Here’s a writer I really look up to. Kathryn Lay is someone who has reached a great level of success in her writing career, yet she’s also extremely generous in willing to give back her time to encourage the rest of us.

She was recently interviewed by her local newspaper, the Fort Worth Star Telegram, and I found the story so inspiring I wanted to keep up with this link!

Kathryn Lay has sold over 1400 articles to magazines and is a prolific contributor to Chicken Soup books and others. Her children’s novel, Crown Me, won the Texas State Reading Association’s Golden Spur Award and will be repackaged into paperback and sold by Scholastic Book Clubs under the title, How to Rule the School.

Kathryn is one of my heroes. She is continuing to perservere with writing a new novel while undergoing chemo treatment for uterine cancer.

In the Fort Worth Star interview, she was asked, “How have you sold so much stuff?”

Kathryn’s reply demonstates her tenacity:

“I usually work on a lot of stuff at once. My friends call me the marketing queen. My mantra to all writers: When you sell, always resell. I think I have one Christmas piece that’s been published about 14 times. When summer comes, I start thinking about Christmas. Right now it’s time to start thinking about summer.”

She says her ultimate goal is to become a full-time children’s writer and says, “You’re not preaching at them. You’re just having fun with them. Mostly, adults are already jaded.”

If you need more writing encouragement, Kathryn also has a book called The Organized Writer is a Selling Writer. Sounds like something I could use!

You can learn more about Kathryn Kay at her website.