Welcome YA author Kaitlin Bevis to the Girls Succeed blog! Kaitlin and I are swapping blogs today, so please hop on over to Kaitlin's blog to visit us there and leave a comment. Thank you!
Kaitlin Bevis spent her childhood curled up with a book, and a pen. If the ending didn't agree with her, she rewrote it. She's always wanted to be a writer, and spent high school and college learning everything she could so that one day she could achieve that goal. She graduated college with a BFA in English with a concentration in Creative Writing, and is pursuing her masters at the University of Georgia.
Her young adult series "Daughters of Zeus" is available wherever ebooks are sold. She also writes for truuconfessions.com and Athens Parent Magazine.
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Today Kaitlin shares her lifelong passion for writing with us. Do you enjoy writing stories? Maybe you and Kaitlin share similar experiences.
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Writing by Kaitlin Bevis
I've been writing all my life. Before I
could read I called it make believe, but the same basic components were there.
Plotting, developing characters, dialogue. It's all there,
I developed much of my writing style
through reading. I would read my books with a black marker and a pen in hand,
so I could change anything I didn't like. If the next book wasn't coming out
soon enough, I'd create my own version.
I did that with shows too. As soon as
Sailor Moon went off I'd start acting out the next episode. I was so proud of myself, because I was almost
always right.
Took me awhile to realize the show had
a rather repetitive formula...
While I was in middle school I wrote my
first book. It was terrible. I still have it on a floppy disk, and I'm too
terrified to open the file because it was that bad. In high school I was able
to take creative writing classes and learned how to critique the work of my
peers.
I enjoyed writing so much that when I
ran out of creative writing classes in high school, I begged my school
councilor to let me take it at the college through joint enrollment. In the
summer between eleventh and twelfth grade I took English 1101 and 1102. During
my senior year I took introduction to creative writing, advanced fiction
writing, advanced non fiction writing, advanced poetry writing, and screenplay
writing. The next year I took my core classes and even more creative writing
classes. Including autobiographical writing, science fiction and fantasy
writing, technical writing, and every other writing class I could find. Once I
ran out I moved to Atlanta to get an English degree with a concentration in
creative writing. I'm finishing up my masters now, and am applying to the Phd
program with a creative writing dissertation.
Despite my lifetime commitment to
writing, my personal writing didn't really take off until I joined my writers
group. I was familiar with the workshop format through my schooling, but
there's something different about a group of people who willingly spend
Saturday nights away from their family and friends to talk about their writing
that just can't be replicated in a classroom.
I'm very excited for my first book,
Persephone, to be released. It's been a long journey to publication, and I
can't really tell when it started. Did it begin when I penned my first draft?
Or was it in college when I was learning everything I could about writing? Was
it before then when I was acting out the next episode of Sailor Moon? Each of
those little moments were important because of where they led. Now my book is
out of my hands and into the readers.
Time to start the next one.
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Persephone, Daughter of Zeus
Back of the Book:
The "talk" was bad enough, but how many teens get told that they're a goddess? When her mom tells her, Persephone is sure her mother has lost her mind. It isn't until Boreas, the god of winter, tries to abduct her that she realizes her mother was telling the truth. Hades rescues her, and in order to safely bring Persephone to the Underworld he marks her as his bride. But Boreas will stop at nothing to get Persephone. Despite her growing feelings for Hades, Persephone wants to return to the living realm. Persephone must find a way to defeat Boreas and reclaim her life.
Reviews
Musa:
Connect with Kaitlin online:
Email: kaitlinbevis@gmail.com
Blog:
Twitter: @kaitlinbevis
Hi Kaitlin, thanks so much for swapping blogs with me today. Looking forward to a fun Monday!
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