About kilby blades
author KILBY
Kilby Blades is a USA Today Bestselling author of Romance and Women's Fiction. Her debut novel, Snapdragon, was a HOLT Medallion finalist, a Publisher's Weekly BookLife Prize Semi-Finalist, and an IPPY Award medalist. Kilby was honored with an RSJ Emma Award for Best Debut Author in 2018, and has been lauded by critics for "easing feminism and equality into her novels" (IndieReader) and "writing characters who complement each other like a fine wine does a good meal" (Publisher's Weekly).
During her earlier career as a digital marketing executive, she moonlighted as a journalist, freelanced as a food, wine and travel writer and lived it up as an entertainment columnist. She has lived in five countries, visited more than twenty-five, and spends part of her year in her happy place—her pied-à-terre in the Andes Mountains.
She’s stopped selling widgets for a living and now spends her time when she’s not writing novels raising money for worthy causes, both a a professional fundraiser and as a board volunteer (most notably, she is president of the Board of Directors for NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month). She also tours internationally for book signings, speaks nationally and teaches within the author community.
Kilby is a feminist, an oenophile, a cinephile, a social-justice fighter, and above all else, a glutton for a good story.
A personal note: my NAME IS NOT KILBY
It seems fitting to tell you that my real name isn’t Kilby Blades. Given the, erm...racy nature of the earlier novels I wrote as Kilby Blades, I prefer to stay in the closet. The name Kilby Blades was inspired by my late fictionista friend of the same name. She passed away in 2003 at the end of a long autoimmune illness that we didn’t know nearly enough about at the time. We were both in our early twenties when she died. It’s hard to explain how somebody who is gone can still hold such an important place in my life. But Kilby does.
In addition to being an amazing person with intelligence, wisdom, and heart around all manner of things, she was, for years, the most important person in my writing life. She told me when my writing sucked, did so with the right balance of compassion and truth, and stepped up my game around big concepts of craft. I dedicated my first original novel, Snapdragon, to her and have chosen to write under her name as an homage..
Before I became Kilby Blades, various handles I used to publish fan fiction hid me behind the curtain of anonymity for many years. In my largest fandom, my four stories tally more than 1.5 million chapters read, and have received a combined 15,000 favorites, reviews and follows. Though I haven't written for fandom since 2012, I still receive scores of favorites and follows each month.
STUFF ABOUT ME
Location: California
Favorite Book of All Time: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (I know, he’s problematic)
The Only Romance Novels I’ve Read More Than Once: Truth or Beard by Penny Reid, The Gamble by Kristen Ashley, The Bodyguard by Katherine Center
The Best Romance Series I’m Still Mad About: The Mindf*ck Series by S.T. Abby
Non-Romance Novels I Realllly Liked: Compound 26 by Krista Street, Children of the Furnace by Brin Murray, Quench the Day by Shari Branning
The Only Thing I Love More than Books: Movies
Favorite Movies: Heathers, The Princess Bride, Amadeus, Best in Show…too many great ones to choose.
Favorite Musical Genres: Singer/Songwriter, Classic Rock, Old School Hip-Hop
Who I Sing Along to In The Car: Earth, Wind & Fire, David Bowie, Queen, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Tori Amos, Indigo Girls, Buena Vista Social Club, Marc Anthony, The Cure
The Band I Listen To When I Write, and on the Red-Eye: Iron & Wine