Kerelyn Smith is a software developer by day and has written a middle grade fantasy - Mulrox and the Malcognitos. This story is about an ogre that wants to be a poet.

Kerelyn explores her writing career and the struggles to get a book published. Her book is a reflection of some of those struggles and things kids deal with that they can relate to.

You can find Kerelyn at https://www.kerelynsmith.com

Grab Mulrox and the Malcognitos - https://books2read.com/u/3k1LMR

You can sign up for her mailing list - https://www.subscribepage.com/ReadingGroupSignUp

Transcript

Stephen 0:49Today, I talked to Carolyn Smith, who has written middle grade fantasy, football rocks and the Malka nidos. I hope you enjoy it. And if you've been listening to these interviews, and enjoying them, and getting some inspiration, and maybe learning some things and finding that you're an author, but not on a path that is different than anyone elses, that we're all the same. If you've enjoyed that and found some inspiration, please leave me a review, give me some stars or a thumbs up, it would really help a lot. And that way more authors can eat more easily discover this podcast and find other authors. So here's Carolyn Smith. All right. Well, Carolyn, thank you. Good to hear you. Let's just get started with tell us a little bit about you who you are a bit about your background.

Kerelyn 1:40Okay, um, Hey, everybody. I'm Carolyn Smith. And I am a writer of like to say like speculative fiction, primarily, but also some literary fiction. And I just had my first book come out, and it's called more rocks in the mail cognito 's, and it's a fantasy adventure novel for middle grade. And I live in Seattle, Washington. And during the day, I work as a software engineer. And

Stephen 2:11a little bit about me or the second software engineer. And I also I'm a developer. Oh, yeah. Doing development. So nice.

Kerelyn 2:21I feel like it is a very common. Yeah, I mean, I do think that there's a lot of parallels between them. At least for some types of writers. Like, obviously, there's lots of different types of people approach it totally differently. But like, I am the type of developer and also the type of writer that really likes to outline things and do design and like it really enjoy solving puzzles and putting things together. And so I think that like stories, and you know, software have a lot of those things in common, like, I think part of what makes a good software engineer is just patience and willing to keep trying stuff.

Stephen 2:58Yes, it's kind of, it's kind of weird to me, though, to think about, because I do a lot with databases, and I write code. And that's very straightforward problem solve it. And there's a very analytical side to it. But then I'm running into all these people that their, their main job is very analytical, but they're very creative on the other side, and you don't think of that a lot. You think of people as one or the other, but right. Seems like it wants to come out of us or something.

Kerelyn 3:29Yeah, yeah. And I feel like people try to pigeonhole other humans too often. Yeah. Right. Like, I think we all have both of those sides to us. And like, I think it's good to encourage your fellow people and children that like they don't have to pick one or the other. Yeah, I don't know what like your background is, but like, I was an English Lit major, who, like, you know, graduated, couldn't find a job. And then like, slowly worked my way into tech. So I didn't go directly into tech.