Katiaesque

  • UNLEASH

    I’m thinking of EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU as I write this. Actually. I went through my short but precious list of subscribers with tenderness and gratitude yesterday, and I’m holding every one of you in my heart, as I wish you a happy 2026! May all of your hopes and intentions become real in…

    Katia Raina

  • Early Summer Post: On Showing Up

    This past week concluded my decade of service in education. How did I celebrate, you might ask? By taking a 3-hour nap. 🙂 Hello, sweet summer. Teaching high school and middle school English for 7+ years total, followed by 2.5 years in special education. Girl, I was exhausted. I think I really do have an…

    Katia Raina

  • October Theory

    BOO! Look who popped in your inbox like a Jack in the box! I did not disappear. I simply decided to post once a season, and fall is fast upon us. It feels like forever ago since I wrote to you, friends. I am still me, and yet, whoa, don’t I also feel like a…

    Katia Raina

  • Assassins, Not Liars

    “Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.” Stephen King (On Writing) The name of my Vermont College of Fine Arts class is Darling Assassins. I will confess: when we were deciding on a name during the summer residency of 2013, I spoke up against it. I…

    Katia Raina

  • On Voice And Love

    Aaaaaah! How is it already August 20th? And how has it been a month? How? How? How? Okay, now that that’s out of the way, I bring you a long-promised nuggets-of-wisdom post from my last residency at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. While my first residency back in January got dubbed as “The Plague” residency,…

    Katia Raina

  • Homework Update

    Spring? Yeah, right! What was I thinking? Two days ago the world around me was wind, the sky lashing rain, and now the yard is covered with soft, beautiful, unwelcome snow. Oh, the foolishness of premature celebrations! As one Russian proverb says, “Don’t say ‘hop!’ before you jump over.” I don’t have time for a long or particularly thoughtful post,…

    Katia Raina

  • The Call of Adventure

    Here I am crafting my latest story, mostly plotting right now. Using myths and age-old storytelling tricks to bend and twist my emerging book into shape. If you read Joseph Campbell’s “Hero With A Thousand Faces,” then you may know about how every story is at heart really an adventure, with a usually reluctant hero facing…

    Katia Raina

  • Back from the New Jersey SCBWI Summer Comference 2011: we’re all in this together!

    Just back from Princeton, New Jersey, and let me tell you — wow, what a conference! A group of super-talented writers, fun, approachable published authors, passionate agents and savvy editors  took over a Wyndham resort for the weekend, for yet another massive exchange of ideas, knowledge and creativity, all in the name of writing for young…

    Katia Raina

  • I did it!

    So, naturally my house is a wild, dirty mess, and look at the shoes in my closet: But I did it. I did it!!! One year after I thought I was really done, I completed another draft of the historical fantasy novel manuscript I had been working on for years. I sent it to my agent about two…

    Katia Raina

  • The Draft

    I am feeling a little numb, right now. Also, I am in a bit of disbelief. About forty minutes ago as of this writing, I have finished The Draft. 229 pages. 52 chapters. 59,000 words. Now. I can’t possibly even send this thing to my trusty writing friend– yet – let alone e-mail it to my…

    Katia Raina