Interview with Author Kel E Fox

Author of Young Adult Romance, Urban Fantasy Romance, and Gaslamp Epic Fantasy Romance

AUTHOR INTERVIEWYOUNG ADULT ROMANCEURBAN FANTASY ROMANCEFANTASY ROMANCE

Kaleidoscope Romance

5/16/20265 min read

Describe yourself in three words.

Stubborn, dramatic, and kind

What are three facts about you?

I play the saxophone.
I love a thunderstorm.
My favourite dance is the Foxtrot.

What is your favorite book from childhood?

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

When you read, which authors are your go-to authors?

Tansy Rayner Roberts
Robin Hobb
KJ Charles
Alexis Hall

What book has made the biggest impact on your life?

How to Blow it With a Billionaire by Alexis Hall. I know. It's a strange world.

Do you have any book related tattoos?

No! I went into a tattoo parlour as a young adult, but I couldn't bring myself to commit to a design to wear forever.

What is your favorite TV show or movie?

Dr Who (particularly the Eleventh/Amy Pond years, Tenth/Donna Noble is a close second)

What subject could you talk about all day?

Art. Especially pigments in watercolour. I've recently discovered a new favourite, perelyne crimson, which is this GORGEOUS – okay, I'll stop now.

What is your dream vacation destination?

France

What do you do for fun when you aren’t writing?

Ballroom dancing and gaming!
Also Magic: the Gathering.

Are there any causes you support or which are important to you?

Animal welfare probably tops the list, and environmental issues.

How did you discover writing as a possible career?

I'm not quite sure! I studied English and Creative Writing at uni, where it was all literary short stories about nothing and 'no one ever makes it as an author', but somehow I stumbled upon the indie author scene on Facebook, and I realised there are people out there building fan bases and earning a living with their fiction. So I committed to actually finishing a novel, and it went from there.

How did you choose your pen name?

It's quite close to my real name. But if I were to choose a new one, I would not have an initial. That has turned out to be a pain!

Where do you find inspiration for your stories?

Hmm, random ideas while out walking, usually. The mood of a song often inspires a scene. Other books, especially where I'm curious about how something could have been done differently, or out-of-copyright works from which I can steal and subvert plots, such as fairy tales.

What is the weirdest fact you've found when researching for a book?

I am still grappling with the notion that 'ok' is part of the 19th century lexicon.

What trope is your favorite to write?

Slow burn, when everyone around them is like 'you're perfect for each other' and they don't see it.

What is your favorite thing about being an author?

Writing! Well, I say that, and yet I spend a lot of time complaining about how hard it is, but when it's working, it's glorious.

What is your writing process?

Complain about how hard it is between brief moments of glorious inspiration? JK. I have to brainstorm and outline for a while. I hate plotting, but if I don't, I'll get hopelessly lost in the story and end up with half a book that goes nowhere. So I plot until I have the shape of the story feeling plausible, then I start writing. About three chapters in, the plot goes out the window, I despair that nothing is working, then I crack on and somehow the books come out all right.

What time of day are you most creative?

After dark. I love having the night ahead of me.

What is your ideal writing environment?

My office is pretty ideal, except for when there's a cat on my keyboard, but I also quite like writing on trains.

As an author, what challenges do you face?

Finding readers. I have a total inability to write a trope or subgenre straight, so my books come out a weird, and not everyone likes that. But some do! (Who doesn't want a random snarky saxophonist showing up in their epic Gaslamp Romantasy?!)

What is your least favorite part of being an author?

The constant micro-decisions that come with having to do everything yourself and never knowing if you made the right call.

If there was one thing you could change about the writing/publishing industry, what would it be?

How hard it is to break through and get traction as an emerging author.

What advice would you give aspiring authors?

Find someone to be your champion, who will read your crappy first drafts and brainstorm ideas and listen to you talk for hours about books. This gig is hard; a cheerleader helps.

And maybe read/listen to Becca Syme. We are all so different, and your formula for success will be unique. The only way to find it is by trying new things and being open-minded.

What is something you’d like to write, but haven’t yet?

An epic romance inspired by a Toto track list. But I have so many projects started, and I'd really like to get to those too - a genderswapped Phantom of the Opera, my Doctor Who-meets- Bridget Jones universe-hopping saxophonist adventures, more fairy tales...

Which parts of yourself are reflected in your characters?

Oh, all of them, however inadvertently. For me, writing is about splitting apart a thousand aspects of myself and seeing them through a different lens. What if I wasn't indecisive? What if I said the things I wanted to in an argument but didn't for fear of causing offense? What if I gave license to my anger, my fear, my shame and frustrations with the world and let those drive a story? I think, fundamentally, we are all made of much the same stuff, and it's how we express it that makes us so uniquely and vitally different. Stories are the ultimate manifestation of that.

Which of your characters have special meaning to you?

They all do, but Gabby from Darkhaven will always be special because she's the first to have survived commercial publication. Jairo from the same series because he's the first queer character I wrote, and he taught me something about myself. Santo from the Whisperers series because he's charming and generous despite being so deeply damaged.

How do you come up with character names?

If they don't come to me intuitively, I browse Behind the Name lists for the time period I'm drawing inspiration from. And I keep a record of character initials for each book so I don't end up with six J names in a single story, ha.

What kind of readers enjoy your books?

My ideal readers like to sink their teeth (and hearts) into a story, short or long. They enjoy complicated characters, intricate plots, complex magic and gritty politics, often centered around conspiracy or corruption. They like tropes to be twisted or subverted, and while they love stories that don't shy away from trauma and the grim realities of society, they still enjoy a bit of dramatic flair and witty banter. My readers read books with or without spice just as happily and appreciate diverse representations of gender and sexuality.

What is something you love to hear from your readers?

If readers felt seen by my work, or changed in some way by something I've written. Fiction is so powerful like that, and I love hearing stories about it.