Hello everyone! Welcome to my first Author Spotlight! These will be posts where I discuss and showcase, predominantly women and people of color, their writing talents and published works. So without further ado let’s get on with the Author Spotlight!
Meet the Author!
K. R. S. McEntire lives on a healthy diet of fiction and tea. She loves art, photography and travel because, like books, they allow her to explore new worlds. She lives in Indianapolis with her husband and runs the Facebook page Diverse Fantasy and Sci-Finds, where she shares book recommendations with other bibliophiles.
What and when started your love for writing?
My mom would read to me…
…as a young girl. We would curl up on the couch every summer as I made my way through book after book. After I read the Chronicles of Narnia at age nine, I decided to write my first “novel.”
It was about a girl who got pulled into a tornado and transported to another world. After that, you couldn’t get me to stop writing! I was an only child, so it gave me something to do when it was just my parents and I at home.
Of all of the book genres, what drew you to write about yours?
I have always been drawn to dystopian and fantasy novels. I fell in love with books like The Giver, Tuck Everlasting, and Turnabout as a child. As a teen, I loved the Uglies series, read every Meg Cabot book I could find, and was #teamjacob after reading the Twilight Saga. Speculative fiction allows you to explore aspects of the real world through mythical lenses.
Who is your favorite book character in your stories to write about?
It’s kind of weird, but I enjoyed writing my character Adam. He starts off as the bad guy in Finding Eden and I enjoy his redemption arc. When writing Adam, I wanted to explore why the “bad guys” did what they did.
How does being Black impact how and what you write?
I want to create stories that center characters who look like me, because growing up there were so few of them in the types of books I enjoyed reading (dystopian, fantasy and science fiction). I think today’s crop of young adult books do a much better job of including various types of diversity than the books I had growing up. When I think of all of the young adult dystopian books I read as a teen, none of them had a black main character. In the Uglies series I was very curious as to how that type of society (where everyone was made to look more or less the same) would handle race. It was just… never addressed. At least, not in a meaningful way that I remember.
What makes your book(s) special?
A lot of dystopian and post-apocalyptic books can be focused on themes of survival. I like to think my books go beyond that and center themes of redemption, restoration, and the rebirth of a broken world. They are also quick, fun reads.
So…what are you working on now?
I want to write one more book in my Eden Saga. To round out the series, but I’m also working on an Alice in Wonderland retelling. It will be part of an anthology of fairy-tale retellings with Black characters.
I really loved connecting with K.R.S. ! She has such a bright spirit and I can’t wait to see where her writing journey takes her. If you want to get in contact or connect with Keshia you can follow her on:
Thank you all for reading and remember:
Live. Love. Laugh.
