Katrina Kittle
Author Interview - Katrina Kittle
Author of Morning in This Broken World
A grieving, new widow busts out of her assisted living facility during COVID lockdown and invites a soon-to-be-evicted nursing assistant and her two children to join her. With the exuberant Wren in her hot-pink motorized wheelchair and Wren’s troubled older brother Cooper, the new housemates make for an unlikely pandemic pack, giving all the chance to shed their former armor and emerge as their truer selves. COVID is the catalyst—not the focus—for this story of intergenerational friendships and finding the light in dark times.
Author Interview - Katrina Kittle
Author I draw inspiration from:
I always, always love Barbara Kingsolver and reread her Poisonwood Bible and Prodigal Summer often. I also love Mary Lawson (A Town Called Solace), Angela Jackson-Brown (When Stars Rain Down), and Kirsten Miller (The Change). There are too many to list!
Author Interview - Katrina Kittle | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book:
There’s a big orange chair in my writing office. Early in the morning, I love to snuggle in with a blanket on my lap, and my mostly-feral cat Annie will come sit in my lap for what I call “story and snuggle time.” I hold the book with one hand, and pet her with the other.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:
I’d love to be stuck in an elevator with S.T. the crow from Kira Jane Buxton’s Hollow Kingdom. He’d be entertaining and good company. Not sure why he’d be in an elevator, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find him there! He's small and clever enough to figure out how to get us out there.
Author Interview - Katrina Kittle | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
For me, it was in my late-twenties. I was teaching high school English and theatre. I was suddenly taken hold with a story idea that I wanted to be a novel. I started from the most important place I think a writer can: with an idea I was passionate about. I wanted to tell a story that put a human face on AIDS. That story became my first novel, Traveling Light.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
I am a big fan of any format that makes it easy and fun for readers to indulge in their reading. For me personally, I love the physical book format (and love hardbacks and paperbacks with equal fervor). I spend so much time on the screen every day writing, that it’s a relief to be away from the screen for my reading. I tend not to listen to audio books while driving, because if the story transports me (like good stories do), I end up missing exits or driving miles past my destination. I can listen to podcasts while driving, but not novels.
The last book I read:
The last book I read was Yellowface by R. F. Kuang. Holy moly, what a great book! It filled me with equal parts discomfort and delight. I’ve been recommending it all over.
Author Interview - Katrina Kittle | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer:
I do a little of both. I journal every morning (after reading time with Annie), with pen and paper. But when I’m working on a novel, it’s all on the computer. If I get too stuck in a scene or I’m wrestling with something in the plot, I might return to the journal to doodle and figure something out. But I like the time-saving security of having the document easily saved and able to be revised on the computer.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
I’d be best friends with Harriet from Kirsten Miller’s The Change. I relate to her in so many ways, especially the barefoot gardening at midnight (and I haven't had to dispose of any bodies...yet, but her skills could come in handy). I only wish I was as powerful and comfortable in my skin as she is, but I can aspire!
Author Interview - Katrina Kittle | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
Ooh, the beauty of being an author is that you get to “try on” lots of different lives and professions. Through my books, I’ve fulfilled by fantasy of being a veterinarian, a chef, a documentary film maker, and a ballerina. In my real life, I’d probably being doing something full time with plants or animals.
Favorite decade in fashion history:
The fifties! Or more specifically, 1955-1965, that glorious fashion era that makes up the bulk of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Oh, those dresses and coats. They make me swoon.
Place I’d most like to travel:
Back to Italy. Maybe to Greece. And always, always to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.
My signature drink:
Early in the day: coffee. My birthstone is a coffee bean! But later in the day, I love a Cosmopolitan or a Lemon Drop. I’m a vodka girl.
Favorite artist:
Dale Chihuly. I’m a magpie and love all things bright and shiny.
Number one on my bucket list:
I would love to do a safari in Eastern Africa someday--shooting only photos, not animals.
Anything else you'd like to add:
My happy place is barefoot in my garden, with a good cup of coffee on hand. I like my hands doing mindless work while I figure out scenes for the next story.
Find more from the author:
https://www.facebook.com/KatrinaKittleAuthor/
@katrinakittle
Author Bio:
Katrina Kittle’s newest novel Morning in This Broken World, releases September 1, 2023 and is an Amazon First Reads pick for August. Katrina is the author of four other novels for adults—Traveling Light, Two Truths & a Lie, Kindness of Strangers, and The Blessings of the Animals—and one novel for tweens, Reasons to Be Happy. The Kindness of Strangers was a BookSense pick and was the Fiction winner for the 2006 Great Lakes Book Awards.
She is a graduate of Ohio University and earned her MFA in creative writing from Spalding University in Louisville. She has been on faculty for the Antioch Writers' Workshop, the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop, the Chicago Writers Association Conference, The Midwest Writer’s Workshop, The Writer's Digest Novel Writing Conference in NYC, and the Writer's Block Conference in Louisville. She is a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Dayton, and a frequent public speaker.
For more information on Katrina or her books, visit Katrinakittle.com.
