How Kerry Chaput Reminds us that Life is Magic with her Historical Fiction -112

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Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:00:01

Welcome to Author Express. Thanks for checking us out. This is the podcast where you give us 15 minutes of your time, and we give you a chance to hear the voice behind the pages and get to know your new favorite author in a new light. I'm Shawna Rodriguez, one of your hosts, a fellow author, host of The Grit Show and Authenticity Amplified Podcast, and the founder of Authentic Connections Podcast Network, which makes this podcast possible. Let me tell you a little about today's guest.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:00:39

Kerry Chaput is a multi award winning historical fiction author who writes of daring women with loads of adventure and a splash of magic. She was born in California, and she now calls the Pacific Northwest home, where she spends her days hitting the trails, chasing historical rabbit holes, and feeding her addiction to espresso and doggy cuddles, which is a great little balance. Thank you so much for being back on Author Express. We're so glad to have you, Kerry.

Kerry Chaput [: 00:01:06

I'm super excited to be here and talk to you today.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:01:09

Yes. It's so much fun because we've found that since we have enough hosts, so we can kind of rotate things around and get a whole new conversation with authors, especially because you you are now coming out with even more books. So we get to hear about what's to come. That's exciting. And we get to ask them the same questions and get new answers. So tell us something interesting about where you are from.

Kerry Chaput [: 00:01:32

So last time I was on, I spoke about where I live, which is Bend, Oregon, and I will tell you a little bit about my hometown, which is Solvang, California. It's outside of Santa Barbara. And what's interesting about it is that it is a Danish settlement, basically. The town was built by Danes, and they built it to look like a little bit like Copenhagen. And so we have a statue of the little mermaid, a fountain of the little mermaid. We have windmills. They still speak Danish. We have Danish bakeries.

Kerry Chaput [: 00:02:02

Yeah. So I kind of grew up seeped in Danish culture, even though I'm not at all Danish.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:02:07

Oh, that is so fun. And so you were probably a kid when The Little Mermaid movie came out. Was it kind of exciting because you had The Little Mermaid in your town and the movie coming out about it?

Kerry Chaput [: 00:02:18

I guess so. Because we have, like, a we I think we still have a Hans Christian Andersen Museum. So I've been sort of exposed to a lot of those stories. And, yeah, I mean, I everyone I went that I grew up with was a Peterson, a Kristofferson, all of those last names. And so I'm just totally used to that kind of culture and those stories. Yeah.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:02:37

Oh, that is so funny. And you know the real story instead of the version we got. That is so exciting. It's kind of wild when you really hear, like, how dark those stories truly are. We need our happy ending sometimes, but we still have dark elements to a lot of those stories even when we do have the happy ending. So keeps it interesting if nothing else. So so what is something about you that other people find hard to believe?

Kerry Chaput [: 00:03:02

Oh, well, I guess people are surprised I'm the world's biggest introvert, probably because I don't come across as overly shy or I'm kind of loud. I have a lot of opinions and stuff, but I am a almost antisocial introvert. I spend so much time alone, and I love it. And my social battery runs out real quick. And, yeah, people are kind of surprised. They don't believe me. They're like, you are not really an introvert. I'm like, oh, I really, really am.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:03:30

Yes. Is that something that you think you found your voice more as you got older, or have you always been somebody who had kind of that two parts of you that you could be really present and also really need your space?

Kerry Chaput [: 00:03:42

I think I've found it more as I've gotten older.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:03:45

That's awesome. That is one of the things that is great about you because you do seem like somebody that you can get along with so well. But, really? She's somebody who's like you know, like, no. I need my space. I like my quiet. I like my time. That's awesome.

Kerry Chaput [: 00:03:57

Yeah. And I love being around, especially, like, the people that I'm close to and I that I like being around, which is great. But when you get me around a group, then you see that I'm an introvert. Then I start to, like, back up and get really quiet because I get really intimidated by groups. Whereas if it's just 1 or 2 people, like, you kinda can't shut me up.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:04:16

That's a good thing. I like that. It definitely works. So tell us about you have more than one exciting book coming out, but can you tell us about your next book that's coming out? Summarize it in a couple of sentences for us.

Kerry Chaput [: 00:04:28

I can. It is called "Wild as the Stars", and it comes out in June this year, 2025. And it is set in 1920 CL. And, basically, prohibition has banned alcohol and magic. And so Eleonora is my main character, and she is a fire tap dancer. So she has to sort of go into hiding and works as a dishwasher in a CD Speakeasy, but she gets the audition of a lifetime at the one theater that allows both alcohol and magic. And it can either catapult her to stardom or crash her towards a very tragic end, which is exactly what happened to her infamous mother.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:05:08

Oh, I love it. And I love it because you have you're a historical fiction writer. You have this deep steeped history in this with a splash of fun adventure and these great female leads that are in your books. And then you've added this element of magic. So what has that been like to, like, add this magical element into your writing?

Kerry Chaput [: 00:05:29

It has been so exciting and fun. It really allowed me to dig into this side of history that already feels history already feels a little bit magical to me because you'll read things and think, no way did that happen. That doesn't seem real, and then you research it and it is real. So I love sort of tapping into that little touch of magic that can take this historical story and just elevate it to something almost otherworldly. It's been really fun.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:06:00

Yes. That is so exciting. And you have more than one book coming out. Are they related or connected at all? Are they very independent?

Kerry Chaput [: 00:06:09

They're very independent, but my 2 2025 releases are both set in 1920 Pacific Northwest, and they both deal with very much outsiders from the mainstream. The next book is about a fortune teller in 19 twenties Portland.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:06:27

Oh.

Kerry Chaput [: 00:06:28

Yeah. So they're very independent, but they kind of follow similar vibes.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:06:33

Nice. They have that same feel to them. And your previous historic fiction has been very based in what was really happening at the time and, like, could really have actually been people living and things that actually could have happened. And so as much as there's this magical element, is the rest of the historical elements ring very true in your books? Or tell us more about the setting of these.

Kerry Chaput [: 00:06:56

Yeah. That's a great question. And the Wild is the Stars came about because I was researching a woman called Nora Bays, and she was, like, the woman during vaudeville. She was her own producer. She was, like, her own everything. She was like, her own production company, basically. And during vaudeville, women were some of the high they were some of the highest paid women in the world, these actors and dancers and performers. So I started reading about these people, and I imagined, what if someone could have this destiny, but there was something about them that kept them out of it? All of my stories come about from historical research and women that I read about and think, wow, that's really interesting.

Kerry Chaput [: 00:07:40

And so, yeah, it's a it's a dual POV, so it's her mother and Eleonora. And so we get to see a little bit of this legacy that happens in theater and performance sometimes where you kinda wanna step into your parents' shadow, and they may you know, maybe they were in this situation, she was huge, but she was also very infamous. So she's very much tied into not just her talents, but her infamy and how she was, like, shocking. And Eleonora is a little bit less like that. She's a little more careful. She grew up watching this, and so she has to kinda have that has to reconcile that in her head of how do I step into the spotlight, but do it in my own way.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:08:19

Oh, so there is a lot of elements that are mixed into this. That's exciting. And so it's gonna come out in June? Yes. That's wonderful. And are you leaning more into this type of historical fiction at this point in time that you get to have a little bit more of leniency and bring in that element to it?

Kerry Chaput [: 00:08:37

I think so. You know, what's funny is, even though I have written pretty straight historical fiction, if you really look, all of my books have a little touch of magic to it. There's weird coincidences. There's, you know, a touch of knowing that there's no explanation for. There's in my series, there's a little dip into, like, potions and, like, there's always a little bit of magic somewhere. And so every book I feel like will either dip pretty heavy into it, which Wild as the Stars does, or it'll be very light. But everything that I'm working on right now is sort of in that magical realism place, and I'm really enjoying it.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:09:18

That's so exciting. It's fun to continue to deepen your voice in different ways as you're moving on. And this is your 5th book coming out in June?

Kerry Chaput [: 00:09:28

I think it's my 7th.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:09:29

Oh, that is so exciting. Do you think that if we would have talked to you a decade ago, you would be surprised by how far you've come?

Kerry Chaput [: 00:09:39

I don't think so for me because I decided pretty early on that I was not gonna let publishing dictate this for me. I was going to write the stories that are in my head and in my heart, and I knew I was gonna get them out some way or another. And that's what I've done. So it's I'm right on track for what I have set out to do. I have so many stories in my head. My only problem is finding the time to get them to paper.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:10:06

That next step one next step. That's awesome. What do you think you've learned the most from this process of writing these 7 books and more that you've written?

Kerry Chaput [: 00:10:16

You never stop learning. I mean, really, really learning. I mean, I went back this morning to take a look at my work in progress. Right? So this is not the next three books that are coming up, but the next one that'll come out after that. And I started writing it this summer, and then I had to put it down because I was doing edits. And in that short few months, I went back, and I've already learned a tremendous amount from what I wrote over the summer because of the different experiences and the books that I've read and the classes I've taken. And that has been amazing to me because every time you think, alright. I kinda got my groove down.

Kerry Chaput [: 00:10:51

I think I figured this out. You hit another level of learning, another level of deepening that just makes me wanna write more. And there seems to be an endless well of things that you can learn, and I find that just really exciting.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:11:05

Oh, I love it. That's absolutely beautiful. That's so exciting. And I have to touch on. I'm so impressed and thrilled with your presence, especially on TikTok, especially knowing that you are an introvert and how much you have made a presence there. And I love that your presence there has stemmed out of you telling stories of women who have been marginalized and left to the side. So can you talk just a little bit about, like, what prompted you into doing that and how you connected with people through that?

Kerry Chaput [: 00:11:40

Yeah. I think it just came about organically. I went viral on TikTok for just throwing up a video that I didn't even think about, was talking about the background to my trilogy, and told a little bit of history that made something that made me excited and want to write it. And it went viral, and the book shot up in the charts, and I went, woah. What was that? And I think it was because I was speaking out something that I care deeply, deeply about and have cared deeply about my entire life. Like, I always joke to people, like, this is not a hobby. This is my entire personality. My senior project in high school was about 10 women from history that you've not heard of.

Kerry Chaput [: 00:12:23

Like, this is who I am. And so I think so much of success on social media is laying bare your nerdiness. Right? And, like, the things that you care about. And if you care about it and you are authentic in that, people wanna watch that. They wanna hear you. And so I started just throwing up some more videos of different women that I have read about or learned about and thought, wow, this is really, really cool. And, yeah, it just kinda took off from there. And I feel like across social media platforms, that's been my goal this whole time, is to be really authentic and honest with my voice.

Kerry Chaput [: 00:12:59

Whether I'm talking about something personal or I'm talking about books or I'm talking about history or politics, whatever it is, I'm trying to be very, very honest, and it's worked out pretty well for me.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:13:10

Yes. You speak from this heart space that definitely connects with people that can feel that. Like, you feel it even more than you hear it. I think sometimes, I think that's the beautiful thing about what you share. So that's amazing. It's amazing knowing that, like, you're like, yeah, I like to get to myself. But when it comes to these things, I can connect on those.

Kerry Chaput [: 00:13:26

Yeah. And that's what's interesting about me is, like, I'm not private. I think people think when you're introvert, you don't like to share, and I am the opposite of that. I have no filter at all. Like, you can you know. You I will tell you anything. Like, you ask me a question, and it's all coming out. It's I'm splurting it up.

Kerry Chaput [: 00:13:44

That's who I am. I think I just recharge my battery by needing an excessive amount of alone time, but I love sharing my internal world. It's probably why I'm a writer. Right? So, yeah, I I don't have a lot of privacy feeling of privacy about my internal thoughts at all.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:14:02

No. It's wonderful. I love that. And so now we had to go to where people can find you, and so we had to tell them we're TikTok handle because they're gonna wanna find you there.

Kerry Chaput [: 00:14:10

Yes. I've been a little less active on there lately just because I'm, you know, knee deep in edit after edit. But across platforms, I'm at Kerry Writes, and that includes my website is kerrywrites.com. Instagram, TikTok, Threads, it's all Kerry Writes.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:14:24

That makes it very easy to find you. And you have so much on there that people that are new to you that they can go there, and you don't have to keep giving them your material. They can they can discover lots of interesting things from women in history just by going and finding your feet. So that's a fab.

Kerry Chaput [: 00:14:38

That's what I've been trying to do right now is just let it breathe a little bit.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:14:42

Let it breathe. Yeah. So you've you provided plenty. So what book or story inspires you the most?

Kerry Chaput [: 00:14:48

I, obviously, have many, many books that have inspired me. But the one I feel like that's really changed who I am as a writer is The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, and that set me on this course of wanting to explore history and magic. And it's VE Schwab, and anyone who hasn't read it, it's basically a story of a woman who has to she's lived for 300 years. But every time that she leaves the room or leaves their eyesight, they forget about her. So it's sort of like this curse. And what's amazing about it is she travels through time, and it's a history nerd's dream. Like, this woman goes from different places in time, and she's almost a ghost. So she kinda interacts with people, but then she's gone.

Kerry Chaput [: 00:15:32

And it is just such a beautiful story. It's so well done. And jumping to all those historical time periods just adds this really amazing level to the really deep things that she has to deal with as a human who is literally forgettable. And I still think about that book all the time.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:15:50

Oh, that's beautiful. I love that. Thank you for sharing that. And thank you for being here and sharing some of your experience both about your books and your writing and what you've put out into the world. So thank you for being here.

Kerry Chaput [: 00:16:01

Thanks for having me. I always love to be on here with you.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:16:07

Thank you for joining us. I hope you take a second to give a stars or a review on your favorite podcasting platform. It really makes a difference in folks being able to find us. We'll be here again next Wednesday. Follow us on Instagram at author express podcast to see who's coming up next. And don't forget, keep it express,

but keep it interesting.