogging about writing.

She is the author of the urban YA fantasy series, Blackbirch. Book 1, The Beginning, and book 2, The Dark Half, are available here.

When she’s not creating stories, K.M likes to read, binge-watch too much TV, and take more photos than she will ever humanly need.

Visit her website to discover the mysteries of the universe. Or at the very least, some good writing tips. You can also find her procrastinating on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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​Struggling with the loss of his parents, seventeen-year-old Josh Taylor returns to Blackbirch, a small town steeped in a history of witchcraft. Amongst forgotten friends and a life he’s trying to rebuild, he’s haunted by nightmares where a girl named Kallie reveals a shared magic in their veins, and a warning for Josh to run from those who seek to find it.

Grab your copy here! 

Barnes & Noble
​Amazon

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The Interview...
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Who are you and what do you write?

My name is Kate and I write Urban Fantasy YA books, and a blog about writing.


Where and when and how did the writing life begin for you?

I was always a reader and moving onto writing the stories was just something that happened naturally. I honestly can’t remember ever wanting to do anything other than be a writer. As soon as I could, I took courses on writing and decided to take it seriously in 2015 and try submitting.


How has the journey to this point been? Can you give us a basic rundown?
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It’s been full of highs, lows, and surprises. Joining the online writing community was a great place to start and taught me a lot about submissions and how to query when I had absolutely no idea. Launching my writing blog also helped because it allowed me to connect with other writers who have since become good friends and excellent beta readers. With their encouragement, I queried both agents and publishers for two years, receiving two full MS requests in that time, and an offer to publish with a small press. Unfortunately, that fell through a month before release, so I self-published. My debut came out in February 2020, two weeks before the world went into lockdown, and my second book in the series was released July 17th. It’s been a huge learning curve, but I get to make all the decisions, which my inner-control freak loves.
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What’s been the hardest part of your writing/publishing experience so far? And the most enjoyable?
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Deciding to walk away from my small press contract and go it alone. I hadn’t been prepared to self-publish, so learning how to do that, and in only a matter of weeks, was a steep, frustrating learning curve. But it got a book I’d been waiting for years to release out into the world, and the most enjoyable thing has been getting messages from people who’ve told me they stayed up all night reading it.


Would you go back and change anything?

I think as writers we always wish we did just one more round of edits, but the only thing I’d change is having more faith in myself. For a long time, I looked for others to validate my work and tell me it was good enough to publish. In the end, I didn’t need that, and now those choices are up to me.


Where would you like to be in 5 years time? And 10? Or, what are your plans for the future?

My plans for the immediate future are to get books 3 and 4 of the Blackbirch series published, and then to work on a totally new story. In 5 or 10 years, I hope to be doing what I’m doing and getting my books out into the world.


What’s one piece of advice you’d give to new writers just starting out?

Definitely find and make friends in the writing community. They’ll help you with questions, advice, and will pick you up when you’ve had a bad writing day. You can also always learn more when it comes to writing. Every draft is a chance to hone your craft, and every completed draft makes you a stronger writer.


And most importantly...

Ketchup or Mayo? Mayo
Night or Day? Day
Inside or Outside? Outside
Dogs or Cats? Cats
Twitter or Facebook? Twitter
Ebook or Paperback? Paperback
Sun or Rain? Sun
Keyboard or Pencil & Notebook? Keyboard
Comedy or Drama? Comedy
Chips or Chocolate? Chocolate
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