Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Kathleen Baldwin loves adventure in books and in real life. She roamed the Rockies, wandered the desert, enjoyed way too many classes in college, was stalked by a cougar, lost an argument with a rattlesnake, fell in love at least a dozen times, and married her very own hero. Together they’ve raised four free-spirited adventurous children.
She has written several award-winning Traditional Regency Romances including Lady Fiasco, Mistaken Kiss, a Holt Medallion Finalist, Cut from the Same Cloth, Highwayman Came Waltzing, and Waltz With A Rogue. Her fantasy YA, Diary Of A Teenage Fairy Godmother is a Golden Quill Finalist. These days, Kathleen is writing an Alternate YA Historical Romance series for TorTeen, a Tor/Forge (Macmillan) line, The Stranje House Novel Series. A School for Unusual Girls, released May 2015, Exile for Dreamers, released May 2016, and three more novels to come in the series.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Exile for Dreamers, book two of the Stranje House novels, is my most recent release; it came out May 24th, 2016.
My young nephew inspired the basic Stranje House series concept. He insisted I should write a book about girls learning to be warriors. He was very specific, too. The girls should go away to a school and there should be an older and wiser mentor teaching them. Clever little dude got my creative water wheel turning and soon I couldn’t stop the ideas from flowing.
The girls in my story aren’t just learning to be warriors, they’re becoming spies in the war effort against Napoleon. Being a warrior is all part of a more complex training.
EXILE FOR DREAMERS, though, is specifically based on my own experiences with dreams. I’ve always struggled with my dreams and deciphering their meaning . . . Tess’s dreams are an amplified version of that problem.
Writers draw can only from what they know. So, in a way every character, every storyline is a little bit of our souls inked onto the page.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Sometimes music will help me to go deeper into the world, but mostly I grab my water jug and sit down and write. I love writing.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love so many, adore Georgette Heyer, but I also love Marissa Meyer’s work, or Meg Cabot, Daphne Du Maurier amazes me, so does Frank Herbert.
What are you working on now?
I am in the midst of writing the third installment of the Stranje House series, REFUGE FOR MASTERMINDS! This time we are seeing the story unfold through Lady Jane’s perspective.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Social Media is huge these days so I try to hit the big ones: FB, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. My daughter is trying to get me to use Snapchat, but I’m still getting use to that, but it is really fun! Goodreads is a MUST as well in the book world.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Live a full life. Observe. Really observe, observe REAL life – not TV and movies. Record how you feel and why. Read. Think about what you’ve read, what you liked about the work and what you didn’t, but mostly about what you liked.
Write everyday.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Trust your instincts!
What are you reading now?
I recently finished reading RIDERS by Veronica Rossi. I thought this was a fabulous book and I enjoyed every minute of it. I’m on the lookout for my next book to read.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Right now I am still in the trenches of my Stranje House series and will be for the immediate future. I’m finishing up book three, REFUGE FOR MASTERMINDS. Then I will begin working on book four.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Tough question… well I would be lost without my Bible, so that is a must for me. Then “Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier, Georgette Heyer’s “Regency Buck”, and I would throw in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” for some added adventure.
Author Websites and Profiles
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