2024 COVERS

2024 covers

Welcome to the Dark Side!

We are writers mainly from Australia and New Zealand who write speculative fiction with romantic elements. Be it fantasy, paranormal, dark urban fantasy, futuristic and everything in between.

Saturday 24 September 2022

Darklight On... Kat Chant




How did you come to write speculative fiction? What attracted you to the genre?

From about the age of six, I wrote speculative fiction because it’s what I loved to read. Mostly, I think, because genre protagonists take a proactive approach to solving their problems. Oh, and magic. Or science that might as well be magic. 



Are you a plotter? Pantser? Or somewhere in-between?


I’m a puzzler. I get a scene, vividly, like watching a movie. That gives me a character and a place. Since I write romance, the next step is to figure out who their potential partner is. With those two pieces, there’s a sense of which tropes will come into play. Writing the story feels a lot like connecting the dots and not being sure how the final picture will turn out but knowing roughly what it’ll be. 



Do you have a favourite of your characters? 


My soft spot is for my villains. I have a few that I’m waiting to reform and I’m really looking forward to making them suffer for my art.



What are you currently working on? 


I’m working on a prequel novella to my debut paranormal romance. 



What is your favourite part of the process of writing? 


I love it when I’ve gotten stuck and go sort socks or something and the reason why hits me. It’s usually some piece of character backstory or because I’ve tried to force the plot.  



What can we expect from Kat Chant in the future? 


My first book is part of a loose trilogy, each from the perspective of a different protagonist. I also have another, unrelated manuscript that needs a final polish before launch.



Who are your favourite authors?


Number one has to be Diana Wynne Jones. I have all her books.

Mostly, though, I read a lot of Regency romances because they’re different to what I write. If they have a magic twist though, I’m all in. KJ Charles and Emily Larkin are good examples. Cassie Laelyn has the unique distinction of making me like angels.



What are you currently reading? 


I’ve just finished Ali Hazelwood’s Loathe to Love You STEM novellas and started on a Courtney Milan contemporary novel.



Do you have a favourite spec fiction movie or TV series?


Empire Strikes Back remains my all-time fave, but respect must be given to Edge of Tomorrow for the joy of Tom Cruise’s many deaths and the truly fabulous character of Emily Blunt’s Sergeant Rita Vrataski. 

  


Do you have advice for emerging writers? 


Writing is like parenthood. Everyone is ready to give advice about how to do it ‘properly’, but you have to find what works for you.



About Kat Chant


Kat Chant is an award winning writer. A bookworm who grew into a history buff, she exchanged beaches for castles move from Australia to the UK. There, she fell in love with a lad from Ireland…and fell in love with his country, too.


She and her family live in the heart of Ireland, surrounded by fields in forty shades of green.



God of Summer


Back in the Bronze Age, Angus McCraggan sacrificed his life to break the Celtic curse laid on his kind. He failed. Millennia later, he returns to modern Ireland to find his people have become feral, vengeful shadows. With his hollow hill now packed with tourists, he uses his power to keep his past hidden.


Until an American calls him out.


Since a banshee attacked her as a teen, Erin De Santos has been tormented by dreams of a boy she’s never met. Armed with a new identity, she returns to the Emerald Isle determined to face her nightmare. But her discovery turns fatal.


When the banshee strikes again, Angus surrenders his heart—and his hope of freeing his people—to save her. With his life now hers and his curse descending, Erin must make a terrible choice: kill her savior or share his doom.



Available Now: https://books2read.com/godofsummer 


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