Author Crush Friday: K.C. Held
Glitter girls, you have pressing questions for your favorite authors and we have their answers. Welcome to our weekly segment, Author Crush Fridays.
We love asking questions and we love the answers from some of our favorite authors. Today we’re talking to K.C. Held, debut author of Holding Court ( March 1, 2016; Entangled Teen). Thank you for talking to us today, K.C.! We’re honored!
GLITTER: For those who haven’t read your work yet, how would you describe your writing style?
KC: I have a quote on my desk (from a review for a hilarious book called Die for Love) that I aspire to emulate: “Elizabeth Peters is one of those rare authors who can mingle intelligent whodunits with sheer lunatic hilarity.”
GLITTER: What is the main plot of Holding Court?
KC: Holding Court is about a sixteen year-old girl named Jules Verity who has an embarrassing psychic gift she can’t control. When she takes a job at a castle-turned-dinner theater called Tudor Times, all she wants is the chance to make some money, wear a fancy gown, and ogle her crush, Grayson Chandler, from afar. But when she stumbles over a dead body that promptly disappears, she must prove she didn’t hallucinate a dead girl before the killer strikes again.
GLITTER: How would you describe your characters in Holding Court? Who is your favorite character and why?
KC: The characters in Holding Court are a bit on the quirky side. I have to say that Jules is my favorite, she was certainly the most fun to write. But Gran is a close second. She’s the endearingly eccentric relative I always wanted to have. The one that serves you ice cream sundaes for breakfast and dyes her hair the color of cotton candy.
GLITTER: What genre do you prefer writing?
KC: I definitely have a soft spot for mysteries. And making a reader laugh while they’re trying to figure out whodunit is great fun. That said, I’d love to try my hand at a variety of genres. Fantasies and historicals hold great appeal for someone who loves castles as much as I do!
GLITTER: How much research went into writing Holding Court? Were you able to use your History degree research wise for this series?
KC: I’m a total research nerd. The hardest part for me is knowing when to stop researching and start writing. I have lots of books on historic costume but for Holding Court most of my research involved Henry VIII and life in the Tudor court. I knew I wanted to have a Medieval Times-type of dinner theater where Jules ended up working, but I wanted it to strive to be as historically accurate as possible, which meant I wanted the characters to be people who actually existed. My favorite discovery was Elizabeth Barton, the Mad Maid of Kent. I was looking for a Tudor psychic, and she couldn’t have been more perfect!
GLITTER: What was it like to spend a summer working in a castle? Did any of that go into your story?
KC: When I was an undergrad I had an internship in textile conservation at Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California. I also wrote my senior thesis on the castle’s decorative arts collection so I got to do lots of exploring, and it’s an amazing place! There’s so much history in the castle and the objects Hearst collected. There are definitely bits of Lunewood Castle/Tudor Times that were inspired by Hearst Castle. Without being too spoilery, there’s a specific feature in Lunewood Castle that owes a great deal to Hearst Castle’s Roman Pool.
GLITTER: What is the weirdest job you’ve ever held?
KC: The weirdest, and best, job (besides being an author, of course) I’ve held was as a set costumer in the film industry. You never knew what the day would bring. You might run into a half-melted vampire on your way to the lunch truck, or learn how to use powder to put on a latex superhero suit, or find yourself behind the wheel of an SUV pretending to be the lead actress’s stunt double.
GLITTER: What are you currently working on?
KC: I have a couple of projects in the works, one’s a YA, and the other is a middle grade story I’ve been playing with. They’re similar to Holding Court in that they both feature quirky characters in picturesque settings.
ABOUT K.C. HELD: K.C. HELD was born and raised in California with stopovers in Honduras, Mexico, and France. Married to her high school sweetheart, and mom to two avid bookworms, she holds an MFA in costume design and has worked as a freelance costumer in opera, theater, film, and television. Although she once spent a summer working in a castle, there were no dead bodies involved.
WHERE TO FIND HER:
Editorial Director | Writer | Tweet me @heatherriccio
