3.4 Author Interview with K.A.Doore

Recently I had a chance to ambush K.A.Doore and squirrel an interview from her just as her hit debut hit the shelves!

At the time, I hadn't gotten a chance to grab a copy yet, but now it waits in my TBR pile and I cannot emphasise how excited I am by the details behind this novel! It combines two of my favourite things; murder and fantasy.

This might pop on LGBT reader's radar and for a good reason.

 

 

Tell me a little about the culture you built in this book? What did you borrow from the real world and what was made up?

I really wanted to create a culture that arose logically from its setting, so I holed up in the university library for a few months researching various deserts and the people who thrive in them. Ghadid is a synthesis of what I learned and my own experiences in the Sonoran desert, as well as a fair amount of extrapolation (as you do). That said, I can still point to a number of things I borrowed, like the belief that a soul lingers for seven years after death and the practice of men covering their faces - both of which are from the Tuareg people.

Which came first in this novel- the characters or the world? Tell us a bit about the worm that sparked the story?

For The Perfect Assassin, I have to admit I cheated because I wrote the second book first. I had the world completely built already and I knew a lot of the history. Which probably explains why Amastan is a historian and history is so important in TPA.

Well, that and I really wanted to write a spy vs spy kind of novel, except assassin vs assassin.

I'm super excited to read this first novel- what are your plans for the series?

Luckily for all of you, the series is complete! I turned in the third book just this month. The second one - The Impossible Contract - comes out in November and will follow Thana's journey as she figures out who she is outside of her mother's shadow. The third book - the Unconquered City - will be out summer 2020 and follows a third cousin. I'm hesitant to say much more because Spoilers, but let's just say you guys are in for a ride.

For all the young authors only just starting to look at publishing, as your debut novel  how did you catch your agent's attention?

I got my agent through yea old-fashioned querying, and having now met a significant number of other authors, I can confidently say this is still the norm. Some people believe that you have to Know Somebody to get published, but I knew literally No One. It was just me and my laptop and cold-querying agents.

It just took several books to figure out how to write good words, and then several dozen (hundred??) queries to figure out how to write a good query. And even then, a fair amount of luck!

I’d recommend reading as many examples of queries that worked as you can find (Query Shark is an amazing resource) and putting more time crafting your own query than you might be comfortable with – and then ask people to read it who haven’t read your book.

What was the hardest part of the publishing journey for you?

The debut year has been pretty rough since there are so few resources on what really to expect, but querying was by far the hardest. With querying, you reach a point where you know you're not bad, but you don't yet know if you're any good, and every rejection feels like someone telling you that you aren't good. Yes, it's so, so subjective, but that doesn't change the fact that rejection hurts, and being repeatedly rejected is like ripping a bandaid off the same piece of skin.

There is a real legitimacy in getting an agent that makes subsequent rejections hurt just a bit less. Getting an agent is by no means a guarantee that your book will be published, but at least the bandaid gets moved to a different place before being ripped off this time. And while that looming question of “am I really any good?” doesn’t ever go away, it does loom less and less.

But really, the best part is that your family stops asking when you’re going to get a “real” job. 😉

About the Author:

K.A. Doore grew up in Florida, but has since lived in lush Washington, arid Arizona, and cherry-infused Michigan. While recovering from climate whiplash, she’s raised chickens, learned entirely too much about property assessment, photographed cacti, and now develops online trainings. The Perfect Assassin is her debut novel.