In The Spotlight: Erin Kinsella
Erin Kinsella is a romance and historical fantasy author who lives in Canada with her husband and three cats. She is the author of Olympian Confessions: Hera, Olympian Confessions: Hades and Persephone, and her current release Heart and Seoul.
I had the pleasure of reading a digital ARC of her latest release and let me tell you it’s like that first bite of chocolate in cozy pajamas while you press play on your favorite romantic movie. It's good.
When the opportunity to talk with Erin Kinsella was presented I jumped at it. Like many readers it’s always exciting to talk to the author behind the book. And I have to say that Erin answered the questions beautifully.
Your Novel Heart and Seoul is set as the title suggests in Seoul, South Korea. A huge metropolis where modern skyscrapers and pop culture live alongside Buddhist Temples and Street Markets. This sort of Yin and Yang of old and new, is this one of the things that draws you to this city?
What initially drew me to Seoul was watching videos of people who live there, both Koreans and immigrants, who bring to life all the aspects of the city and show you the hidden corners. I love places that are able to balance the modern world with history. Someday I’d love to visit.
It’s no secret to anyone who knows you or has read "Heart and Seoul” that you are a fan of K-PoP. How did you come upon it and What about it inspired you to write a novel with K-PoP as one of the main subjects?
I got into learning about Korea in general before I got into K-pop. One of my friends at the time wanted to move to Korea and I love research. I do it for fun all the time so I offered to help her figure things out. Which led to diving into countless videos and blog posts, learning about everything from food to clothing to how paying rent works. At some point in there, this same friend introduced me to BTS and I spent about two weeks consuming their entire discography and started to learn about the K-pop industry. I was completely fascinated by the affection displayed between members and the things they were willing to share with the audience. It was so different from the music groups I’d grown up with. I loved the apparent lack of toxic masculinity, the comfort they seemed to have in pushing gender norms, and the artistry that infused their performances.
As far as deciding to write a K-pop novel, it was mostly meant to be a temporary project that I undertook over camp nano in 2018. I had never written romance or anything with K-pop before. I wanted to write a K-pop story because it seemed fun and I was using this project as a break from the historical fiction I was working on. I am completely incapable of writing fanfiction that contains real people, it just feels icky to me, so I created my own idol group with totally fictional characters. Since I had done so much research already I didn’t feel totally out of my depth when I started writing and by the time camp nano came to a close I loved it too much to just set it aside.
In your novel you explore different relationships types and sexual orientations. Was this an important topic for you to shine light on? Was there any hesitation approaching subjects that some still find taboo?
Mostly I just love having more queer leads in romance. I didn’t set out to shine a particular light on anything, but I did have a lot of beta readers turn out to be demisexual and they all got very excited when they realized that my heroine, Tessa, was also demi. I wasn’t hesitant approaching the subjects. There are queer people everywhere and some can be more open about it than others. I tried to acknowledge that in the book. Eun Gi is bisexual but the wider world doesn’t know that about him. He might not be comfortable being public, but he’s still bi, and he shares that part of himself with people he trusts.
What influenced you to become an Indie Author? And what advice would you give anyone wanting to go that route?
I only briefly considered traditional publishing and then turned around and went straight for indie. It’s just what I’ve always wanted to do.
My advice is to recognize that it is hard. You have to handle everything and there is nothing about the process of first draft to publication that is easy. It’s also very expensive if you’re working with quality professionals. It’s not a path to choose lightly.
You bring your MC’s together through Marriage Of Convenience. You approach this romantic trope at an angle that made it fun and refreshing. Did you consider the way you wanted to approach things, were there aspects of the trope that you wanted to avoid?
I love the marriage of convenience trope. Anything to do with fake relationships is my absolute catnip. There wasn’t anything with that specific trope that I wanted to avoid. My general goal for the story was for the leads to be open and honest with each other, and to do away with the miscommunication trope because it drives me bananas.
Heart and Seoul is a series that is much different from your prior work. You’ve done Greek mythology showing you have a wide range of interests. Do you feel it helps writers to be open and diverse?
Absolutely. I will always recommend people try out other genres and write things just for fun. You never know what you might stumble onto. I thought that I loved writing when I was drafting my first two novels, but when I started writing romance I loved writing so much more. Stories can come from anywhere and you’re always going to have more fun writing something that you’re interested in. Books are hard and you need that passion to carry you through the process.
These last two questions are a little emotionally inclined. What does Heart and Seoul mean to you? The characters and the story itself?
Heart and Seoul showed me what it means to truly love writing. It was pure indulgence and I honestly grew a lot from it. It’s the starting point for a lot of things—writing queer stories and queer characters, writing romance, writing about tropes and elements that make me happy. It’s my first romance but it sure as heck will not be the last you see from me.
The indie author community is its own family. You find your people among the throngs and can develop long lasting friendships. For you has this rung true?
100% accurate. There’s something to be said about finding people who understand the struggles of writing. Obviously you can have friends outside of writing, but it’s nice when they nod and get it rather than having their eyes glaze over when you get into details. I have a fabulous community and I definitely couldn’t do what I do without them. Communities grow and change too, just like relationships, and I’ve been so lucky to have met and worked with the people I have.
Erin Kinsella is the Author of Olympian Confessions: Hera, Olympian Confessions: Hades and Persephone, and her new Seoul series Heart and Seoul. You can also find her on YouTube, where she educates writers about the publishing industry, world building, and how to make your readers swoon. She attended the University of Alberta where she studied psychology and history. When she’s not writing or YouTubing she’s hanging out with her husband and their three cats.
About the Interviewer
Nena Orcutt is an aspiring author, who thinks too much, Listens to a lot of music. Needs coffee to function. Who thinks Bukowski was a wise man and Hemingway was a genius. And feels romance isn’t dead. She is working on her debut novel “The Crow and The Butterfly” Making her home in Music City she’s ready to conquer the writing world and leave her mark.
