Kat Martin – Over Fifty Published Novels and Still Writing
Kat Martin is a New York Times Bestselling author. She has written over fifty romance novels including the Necklace series, the Heart Trilogy and the Bride Trilogy. When I interviewed her, she had just released her book, A Song for my Mother.
Darrell - What made you become a writer?
Kat - I started writing after my husband had written a western novel. I thought it might be fun to try writing a book myself. I had lots of stories rolling around in my head. I picked one out and started. It took me a year and half to finish. The book was MAGNIFICENT PASSAGE. It’s being re-issued in July of this year with a gorgeous new cover.
Darrell - You've written more than fifty novels. Can you describe your process of writing a book?
Kat - I write about four long days a week. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I go to the gym in the morning, come home and do whatever promo we are doing for the book that is next to be released or is currently on the shelves. I start with a story concept and expand as much as I can before I start the actual writing.
Darrell - Your husband is also a writer. Is it helpful having another writer in the house?
Kat - Extremely helpful to have another writer in the house. Larry is great for reading the pages I’ve written or helping me develop action sequences or just plain helping me work out the plot. He reads a lot of my stuff, looks for errors.
Darrell - There seems to be some bias against popular fiction writers. Why do you think this is?
Kat - Maybe they’re jealous because we make more money! Just kidding. But there is a degree of jealousy involved. Literary writers consider their writing to be of a much higher caliber. I think it is just a different style of writing.
Darrell - What do you think the future is for hard copy books now that ebooks are becoming so popular?
Kat - It’s still nice to own a physical copy of a book. I find it easier to discuss a book that is actually in my hand, say for a readers’ group or to use as a reference. Plus it is extremely difficult to find a good book just by perusing the Internet. Going into a bookstore and looking at the book itself seems to be the key, download it after that. I can’t imagine they will totally stop making printed books.
Darrell - What do you think the secret is to succeed as a writer?
Kat - The key to success is perseverance. It takes drive and guts to finish a book. The trick is getting it published, taking the hard knocks of rejection without losing your self-confidence. You have to persevere in order to make it in the publishing world.
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