Episode Summary

Holly sits down with Kari A. Kilgore, an indie author who is celebrating a remarkable milestone: her 50th book and 10th anniversary of publishing — all in the same year.

Kari A. Kilgore is an independent author and publisher based in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, living on 250 acres deep in the woods with her husband (also a writer), two rescue dogs, and a collection of rescue cats. She began publishing in 2016, has released 50 major titles across nearly every fiction genre, and has written over 300 short stories. A former IT professionaland technical writer, she brings the same love of learning to indie publishing that she brought to her previous career.

What We Talk About

Dictation & How They Met

Kari and Holly both found their dictation practice finally clicking after taking a class with Sarah Elizabeth Sawyer. Kari shares how she's been using dictation for journaling and fiction, finding it dramatically speeds upher output. Kevin J. Anderson (author of several Dune books) was an early inspiration — the image of him dictating while hiking through Death Valley touched Kari's creative heart years before she found her own groove with it.

Meet the Dogs: Pebbles & Dana

Kari has two rescue dogs — Pebbles, a pit bull (aka "the Pibble"), and Dana, a Great Dane, named creatively for "two riders in the house." Today they are inseparable, pair-bonded best friends who snuggle, wrestle, and make regular appearances in Kari's Zoom calls andcreative life. They've both been featured in her fiction.

Animals as Creative Muses

Nearly every rescue animal Kari has had since age 19 has found its way into a story — as a character name, a spaceship, a planet, or a full protagonist. Her cat Zortia inspired a holiday romance with a magic cat that sold and has been reprinted twice. That single story grew into a world withseven or eight tales, all featuring real cats she's lived with. She's also written a story specifically about Pebbles and Dana's rescue.

50 Books in 10 Years

Kari published her first books in 2016 and has since released novels, novellas, short story collections, anthologies, and over 300 short stories (which she doesn't even count in that total). She works across virtually every genre — historical fiction, science fiction, romance, high fantasy, mystery, urban fantasy — and often doesn't know the genre until the story is finished.

The Joy of Independent Publishing

Kari is a passionate advocate for indie publishing. She loves cover design, page layout, sales copy, merch ideas, Kickstarters, and running her own Shopify store. She describes indie publishing as "a multifaceted satisfier" — there's always something new to learn and create. She ran her first Kickstarter last year and is planning an October Kickstarter to celebrate her 10th anniversary.

Current Project

Kari is deep into a historical fiction novella (started as a shortstory, now approaching 30,000 words) set in 1880s Virginia, featuring a woman who flees Richmond after the Civil War and stumbles into a mysterious mountain community. A real astronomical event — the Great Comet of 1880, which wasvisible in daylight — plays a central role. Research rabbit holes include horseshoe-making and frontier soap production.

Four-Legged Heroes — Special Edition

Kari's collection Four-Legged Heroes: When PetsRescue People — five stories written in five weeks for a workshop — is now available as a special edition ebook on her website, with exclusive artwork not available through retail platforms like Amazon or Kobo. She also showed off a beautiful custom sticker designed to accompany the book.

Connect with Kari

Learn more at KariKilgore.com.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kari.kilgore.1/

Ramblings from the Little Shed is hosted by Holly B. New episodes drop regularly. Subscribe, leave a review, and come back soon — Rogan will return eventually.