
Katherine Brown is a Texas girl with books in her blood. She has been reading as long as she can remember and has been “making books” from the time she was a child. Her first few were of a non-traditional binding – cardboard & wrapping paper stapled with handwritten pages in the middle & a ribbon closure! Her love of books runs deep and she hopes to encourage readers of all ages to explore and use their imagination by helping them fall in love with books just like she did.Katherine is married to a wonderful man, Patrick, and has a spunky, smart, amazing step-daughter Lexi. Lexi is the biggest fan of this author’s first published series, School is Scary, and is constantly asking when the next book will be finished so she can read it too.
When not writing or reading, you can often find Katherine eating chocolate or enjoying time with family.
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An Interview With The Author
Do you try to be more original or to deliver to readers what they want?
I saw this question posed and was at odds on how to answer it. The truth is, I feel like my writing is original because it all comes to me little bits at a time during brainstorming, or driving down the road and a random bit of dialogue that goes with no story I’ve written yet pops into my head and so on, thus making it very original to me. I don’t feel like I write cookie-cutter stories. In fact, sometimes I’m afraid I don’t even follow the rules of writing very well.
As a reader myself, I love a good trope. You know, the amateur artist turned sleuth will always get her bad guy; the man and woman on opposite sides of an issue will fight and fight until they realize they actually don’t want to fight but, rather, have fallen in love, the best friend has a secret crush, etc. I never get tired of them. Give me ten Beauty and the Beast retellings and I’ll love at least eight of them. Yet, as a writer, I find it difficult to follow a tried and true trope pattern absolutely and with no alterations. I don’t know if it is because it feels like copying, or if it is the fear that my story won’t live up to those stories, but somehow I always feel like my story is slightly different or unconventional in the way I tell it. In fact, I sometimes chastise myself because when I finish writing, I’m not sure I even know how to pick the correct genre to describe my book because I didn’t hit every single best-selling trope or expectation out there. Is that a good thing? A bad thing? I couldn’t really say. I have readers who leave beautiful reviews on how much they enjoyed the stories and characters especially. I have other reviews huffing that there is far too much fluff taking up the pages.
All readers are different so I think it is fine when stories are something different, as well.
However, I still feel like I try to give readers what they want: characters they can know and be invested in, and a story that draws you into it until the last page. A memorable scene. A funny line. All the feels. You be the judge; I can’t wait to hear readers’ thoughts on The Librarian’s Treasure.
Can you tell us a little about The Librarian’s Treasure?
Of everything that I’ve written, this story has taken the longest. I whipped out a beginning in no time flat, falling in love with the idea of an orphaned librarian getting wrapped up in intrigue and adventure. And then, I stopped. For whatever reason, it just felt like nothing I wrote was good enough.
A year or so later, I picked it up and tried once more. This time, it was Drake who refused to cooperate. Was he a spy? An assassin? A love interest? A messenger? Writing him felt incomplete as I couldn’t decide what his future in the book would be. So, I stopped. Again.
And then, after another almost two years, the story resurfaced in my stack of unfinished projects and I knew I wanted to give it breath and life and wings to fly into the world, your world, readers. I still loved my idea and I was ready to sit down and do the hard work of erasing and starting over fresh. No more picking up in the middle. It was hard. I hate erasing. Or backspacing, as the case may be. But I did it. And oh! I’m so glad that I did. Raegan and Drake and the League are even better than I ever imagined them (with lots of encouragement from my editor to embrace a little more fantasy for the first time). I hope that you enjoy spending time with Raegan and Drake and getting to know them as much as I did. It was so refreshing to finish this story, that I jumped right into writing the prequel; another something I never thought I would do….write books out of order lol, but I didn’t know it needed a prequel until the story ended and Raegan had some unanswered questions.
Thank you again for spending time with me today! Happy reading.
How long have you wanted to become an author / why did you become an author / is being an author your chosen career?
Forever. No, really. I started “making books” from cardboard and paper and ribbon as a little girl. My parents were always happy to read my scribbles. As a pre-teen, I even “self-published” a newsletter from our desktop computer and printer, charging my (married) parents separately to read about school or poems that I’d written and jokes from my little sister. I love words. The possibilities of words. The evasiveness of words. The magic that is making your words say something that brings a picture to life for you or others when those words are read.
Now, don’t get me wrong – some days my words are bogged down and written in a fog of exhaustion and they come out as low-bar as you can imagine. I have so much room for improvement, as do most people in most careers if they are honest, but I thoroughly enjoy writing for the creativity of it. I became an author when I looked up from my day job one day and remembered my dreams; those dreams as a girl and teenager of seeing a book with my name on it, they came rushing back as I sat angrily at my desk annoyed at some coworker or customer for yet another ridiculous request. I knew that I wanted to at least take a shot at doing something that brought me happiness instead of ulcers. Even if it meant that I failed. I haven’t failed yet because I’m still pursuing this passion of weaving words together and seeing them hit the page to create a story that nobody has ever heard before. Now, I’m not a best-seller or financially at peace with my author career at this point, but that is okay because my theory is that you have to start at the bottom of any corporate ladder and work your way up; I’m willing to do the work.
I hope that readers who find my books find friends in the characters, find adventure in the pages, and find something beautiful or unique in the scenes. If they do, I’m a success already.
What does your writing process look like?
I typically can only write when my little girl is at naptime so it is a quick and quiet time of putting as many words together as I can. I have on occasion used a Disney playlist as background music, but honestly, even before my baby girl was born, I have always preferred to write in silence. The tapping of keys on my laptop is all of the noise that I need. It is literally the sound of success, being productive and getting the story out. It encourages me to think and type quickly. In fact, I can’t write nearly as well or fast using dictation. When typing, the words (a lot of the time, yes I get stuck, too) simply flow out of my fingertips.
I do like to have a snack and either water, tea, or lemonade nearby when I’m writing as well. Typically, the snack takes the form of mini M&Ms, dark chocolate chips, or peanut butter protein balls.
Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!
*Prize #1:*
Book tote, bookmarks, One shamrock charm bracelet, & an ebook copy of The Lady & the Leprechaun (prequel to The Librarian’s Treasure)
*Prize #2:*
Bookmarks and an ebook of The Lady and the Leprechaun
*Prize #3:*
$10 Amazon gift card

Thank you so much for being a part of The Librarian’s Treasure tour!
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It was my pleasure. 🙂
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It was my pleasure. If you haven’t already and you’d also like to be interviewed on my website or on my YouTube channel, check out the submission information here: https://ninasoden.com/interview-guest-post-submissions/
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