Katie Keridan believes in choosing who you want to be, and not having your past define you. That was one of the reasons why she wrote "Realm United."
What was your inspiration behind your most recent book?
I knew from the beginning that this series would be a trilogy, and “Realm United” is the third and final book, which is incredibly bittersweet. The inspiration behind the series was pretty simple … I wrote the books I would have loved to read as a young adult (or that I’d read now as an elder millennial): enemies-to-lovers, found family, political machinations, realms at war, and reincarnated soulmates fighting together to save their realms and the ones they love. But I also wanted to go one step farther and give readers a realistic couple they could learn from and alongside with.
Before becoming an author, I worked as a pediatric neuropsychologist, where I specialized in cognitive testing for kids and teens with cancer. I worked so closely with so many teens who opened up to me about incredibly personal things, like romantic relationships, issues of consent, and knowing when to change something about their self or compromise versus when to end a relationship. My two main characters, Kyra and Sebastian, are incredibly different people with wildly different backgrounds, and I wanted to show readers that even when you’re in love and destined for one another, being in a relationship is tough. It requires honesty, the willingness to trust and be vulnerable, and the ability to listen and engage in direct communication. I’m all for people reading whatever they want, but I purposefully chose to focus on depicting a healthy relationship in these books, and the feedback from readers has been fantastic, which has been immensely rewarding.
What does Reading Rainbow mean to you?
To me, Reading Rainbow means reading whatever you want without worrying what someone else is going to think about you. While I love how book-related social media (like BookTok and Bookstagram) has grown over the years, recently I’ve seen people talking about how they feel pressured to only read certain popular books or to only read one particular genre. No one should feel pressured to read anything! I guarantee you, no matter how niche whatever you like to read is, there’s someone else out there who enjoys the exact same thing you do and is dying to talk about it. Read what you love and read what makes you happy. Own your tropes and your genres, whatever they may be. Life is too short to waste it reading things that don’t touch your heart or make you think or just bring a smile to your face.
Why do you feel representation of a variety of people is so important when it comes to writing books?
Two reasons: first, we see ourselves in books. I will never forget the first time I read “Sabriel” by Garth Nix … up until then, the vast majority of female characters in the books I read had blond hair and blue eyes, which was pretty much the accepted standard of beauty at the time, but Sabriel had dark hair and dark eyes, just like me! It’s such a small detail (and probably sounds ridiculous today) but I just couldn’t get over it, and I remember hugging that book and thinking, “She looks like me. And if we look the same, maybe we’re similar in other ways!”
But the second reason representation is so important is because we see others in books. I grew up on a ranch in the middle of nowhere in Texas. My best friend was my horse, and I lived for my family’s weekly trips to the library because books took me places when I couldn’t leave on my own and introduced me to people I otherwise probably never would have met. Books helped me meet people with different backgrounds, different ways of thinking, different skin colors, and different cultures. Reading taught me there was a bigger world out there than my tiny town and inspired me to want to be a part of it. Books helped me learn empathy and compassion and taught me that you don’t always know the whole story because one line at the end of a chapter can change everything you thought you knew about someone. Diverse representation is vital in books.
Tell us a little more about the book and why you decided to write it.
It’s ultimately about choosing who you want to be, which is a topic that is incredibly near and dear to my heart … probably because I’ve made hard choices that weren’t always popular with my family or friends but were necessary in order to become the person I truly want to be. Your past doesn’t define you. Your family doesn’t define you. Your mistakes and failures don’t define you, just like trauma or abuse or anything else you’ve suffered doesn’t define you. At the end of the day, you decide who you want to be. You choose how you want to behave towards others. You choose what you want to believe and what you want to stand up for. I wanted to show readers that even though terrible things happen — and they will happen — they don’t have to be the end of your story. We can learn and grow and change no matter how old we are, and I think that’s one of the most incredible and beautiful parts of being human.
What can fans expect from your book?
Grumpy/sunshine romance. Sarcastic, pompous, and funny animal familiars. A unique magic system and a big focus on loyalty and found family. Characters fighting for what they believe in even when the odds are against them. Characters being forced to choose between what they want and what’s actually best for them. Readers can expect to cry and scream and cheer, and they can expect that everything we’ve been building up to across the first two books will be wrapped up and resolved.
What's up next for you in the bookish world?
I’m currently working on a middle grade novel. It’s a contemporary-with-a-dash-of-magic story about an autistic girl who accidentally summons a dinosaur skeleton to help her cope with the death of her beloved paleontologist grandpa. I’ve worked on it as part of a course I took through The Novelry, and I’m so excited with how it’s coming along and how much I’ve learned about writing in a different genre for a different audience. I’m happiest when I’m writing, so I’m always working on something.
