Kate Kelly's Blog

 
The Book:

For a thousand years, The Old Town has stood as humanity's last bastion against the maalkonis, malignant black mists that reduced the rest of the world to ash. They are kept at bay by rusty machines on the town's walls. In order to survive, the dwindling population depends on one another.

Since a young age, Justīne has embraced the harsh responsibilities that accompanied her apprenticeship on the last farm in existence. Her younger sister, Anna, is beginning her own apprenticeship as we...

Earlier this year I looked around at potential platforms to use for a newsletter. Several authors that I’m acquainted with send these out sporadically and it seems like a good way to build and keep in contact with their readership. So after a bit of deliberation and looking at what other people were using I decided on Substack.

It’s been interesting. There’s a vibrant community on Substack but also a cohort of people who are vehemently against it, although I’ve yet to see any evidence to back up ...

It’s been a while since I did one of these updates but that doesn’t mean I’ve been slacking. Instead I’ve been trying out different ways of finding my readership. And the main one I’m going to talk about here is collaborative book sales.

Setting a book either free or on sale on my own doesn’t tend to gain many sales or downloads, largely because my reach doesn’t extend sufficiently widely to get the attention of people who haven’t yet come across the book. So in order to mitigate this I’ve been t...

The Self Published Science Fiction Competition - or SPSFC5 - is now taking entries. So if you have a self published SF novel why not give it a go.

I've just entered Permafrost and this will be my third year taking part. I'm really looking forward to discovering some great new books to read and rave about on this blog.

Here's the link if you fancy joining me in the contest. SPSFC5

I'm participating in another time - this time its the Based Book Sale which runs from the 3rd - 10th September 2025. 

I have two books in the sale, both priced at only 99p/99c! Grab them while you can - before the price goes back up!

For three days only the Narratess Indie book sale will have a feast of Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror books, either on sale or free! One of my books, The Arid Lands, is in the sale, available for only 99p/99c or equivalent depending on which country you are in. So don't miss out. Grab your copy now.

 My latest self published SF novel, Permafrost, has been out in the world for a couple of months and I'm delighted to see how well it it being received. It is gathering some great reviews, both on Goodreads and Amazon, and then there's this one at the Popular Science Books Blog to add to those giving it 5 stars!

For the next seven days Dragons of Dunmoray will be part of the Epic Indie sale. You can grab yourself a copy for only 99c/99p.

So waste no more time - head over to the Epic Indie Website and check out all the amazing fantasy and Science Fiction which is either free or on sale.

I'm delighted to share with you that my short story, The Last Library, which appeared in New Myths Magazine back in 2020, will be reprinted in the forthcoming anthology from New Myths, Janus Gates, due sometime in 2026.

The Bournemouth Festival of Writing has released a whole load of photographs, courtesy of Solid Imagery, and so I have included a selection from my workshop, Let's Get Villainous, which was a huge success. But don't worry if you missed out. I hope to run this one again so watch this space.