Remarkable Interview: Kaitlin Schmidt On Queernorm Romance As The New Normal

It is so exciting to share my editor with you all. Kaitlin Schmidt and I have worked together for years and we flip our roles often. Here she is talking about herself as an author and her writing.

Kaitlin Schmidt, Who Are You as a Writer?

I am a queer, neurodivergent writer with a passion for queernorm high fantasy and spicy romantasy. In queernorm worlds, being queer is unremarkable, expected, or even assumed, and that’s the kind of world I wished I lived in, so I guess I’m trying to write a new reality into existence. So many queer stories are about coming out and surviving hate, and while those are important stories, I’d like to give my queer characters (and myself) fictional adventures that go beyond trauma.

And when it comes to the genre I can’t get enough of: I grew up reading fantasy novels on the top bunk with my twin sister reading below, and we would quote our favorite lines to each other even after we’d read the books several times over. I believe those fantasy novels—filled with characters being called to be brave—made me a better person.

How Did You Decide to Participate in the Cards of Passion Series?

Dr. J invited me to join after we worked together through Rosy Wellness. Unbeknownst to her, I was feeling stuck on what my writing critique group calls my “Swamp Situation”―the queernorm dark fantasy novel that I daydream about and neglect in equal measure—and I was excited to divert my attention to a shorter, cozier project.

What Was Your Process for Coming up with Your Story?

Chaos. I only knew I wanted a character who needed to learn that partners could enjoy her pleasure, not as a charitable act, but hedonistically (getting their own pleasure from her pleasure). From there, I scribbled random notes in a random coffee shop with my sister, instantly trashed most of those ideas, made a robust outline, started drafting, ditched the outline, and got mired again and again.

Then I did a writing contest called Writing Battle, which assigned me a character, place, and trope and gave me 42 hours to complete a 1,000-word draft. Providentially, my prompts were: a psychic, a forest, and the only-one-bed trope. Thus were born Meridian, a psychic who can taste desires, and Wren, a thief who meets Meridian in the woods—with only one camping bed between them. While my 42-hour version was not my finest work, it was the seed that organized all my chaotic notes into an actual plot.

Tease Us and Tell Us About Your Story, Kaitlin Schmidt.

Meridian is a grumpy psychic who needs to learn that a partner can take true, selfish pleasure in her pleasure. Her defenses are high because she’s been hurt in the past, so she pushes away her sunshine counterpart, Wren. The universe rolls its eyes and curses the two women, and Meridian gets thrown into a reluctant enemies-to-lovers arc with the hot thief who keeps saying she wants to tie Meridian up.

What are Your Future Plans-Events, New Books, Other?

Now that I’m done with the novella, I’m knee-deep in the Swamp Situation again. (I love it.) I also hope to write a Part 2 to The Cartomancer’s Curse featuring Riley, a character with their own secrets who gets introduced in the current book (and they may or may not be in love with both Wren and Meridian).

Other plans include continuing my work as an independent editor (now booking fall and winter months!) and contributing to a collective that my writing group formed called Content Hospital, with a mission to support authors through fun, compassion, and critique, among other things.

Thanks for inviting me into this great series, Dr. J!

Thank you, Kaitlin, for sharing your work with us.

Her book is called The Cartomancer’s Curse: Cards of Passion. It is Book Seven in the Cards of Passion Series. I’m excited to have another book in the series.