Five Question Friday: Kat McIntyre
- By Monica Corwin
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- 12 Jan, 2018
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Please welcome Kat McIntyre to Five Question Friday!
A little about my special guest today:
Strong women. Strong words.
Katherine McIntyre is a feisty Irish chick with a big attitude despite her short stature. She writes stories featuring snarky women, ragtag crews, and men with bad attitudes—high chance for a passionate speech thrown into the mix. As an eternal geek and tomboy who’s always stepped to her own beat, she’s made it her mission to write stories that represent the broad spectrum of people out there, from different cultures and races to all varieties of men and women. Easily distracted by cats and sugar.
You can find her on the web ate:
Strong women. Strong words.
Katherine McIntyre is a feisty Irish chick with a big attitude despite her short stature. She writes stories featuring snarky women, ragtag crews, and men with bad attitudes—high chance for a passionate speech thrown into the mix. As an eternal geek and tomboy who’s always stepped to her own beat, she’s made it her mission to write stories that represent the broad spectrum of people out there, from different cultures and races to all varieties of men and women. Easily distracted by cats and sugar.
You can find her on the web ate:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PixieRants
1. Best piece of writing advice you ever got.
One of my favorite pieces of writing advice was from an author friend, Landra Graf. We were talking about how crazy the business end of things are. I mean, there are all of us authors pushing, pushing, pushing to move forward, and sometimes the pressure really gets to you. But she brought up, 'it's a marathon, not a sprint' and that has resonating with me ever since. As much as I feel this fire under me to move at the speed of light, (I'm an Aries--I can't help it) this field is always going to be a long game. It was a good perspective changer.
2. How do you drink your coffee or tea.
Tea I tend to drink plain or with a little bit of honey, however I drink a lot more coffee. I usually put flavored creamer in my coffee. I used to drink it plain, but I have a sweet tooth that I can't quit, and so it's something that I like to indulge in.
3. Book that changed the way you see the world.
I'm going to cheat a little and say a series. The Chronicles of Narnia was one I read over and over and over again as a kid. The mystical elements of it, that breathless sense of adventure and exploration always resonated with me, like I could find magic in the simplest of things--even a dusty old wardrobe. When I was little, I was convinced that I'd end up whisked away to Narnia or some magical land, so I'd read about survivalist things, like how to identify herbs, different animals, etc. Obviously, that never happened, but I spent my whole life continuing to explore worlds through my own writing.
4. Favorite article of clothing/or accessory?
5. What are you most proud of in your writing career.
The moments that resonate with me the most during my writing career are the moments when I've been signing and someone's told me how much they loved one of my books, or when I've gotten an email or a message from someone I reached with my words. I've always had so many stories I want to share with the world, and those moments of validation, of encouragement, are ones I hold dear.
An invitation to Cupid’s Café will change your life.
After the incident that caused Liv Morozov to drop out of college, years later she’s still trying to pick up the pieces of her life. She’s managed to carve out a career for herself as a photographer, but when it comes to guys? Her issues send them running for the hills, every damn time.
Zane Parata has declared himself off-limits for relationships. Between trying to maintain sobriety and the long hours he works as a chef, no one wants to deal with his brand of damage, and he wouldn’t want to burden them in the first place.
When Liv shows up at Cupid’s Café, she never expected to find Zane, her brother’s former best friend who had vanished one day and never returned. The sparks that surged when they were both teens rekindle stronger than ever, and all too fast, Liv and Zane entangle in each other’s lives, breaking their own rules. Except with both struggling with the demons from their past, the love that’s begun to grow is one lapse away from shattering the two of them beyond repair.Links:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2FvX0oV
God. It's like admitting this out loud, letting it be real, out in the real world makes it real. Which is utterly ridiculous, really.
I've spent my entire writing career advocating for mental health and championing transparency so the world can stop seeing the mental needs of others as flaws.
And yet, when I hit my lowest point. Complete depression and burn out rolled into one I hid away. I pushed harder. I forced myself to do more, be more, work more.
Some of you probably know what happened next...I made things WAY worse.
Why did I push knowing it was doing more damage, causing more harm?
Because I'm a writer. That's what I do. I couldn't admit to myself that even staring at my office door made me feel like a balloon was precariously inflating in my chest. That the thought of letting one more single person down was another invitation for one more rejection. One more author friend deciding I'm not worth the effort, or the patience.
I get it. I dropped so many balls over the past year. Don't get me wrong, life hasn't been bad. I married a man who understands me on a level I don't even understand myself on. He's incredible. A tiny part of my brain tells me I don't deserve him every single day.
At the same time, I yearn to write. I've been reading, jotting down ideas, playing with little tidbits here and there but I haven't been able to write anything. It makes me feel like I've got phantom limb syndrome. I'm missing a part of my soul right now. How can I give all of myself to my loved ones, to my life, when something so vital to who I am is missing.
I've been trying to work on seeing who I am without writing. That didn't work. I dream in plots and characters. I hear lines of dialogue in my head when I'm washing the dishes, mowing the lawn, organizing my budget. I can't write at the moment but maybe I feel a little comforted that it's there waiting for me. That one day, when the right words whisper through my mind I'll jot them down. And eventually they, and I, will add up to a whole.
For now, I keep tinkering, fight back the imposter syndrome, and maybe write some blog posts about burnout and how devastating it can be when you don't listen to your body.
And yet, when I hit my lowest point. Complete depression and burn out rolled into one I hid away. I pushed harder. I forced myself to do more, be more, work more.
Some of you probably know what happened next...I made things WAY worse.
Why did I push knowing it was doing more damage, causing more harm?
Because I'm a writer. That's what I do. I couldn't admit to myself that even staring at my office door made me feel like a balloon was precariously inflating in my chest. That the thought of letting one more single person down was another invitation for one more rejection. One more author friend deciding I'm not worth the effort, or the patience.
I get it. I dropped so many balls over the past year. Don't get me wrong, life hasn't been bad. I married a man who understands me on a level I don't even understand myself on. He's incredible. A tiny part of my brain tells me I don't deserve him every single day.
At the same time, I yearn to write. I've been reading, jotting down ideas, playing with little tidbits here and there but I haven't been able to write anything. It makes me feel like I've got phantom limb syndrome. I'm missing a part of my soul right now. How can I give all of myself to my loved ones, to my life, when something so vital to who I am is missing.
I've been trying to work on seeing who I am without writing. That didn't work. I dream in plots and characters. I hear lines of dialogue in my head when I'm washing the dishes, mowing the lawn, organizing my budget. I can't write at the moment but maybe I feel a little comforted that it's there waiting for me. That one day, when the right words whisper through my mind I'll jot them down. And eventually they, and I, will add up to a whole.
For now, I keep tinkering, fight back the imposter syndrome, and maybe write some blog posts about burnout and how devastating it can be when you don't listen to your body.
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