Becoming a Fantasy Author

Join us at Leeds Libraries for a talk with YA Fantasy Author K L Kaine, where she will take you through her own writing journey, sharing her top tips and first hand experience to help demystify publishing.
You will learn about:
developing your craft
top tips for planing, drafting and editing
the importance of finding your writing tribe
keeping a writer’s mindset
dealing with rejection
insights into the traditional publishing industry
While Katja’s talk will focus on her personal experience as a YA Fantasy author, the session will be useful for aspiring novelists across most genres. There will be time for questions.

K L Kaine is a Singaporean German British author who writes fantasy stories with powerful, immersive narratives that fuse blended-culture worldbuilding, feminist themes, and pacey, high-stakes adventures. She is also the creator of the Novel Factory software for writers and the Novel Writing Roadmap, and has helped thousands of writers make leaps forward in their stories. She has won multiple awards for writing, including the Northern Writers Northern Promise Award, the SCBWI Undiscovered Voices competition and been shortlisted for the Bath Children’s Award and the Write Mentor Novel-In Development Award. Her debut fantasy novel Blood of Gods and Girls was snapped up by Penguin Random House in a major six figure deal in 2024 and released Summer 2026. When not writing, Katja can be found exploring ancient forests with her labrador, bending into pretzel yoga shapes and raging against the patriarchy.