Conversations with K.L. Kolarich

Today we’d like to introduce you to K.L. Kolarich. 

Hi K.L., thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
The first line of my author bio is embarrassingly true. I never once thought I would be an author, especially one of the epic fantasy variety. 

In fact, it’s turned my life upside down. Ravaged it in the best way possible. But that is the case with unplanned dreams… they creep up on you like the proverbial boogie man, whisper sweet mysteries into your ears, and never let you go. Being here now, completely unrecognizable to my younger, more rational self, I wouldn’t change things one bit. 

While I did not set out to write full-length novels, I did dabble in the blogsphere during my early twenties – a few non-fiction articles were even published in modest online magazines. And after a dash of life-anthrax got thrown my way, I self-soothed through an imposing endeavor. Drafting a robust study of women who played the heroine in their own stories, particular those throughout biblical eras, those expositional pages knit me back to life. Over a year of healing sailed by, and having invested about eight, well-researched chapters into the project, my sister-in-law did me the most terrifying honor of reading it. 

Long story short, on a west coast visit she said that what I’d written was “fine”. Good, even… but no amount of praise would let me unhear the sharpest truth to pass her half-quirked lips: “This isn’t what you’d pick out in a bookstore”. 

That realization was like a sucker punch. In essence, I’d spent a year and a half writing something I did not read. 

Her comment pointed to my shelves and less to my person. And she was right. They are buried in ethereal covers, hosting a court of fantastical nonsense. Instead of chasing those imaginative portals, I’d boxed myself into a well-meaning reality instead. So, latching my seatbelt, I gave myself the plane ride home to rectify the oversight. Four hours to discover what might happen were I to allow myself to dream… 

Within those critical, darkened hours, the other passengers dozing all around my clacking laptop keys, I poured out the initial paragraphs of the prologue to House of Bastiion, before ever realizing what they’d become. Coming home, my mind was captivated by the clamor of another world rushing in. As if a gate had been unhinged, a map was etched by my fingertips. Words of another tongue leapt forth, framing a never-ending glossary from the far reaches of a land that does not exist. I abandoned the rational project and took on the absurd. Five years passed, full of self-doubt, raises and title changes, late nights in coffee shops, all to write a story I suspected no one would ever read. All of it put down without a clue that those debut words would – half a decade later – become a Barnes & Noble bestseller and named a fantasy finalist in the Foreword INDIES Awards. 

Were it not for that bold nudge of my sister-in-law and an overlong plane ride, The Haidren Legacy nor a single ounce of its magic would be here today. 

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Ha! Were you to ask my long-suffering husband, he would probably tell you that I’ve been a steadfast mess, paradoxical as it sounds. 

In general, I’d say my primary challenge is the detrimental record I too often play on repeat for my inner self. Early on, this centered around my fears of simply being a novice, having no way to truly judge if what I was doing in the dead of night was even worthwhile. Writing doesn’t really come with a metric… and boy do I love metrics. When you set out to draft your first novel, you are doing it for yourself and yourself alone. Literally, because you have no fans. Not one. So, every sentence is naturally riddled with self-doubt. You have to be willing to sacrifice time, potential earnings, other hobbies, all to pursue something that may never come to light. And despite that unknowing, it still requires you bleed every single part of you in the process. Unfortunately, great writing isn’t satisfied with casual investment. It wants everything you have. 

It’s tough when you’re unable to measure yourself; a problem that continues even after publication as most of this business is relative. What one author deems to be healthy sales, subscriber counts, ratings, etc. another will wholeheartedly disagree. I have found that when I compare too laterally, my work suffers. My actual work – not the supporting activities of social media, reader engagement, and the like. While those things are important for a growing fandom, they are meaningless if I don’t first give readers what they crave most: My best. 

In that sense, I routinely have to put “blinders” on. I often imagine myself like a horse, drawing a heavy carriage along a less traveled trail, and in order to plow ahead on it, I can’t look to either side. At least not for long, lest I lose faith in the course ahead of my own hooves. 

This is why I’m considered a slow writer. I’m meticulous in my plotting. I marinate on nearly every line. Nothing of mine can be accidental for all my threads to connect in the end, thus the end of the series will take longer to arrive. Because when it does, I don’t want it to be good… I don’t want it to be great… I want it to be lasting. 

Yet to even hope for that takes playing the long game. It means habitually having to redefine “success” in the here and now, to better accomplish it in the future. That internal tug-of-war, for me, is a daily struggle. 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Last year, I stepped away from my full-time career in the corporate world to chase this dream. And when it demanded even more of my time, I ultimately left a part-time alternative as well. 

Right now, my whole focus is on The Haidren Legacy series. One of the things this series is most recognized for, as opposed to some other fantasy novels, is the immersive breadth of the world-building interlaced throughout the story. Centering around characters from clashing cultures, I wanted to invite readers into a more tangible experience during their adventure. To do this, I’ve partnered with a slew of extraordinary artists to bring elements of my world to life online. 

I am incredibly proud of what this collaboration produced. Using QR codes, readers of The Haidren Legacy are able to pull up a partner website to assist their journey through these vicious pages. Complete with an online glossary, pronunciation videos, bloodline charts, a catalog of illustrated botany, an armory of digitally rendered weaponry, and even regional biographies relating to various territories, this world is truly epic to traverse. 

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
My advice for fledgling novelists is what I still need to tell myself today: 

Write your favorite book, not that of someone else. 

I wish I would not have wasted so much time and energy worrying about what people would think, and instead held stronger to what I thought myself. We can’t please everyone, and while professional (and sometimes heartbreaking) edits are vital, applying them will never guarantee a reader’s response. There will always be aspects of your work someone will have an unflattering opinion about. And were you to bend to each and every one of those usually overly harsh criticisms, the darn thing would be unrecognizable in the end. Not to mention how trolls would probably have something to say about that too. 

Too often we lose what makes us special in trying to please the masses. There’s a fine line between gleaning from the wisdom of the greats vs. trying to become their written doppelgangers. If I contort my prose, my storyline, my themes to mirror a more popular book, than I’m just attempting to create a second-rate version of something already established. I cannot do what another author does, not to their perfected extent, but I can do what I do. I can choose my personal niche. In my experience, it proves to be one of the most defining qualities of my work. 

Just some final food for thought… that wonderful niche, that little nugget of quirkiness I wield, some readers hate it. I mean, absolutely loathe it. And that’s OK. Because I’m not writing for those people. When I’m doing it best, I’m writing for me and what I love first. 

So, write your favorite book. Some people will hate it either way. 

But chances are, there are going to be a lot more who love it too. 

Pricing:

• House of Bastiion eBook – $4.99
• House of Darakai eBook – $5.99
• House of Bastiion Paperback – $14.99
• House of Darakai Paperback – $16.99
• House of Bastiion Hardcover – $24.99

Contact Info:

• Email: contact@thehaidrenlegacy.com
• Website: https://www.thehaidrenlegacy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehaidrenlegacy/ (series) https://www.instagram.com/k.l.kolarich/ (author)
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehaidrenlegacy/ (series) https://www.facebook.com/groups/teamhaidren (reader group)
• Youtube: https://bit.ly/3KQ7vVZ
• Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/orynthiamercantile

Image Credits
Fiona Jayde
Mary Toth