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This week, Fable and the Verbivore are delighted to share our conversation with fantasy and writer affirmation author Kelly “KL” Depuy.

Kelly has authored and self-published two YA Fantasy novels (The Witches of Athium, The Coven of Athium) in her The Athium duology. In May of 2021, she released a book titled Affirmations for Writers: A Guide to Nurturing Your Creative Life with Affirmations that guides creatives through the daily process of managing the mental and emotional side of writing. She’s also currently working on a steampunk murder mystery series.

In this episode, Kelly talks candidly about struggles within her writing journey and how a daily affirmation practice has helped her identify and manage stumbling blocks. She discusses how she approached her duology, writing the 2nd book first and then realizing that the story needed to first setup how that world came to be. She also dives into how she constructed the many points of view within The Athium duology, writing their stories separately and then weaving the narratives together.

Kelly also touches on her own beta reading process, talking about the joy of having someone else become emotionally connected to her world and having feelings - whether positive or negative - about the characters and choices in it. She takes time and space to sit with feedback, reminding herself that negative feedback can help make her story better and that the person giving it wouldn’t bring it up unless they have faith that she can fix it. We felt this shift completely changed the viewpoint around negative feedback, making it a positive tool and an affirmation of her abilities as a writer.

Towards the end of our interview, Kelly reminds us to listen to and consider advice and guidance - but to do so with a grain of salt and while balancing the story you want to tell. Not allowing yourself to get blocked by overly prescriptive rules.

Kelly was such a pleasure to speak with and had many encouraging and perspective shifting pieces of writing advice. We hope you enjoy this episode, we certainly enjoyed having this conversation!

Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

Kelly has authored and self-published two YA Fantasy novels (The Witches of Athium, The Coven of Athium) in her The Athium duology. In May of 2021, she released a book titled “Affirmations for Writers: A Guide to Nurturing Your Creative Life with Affirmations” that helps guide creatives through the daily process of managing the mental and emotional side of writing - and also teaches how to approach creating your own personal affirmations. She’s also currently working on a steampunk murder mystery series.

Kelly posts regularly on Instagram often with some of her personal affirmations as well as glimpses into her personal and writing life. You can connect with her and her work on Instagram @KLDepuy and on Facebook at @kldepuy.

The eBook version of The Witches of Athium is now available for free! You can find the links here: https://books2read.com/u/3RnwXY

An unpublished bonus chapter from The Witches of Athium is also available with a signup for her newsletter. Here is that link: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/e1t2l2

Books Mentioned:

• The Witches of Athium (The Athium Duology Book 1) by K L Depuy

• The Coven of Athium (The Athium Duology Book 2) by K L Depuy

• Affirmations for Writers: A Guide to Nurturing Your Creative Life with Affirmations by Kelly Depuy

• Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

• Song of the Lioness series (4 book series) by Tamora Pierce

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
‘Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)