Kathleen Harryman is a storyteller and poet living in the historically rich city of York, North Yorkshire, England, with her husband, children and pet dog and cat.

Kathleen was first published in 2015, a suspenseful thriller The Other Side of the Looking Glass. Since then Kathleen has developed a unique writing style which readers have enjoyed and becomes a multi genre author of suspense, psychological thrillers, poetry and historical romance

Visit Kathleen Harryman’s website and Amazon Author US Page and her UK page.
You can also find her on Goodreads, and Twitter.

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What motivates you to write and how did you get started?

I have always loved creating stories. Even as a child I would pretend to be a writer. Writing is such an integral part of me that it is my personal inbuilt motivator. I attended a creative writing class, which only cemented that an author is what I really wanted to be. Sometimes life can place dreams on hold. In 2014 I felt that the time was right to start seeing if I was capable of achieving my dreams and I put pen to paper, and started to write my first novel The Other Side of the Looking Glass. Seeing my name and story in print was such an over whelming achievement. Even today with four books out I still find that I need to pinch myself and say yeah, I actually did this.

What’s most rewarding about writing?

The most rewarding part to writing for me is seeing my completed book shinning back at me. Every author has good writing days and bad days. There is certainly a lot of satisfaction in seeing a finished story in front of you. However, it only becomes real once a story is finished and it’s been edited. It’s then all about the glamour – the book cover, that’s when it really brings a smile to my face.

What’s your favourite genre and why?

My main genre is thrillers. That said I have always wanted to be a multi genre writer. My latest book, The Promise, which I’ve written with an actor friend of mine Lucy Marshall is a historical romance set during WW2.

Writing thrillers has taught me to keep things factual and to always question. I think that’s why I’ve always favoured thrillers. It’s the how my characters are going to get away with murder and to make it believable to the reader? I always do a lot of research, whether its past crimes, how they were caught, or looking at police and forensic processes and procedures. Thrillers are a very fascinating and disciplined world. Recent technology using fingerprints can now determine a person’s gender, hair colour etc. I thinks it’s incredible in a very scary way.

Where do your characters come from?

My characters come from people I have met or come in contact with. I take personality traits and change them slightly, either by amplifying them or subduing them, depending on the character and the circumstances. I always believe that for a character to connect to the reader it’s important to give them substance and what better method of doing that than using a real personality.

For me it doesn’t necessarily have to be someone I know particularly well, it can be something someone does or says that I notice in passing that feeds my imagination and I think yeah that would be great for so and so’s character.

Who is an author who inspires you and why?

I’d have to say Enid Blyton simply because she was the first author that I actually read with such enthusiasm that I virtually consumed a book a day. She made me want to be a writer. I loved the way that her characters drew me into her stories. The way that they made me laugh, or kept me wondering what was going to happen next. I am a huge advocate of encouraging children to read, and have always read to my children right from the start.

What do you look for in other people’s books?

When I read a book I’m looking to become part of the story. I want to feel their emotions. I once stopped reading a book for two days because I felt so bad for one of the characters. I had to come to terms with what the author had done before I could read on. Now that’s a powerful book. I also want to finish a book and feel the story wash over me again. All of a sudden you know that you’re going to have to say goodbye to an old friend and you don’t want to, but you want to know what happens as well. I love being torn like that.

Tell us about your newest book.

My newest book is called The Promise. It’s my first historical romance set during WW2. I am so excited about this book. I didn’t want this to be just a love story. I wanted it to show the struggle placed on families and friendships as well as blossoming love during the war.

The Promise follows four friends as Britain declares war on Germany. It’s about promises made in the heat of battle that must be kept. Of courage and honour. Of friendships that are thrown apart and reunited. Of realising that some dreams no matter how much we want them to come true become replaced by new ones.

This story is so close to my heart as my grandfather James Chappell fought in WW2 as part of the 5th Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders. Unfortunately he died during the D-Day landings. Despite the chaos my uncle found his body and placed it under a tree so that he knew where to find him. He never doubted that he’d be going back for him. That he too could die. It is that relationship that I wanted to capture in The Promise.

What kind of book would you like to be known for?

I would like to be known for a book that took the reader on a journey. One that would survive the centuries and would be as current in a hundred years as it is today. I want my writing to emotionally connect with the reader.

What has writing taught you about yourself?

Writing has taught to look at things differently. You hear it all the time ‘not everything is as it first appears’ and it is so true. I find now that when I see or hear something I take a step back. Question my response. It really does give you a different view of things.

Writing has also taught me to appreciate everything so much more. The sounds of the morning. The sea that caresses the sand. Birds singing from the trees. I know it sounds strange, but when you want a reader to connect with a certain setting, as an author you need to be able to describe the wind that blows through the trees, or the patter of rain on the window and the only way to do that is to open yourself to what goes on around you.

How has your life experience influenced your writing?

It’s amazing how much of life’s experiences influence my writing. I’m a passionate person, and I like to think that comes through in my writing. I don’t think that you can write about something if you don’t understand it yourself. I’m not saying that a writer has to have experienced everything they write about, but that they certainly need to connect with it for the passion to come through. When I write about a serial killer, it’s about the person. What drives them to do it. How differently they see the world around them. That’s why I always research serial killers, so that I can take a glimpse inside their scary minds, to bring a fiction killer to life.

Life teaches us so much. It is up to us how we see life’s lessons and what we do with that knowledge. I find it all so very fascinating and terribly fragile.

What encouraging advice can you offer new writers?

Every story takes time to develop, and that is what an author does each time they write. It’s not about copying the writing styles of very successful authors, it’s about you the author, and your own style of writing. You are unique and it is that uniqueness that is so important. We all struggle at times with a story. But never ever give up. One day like so many fabulous authors out there you will hold your book in your hands and it will be the most amazing feeling in the world.