Today the Snarkology blog features Kayelle Allen, a powerhouse of a M/M romance author, talking candidly about her own path to publication.
She started publishing in her fifties, but she backed up her solid writing with previous decades of worldbuilding-as-a-hobby in a vast science-fiction and fantasy setting. Her website proves it, by the way. (No, seriously, if you love big, romantic space operas, you should go there and lose ten hours browsing.) Or splurge a bit on her Tarthian Empire Companion, which helps you make sense of the vast scope of her work.
I’ve always been impressed by Kayelle, her great characters and sweeping plots, and her business sense (unlike many erotic romance authors, she’s been careful about the publishers and sub-genres she picked, from day one.) I’m inspired by our similar backgrounds (as in holy crap, I’m not alone in goofing around thirty years in worldbuilding, yay!)
I hope you will be inspired, too.
This is a such a treat. I set a Google alert for my name, and came across this today. Wow. You know how to surprise a person. Thank you so much for your very kind words. I guess we are a lot alike if you spent that long worldbuilding! LOL And I’m betting you haven’t stopped either. 🙂
Nope. Not gonna. I made universes as a hobby long before I figured out people *might pay me for it*.
You’re welcome, Kayelle. I might rant on this in a later blog post, but those of us who start out of the gate with big series ideas often seem to get sideways looks, if not outright disbelief. Like we’re trying to ape Tolkien, or we couldn’t possibly have done all that work for fun, or we’d better pitch a standalone to be safe…
So we learn the code phrases to fit in (standalone with series potential, anyone?), and we know the market could throw us off into the self-publishing world (Harry Connolly’s magnificent ‘Twenty Palaces’ novels, anyone?) But in our hearts, we aim high and wide.
That’s it exactly. I’ve been working on this universe since I was a kid. I don’t start out most interviews telling people that. I don’t think they quite get it. I have an entire galaxy and its empires and trade lanes to play around in. My site has a tour of the Tarthian Empire, and I’m working on material for the other major sections. I have two books out set in the Colonies of Man, and one about to come out set in the Terran Crescent. Only a lack of time and too many other projects keeps me from writing stories more quickly. I just committed to a contemporary story as well. World building, whether in the here and now, or the far future, is what I love doing. Right there with you on that.
Hear, hear, Kayelle! Nothing like having 120,000 years of written history (even if it’s just notes scribbled in 1992) to forestall writers’ block. Time is my limiter, too: absolutely necessary FT work and outside issues stalled me for two years, but I’m ramping back up again.
I’ve been working on a new book set in the Terran Crescent, which is where I began writing many years ago. I ended up crossing the galaxy and writing on the other side (in the literary sense). Now I’m working my way back home. 😉 Keeping the mind active while I work on completing a story that has eluded me.
Looking forward to seeing it in the wild, Kayelle.