About Katherine Villyard
Author
My Story
Katherine Villyard was born in Dallas, Texas. Her father was civilian support for the military, so she moved every two years and attended four different high schools. The most exotic one to US readers will probably be Kaiserslautern American High School in Germany, but her favorite was Arts Magnet High School at Booker T. Washington in Dallas, where she studied theater. She also went through a phase where she wore a lot of white dresses and sat in windowsills writing (bad) poetry; what she called her “Emily Dickinson phase.”
Katherine’s first short story, a tale of a clown in a balloon, was well received in First Grade and proudly displayed for the entire school to read. She wrote the odd short story in high school about such topics as forced conformity and parodies of horror movies.
Katherine’s mother wanted her to major in Computer Science in college. Katherine has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in studio ceramics and weaving. She has two Master’s degrees: one in Fine Arts and the other in Library Science. So, of course, Katherine went into Information Technology (Computer Science) after being “poached” by her University’s Academic Computing department, where she worked as a student assistant while in grad school. She wrote web sites for pay from 1995 to 2002.
She started writing again during the “dot bomb” crash. Following a trip to the unemployment office filled from wall to wall with unemployed software engineers and web developers, she spotted an online listing to write lesbian erotica for a hundred dollars and said to herself, “I can do that!” She wrote the story, sent it off… and never heard back. She wrote as a hobby for some time, but when friends started sending things out to be published she jumped off that roof as well. (Insert disapproving Mom face here.) Her work has appeared in Escape Pod, Electric Velocipede, and Fantastic Stories of the Imagination.
Katherine is a former Microsoft MVP in Enterprise Security and Cloud and Datacenter Management, a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, a member of the Horror Writers Association, and the President of Broad Universe. She has a tendency to develop nerdy fascinations and research binge. Previous topics include Pueblo pottery, Navajo weaving, Pre-Columbian art, Frida Kahlo, Percy and Mary Shelley, and Eleanor of Aquitaine. When she’s not writing, working, or research binging, she’s probably spoiling cats or playing The Sims.
Her greatest ambition is to rule the world.
Constructing a Narrative
I didn't write much last year, and the reason why is that I was constructing a different kind of narrative. My mother died unexpectedly last year while I was at WisCon, and finding a way to tell yourself the story in a way that makes sense is an important part of...
Books
Love Stories
What is love? What can love drive us to do?
In these stories, love pushes us to revenge, to reach beyond the boundaries of life and death. To rescue a family member. To fight the good fight without even knowing it, or to risk everyone and everything to save someone who may or may not be worthy. To make the wrong decisions and walk into hell. To transcend who we are.
Love can make us both the best and worst versions of ourselves.
Immortal Gifts
He lied about his identity. Two hundred years later, he’s still paying the price…
Prussia, 1841. Abraham only ever wanted to play violin. Hiding his Jewish status so he can study at the prestigious Berlin Academy of Music, the eager young man is delighted to find a patron who believes in him. But he’s mortified when his new friend turns him into a vampire… and Abraham earns the fury of an ancient antisemite who vows to see him permanently dead.
With everyone he’s ever loved at risk, can he escape the rage of a ruthless bigot?
Becoming
In this short fiction teaser for Immortal Gifts Ludwig, a young 18th century German nobleman, is betrayed and turned into a vampire. He must face an ancient evil—including an evil that has taken root inside him—and learn who he really is.