Authors You Should Know: Kish Knight
Guess what MJB fam? We have the gifted, the brilliant and the accomplished Urban Fantasy author, Kish Knight with us today! From the rise and fall of angels, demons and powerful characters of color, Kish is definitely the author for you.
Me: Thank you so much for joining us Kish! Tell us about yourself. Who are you? Where are you from? What genre(s) do you write in? How many books have you written?
Kish Knight: I’m just me, lol. But anyhoo, I’m an island girl, born and raised in the US Virgin Islands. I write urban fantasy, both adult and teen novels. So far, I have written twelve books, have been a part of four anthologies, and have been in one shared world project.
Me: When did you know that writing would be a part of your life journey? What inspired it?
Kish Knight: I always knew writing was destined to be in my life, even before I started school. I think my love of writing started with the childhood bedtime stories that my oldest sister would make up to tell me. Those stories kept me fascinated. Then, as I grew older, elementary school-age, my other sister would let me read the exciting books she was reading, even though they were wayyyy above my reading level. That only pushed me to grow to a higher reading level faster. At that point, I wanted to create exciting worlds as well.
Me: Talk about your journey from the early stages of your writing career to where you are now. Was it positive? What are some of the highs and lows that you’ve experienced?
Kish Knight: I have had a very positive experience, mostly due to the very supportive indie author community that has always embraced me, AND the extremely supportive POC author community which serves as a constant inspiration. Earlier in my author journey, I’d gotten to a point where I was drifting away from writing. But as the POC paranormal indie community started booming, and I started reading more of those books, I became re-invigorated. I simply WANTED to be in a space next to those authors and those books. So, I kept writing.
Me: What are some things that you’ve learned about publishing? What advice would you give to a newly inspired writer who wants to publish their first book?
Kish Knight: From publishing, I’ve learned that you get out as much as you put in. The advice that I have for newly inspired writers is to always keep pushing to be a better, more polished author than you were last year. You will be astounded when you look back to where you first started and realize just how far you have gone on your journey.
Me: How would you define your literary experiences as an author of color?
Kish Knight: I love every second of being an author of color. Being in this space, I have met and been inspired by SO MANY creatives, more than I expected to have met along this journey.
Me: Tell us about your most recent book. Who are the characters? What inspired you to write it? Who is the story directed to?
Kish Knight: My current book will be ‘Fire & Ice’ (releasing this year). It is a side novel to my novel ‘Fury Rising’. ‘Fire & Ice’ pulls out three of the characters from the original book and places them in their own storyline. The original book ended with a battle scene, and Fire & Ice follows one of the characters as she heads home after the night of the battle. (Spoiler alert, I’m sorry….) I was inspired to write this short novel because in the upcoming ‘Fury Born’ (the sequel to Fury Rising), one of those three characters will die. Since I wasn’t ready to lose the character without giving them their own chance to shine, I began writing ‘Fire & Ice’ to explore that character before the inevitable moment.
Me: Which character that you’ve written thus far do you consider to be your favorite? Why?
Kish Knight: Hands down, my favorite character is Katse (pronounced ‘cat-say’). As I describe him: ‘Katse is a chaos demon, with a quarter of incubus thrown in somewhere’… He first appeared in my short novel ‘Resurrection’ (longer novel ‘Returned to Fire’), and he was such a fun and easy character to write, that I ended up writing him into ‘Born of Nether’ and into Fury Born (upcoming). What I especially love is that I get to write different faces of him throughout different books. In ‘Resurrection’, he was an ally to the main character, so he was really friendly. However, in the other books, he appears as an enemy in the storylines, so he is downright mean to the main characters. I get a kick out of that, lol.
Me: How would you compare the indie publishing community where it is now to when you first published your book?
Kish Knight: This community is moving so fast, I must say. Indie authors are ever evolving at a rapid pace in order to keep up with the traditionally published authors. When I published my first book, (I hate to say it) it was easy to spot an independently published book, sometimes simply through the cover design. Many indie authors would design their own covers just to get their works out into the atmosphere. That is no longer the case. The indie author community now rivals the traditionally published community in almost every aspect.
Me: I completely agree! So, tell us, what motivates you to keep writing?
Kish Knight: …the feel of having my own books in my hands….
Me: How do you balance your work life/family life with writing?
Kish Knight: It is very hard, especially being someone who has several family members depending on them. Family obligations do cut into a lot of my writing life, but I always remember to keep pushing. Finding-the-timewise, it requires extremely early mornings to write….it requires always having a notebook and a pen in the car to knock out a chapter….it requires crafting a storyline in my head while doing other tasks…it takes a lot.
Me: What is one thing that you want readers to know about you that they may not know already?
Kish Knight: I plan to write until I physically cannot any more…
Me: Where do you see your career as an author headed towards in the next five years?
Kish Knight: ...more books, completed series…
Me: What is your support system composed of? Family? Friends? Coworkers?
Kish Knight: My husband, my two sisters, and my niece are all very supportive.
Me: What would you say, separates you from the other authors that are on the market right now?
Kish Knight: ...my writing style…
Me: (Last Question) What can readers expect when they read your book?
Kish Knight: ...sarcastic characters, always…. (I wouldn’t have it any other way)
Thank you so much Kish! Hey MJB fam, subscribe to Knight's Time newsletter HERE
(i: https://www.kishknight.com/newsletter) for updates on her next releases.
