Kendall C. Stark’s Stories, Lessons & Insights

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Kendall C. Stark. Check out our conversation below.

Hi Kendall C., thank you so much for joining us today. We’re thrilled to learn more about your journey, values and what you are currently working on. Let’s start with an ice breaker: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
Over the last two weeks, as of writing this, I’ve been moving. I was living in my grandmother’s old house. It has been in my family for three generations, but now I’m moving into a studio. I’m one person; I don’t need three bedrooms. But the house has three generations worth of stuff to move for the new renters, and it’s a lot of work. I’m finally almost done and living in a place that I got to design myself brings me an insurmountable amount of joy. I wanted it to look like an academic’s haunted house, and it does, and there is so much space for me to buy more books. It’s the perfect space for me, and I can’t wait to live here forever.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Kendall C. Stark and I write sapphic science fiction that breaks the system. I’m a lesbian, polytheistic witch that loves Octavia Butler and Doctor Who. My debut novel, Silent Soldiers is about a dark academy that creates genetically enhanced super soldiers and follows a found family of teenagers that were kidnapped at the behest of their parents to aid in the academy’s experimentation. Together they mount a revolution to attempt escape. It’s based heavily on my time in the mental hospital and my own turmoil with my depression. I’m currently working on a longer series about a time traveling detective solving paradoxes and has an epic lovers to enemies story.

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
The first time I felt truly undeniably human, I was in a home depot with my father. I was seven years old, and I had my first autonomous thought. I looked upon the people, pushing their carts filled with ply wood and brackets, and I felt so angry. Why was I given this body to puppet, I wondered. There are souls all around me, and they go about on their own whims. They don’t act how I imagine they would. Why? In that moment, I felt so weak. That I couldn’t move the world how I wanted to. I voiced all this to my father, and he said, “Wow, that’s a very interesting thought. You’re really smart.”
My dad didn’t exactly compliment me a lot. There was never any validation from that man. I think this is the only point in my life where he gave me a genuine compliment that didn’t have a backhand to it. I felt special. I felt like, if I wasn’t given anything else, I had my own little power. My thoughts meant something. I carry that memory with me to this day. It gives me the tiniest bit of hope that I still have something to contribute to the world. It’s why I write.

Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was seven. But ten years later, I was suffering through a depression so deep that no matter how hard I tried, I could not write. I would sit at my laptop for hours, and no words would come out. My creativity was dead. Its corpse was still a part of me, rotting away inside me as I lugged away the dead weight in need of an amputation. I thought I was done. I wanted to become a writer because it was the only thing I was good at. It was my only skill. Without it, what was I? I tried to do other work, but the cancerous depression infected everything I tried to do. There was nowhere I could go that the depression wouldn’t follow me.
After several mental hospital visits, many changes to my meds, a long period of withdrawal, and my first successful NaNoWriMo, I was able not only to write again, but to finish my first novel. It was a horrible, indulgent novel that barely reached 50,000 words and is now lost to history after a hard drive wipe, but it was finished and it was mine. That novel acted as proof that I could jump the hurdle of finishing a novel, and my next project was 90K and was finished in four and a half months. Ever since then, I’ve been writing at least two first drafts a year.

Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
My closest friend happens to be my editor. She might be the smartest person I know. She’s wise beyond her years, strong, and lives life with the zest of eternal youth. My friend has given me a lot of good advice over the years I’ve known her, but one of the most impactful was simply one word. “Narrate.” Narrate everything. When you’re walking down the street, narrate what you see. When you’re driving, zoning out, eating a meal, just narrate in your head what is going on around you. This not only improves your writing voice, but also allows you to take note of the small beauties of life. There is something amazing about the tiny spec of dust that your eye catches on as you stare off into space or the sound your boots make when they take their steps on the wet cement. When you take notice of these things, you start to realize, then you really start to appreciate the beauty of the world untainted by anyone else’s negativity. It’s an inspiring thing.

Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. If immortality were real, what would you build?
I feel like most people want immortality because there are so many things they want to do that they don’t have time for. I really just want immortality to do one thing for eternity. I love writing. I’ve been doing it since I was seven, and I’ve never reached a point of thinking that I’ve mastered it. I learn new things about the craft every day. I wake up with a new reason to write every day. All I want is to spend centuries waking up every day and writing my little novels. That’s what I’d do with my immortality.
Before I die, I want to publish 100 books. I yearn for immortality because I want to publish millions of books. I’ve found what I want to do forever, and I never want to stop.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kendallcstark.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kendallcstark/
• Other: Buy Silent Soldiers: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G3DYRTX5

Image Credits
Natasha Freeman