Katie Taylor (Class 2004) – from childhood dreams to accomplished author

Katie Taylor dreamed of being an author when she was growing up. But when she did, she realised she “had to find a real job, since writing doesn’t pay the bills”.

“It took me years to work out my other calling, which turned out to be archiving/librarianship. So I went back to University and majored in both, before finally deciding I wanted to be an archivist – just when Radford advertised for a new one,” said Katie.

Nowadays, Katie splits her time between running the Archives at Radford College and working on her writing. An accomplished author, she’s published 13 books so far and many more are on the way.

“Nothing ever goes completely to plan! Becoming published worked out for me quite well but I set out with the intention of publishing Young Adult (YA) fantasy about animals and ultimately ended up publishing high fantasy for adults – a genre I don’t even particularly like, if you can believe that!” she said.

Despite not being a fan of Tolkien or Lord of the Rings, Katie tried her hand at the genre for fun and discovered she was, “pretty good at it (or so readers tell me)”.

Katie was inspired by one role model in particular at Radford. She recalled:

“There was one class I both aced and absolutely loved and that was Writer’s Workshop with a teacher called Mrs Pacey. I took that class while I was first trying to get published… Mrs Pacey really stuck by me and gave me the encouragement I needed, something I haven’t forgotten. My only regret was that she left the school before I got my wish, so I was unable to invite her to my very first launch party. I hope she reads this, wherever she is now!”