K.L. Crear: "One Day Isn't a Day of the Week"
Every author in this series gets asked the same five questions, so it seemed only right that the first to answer them should be the one who has to live with the publisher. K.L. Crear writes warm, funny fiction about imperfect women, told her true story with her twin sister Coleen across two books, and somehow co-runs Crear Publishing with me. Here she is, in her own words.
AT A GLANCE
Writes as: K.L. Crear, Karen Crear and Karen Ferguson
First story: "Where there's a wheel there's a way", written at the age of nine
First memoir: Playing with Fire
First fictional novel: The reinvention of Lottie Potts
Also: Co-runs Crear Publishing
The Playing with Fire series has sold over 50,000 copies, with rights sold in 10 languages.
QUOTE
"I realised that 'one day' isn't actually a day of the week and if I wanted to write, I needed to stop thinking about it and bloody well do it."
Where It Began
I've always wanted to write. As a child, I'd actually look forward to getting home from Middle School so I could disappear into my bedroom, pick up my notebook and get lost in whatever little world I was creating at the time.
I wrote my first proper story when I was nine. It was a children's story called Where there's a wheel there's a way. Somewhere along the way, though, I lost my confidence. Life got busy, I grew up and convinced myself that writing books was something other people did. So the notebook was put away and, rather inconveniently, stayed there for decades.
It took being diagnosed with cancer for a second time to give me the proverbial kick up the backside. I realised that 'one day' isn't actually a day of the week and if I wanted to write, I needed to stop thinking about it and bloody well do it.
Hopes and Dreams
When I started writing again, my biggest hope was simply to finish a book. I wasn't dreaming about bestseller lists or literary awards. I wanted to be able to hold a book in my hands and think, I did that.
Rather wonderfully, writing has given me far more than I expected. My twin sister Coleen and I told our true story in Playing with Fire: The True Story of Fireman Scam and later Healing From the Burns. From there I finally gave myself permission to write the stories I'd always wanted to write: funny, warm books about ordinary women dealing with the glorious chaos of real life.
Now I write my comedy fiction as K.L. Crear alongside my true-life work and, somehow, Ryan and I also run Crear Publishing together. So the woman who once thought writing books was something 'other people' did now spends most of her life surrounded by manuscripts, authors and books. Be careful what you wish for: apparently it comes with an enormous amount of admin.
The Moment I Knew
For years I struggled to call myself a writer. I think lots of authors do. You imagine there's going to be some official ceremony where somebody taps you on the shoulder with a fountain pen and announces that you're now allowed to use the title.
For me, there wasn't one dramatic moment. It crept up on me. Finishing Playing with Fire was hugely important because it proved I could actually write a book. Then came The Reinvention of Lottie Potts, my first novel, and suddenly the characters who had previously existed only inside my head were out there being read by complete strangers.
I think the hardest part of becoming a writer was giving myself permission to believe I could be one. Writing the books turned out to be easier than silencing the little voice telling me I had no business doing it.
Thankfully, that voice is considerably quieter these days. Probably because I keep feeding it cheese and wine!
What Writing Taught Me
Writing has taught me that I'm much braver than I thought I was.
Writing true life meant putting some incredibly painful and personal experiences onto the page. Fiction required a different sort of courage because suddenly there was nowhere to hide: these characters, jokes and stories had come entirely from my slightly bonkers imagination.
The biggest craft lesson I've learned is to trust my own voice. I spent far too long thinking writers were supposed to sound 'writerly'. Eventually I realised that the thing readers connect with is the bit that sounds like you. I love writing women who are imperfect, funny, occasionally ridiculous and still figuring things out whether they're forty, fifty, sixty or beyond. They can have their hearts broken, make terrible decisions, drink tequila, laugh at inappropriate moments and start all over again.
And nothing beats hearing from a reader who says, 'I saw myself in her.' That means more to me than any fancy review ever could.
Working with Crear
My experience of publishing with Crear is probably slightly different from our other authors, mainly because I'm married to the publisher.
There are advantages to this. I have excellent access to senior management.
There are disadvantages too. Senior management leaves his socks on the floor.
Ryan and I built Crear Publishing together and it has grown into something I'm incredibly proud of. Being an author myself means I understand how vulnerable it feels handing over a manuscript you've poured months or even years of yourself into. It isn't simply a Word document. It matters enormously to the person who wrote it.
That's shaped how we want Crear to work. We want our authors to feel listened to, involved and genuinely proud of the finished book. Publishing other writers has also reminded me why I started writing in the first place. Behind every manuscript is somebody who once wondered, just as I did, whether they were really allowed to call themselves a writer.
There's something rather lovely about helping them discover that they are.
Find K.L. Crear's Books
Marginalia is a series where Crear Publishing's authors tell their own stories. More to follow soon.
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