Kate Golden
This Behind the Manuscript was so much fun for me. I've loved Kate Golden's writing since her Sacred Stones series, and I got to see her here in St. Louis at a Novel Neighbor launch event. Kate knows slow burn and simmering want, and FMCs falling for MMCs who could just as easily kill them as kiss them. I love her world-building and character writing, and the fact that she doesn't stick to one genre. She writes intimate scenes that feel earned and real. She also knows how to bring the vibes to a book, especially in her Harker Academy series. It has that campy Buffy the Vampire Slayer energy that feels nostalgic. As a developmental editor and a reader, it's awesome to hear her talk about her different books, and her planning and thought processes while she writes.
In this interview, we talk secrets to writing spicy scenes that resonate, writing across different genres (what changes and what doesn't), being drawn to villains, and of course her upcoming novel, Cursed City.
I personally hope Kate writes every trope and genre on her "stories she wants to write" list (see the last question!). Thank you, Kate, for giving us a real look at who you are as a writer. There are some craft gems here! Enjoy our conversation…
You’ve written epic romantasy, contemporary romance, and now an urban fantasy with dark academia. What changes most in your process when you move between genres, and what parts of your storytelling remain constant?
The biggest difference for me is world building. I find my characters, their arcs, even their dialogue, tends to feel the same across all my books. But as the genres shift, I have to rework the environments my characters inhabit. For example, when writing epic fantasy, I spend a lot of time researching everything from medieval names, to origins of different mythical creatures. When I wrote my contemporary romance I watched about a hundred documentaries on touring musicians. It’s so important to me that fictional or otherwise, the world’s my characters inhabit feel authentic.
Arwen and Kane in your Sacred Stones series are one of my favorite romantasy couples! Across your novels, your heroines are often drawn to men they have every reason to resist. What keeps drawing you back to writing tension between wanting someone and resisting what that relationship might mean?
I am just a sucker for a real, painful, borderline-insurmountable romantic conflict. Even as a reader, I can struggle to get sucked into a romance where the biggest wedge keeping characters apart is their own emotional hang ups. i.e. a friends to lovers book where both leads are grappling with ruining the friendship. Perhaps I’m a drama queen, but I live for the epic will they / won’t they! The higher the stakes on the romance, the more fun I get to have while I’m writing.
You’re so good at writing romantic tension and spice. When you’re writing an intimate scene, how do you make sure it does more than turn up the heat, like revealing something about the characters, shifting the power between them, or moving the relationship forward?
I think it’s all about the emotional intimacy. My favorite thing to write into my spicy scenes is laughter! Because to me, being able to let down your guard with someone, especially in such a vulnerable moment, is the highest form of romantic intimacy. Anyone can have a super-hot tryst. But only people who are truly comfortable with one another can make each other laugh in the middle of the act. Or admit they are nervous, or get their tank top stuck over their head, or a million other things that happen to real people having real sex! That’s what the spicy scenes in my books are usually trying to accomplish: showing the readers that these two characters have crossed over into another echelon of intimacy. Sometimes the reader realizes it before the characters even do!
Half City immediately gave me the banter, supernatural danger, and campy energy I loved in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. You’ve talked about Buffy as an influence, what did you most want to capture from that kind of storytelling, and what did you want to make distinctly your own?
This is the highest compliment, thank you!! What you described is exactly what I hoped to embody: the campy, poppy energy of Buffy. It’s urban fantasy by way of 90’s/2000’s nostalgia. It’s the sassy one liners, the family you choose, the demon-slaying as a metaphor for your teen years (or your twenties,) the pop culture references amid fangs and stakes and daggers. Everything outside of that, I wanted to make sure felt unique, such as the school for demon slayers, Viv’s personal plight, her love story across the trilogy, and the central mystery at the heart of book one.
Harker Academy is full of characters hiding what they know, and sometimes what they are. When you’re building those layers of secrecy, do you map the reveals and betrayals from the beginning, or do some of them emerge as you get deeper into the story and the characters?
I am a planner through and through. I don’t think I’ve done something spontaneous once in my life. I’m pretty sure I have the words TYPE A imprinted on my forehead. So 99.9999% of reveals, twists, and surprises I have planned before I even start my outline. In fact, there are Easter eggs all throughout both of my trilogies for this reason! That being said, while I am not spontaneous in the least, sometimes my characters are. And when they surprise me in the writing process, I run with it!
“While I am not spontaneous in the least, sometimes my characters are. And when they surprise me in the writing process, I run with it!”
Deacon is mysterious, dangerous, and to be honest, unexpectedly hot. What can you tell us about how his character develops in Cursed City and what his presence brings out in Viv that Reid doesn’t?
Look, Deacon is a villain. 100%. He has done and continues to do things that aren’t just morally grey but are genuinely bad/evil/wrong. However, like with any villain, the more you learn about the guy, the more you begin to understand his perspective, even if you don’t agree with his choices. That’s the journey Viv goes on in Cursed City—coming to understand this person she is so different from, after falling for his brother who she was so similar to (i.e., bound by duty, a bit self-loathing, not exactly playful or easy going.) As for what that relationship brings out in Viv, you will just have to read the book to find out!!
You’ve already written across several corners of romance and fantasy. Are there any genres or tropes you dream about exploring in the future, and do you think readers will continue to see you moving between different kinds of stories?
Oh yes! The list of stories I hope to tell just grows longer and longer by the day, and absolutely spans all kinds of new genres. Marriage of convenience, apocalypse, a Hades/Persephone retelling, mysteries, more romcoms, sports romance, a Robin Hood retelling, dark fantasy, dystopian, young adult, small town, midwestern gothic, beach reads, the list is endless!!
About Kate Golden
Kate Golden is the USA Today bestselling author of both The Sacred Stones and Harker Academy trilogies. When she isn’t writing, Kate is an avid book reader, puzzle addict, and game night enthusiast. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their puppy, Milo.
Buy Cursed City
Bio courtesy of kategoldenbooks.com
Thank you for reading Behind the Manuscript. I hope these conversations help readers discover the creative decisions behind the books they love and give writers a deeper appreciation for the craft behind amazing stories. Until next time. Happy reading!
