TV Interview

 I was interviewed on the Happy Hour with DJ Kyle show on Lake TV. 

You can watch the interview here 

https://youtu.be/HGj_J2-C49c?t=1881 

If you watch the video below, skip to the timestamp 31:21 for my interview.

You can buy my book here!

Outlaw Trail (Trail Dusters): Cora, Kristen: 9798987844502: Amazon.com: Books 

Book Release

 My first book, Outlaw Trail, is available for purchase!

I do hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

You can find the book here on Amazon. 

My Interview by Fellow Author Susan K. Marlow

 One of my favorite childhood authors, Susan K. Marlow, who later I contacted for advice when writing my first book interviewed me July 21, 2023!

Below is a copy of that interview.

It’s all about horses with Kristen Cora. Enjoy this photo collage and then read the interview. I sure enjoyed reading it, and I learned some stuff I didn’t know.

Here is a collage Susan K. Marlow put together of me.

1. First of all, tell us a little bit about yourself.
   • I’m 18 years old, I grew up in the home state of Jesse James (some easy trivia for those interested in outlaws), was homeschooled the whole way through, and graduated a year early. I’m currently courting Jack, a young Christian man. I love my family, friends, horses, coffee, and most of all, God.
2. What job and/or hobbies are you currently doing?
   • I’m a leatherworker, horse trainer, and a published author. In my spare time, I enjoy reading, researching for my next novel, restoring old leather, and spending time with the people I care about.
3. What are your plans for the future?
   • To marry a good, Godly young man and raise a whole passel of kids in the way God intended a mother to raise them. I want to be a stay at home mom and homeschool them. That is something I’ve always wanted to do. I also plan to continue writing and get my books edited and published as I finish them.
4. Who is/are your favorite author(s), whether living or dead and have they inspired you in your writing?
   • When I was growing up, I really liked Louis Gladys Leppard and as I got older, I was introduced to Susan K. Marlow. I still love Mrs. Marlow’s young adult books, but since then, I’ve discovered Zane Grey and Louis L’amour. Zane Grey is really nice when I want a slower paced, more poetic read, but generally, I reach for Louis L’amour. I’ve read other Western authors, but in my opinion, none of them are as good as the previous 3. Sadly, most western authors haven’t researched well and the books lack realisticness and authority of the subject and deters me from reading more. Zane Grey is better. The way he writes, at times you wonder if he knows what he’s talking about, but then you look at the details and find he does. Mrs. Marlow obviously has researched a ton and knows her subject well. Louis L’amour on the other hand, literally walked the land his characters walked and lived as they did just so he could write it accurately. That really shines through in his work. My favorite living author, Mrs. Marlow, is also now my editor and mentor. My other favorite author, though he is no longer living, is Louis L’amour. Mrs. Marlow has inspired me to become better and has helped me find my voice, while Louis L’amour’s stories inspired me to even start writing and also to be as accurate as possible in every detail.
5. What are your top three favorite books you’ve ever read?
   • Ooh, that’s a hard one! Mm, probably Kilkenny, by Louis L’amour, The Mountain Valley War (another Kilkenny book), by Louis L’amour, and Courageous Love by Susan K. Marlow. Interestingly, they’re all westerns.
6. My (Mrs. M’s) favorite L’amour book by far is Ride the River. I will have to check out those others (in my spare time). I’m unfamiliar with those titles. Okay, next question, Kristen. What is your favorite kind and/or genre of story to read and/or write?
   • By far Westerns, but I do love the occasional military/war theme, conspiracy, or medieval and Viking eras, both for reading and writing, and mystery for reading. Sadly, I haven’t in any aspect mastered the writing part of that one.
7. So have you always wanted to be an author? You published your first book (Outlaw Trail) at 18 but started it at 16. Is that the first time you ever put pencil to paper (or words on a computer), or did you begin your writing journey a little earlier in life?
   • This may be surprising, but no. In fact, I hated writing. I still can’t write an essay to save my life. When we were 10 or 11, my best friend Hannah and I were reading the Mandie series by Louis Gladys Leppard. This was before we heard about Susan K. Marlow or Louis L’amour. We really liked the series and just KNEW that Mandie and Joe would get married in the end, even with all the other boys liking Mandie and her liking them and other girls liking Joe. Even with everything, and everyone that stood in their way, Mandie and Joe just HAD to get married, right? We knew this from book 1. Well, as we read on, we got to the last book of the series and finished it only to realize that wasn’t the end, but there were no more books. We were sad and confused. (Note from Mrs. M. My daughter read them and she didn’t like the fact that Mandie NEVER grew up enough to marry Joe!)
   • After some research, we found that Mrs. Leppard had died before writing the last book. Hannah and I were crushed, so we decided to write the last book. After all, we had to know how the story ended and if Mandie and Joe ever got married or if one of the other boys got her, so we decided to find out for ourselves. When we were 13, we undertook the task and finished the series. We never published it or anything, just kept it for ourselves. We were very proud of it, but looking back now, after learning so much from Mrs. Marlow, I can see that it definitely still needs some work, but we still enjoy going back and re-reading it every couple years. That was fun. I think it’s a pretty decent closure to the series though. So I guess that would be my first work.
   • When I was 13, I had a dream and told Hannah about it. We decided it would make a cool book, so we wrote a book. Well, it’s a series now, but we’re not gonna publish it until it’s finished, which will be years down the road. Anyway, it got me to realize that writing stories was a whole lot more fun than essays, so I piddled around with it here and there. A couple years ago, I was watching some old westerns and a new one came on. I had never seen it before, but it seemed like some random episode in the middle of a western show from the 50s or 60s. Well it was really good and gave me an idea. This idea had nothing to do with this episode, but somehow it got me sparked. I wrote chapter one of Outlaw Trail during that hour-long episode of Laramie. By the end of the hour, I knew I was gonna write and publish that book.
   • Here I am, a couple of years later, and I’ve finally got that book published. I’m not stopping now. I’ve got plans for at least books 2 and 3. There may only be 3, or there may be more. I won’t know until I get done. That’s how it’s always worked for me. I don’t follow a plan or plot it out. I just sit down and write. Often I don’t even know what I’ve written until I sit down and read it for myself. I surprise myself a lot because I thought the story would go one way and it turns out it has a twist I didn’t see coming. It’s kinda funny, like I get to read my book as a reader would because I have no idea what’s happening until I read it myself.
8. That is an awesome story, Kristen. A little like my own jumpstart for the Andi books. (watched a western too). So, my friend, what gave you the idea to publish (put in print) your book?
   • Well, I never had that idea. Never even crossed my mind, but I wrote chapter 1 of Outlaw Trail and just knew in my heart that I would publish it. I don’t know why, but I just knew.
9. Do you have a favorite part of the writing/publishing process?
   • Definitely writing, then editing is pretty fun. Publishing is a pain in the butt, but Mrs. Marlow gave me some great pointers.
10. What is your favorite part of being an author?
    • Getting to give the characters life and get them out of the danger of my daydreams and into the safer place of the pages of a book.
11. What about a fun fact about writing Outlaw Trail and what inspired you?
    • I never intended to write it, it just happened. I don’t know if this makes any sense or not, but when I create a character, even just a random side character, they’re not just a character. Instantly they have a description, a family, friends, enemies, a history, a purpose or goal in life. They may not have a name, but I know more about them than I do most people. I feel like I have to write to find out what happens to them. It’s almost like I’m betraying them by not writing as it seems it puts their “life” on hold and even puts them in more dangerous situations, or, in other words, the expanse of my imagination, which is the most dangerous place for them to be because the longer between writing times, the more intense the plot.
12. I hear you, Kristen! They are “real” people to us authors. Okay, can Can you share a time in your writing, perhaps something that seemed small and random to you at the time but later ended up making a huge impact on your characters or the plot?
    • One thing that affects the second book happened in this first book. I wanted one of my main characters to have a black hat. I had the perfect picture for the cover of that character, but the only problem was that his hat was white instead of black. I couldn’t fix it, so I asked Mrs. Marlow. She was able to make it a tannish color, but she said that anything darker would blend into the cliff. So . . . I had to change his hat to tan in the book! That irritated me (not Mrs. Marlow, just the fact that the color wouldn’t work) because I wanted him to have a black hat. So, by golly, getting a black hat, even if it takes 2 books to get it! I know that’s not huge or anything, but then, maybe it is. You never know.
13. That is actually hilarious, Kristen. Thanks for sharing. So did you use life experience, research, or your imagination as a basis for this book?
    • Honestly, all three. Research sets the backdrop and fills in the details of the story while my imagination creates the story and characters and my life experience gave me ideas and helped me bring life to it. I grew up in the country, and I used to go out in the woods a lot when I was a kid. I love to go hunting with my dad. I’ve learned a lot about different trees and plants from my mom, both how to identify them, care for them, and use them for food and medicine. In addition to owning some pieces of vintage tack, I also own a Hope saddle built in the 1830s, which makes it about the style that the main characters would have ridden since they would have had their saddles since they were teens. There would have only been slight differences, which I have also researched thoroughly including contacting historians and saddlemaker and historian, Will Ghormerly, who builds saddles exactly as they were built during that time period and rides them heavily to test and prove them.
    • What I don’t own from that time period, I have done extensive research on. I’ve loved horses ever since I was a toddler and since I couldn’t own one, I’ve researched them for years. When I was 13, I got the opportunity to train some miniature horses, a donkey, and a gaited pony. Since then, I’ve worked with a Tennessee Walker, a couple of other miniatures, and I’ve been retraining a rescue pony. I’ve been into leatherworking since I was a kid, and I’ve repaired several headstalls; made rein connectors, headstalls, curb straps, a belt, and other small things as time allows; and last month I finished repairing my fifth saddle in the past year. I’ve checked the fit of many saddles and found a new, better-fitting, saddle for one of the horses I’m training.
    • All that has given me a good knowledge and firsthand experience of the horse side of things in my books. Beyond that, I’ve thoroughly studied the weaponry and the outlaws and lawmen of the time. I also enjoy drinking a—well, okay, you got me—several strong cups of black Arbuckles coffee brewed strong and thick. Fun fact, men had to roast and grind their own coffee beans until John Arbuckle decided to roast and sell coffee to people to save them time and give them a better cup of coffee, since most of the time coffee beans roasted unevenly and burned. In fact, most cowboys didn’t even know there was another brand of coffee other than Arbuckles.
    • I can’t tell you how many dozens upon dozens of hours I’ve spent researching the geography of the land and scrutinizing maps of that era to make sure that I’m writing about how the land was then instead of how it is now. I have compared and contrasted so many maps and documents to make sure I have pinpointed the exact historical locations of each town. It is all too often that towns have moved, sometimes across a river, sometimes miles, from their original location, so it was difficult, but I nailed them down. I don’t like math, but I for sure did a lot of math to make sure the characters and their horses traveled at accurate speeds for trail horses of those days, considering the lay of the land, the weather, and anything they happened to run into along the way.
14. That’s for sure! The research, from which you use in about 15% of the book takes hours and hours and hours. I salute you for your details. Now, on to more details, LOL. Are you working on more books in the Trail Dusters series? Are you working on a novel right now? If so, tell us about it.
    • I am, the next two books coming after Outlaw Trail in the Trail Dusters series are a continuation of the story. At the moment, I don’t know if there will be any more books in the series after the third one or not. I haven’t finished either of the next ones yet, so even I don’t know if the story ends with book 3 or continues on. I won’t know until I write it.
15. When will book 2 come out?
    • I’m not sure about the timeframe yet. I’m hoping to be finished writing the next book by the end of the summer. After that, I have to send it through the editing and publishing process, which took about a year on Outlaw Trail. If things go well, then I hope that book 2 will be out by next summer. I guess we’ll see!
16. How fun! So, besides Outlaw Trail and the next two+ in the Trail Dusters series, have you written/are you writing any other books?
    • Yes, I have and am. I already talked about the finale to the Mandie series I co-wrote with Hannah, and we are also co-authoring a series set in modern day centering on a pair of brothers and their not-so-normal struggles of everyday life and the difficulty of their survival. Honestly it’s hard to say much without giving away the plot, but we’re on book 5 of the series, and I think there will be somewhere around 11 total. I don’t know yet though. We won’t publish this series at least until she’s out of college and we finish it. We are also writing a, well, I think it will be a trilogy, set during the age of the Vikings.
17. What was the process like from the first word you wrote to holding your finished book?
    • Writing was easy. It was as easy as words roll off the tongue. I just did it. I thought the editing would be difficult, but Mrs. Marlow, my editor, made it so easy. In fact, it was enjoyable. Publishing was a lot more time consuming and mind-numbing, but my Mom was such a huge help. I know it would not have been possible without her. Mrs. Marlow gave us some good pointers, which helped a lot. There were times when I was so tired of the publishing process that I wanted to just be done, but my mom had put so much time in, and Outlaw Trail was already professionally edited, that I knew I had to keep going. About the point that it was the hardest, God put Jack in my life, and he was my final push to get it done. He asked me every day how it was going and told me how excited he was to read it. That was just enough to keep me going. Publishing was actually the longest and craziest part of the whole idea to finish the book process. I’m so glad it’s done now, but here in another couple years, I’ll be doing it all over again. At least I’ve already done it once. Hopefully next time will be easier.
18. I think it will be easier. The first time I put something up on KDP it was confusing! Say, where can readers buy your book?
    • A couple of places. You can find my book on my website at kristencora.com >> If you want a signed copy, just let me know in the notes section when you place your order, or if you want it addressed to a specific person, I can do that too. You can also find it on Amazon.
19. This has been fun, Kristen. What What words of wisdom do you have for any young (or old, or any age), aspiring authors?
    • Just write. Even if you don’t know what to write, just write. If you don’t like what you wrote, don’t throw it away, keep it for later. I have an entire 3 inch binder chock FULL of ideas I don’t like, but they actually come in handy. First, they show you where you can improve, second, maybe it’s only part of the idea that’s not good or maybe you’re just looking at it wrong. I’ve actually taken several scenes I’d written for one book, but hated, and used them in another book where it worked great. Never throw them out. Keep them and just keep writing. If you don’t have enough inspiration, open your eyes. Anyone can look, but not all can see. Develop your author’s eye.

You can buy my book here.