Five With Fisher - Kate Dylan
Today we’re chatting to Kate Dylan, a video editor by day, science fiction and fantasy author by night. Her passion for creating new worlds is fuelled by a steady diet of Smarties and Nespresso, and supported by her two thoroughly indifferent cats. Her novel, Mindwalker, debuted in the UK’s top 10 fiction chart.
Read right to the end for that juicy, juicy secret!
1) Tell me something you edited out of your book that you really love. What darling did you kill that you’re the saddest about?
Okay…on page 56 of Mindwalker there appears the phrase ‘extracurricular activities’. In a previous draft it read ‘sextracurricular activities’ and to this day I regret editing it out. So much so, that if you ever come to see me at a signing, if you ask for a special annotation, I will add that S back in for you
2) Tell me about an “inside joke” that made it past all the edits to the printed page.
Fun fact! Mindwalker doesn’t just have an inside joke, it has a whole scavenger hunt written right into the book (and it’s been there since the first draft!) You can find the first clue on my instagram feed, and from there, the hunt takes place in the book and across my website because I am that extra!
3) Give me an unexpected or strange piece of writing advice.
It’s okay to sell out! I mean it! Writing is an art, but publishing is a capitalist hellscape.
Mindwalker was very much a heart book for me––and I’m lucky in that it worked out and got published with an amazing publisher. But make no mistake, I got very very lucky. I wrote in a hard to sell genre and it was exactly as advertised: hard to sell.
Since then, I’ve really started thinking more strategically about my career, and how best to spend my writing time. Don’t get me wrong, I still love and adore everything I write, but I’m no longer going into projects with a carefree attitude; I’m talking to my agent, and editor, and tailoring my ideas to be as commercially viable as possible (while retaining their heart). Basically, I’ve learned that if I want this to be my job, then I need to learn to treat it like one.
4) Has becoming a writer changed you as a person? How so?
Yes, lol. I cry a lot more now (just kidding! I love it really!) But, seriously, I like who I am as a writer. I like the community I’ve built with other writers and how passionate I’ve become about this thing that I wasn’t even thinking about doing before I turned 25. It’s made me a more interesting person, and a more driven person.
5) Tell me a secret.
The sci-fi girl might have a fantasy novel coming soon …