Today on Paws 4 Thought we continue our occasional Fiction Friday feature with a special interview with queer science fiction/fantasy author, Kellie Doherty. Tell us a little about yourself, Kellie.
I live in the Land of the Midnight Sun—Alaska! I write stories full of adventure, found families, chaotic queer characters, and a
dash of romance. I mostly stick to writing novel-length work, but I also dabble in short stories, flash fiction, and poetry.
When did you first start writing?
I started writing when I was a kid, mostly fanfiction of Digimon and Pokemon, with a splash of Sailor Moon. It was fun to play in already created worlds and infuse them with my own plot ideas and original characters. I wrote in those fandom worlds for a few years before finding my own voice and branching out to my own original fiction, but all that time writing fanfiction honed my writing skills so, so much. And it was fun! I still write some fanfiction to this day, too.
Who are your favorite authors?
I’m glad that’s plural because I have the hardest time picking one! Some of my favorites in the sci-fi universe include Becky Chambers, Micaiah Johnson, and Ursula K. Le Guin. Over on the fantasy realm there’s V.E. Schwab, Aiden Thomas, Chelsea Abdullah, Astrid Knight, and Rebecca Thorne.
What inspires you to write?
So many things. My characters, my stories, my younger self. I didn’t see many queer characters in the fantasy and sci-fi stories I read growing up, and I made myself a promise to change that. We’ve made some strides with mainstream media accepting queer characters and storylines but there’s still so far to go. I like to think I’m doing my small part in adding some more rainbow representation.
You have a new fantasy novel out, Ink Stains & Ill-Fated Lies. Tell us a little bit about it.
Yes! Ink Stains & Ill-Fated Lies is the third book in my intertwined standalone series, the Broken Chronicles. Curiosity pushes a disgraced wandering scribe named Adaris too deep into an enemies’ hideout and she gets captured for it. She’s forced to conform to their fiery ritualistic ways and use her quill to record their side of history but when she discovers strange, ancient crafting her curiosity twists in ways even she didn’t anticipate. She’s always recorded the heroes’ stories around her and now it’s finally her turn to be the hero—by any means necessary. It’s got twisted magic, chaotic bisexuals, a dash of romance, and a quest for knowledge gone horribly wrong where curiosity might just doom them all.
That sounds amazing, plus that’s a truly beautiful cover! So what attracts you to writing fantasy?
The escapism of it all—new worlds, an endless expanse of magic in the form of innate, gifted, stolen, artifacts, or anything else you can dream up in between, mythological creatures, swordfights and sorcery—fantasy is a genre where anything can happen and I just love the sheer breadth of it. I love creating an intricate world and layered magical system, telling a story that’s not set on Earth but deals with very human/relatable problems. It’s a unique and fascinating challenge to create a whole new world, and don’t even get me started on creating mythological creatures. It’s one of my favorite things about fantasy, the beasts of the world can be so unique and…well…magical!
What was your inspiration for this book?
The idea really started with Adaris. I knew I wanted to explore the idea of being a hero and how that idea can shift when the so-called “hero” needs to do terrible things to protect the ones they love and to stay alive. I wanted to push the faults of unbridled curiosity and how knowledge can sometime corrupt people, too. I had mentioned Adaris in my other two fantasy books—Sunkissed Feathers & Severed Ties and Curling Vines & Crimson Trades—where she was simply a scribe helping my other main characters along their journeys, but since Ink Stains is Adaris’ story, I got to explore her character more and give her the adventure she deserved. I knew she was a disgraced scribe (though at the time I didn’t know why) and I knew she had a chronic leg injury that prevented her from living out her dream of being a Moon Knight. I knew I wanted to push her curiosity to the next level, to see what would happen when she was faced with an impossible choice, and answer that question for myself, too.
Here at Paws 4 Thought we love meeting our author’s pets. Do you have any furry, feathery or scaly writing companions? (Feel free to add pictures!)
I have two amazingly fluffy shadow cats named Raven and Cinder. Raven’s the older of the two and she definitely acts like it—hogging up my lap time and curling up on my shoulders—but Cinder makes herself known by being the loudest cat I have ever owned. She does this low-pitched meow that I honestly haven’t heard any other cat make; it’s pretty spectacular. One of my favorite activities is curling up with my cats under a nice thick blanket and reading a good book. They’re also a source of inspiration as well, for the mythological creatures in my books and some locations, too.
Oooh, a black floof like Luna, my daughter’s kitty and my grandcat! So what is your favorite magical creature?
Oooo, I’ve created some awesome beasts for my fantasy series but I’ll highlight my favorite one here: Vulnix: A small winged vulpine creature with three tails who are letter-carriers in my world. They can fly, they’re super quick, their sense of direction is legendary, and their eyesight is par to none. The main character in Sunkissed Feathers & Severed Ties, Misti has a vulnix named Zora and she’s loosely based on Raven, my cat I mentioned earlier! (Vulnix are also inspired by the Pokemon Eevee and Vulpix…because I’m a geek like that.)
That’s sounds awesome. I adore magical creatures too (and the name Vulnix made me think of Vulpix — I play Pokemon with my son! So, what it’s like writing an intertwined standalone series? (Not something I’ve tried myself yet.)
It’s so fun! Each of the first four books are set in the same world with the same magic system, world histories, deities, and brewing battles but they each have a different main character—Misti for Sunkissed Feathers, Orenda for Curling Vines, Adaris for Ink Stains, and Zayla for my current WIP. I really enjoy doing a deep dive into their backgrounds, personalities, strengths and weaknesses for each book. Each book has a different story arc, so that readers can pick whatever book they want and dive into the
story, but each book reveals something new about the world and moves the story forward in its own way. Keen-eyed readers will note some fun hints running through the books. Plus, I’ve woven the other characters into each book, as passing people the main character meets. It’s so cool!! I’m most daunted by writing the fifth book because that’s when all four main characters will be together and I’ll have to do POV shifts to complete the story. I’ve never done something like that before, so it’ll be a real challenge… but one I’m looking forward to!
Thank you so much for taking time out to talk to us, Kellie. How can readers connect with you?
Sign up for my newsletter (https://kelliedoherty.com/subscribe) where you’ll get a free fantasy flash fiction story and behind-the-scenes info about being an author, geeky recommendations, exclusive content, and more. And you can always find me online—I’m on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You can check out all my profiles via my linktree: https://linktr.ee/kelliedoherty
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