Parent Club Profiles: Kate Hilton

Have you ever read a book and really connected with it?! Like…this.is.me…type of connection?! I experienced this when I read The Hole in the Middle by Kate Hilton. If you are a busy Mom feeling guilty about not being able to do it all yet feeling resentful you do everything…this is your read!

Through a series of emails, tweets and one really awesome in-real-life coffee chat I have gotten to know Kate (and she is just as magnetic as her characters). We chatted writing, her book, my books, parenthood and publishing.  I asked to do an author Q & A here on Parent Club because I love learning about how writers write…

Aside: if you have ever wanted to write a children’s book – have a look at my List of Canadian Children’s Book Publishers

Where do you find writing time?

I try to be very routinized about my writing schedule. When I wrote my first novel, The Hole in the Middle, I was working full time, and I set aside three hours every Sunday afternoon. These days, I’m writing full time (around childcare responsibilities, so more like part time, really), and I generally set aside a couple of hours each morning. I find that the day has a tendency to get away from me if I don’t sit down early.

What does being an author mean to you?

Being an author is both a job and an identity. Lots of people like the idea of being a writer, but it isn’t nearly as glamorous as they might imagine. The actual work involves a great deal of sitting, typing, deleting, thinking and more typing. You have to be the sort of person who can tolerate solitude and an absence of immediate reward. As it happens, I love the job, but it is extraordinarily challenging. It requires more discipline than anything else I’ve ever done, and more courage as well. Being identified as a writer is fabulous, because it gives you a peer group of other writers. When I’m allowed out of my office, the book geek in me can’t believe that I get to hang out with them.

What tips to you have for aspiring authors?

Keep going. No writer has an easy time of it, and you have to believe in your work or no one else ever will. Write books that you want to read. Don’t think too much about how to tailor your book to make it ‘publishable’; a terrific book is always publishable. And pay for professional editing. There is no substitute for it.

The Hole in the Middle was published by HarperCollins Canada in 2013 and spent 11 weeks on the Globe & Mail bestseller list. It will be released in the US by Penguin Random House in January 2016.