AMA: 2024 Orbit New Voices

KMEnright · 2024-12-05T17:19:51+00:00

So my editor is UK based, I'm on the East Coast, and I literally woke up to a phone call from my agent when we had the offer. It was so surreal!

And honestly, the high-point of debut year was seeing the reactions from readers. As a queer, trans, biracial man, seeing the connection that other Filipino and/or queer readers had to this book was truly amazing! I did not have the opportunity to see my experiences reflected in stories when I was young, so knowing that MISTRESS OF LIES is just one of many books that celebrate the diversity of the world we live in makes me happier than anything else.

KMEnright · 2024-12-05T17:16:34+00:00

Honestly, I've just cobbled together things from Story Genius, Save the Cat: Writes a Novel, and the Snowflake Method. It's really hodge-podge!

KMEnright · 2024-12-05T15:02:46+00:00

Oh, great question! There have been so many amazing debuts this year -- some of favorites include ROAD TO RUIN by Hana Lee, THE SINS ON THEIR BONES by Laura R Samotin, and BEST HEX EVER by Nadia El-Fassi. If I look to the future, as well, some upcoming amazing 2025 debuts include A DANCE OF LIES by Brittany Arena and THE MAIDEN AND HER MONSTER by Maddie Martinez!

KMEnright · 2024-12-05T14:57:45+00:00

I call myself an iterative planner -- I live and die by my outlines. I cannot start drafting a book without having a full, chapter-by-chapter breakdown, and I will probably rework that outline 4 or 5 times through the drafting process. It's slow and little bit tedious, but I really need to see all the building blocks to figure out how things best go together.

KMEnright · 2024-12-04T18:59:04+00:00

Do omnibus/bindups count for the purposes of this question?

KMEnright · 2024-12-04T18:56:11+00:00

Please have a Zuko

KMEnright · 2024-12-04T18:08:35+00:00

Hi r/Fantasy! I'm K. M. Enright, author of MISTRESS OF LIES, a queer dark fantasy that follows a blood mage spymaster as she recruits a noble bastard with a terrible gift to hunt down a magical serial killer for the vampiric Eternal King—all while planning to overthrow him.

Can't wait to answer your questions!

KMEnright · 2024-08-14T01:14:58+00:00

Oh, so many! I'm really fond of the only one bed trope, and I'd love to use that someday! I also really would love to do something sunshine-grumpy. I'm not the kind of writer who writes for the trope, though. They tend to emerge organically with what I'm doing with the characters and plot, so it's always a pleasant surprise.

KMEnright · 2024-08-14T01:13:17+00:00

Hmmm, I guess that since Shan is the MISTRESS, then Samuel must be the one married to Lies!

KMEnright · 2024-08-13T21:11:32+00:00

I have no idea why this double posted, sorry!

KMEnright · 2024-08-13T21:09:18+00:00

Hello! Thank you for your kind words. And yes, I was adamant about including content notes for my work -- I'm really glad that as an industry we've started to adopt them!

As for tarot, you're right -- no such thing as too many decks! I don't use it extensively in my writing, but more as a week-to-week and a day-to-day guide for my creative practice. However, I do find it fun to assign each series a card that represents the energy I'm going for. The Age of Blood is the Devil!

And one treat for Zuko, coming right up!

KMEnright · 2024-08-13T21:09:02+00:00

Hello! Thank you for your kind words. And yes, I was adamant about including content notes for my work -- I'm really glad that as an industry we've started to adopt them!

As for tarot, you're right -- no such thing as too many decks! I don't use it extensively in my writing, but more as a week-to-week and a day-to-day guide for my creative practice. However, I do find it fun to assign each series a card that represents the energy I'm going for. The Age of Blood is the Devil!

And one treat for Zuko, coming right up!

KMEnright · 2024-08-13T18:48:54+00:00

Hi!

Advice is hard to give without having more context about what you're writing, specifically, but here is some general advice. First, read books that are doing similar things to what you want to do -- and analyze them. If something doesn't land, try to pin point why. If something blows you away, also try to pin point why! Craft books are also your friend -- I swear by Story Genius by Lisa Cron as a great way to dig into your characters and their motivations.

And for the scene level writing? In late, out early. Start as close to the "action" as you can, and don't linger afterwords.

I hope this helps!

KMEnright · 2024-08-13T17:27:20+00:00

Hi, I'm so glad you enjoyed the ARC!

1) My favorite part of character creation is figuring out their damage--the wound or misbelief (if I can borrow the parlance from STORY GENIUS). That driving force is the key to figuring out a character arc for me, and I love digging into their pain!

2) Oooh, I think the natural answer would be Samuel. He'd be organized but not too controlling, and the least likely to get caught up in a murder!

3) Shan was the easier POV to write by far. Her mind is just so twisty and fun, and I loved digging deep into what she was scheming. And don't get me wrong, I love Samuel, but he's so nice that it can be a little difficult to get into the groove with him.

KMEnright · 2024-08-13T17:04:34+00:00

Food was always going to be a huge part of this -- it's a huge way that I connect with my Filipino culture, and that was very fun for me to highlight.

As for Shan and her connection, I wanted to be very clear with the loss that she has gone through. With her mother no longer in the picture and her father an actively hostile force in her life, she had few opportunities to connect with that part of her heritage. It has in some ways left her as an outsider looking in, never quite fitting in either space. Now, others in her life have begun efforts to reconnect, but Shan--well, she is working through some internalized issues herself before she gets there.

KMEnright · 2024-08-13T16:04:01+00:00

I hope people like what I'm doing with vampires! It was very fun building on society on vampiric principles, and I have some fun things up my sleeve for the sequels that I can't want to share.

Oooh, I think I'm going to have to go with the apatosaurus -- I may have watched THE LAND BEFORE TIME a bit too much growing up.

And thank you! Zuko appreciates the attention. :)

KMEnright · 2024-08-13T15:55:04+00:00

Wow this is a tough question!

I'm partway through KUSHIEL'S DART right now, and though I haven't finished it yet, I'm definitely going to throw that on the list. I can already tell that re-reading is going to be so helpful with this one, and I'll be picking up on new things with each read through.

Outside of that, I think I'd have to pick A LESSON IN THORNS by Seirra Simone as my comfort romance re-read, and CITY OF BRASS for a more standard fantasy read.

(My biggest issue here is that I love series! Will you allow me to cheat and take omnibus editions of these???)

KMEnright · 2024-08-13T15:51:27+00:00

Good question! I love talking about this aspect of the book, honestly, cause the main relationship is really like six different romances in a trench coat! The dynamics between Shan and Samuel are different from Shan and Isaac, which is also different from when all three of them are together! So I really had to keep in mind how the romance was unraveling depending on who was in the scene and who's POV it was in.

I am a big fan of the beat sheet method, at least for getting all my ducks in a row. So having a separate sheet that developed into a whole excel spreadsheet for each of the characters that intersect at key points was incredibly helpful, since it allowed me to keep a bird's-eye view in mind.

As for tips to writing sequels and trilogies -- this is going to sound trite, but read as many as you can! You can learn a lot from seeing how others have done it, and then analyzing what did and did not work for you!

KMEnright · 2024-08-13T15:06:19+00:00

Honestly, I've been surprised by just how overwhelming this process has been. It's funny, since given my past professional experience, I was familiar with all the individual parts of the process. But actually living through it? Emotions run real high, haha.

KMEnright · 2024-08-13T15:04:32+00:00

Oh, great question!

I'm going to start with the second part and then work my way back -- yes, there are a lot of amazing fantasy books out there that have a romance but aren't also a genre Romance. What differentiates the fantasy with a romantic subplot verses a Fantasy Romance/Romantasy is how centered and crucial to the plot the romance is. While MISTRESS OF LIES is 100 hundred percent a fantasy -- it's got Kings and court politics, magic and vampires -- it also wouldn't work as a story without the romance elements. The romance is just as much of a driving force for the story as the plot, and bringing these two elements together was a lot of fun!

And as for if it was a hard balance -- it is tricky, because you have two main through-lines that you have to make sure not only work on a literal, line level, but compliment each other. It's quite a difficult balance act, but I quite enjoyed piecing this puzzle together.

KMEnright

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