A Moment with K.T.

People ask when I first knew I wanted to be a writer, and honestly, it's hard to say. I've been writing since high school - poetry like any other angsty teenager, and it slowly evolved into short stories. Then plays. Then something bigger. The novel-sized stories started right around when I took the bar exam. Stressed out and desperate for an escape, I found writing to be my happy place. It's been a journey ever since.

My schedule is what it is: lawyer by day, writer by night. Sleep can be an issue. But you spend time with the ones you love and I love my stories and my characters. My husband and my kids, too (hubby's usually standing behind me when I say that).

Awoke came from a random night with friends. Out of nowhere, someone asked a simple question: What if the Grim Reaper was human? I became a woman possessed, fleshing out that idea the very same night. The plot came first, then the characters found me as I built it out. But Katya was always the one I knew I needed. A Black woman starring in a fantasy novel, genuinely, truly the center of the story, is still rarer than it should be. She had to exist.

The research that went into building the world was obsessive in the best way. The original concept came from anime, and I mixed in elements of Caribbean folklore. I researched everything: names, language roots, and using Greek and Arabic to create new ones. I wanted the world to feel as diverse as the real one I live in.

As for what makes a good story? A story is good when you cannot think of anything else but getting to the end. When the plot and the characters and the action have been so riveting that you've ignored your hunger because you just want to read. That's the goal. Hope I created that for you.