Author Spotlight: Kyra Gates

Born and raised in Ohio, Kyra Gates became an avid reader late in life.  After being encouraged to read a popular series she couldn’t stop.  The only issue is that she continued reading the same series over and over again until her husband asked, “Why don’t you just write your own book?” After writing her first book, “Walkers”, a fantasy fiction romance that later turned into a novel, she fell in love with creating her own alternative world in stories.

A few years later, Kyra’s manager and now close friend introduced her to urban fiction. It wasn’t her favorite, but from there she found African-American romance and is often not seen without her nose buried in her iPad or book.  With two kids, a husband, a dog, and a successful youth volleyball program, she has to find odd and creative ways to read and write; the bathroom and her car have become her sanctuary. 

Soon after, she began her first romance series Serenity, which is based loosely on her own life’s situations a new part of imagination has opened, and she hasn’t looked back.  Kyra’s not quite where she wants to be yet, but she is working toward that goal of one day being a nationally known author.

The author’s work includes, “Walkers”, “Tortured Soul”, and “Infinity”, which is the fantasy fiction series Walkers.  Her romance collection includes, “Serenity”, “Is Your Heart Still Mine”, “Chocolate Angel”, “One More Night”, and “A Promise to Keep” all part of the Serenity series.  There are two more books coming to conclude this series.

Her latest series Harris Family Values includes “All I Need Is Patience” and coming soon “Beautiful Storm”, “Cherish”, “Surrender”, and “Second Treasure”. 

Kyra Gates is the founder of Dunebug Publishing and Program Director of Precision Volleyball Academy in Ohio. Learn more about the author below.

 Fancy: How would you describe your swagher? What makes Kyra, Kyra?

 Kyra: I would say that I am laid back; I’m a loner.  I don’t trust easy, and those that I do trust, I value their friendship, and I am very loyal.  I also tell it like it is and seldom hold my tongue.  As an inspiring writer, I love sweet love stories that depict people of color in a positive light.  Nothing against those that don’t, but that’s just my preference.  I would say that all of my female lead characters are a representation of my character or alter ego.  The male characters are depictions of my husband’s character or how I see one of my sons in the future, such as JaQuan in “Beautiful Storm.”  My son is a baseball player, and he’s a jokester, but he is also very loyal and protective even at a young age.  In an upcoming book, “Cherish” which is the story of Jaden, he reminds me of how I see my younger son, who I see as a basketball player.  Jaden is the type that has to fight to be comfortable in his own skin, but he too is loyal and a mama’s boy.

Fancy: So the series you first read, inspired you so much, you decided to write your own book, but what was it that intrigued you so and what was the series?

Kyra: Ever since I was a child I’ve always been intrigued by vampires and werewolves- “Interview with a Vampire”, “Lost Boys”, “Bramstoker’s Dracula”, “American Werewolf in London”, “Fright Night”, and “Blade”.  “Twilight” just took it to another level and made it more mainstream, cool, and realistic.  Plus, the cast was totally hot, which added to my imagination running wild. 

Fancy: Now tell us about your “Harris Family Values” series and what inspired it?  Kyra: I love to write and create.  I’m always brainstorming and daydreaming and thinking about ‘what if” and wouldn’t it be great’.  Music also helps me create characters. Sometimes I hear a song and listen to the lyrics and think that would be a cool character for a book.  “All I Need is Patience” is the first book in the “Harris Family Values” series. It actually started off after I kept hearing “If Your Girl Only Knew”, by Aaliyah. That song was stuck in my head and Patience’s character was born. She could be the hot girl that the new guy wanted but was untouchable because of his player ways.  She’s the girl that is intrigued by him but feels as though he’s a player and just like all the other guys.  I first started with him dating someone in the restaurant where they worked, but then his character started coming together, and it started changing hers.  I wanted him to be a little misunderstood but still intriguing.  I wanted them both to rescue each other.  Some of the things that Patience goes through are part of my own life, so I further developed the story from there.

Fancy: You have several titles under your belt. How often do you complete and publish a book?

Kyra: If I am not stressed and my three year old gives me a break, I could get a book done from start to finish within four months, depending on my editor.  If I’m stressed or packed with work like now, it could take me up to a year to do.  I started “ll I Need Is Patience” in 2016, maybe early 2017. So that took me a while.  By the time I thought about “Beautiful Storm” that took about 90-120 days.

Fancy: What is the difference between urban fiction and African-American romance?

 Kyra: In my opinion, I believe that urban fiction is like your thug love type stories or the story talking about how the gangsta fell in love-or the dopeman down the street, or the deadbeat dad, or the slutty girl that fell in love. Those stories are great stories but were just too much for me, lol.  I can’t imagine life like that and couldn’t relate to any of it.  I like reading stories that I can relate to and feel.  One example is “Indebted” by Sharon C. Cooper, which is my favorite right now.  I can grab a book by Delaney Diamond, Brenda Jackson, Stephanie Nicole Norris, Yahrah St. John, or Niobia Bryant and go hide in a corner for days. 

Fancy: Walkers was a science-fiction romance, but were the characters Black? Just curious…

Kyra: Yes, all but Nicholas.  Lol. The story started with Nicholas being the villain, but in part 2 (spoiler alert) he wins the girl, and Anthony is left hanging.  That’s one of my mother’s favorite books, but she was pissed when she read the second one, but that was exactly what I was going for.  Anthony was a depiction of my husband but he ticked me off when I was writing “Tortured Soul” so, lol …So Anthony, who was made in his image, ended up with the short end of the stick.

Fancy: I remember seeing someone tweet how they would like to see more Black and LGBTQ representation in science -fiction. What are your thoughts on the matter? Do you feel like representation is growing? 

Kyra: Uh I don’t think stories about Black people are represented enough. We have very few bookstores that showcase our work, it’s hard to find and book events where we can showcase our work, and I don’t see a lot of us in libraries, grocery stores, or Walmart, etc.  The same goes for LGBTQ, though it is easier to find a book for LGBTQ, I don’t think it’s mainstream. 

Fancy: Can you share a little about Precision Volleyball Academy?

Kyra: Precision Volleyball Academy or rather PVA started because one of my closest friends didn’t let me get my way, lol.  So I grabbed my husband who at the time was just being supportive, because he definitely hadn’t thought about coaching anyone- well I grabbed him and said “since they’re complaining let’s start our own team!”  Never thought it would grow as well as it did, but here we are twenty years later with five youth teams and one adult team. 

My friend, who happened to be my manager at the time, wanted me to coach and develop his recreation program. But after we’d done all the work, the people that were supposed to be doing it started complaining that it wasn’t my job.  So we took all the girls that were loyal and developed our own program.  It started with both basketball and volleyball, but in 2006, we dropped basketball and focused on volleyball because travel volleyball is not popular in our community.  Before our program, you saw very few people of color playing volleyball on these travel teams, and though we still have a long way to go, we did open up avenues for people of color in our community to play. 

I remember when we first started we would get little subtle comments like, ‘oh those are the under privileged kids’ or ‘what can you do?’ meaning we weren’t ready.  As a program, we still aren’t where we want to be, and believe it or not, with the exception of a few local companies, we have no support, though we are the ones helping our community.  To date, we’ve had an outstanding success rate with girls earning college scholarships to play volleyball and basketball, and even with that you still have players in our area that would rather go to another club to play, not even giving us a chance, or their high school coach sending them somewhere else.  We just say ‘okay, watch our girls pass you by and wave at you when they get that degree. 

We also like to develop players and make them into dominate players.  We would take the girl that was laughed out of tryouts and make one regret ever letting her walk out the door.  20 years ago, girls from our community could barely get a tryout. Now days, they may give them the opportunity but not the chance.  Yes you can be on the team, but you won’t get much time.  Or yes you can play, but you’re not college material.  Parents spend thousands of dollars for these clubs and get no looks or looks that they could have gotten even if they didn’t play travel volleyball. 

It’s not a business to us it’s a family.  We are small, but we want it that way.

Girls that we started with us are now coaching their daughters.  We have siblings that come through our program, and girls that come through our program can come back anytime. 

Fancy: So were you more of an athlete/outdoorsy type than an academics type of person before you fell in love with reading?

 Kyra: I was and still am a tomboy at heart.  You can catch me suiting up as a catcher for my son when he’s practicing his pitch or on the court with my women’s volleyball team. I still occasionally play basketball, just with my oldest son though, and I love to go to the range and get some shooting in.  However, besides baseball, I hate the outdoors.

Fancy: Do you have any upcoming events or projects that you care to share? 

Kyra: I am working on the fifth book in the Serenity Series, called “Because of You”.  It’s still in the developing stages but I hope for it to be finished and to the editor by April.

Follow and connect with Kyra below.

http://www.Kegates.blogspot.com, authorkaigates.wordpress.com

https://www.facebook.com/kegatestheauthor/?ref=bookmarks

https://www.goodreads.com/koolaid

https://www.instagram.com/kaigatestheauthor/