I wrote this about a writer friend of mine.
Makings
of a Young Adult (YA) Historical Fiction Writer
“Their still beating hearts will be removed.
Their heads will be stricken off, their bodies cut into quarters and the pieces
hung high on the London Bridge so all may see of the fate of traitors to the
king.” Gilt, Katherine Longshore
How
does a young girl, composing stories and songs about her cat, all while
crouched under a kitchen barstool, grow up to write a popular published trilogy
about duchesses and dukes, kings and queens, and beheadings?
Well,
if you are Katherine Longshore (Katy by her friends), it is an amazing
adventure that warrants being told.
In
her teens, Katy fell in love with theater. “I loved losing myself in a character made of words… to make
that character live and breathe. Now, that is magic.” Katy went on to achieve a university acting scholarship. She
found that studying Method acting taught her how to get into her character’s
shoes, “Not just perform, but become the role.” Still harboring the love for
writing, Katy had a sense that it would help her future writing. “To be able to
inhabit the character’s emotions and sensations – to envision the setting
around me, will help translate to the page.”
Wanting
to get out of the physical classroom, Katy enrolled in a study-on-board
Semester at Sea. “The thought of traveling by ship around the world sounded
inescapably romantic.” The ship stopped at ten countries in one hundred days.
Katy was hooked, and wanted more. “My
life was changed forever,” and she set her goal on Southern Africa.
Needing
to finish college first, Katy studied anthropology, geography, and journalism,
all to prepare for her next big adventure. “I dreamed of being a travel writer. I was able to create my
own traveling major, and traveled for two months on a train through Europe.” From
there, Katy landed a job on a National Oceanographic research boat, which went
to Chili, the Antarctic, and Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean. “At this
point, I was ready for land.”
With
one bag packed, Katy began her solo adventure to Africa. When asked why she
wanted to travel alone, she commented, “It can be too easy to rely on a friend
while traveling. I knew that being
alone would broaden my horizons, challenge my limitations, and open me up to
new possibilities.” Katy spent time in South Africa, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia,
Malawi, and Zimbabwe. From there she traveled on to Southeast Asia, Australia,
and New Zealand. It was Zimbabwe however,
and the meeting of an Englishman, that would alter the course of Katy’s life.
Katy
returned home for a few months, but became very restless. She opted to accept a
two-week invite to England, by the Englishman. Katy stayed until her six-month visa expired. “I went back
the next year and married him.”
Katy
and her husband stayed in a little town in England, for another five years. She
found herself mesmerized by all of the history surrounding her. “I fell in love
with the colorful and violent history of England.” She lived next to castles
that had been inhabited by Ann Boleyn, the Duke of Buckingham, and a home of
King Henry VIII. Her focus had
taken a change in course from travel writing, to being totally immersed in
English history. She spent her time researching and falling in love with King
Henry VIII’s era. “I became
obsessed with his six wives.”
Who
do you get when you combine a young girl who loved to write, a teenager who
learned to act, and a young woman bold enough to travel the world alone helping
her to discover her passion for English history? Katherine Longshore, a well-praised published historical
fiction YA author, who claims she is dedicated to maintaining historical
accuracy in her novels.
How
does it feel to have completed a published trilogy on the romantic and violent
era of English history? “It feels both incredibly satisfying and deeply
terrifying. I feel like I have
grown and progressed as a writer through this series and that I’m ready to
challenge myself even more and try new things. But that’s frightening, because
don’t we all feel so much safer when we’re surrounded by the familiar? Still, I’m willing to try. It’s like heading off to Africa alone –
it will challenge me and broaden my horizons.”
If
you’d like to find out more about Katherine Longshore, you can visit her website
at: katherinelongshore.com, or Twitter/@kalongshore. Katy lives with her English husband, two young boys, and
family dog in a small town in Northern California.
Here
is a listing of her work:
Contributor to: A Tyranny of
Petticoats/15 Stories of Belles, Bank Robbers & Other Badass Girls
Manor
of Secrets
Trilogy:
Brazen
Tarnish
Gilt
Gilt
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