Writer seals global deal for fantasy novel trilogy
Debut novel focuses on witches
When a period of boredom set in, Katharine J. Adams grabbed an oldschool book and started writing. It unleashed a passion that had been dormant for ages and would lead to her debut fantasy novel Tonight, I Burn which is the first of a trilogy.
Adams, from Paraparaumu Beach, didn’t want to go back to her career as a diagnostic radiographer when her children Noah and Tilly were born, so she took some time out.
When they were a bit older she went back into the industry but found the Wellington commute too much so she handed in her notice again.
One day, when she was bored, she picked up one of Tilly’s old maths books and wrote a story on the pages that were blank.
It triggered a reawakening of her passion for writing.
She recalled writing “a book” when she was 5 for her brother who was dyslexic and struggling to read.
By the age of 9, she had a typewriter where she tapped out various stories, albeit “really bad” ones.
“I had always lived in stories, reading and writing, but this was the first time I had done any writing as an adult.”
Adams revised the story, that she had written in the maths book, numerous times and “decided it was a pile of rubbish”.
“I put it on the shelf, and then wrote six more stories, and the last one was the basis for my novel.”
The idea for the novel came about after reading an interview where American author Julie Kagawa referenced Fuse Literary’s Laurie McLean’s advice about adding a twist to something.
“About an hour later I suddenly thought ‘what about if you had witches that burned themselves instead of being burned?’.”
The first draft took her two weeks. “I literally couldn’t think about anything else. It wrote itself.”
She drew on her childhood love of classic novels such as Beauty and the Beast, The Secret Garden, Hades and Persephone, as she wrote.
Then she revised it over about six months, especially after getting reader feedback including from Tilly, who is a “huge reader”.
The fantasy novel is about a young witch with the power to walk between the realms of life and death, who finds herself at the centre of a magical rebellion — and a dangerous romance — that could destroy her coven and her soul.
“When I realised it was quite a good story I queried it in the United States which is quite a process.
“You need your first 10 pages very clean then write a pitch for it, and then send it off to various agents’ requirements.
“A lot of people query books but I was in for the long haul, and this was picked up after about 10 weeks once I sent it.”
Amazingly, Adams has achieved a six-figure global deal for her young adult series, at a time when there’s a strong appetite for the young adult fantasy genre.
Her novel is the first of a trilogy, with Tonight, I Blaze, and Tonight, I Bleed to follow in 2024 and 2025.
The book deal “was out of the blue and I’m still quite shocked”.
She thanked her husband Ben Adams “who has been pushing me”.
“He bought me a laptop, put Word on it, and made me write it on a computer instead of in a maths book because they don’t accept that in publishing houses.”
She has quit her job, doing accounts for a painting company, to become a fulltime writer as well as spend more time with her children.
“I write while the kids are in school and then become a mother when they get home.”
After the trilogy, she has “a whole pile of other stories on the backburner which I’ll have to decide what to do with”.
The chances of boredom setting in are remote. “I absolutely adore writing and I’ve never been so happy.”
Adams’ first novel will be officially launched at Paper Plus Coastlands, Paraparaumu, Thursday, November 9, from 6pm to 7.30pm. All welcome.