Featured Author: Katlyn Minard

We had the opportunity to interview author Katlyn Minard about her approach to writing and newly published short story Death in a Hollywood Edit Bay.

What inspired you to write Death in a Hollywood Edit Bay?

As bizarre as it sounds, this was inspired by something that actually happened. I work in post production in Los Angeles, as an associate producer on documentaries and docu-series. One day at work, a colleague told me a true story about a local editor who died in her edit bay, and wasn’t discovered until her coworkers came in the next morning. I was absolutely chilled. I realized how easily the same thing could happen to anyone who works in a small, private, soundproof room, like editors do. I thought immediately that it would make for an interesting piece of flash fiction about life and death in LA. For the rest of the day I breezed through the halls of my workplace, past the rows and rows of hardworking editors, and started writing it in my head.

Can you describe your creative process?

Lots of thinking. Before I start writing a first draft, I make a list of notes on what I’m envisioning for the structure, agenda, and tone. Also, I make playlists based on the projects I’m working on. It’s fun, it’s a creative outlet, and it helps me brainstorm the world of the story to handpick songs that reflect the tone or vibe or feeling I’m going for. When I was revising this story, I listened to “Hotel California.” A lot.

What does your workspace look like?

In the pre-COVID days, it looked like the inside of a coffee shop. Now it looks like the inside of my studio apartment. My built-in vanity closet functions pretty well as an in-a-pinch writing space. I cleared a spot for my laptop, installed a tiny bookshelf, and covered the walls with images of the writers I worship, so whenever I feel stuck I can look up and see Greta Gerwig or Liz Phair or Prince and keep going.

How did you become a writer?

When I was 19, I met a lit professor in college who loved my writing and strongly encouraged me to try and get published, and to do it (ideally) before I graduated. It worked. I got published for the first time when I was 21. With that bit of validation, I started to take writing a lot more seriously.

Has the coronavirus pandemic changed how you approach your craft?

It’s limited the places I can go to write, but other than that, not really. My approach to writing involves a lot of active procrastinating, relentless second-guessing, and guilting myself for not meeting my own deadlines. I can do all of that with or without a pandemic.

What does literary success look like to you?

I think most people would say “literary success” means getting consistently paid for your writing — and yes, this is the type of success that I really, personally, want. But honestly, money aside, I feel like any time you write something that manages to linger in someone’s mind, change their mood, challenge the way they see themselves, or make them rethink what they already know about life and people — that is a literary success in and of itself.

Where can readers read more of your work?

I was fortunate to have a short story called Séance published in Capulet Magazine earlier this year, and I have another flash piece called “Vigil” coming out in Ligeia Magazine at the end of September. I get really loud about my forthcoming publications on my Instagram, @finalgurl.