I’m kicking things off with this author because she’s been my role model and a major source of inspiration since 2016. She is humble and kind, inspiring and motivating, and helpful beyond my own wildest dreams.
I was so excited and tickled when I asked authors that I know if they would be willing to do this. I was hopeful that she would say yes, but understood that she’s really busy so there was a likelihood that she would have to say no. When she said yes, I was over the moon.
I started following Kelly during NaNoWriMo 2016. I’d joined this huge group of people also doing Nano and Kelly was, in my opinion, one of the greats of the group. It was for good reason. She helped and inspired everyone!
She answered questions for anyone who asked, without hesitation. She was just happy to help. She wrote posts that were informative and helpful in the group based on things she’d learned, experienced, or heard a lot of people were struggling with. She ran an active and engaged writer’s group, she was working on her third book at that time I believe, and she had a whole lot else also going on all at the same time. To me, she made juggling look easy and she still, she made the time for others. She’s how I personally, learned a lot of what I know about the writing world.
She’s done character and author interviews on her Meeting with the Muse blog, but it wasn’t what you would think. While a lot of authors do interviews with other authors to “promote” them, she did it to help them build out their characters, and build up the author, helping them become better writers with creative role playing and a questions and answers format.
Her character interviews have been referred to as “Character Therapy” and it’s a very fitting description. Even with characters the authors knew inside and out, Kelly helps the author wrangle them and get them to work within the story, with concise detail and ideas we didn’t have before. It’s a truly beautiful experience, and it’s a lot of fun.
Her interactions are always full of encouragement and support. She believes in people, and you truly get that genuine feeling when you talk with her. Her goal is to inspire, lift people up, and help writers be the best that they can be. I wouldn’t be where I am without her. She truly deserves to be in the spotlight and I’m so glad I get to start with her.
I’ve seen it and experienced it from the beginning of my writing career. It started my goal of wanting to inspire and help other people. I got word that she is working on some new stuff, with YouTube videos and online courses that will allow her to expand her reach and help even more people. She’s really excited about it and so am I, so I’ll be adding that information to her bio at the bottom when it all goes live! Follow her wherever you can because she’s looking to launch in May and I want the entire world to know about it!
This is the stuff that makes Kelly an author worth spotlighting, and why this next part is so important and exciting to me. It’s my goal to give back to the authors that inspire and are helpful to me. Many of them have no idea how or that they have even done it. Kelly has been doing it from a distance for years now. Simply hearing her say “I believe in you” has taken me such a long way. I can’t even begin to explain it. I just know that she means it and it’s made me want to find a way to repay her for that ever since.
Back in 2017 (a confession because I don’t think that Kelly even knows we did this) when she was doing the interviews full on, she let slip that it would be a dream come true to her, if one of the greats would contact her to do her interviews. I went on a mission that very moment.
I created a super-secret group and secretly invited several people from her writing group to join it. It was tough because I only knew a handful of people in her writing group. Luckily, I was also friends with her fiancé, Matthew, also. So, I hit him with the idea first and he helped bring a lot of them in on it.
I wanted to get everyone involved, but it was a large group and secrets get let out unintentionally that way. I know that they all would have gotten behind it. There ended up being about 40 of us in the group.
The objective: to convince at least one of the greats to contact Kelly and inquire about doing her interviews. We set out to send emails to authors like Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, George RR Martin, and several others.
We were all very young authors (writing wise, not necessarily age wise) at the time. I had no idea how to really manage a group, especially one I put together spur of the moment. I think we managed to track down contact information for a few authors and send out a handful of emails to each of them.
We discussed at length how to do it effectively, because we knew that a bunch of people emailing a famous author at the same time, with the same subject line would be considered spammy and ignored. We plotted and brain stormed for days before we sent out the first round of emails. We waited a couple of weeks, then sent out the second round. Then, life got busy while waiting for round three, and the group died out. The desire to see this be a reality for her, did not.
We all knew that it was a long shot, but we also believed she was worth it. Still do. That is how inspiring Kelly Blanchard-Dale is. We have all come a long way since then, and a whole lot of it in part thanks to her. Her inspiration, her lessons, her caring. It’s touched the lives and helped so many of us.
Maybe this time, in a more public forum, our voice can be heard. Kelly very much deserves this author spotlight.
So, I’m putting it out into the universe. Kelly deserves to have all her dreams come true. This is the least I can try to do for all the ways that she has inspired and helped me as an author over the years.
Kelly, I adore you. You have no idea how far I have come as a writer because of you. I thought this might be as good a time as any. You inspire me to be the best writer I can possibly be, but you also inspire my desire to be helpful and kind to others and go above and beyond to help make their dreams come true. I’m eternally grateful that you took the time with me, so I am actively working on making a dream come true for you.
You deserve the best and to have all your dreams come true!
My readers. Allow me to help you on this bandwagon. This is an author worth her weight and then some in gold. Her books are fantastic (although I’ve only had time to read bits and pieces myself, her fans insist on it, they are many, and I 100% believe them) but her helpfulness and willingness to share information for aspiring authors make her amazing! You must check her out!
You can find her website here. https://www.kellannetta.com. There are links to her books, short stories, there is more information about her and her work and how you can contact her there.
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