Today we’d like to introduce you to Kendall Stark
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
When I was seven years old, my teacher said to write a story. At first I didn’t understand. Up until that point, there was only writing nonfiction. In kindergarten, we’d write about our weekends or summers. Things we did. Never had a teacher asked us to do something creative with our writing. At first I didn’t understand. It was this new concept. I don’t even think this was part of the curriculum, because it was only time in my entire elementary school career we ever got to write anything of fiction. But once the teacher explains to me what exactly she means, that I can write whatever I want and it doesn’t matter if it’s real or fake, the only limit is my imagination.
I write this really stupid story about a dog that lives on a farm. It was about as good as a seven year old’s fever dream written by someone who just learned to write paragraphs the day before. But ever since then I was hooked. All I wanted to do was write.
The bug stuck with me until I was seventeen and wondering what to do with my life. I had spent all my free time on STEM extracurriculars, but I knew I didn’t want to spend four years learning the math I was supposed to already know from high school. I was walking in the park with my mom at the height of Covid when I said to her, “I think I want to be a writer. Like as my career.”
That was the same year I finished my first novel. It was also really bad. A YA fantasy that was almost a satire of Harry Potter. But writing that proved that I could in fact write and finish writing a novel. I wrote five more before publishing my first novel.
Silent Soldiers, a Ream serial, is a story so close to my heart that the first few chapters basically fell out of me. I wrote the first draft of the first few chapters in a week. It’s based heavily on the troubled teen industry and though my experience wasn’t as bad as it is in the book, draws a lot from my own experiences in the mental hospital. It’s probably the work I’m most proud of. As I publish it chapter by chapter, I’m finally living my dream as a full time writer and I love it.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I had been struggling with depression since I was very young. I never really got the help I needed until much later. My mother was obsessed with holistic healing and very against traditional medicine for the longest time. It wasn’t until I was sixteen where the suicidal thoughts were so bad that I knew I needed something more substantial than fish oil pills. I knew my mother wasn’t going to give me what I needed, so I checked myself into a mental hospital, where they’d have no choice but to give me the meds I need.
I went to the mental hospital two more times after that. It was years of trying to find the right meds, the right doctors that would help me. Then Covid hit. For a year I couldn’t bring myself to write. It was the worst time of my life. I never knew how important, how intrinsic, writing was to my life until I couldn’t do it.
It wasn’t until I finished my first novel with the help of NaNoWriMo that I finally found my confidence. It was the proof I needed to show myself that I can actually be a writer. This can be my life.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I write science fiction, known for my hit Ream serial, Silent Soldiers. Science fiction is my favorite thing, but I feel like a lot of people misunderstand it. Some authors focus too much on the science part, and not what the genre really means. The first sci fi novel was Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein and it was about how the advancement of society and science effects humanity and morality. The focus isn’t on how Dr. Frankenstein builds his monster, but on the characters. Novels like Dune and Project Hail Mary focus too much on the science and not on the humanity. With my novels I try to focus on the humans in the world of science and get into the muddy details on how the spaceship can travel at light speed.
Silent Soldiers is about the students of the school that took them from their homes and is training them to fight in an unknown war. It focuses on the psychological effect of the students and how they struggle to fight a system so intent on destroying them. There are a lot of futuristic elements, but it’s, at its core, a human story. A story about what happens when humans are pushed to their absolute limit. What their survival instincts will make them do.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
You can read Silent Soldiers on Ream. A new chapter comes out every week. Joining my Ream is the best way to not only read my book, but also support me. Every dollar that you put in through subscribing will go into publishing physical copies. This year, I plan on publishing a physical copy of Silent Soldiers with sprayed edges and beautiful character art. All I want is to create the best books possible and by subscribing to my Ream you can help make that possible.
Pricing:
- 3.00 To Read All Current Publications On Ream
- 5.00 To Read All Current Publications, Supplemental Material, And Access To Exclusive Art
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kendallcstark.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kendallcstark/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kendallcstark
- Other: https://reamstories.com/kendallcstark
