June Bonus Author Spotlight: Kilby Blades
Welcome to Scribbler’s newest series — an interview with our subscription box‘s monthly author! Each month, we’ll interview the author of our featured book to help you learn a little more about them and their writing process.
This month’s bonus spotlight is on Kilby Blades. Her novel It Takes a Villa, was our bonus June read. You can find It Takes A Villa for sale anywhere books are sold.
For the reasonable price of $1, Natalie Malone just bought herself an abandoned villa on the Amalfi Coast. With a detailed spreadsheet and an ancient key, she’s arrived in Italy ready to renovate — and only six months to do it. Which seemed reasonable until architect Pietro Indelicato began critically watching her every move…
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 fifteen year 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 in the Andes Mountains.
Kilby is a feminist, an oenophile, a cinephile, a social-justice fighter, and above all else, a glutton for a good story. Thank you for the interview, Kilby!
1. “Pantser” or “plotter?”
Pantser, until I get stuck and realize the only way to figure out my problem is to overlay some structure, then I plot.
2. How many hours a day do you write?
Most days, I don’t write at all. My best writing is done at retreats. If I’m well rested and undisturbed, I can write 10,000 to 12,000 good words in a day.
3. Who’s your favorite fictional character?
Úrsula Iguarán from 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. She’s a symbol of pain and of strength and of bearing the weight of holding it all together. Women all over the world, regardless of nationality or station in life can identify with her.
4. What’s your favorite part of the writing process?
Writing a scene that I know is going to be great. It’s exhilarating to write scenes that I know will be exhilarating to read.
5. Do you prefer writing on paper or doing everything digitally?
Digitally, though I dictate a lot of my writing.
6. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot?
My otter stuffie is my perfect mascot because I write romance and otters are so loyal and loving. They hold hands while they sleep so they don’t float away from each other in the night.
7. What was the last thing (song, podcast, etc.) you listened to?
I had a song written and recorded for my partner for our 15-year anniversary. I ordered the sheet music and I’m going to try to learn it on the piano and guitar. Depends on how easy the music is.
8. If you could time travel (to the past or future), where/when would you go?
To the past, to meet my great-great-grandmother, who was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman who had a child with a Black man in the 19th century South. I’m dying to know how she got away with this, and how she managed to have a relationship with her children and grandchildren, who lived in the same town.
9. If there’s a spider in your house, do you kill it or set it free?
Set it free! I love spiders. I have a tattoo of one!
10. What’s something you could eat for a week straight?
Cake. (Duh.)
If you’ve read It Takes a Villa and loved it like we did, be sure to leave a review for Kilby on Goodreads! And if you’d like to receive the next book before we post the author’s interview on our blog, be sure to subscribe to the Scribbler box today.
Victoria Scott started Scribbler in 2017 after traditionally publishing an impressive number of books with companies like HarperCollins Harlequin Scholastic and Macmillan. Victoria is an Uber-hailing city girl who is passionate about writing and helping other writers find their voice.
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