Heaping sand and asking the What If’s have helped Kristine Rudolph go from lawyer to children’s author. Welcome to this Broadleaf Writers Association Member Spotlight!
Kristine started purposefully writing after she moved to Georgia in the early 2000s. Wanting to put her lawyer training to more bookish endeavors, she worked on creating domestic thrillers. A well placed literary agent at a Broadleaf Writers Conference wasn’t sold on the idea of that being her genre. They asked her if she was willing to go bigger, bolder, and much darker in her third act. That’s what it was going to take to make it.
But that wasn’t who Kristine was. She knows life isn’t all rainbows and sunshine. It also isn’t all doom and gloom. Kristine wanted to take readers on a journey into a place of growth and hope instead of focusing on the darkness.
Diving into the world of middle grade fiction, however, was validating for her. There she found a young audience ready and willing to tackle the hard times, but still find joy in life.
Kristine didn’t want to stop at creating meaningful stories for kids. It was important for her to nurture a love of writing and open the door for her audience to write their own stories one day. Speaking to middle schoolers, she found many of them had amazing ideas; but absolutely loathed the idea of editing. (Like most writers, of any age)
She taught them about sand castles. A concept she heard from Shannon Hale, Kristine told them to envision their first draft as a box they’re heaping sand into. They’re forming the foundations that will let them build castles later on during the editing process. That had been just one of the tools that has helped Kristine develop her own stories.
As she starts heaping that sand, Kristine begins her stories with What Ifs. What if two girls in different decades found comfort in the same hiding place? What if a child got strep throat on an important day, but it ended up saving her life? What if a superstar goes missing and an obsessed fan goes on a journey to find her?
Inspiration for these What Ifs can come from anywhere. A walk down the street. A bench dedication at the park. The obituaries in the newspaper. The more you see, read, and experience, the more What Ifs you can create.
Honing the craft of writing takes time. Despite being a well-trained and highly skilled technical writer, telling a story was all together different. Kristine wishes she’d realized early on that it’s fine to slow down, cultivate the skills, connect with the community, and leverage critique partners.
After 20 years of rejection, the writer friends she’d made through groups like Broadleaf have helped her focus on the wins, become a better writer, and land a literary agent. She bravely submitted for a first page critique at the 2019 Broadleaf Conference. Her work caught the attention of one of the agents on the panel. Now she’s working with them to get her stories out there to a wider audience.
Find out more about the tools Kristine uses to take that What If pile of sand and build a beautiful castle in the full recording of the Member Spotlight.
When she’s not writing middle grade novels, Kristine provides support to other writers as a beta reader and developing strong copy. You can find out more about her and connect with her through her website and social media.
To learn more about Kristine, visit her website, or follow her on Facebook or Instagram.