Kate Shaw is a fantasy author who was born in Atlanta, Georgia and grew up in East Tennessee, where she lives today. For her day job, she is a test proctor at a state community college. You can find details of her literary work here.
Tell us about the town in which you grew up.
What character written by another author do you admire the most?
I greatly admire the character of Gen in Meghan Whalen Turner's book The Thief. It's told from first person and Gen is not an unreliable narrator, but the author still manages to keep secrets from the reader about him. I've read the book at least a dozen times, both because I love it and because I wanted to figure out how she manages to unfold those secrets as the book progresses.
As for admiring a character on a personal level, that would definitely be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz books. I grew up reading the series--my mom read them to me and my brother when we were little, and I read them to myself as I got older. In the books (as opposed to the movie), Dorothy takes everything in stride and is always positive. When presented with a weird situation she examines her options practically. I see a lot of her in my own personality. I still love the books.
When did you start writing your first novel and when did you finish it?
I wrote my first book in eighth grade, although since it fit in a single spiral notebook it was more of a long short story. I don't remember much about it but I'm sure it was awful. I wrote a no doubt equally awful (and short) book when I was about twenty, and a much longer but definitely a terrible book in my late twenties. I didn't start getting serious about writing until I was in my mid-thirties. The first books I wrote then were still pretty bad, but I've gotten better and better with every one I write.
I'm a fairly fast writer and typically complete a draft within a few months.
What are you working on right now?
Right now I'm between projects, but I think I know what I'm doing next. Remember that terrible book I wrote in my late twenties? It was an epic fantasy with a horse as the main character, and for some reason it popped back into my brain recently. The basic story idea was good and would make a great YA fantasy. I'm still in the early phase of worldbuilding and making decisions on where I want the plot to go, but this time I think I can do it justice.
Kate and Jekyll
Tell us about the town in which you grew up.
I grew up in a tiny rural town in East Tennessee, which is in the southeastern part of the United States near the Smoky Mountains. Even today the town only has about 1,500 residents. It's half an hour's drive from anywhere really interesting--like a movie theater or even a supermarket--so I was eager to get out of there as a kid. I moved to the giant (by comparison) city of Knoxville, Tennessee after I graduated from college. Then about five years ago, after a lot of moves to different cities and states, I missed my quiet hometown. I moved back and actually bought a house.
When I was growing up, all the kids in town told spooky stories about Sawmill Road. We were all convinced it was haunted by the ghost of a bank robber who had wrecked his motorcycle and died during a getaway. A few years ago I was talking to my aunt--who also grew up in the same town--and mentioned the story. She laughed and said, "Your dad made that up when we were kids. I can't believe people are still telling it." I included the setting in one of my earliest published short stories, "Sawmill Road," published in Every Day Fiction in 2007, and used the ghost story itself in another story published in an anthology of Halloween fiction. Thanks, Dad.
When I was growing up, all the kids in town told spooky stories about Sawmill Road. We were all convinced it was haunted by the ghost of a bank robber who had wrecked his motorcycle and died during a getaway. A few years ago I was talking to my aunt--who also grew up in the same town--and mentioned the story. She laughed and said, "Your dad made that up when we were kids. I can't believe people are still telling it." I included the setting in one of my earliest published short stories, "Sawmill Road," published in Every Day Fiction in 2007, and used the ghost story itself in another story published in an anthology of Halloween fiction. Thanks, Dad.
Sawmill Road
What character written by another author do you admire the most?
I greatly admire the character of Gen in Meghan Whalen Turner's book The Thief. It's told from first person and Gen is not an unreliable narrator, but the author still manages to keep secrets from the reader about him. I've read the book at least a dozen times, both because I love it and because I wanted to figure out how she manages to unfold those secrets as the book progresses.
As for admiring a character on a personal level, that would definitely be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz books. I grew up reading the series--my mom read them to me and my brother when we were little, and I read them to myself as I got older. In the books (as opposed to the movie), Dorothy takes everything in stride and is always positive. When presented with a weird situation she examines her options practically. I see a lot of her in my own personality. I still love the books.
When did you start writing your first novel and when did you finish it?
I wrote my first book in eighth grade, although since it fit in a single spiral notebook it was more of a long short story. I don't remember much about it but I'm sure it was awful. I wrote a no doubt equally awful (and short) book when I was about twenty, and a much longer but definitely a terrible book in my late twenties. I didn't start getting serious about writing until I was in my mid-thirties. The first books I wrote then were still pretty bad, but I've gotten better and better with every one I write.
I'm a fairly fast writer and typically complete a draft within a few months.
What are you working on right now?
Right now I'm between projects, but I think I know what I'm doing next. Remember that terrible book I wrote in my late twenties? It was an epic fantasy with a horse as the main character, and for some reason it popped back into my brain recently. The basic story idea was good and would make a great YA fantasy. I'm still in the early phase of worldbuilding and making decisions on where I want the plot to go, but this time I think I can do it justice.
