{"id":62081,"date":"2025-10-09T09:40:52","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T13:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/?p=62081"},"modified":"2025-10-09T09:40:52","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T13:40:52","slug":"kathleen-s-allen-five-things-i-learned-writing-the-resurrectionist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/2025\/10\/09\/kathleen-s-allen-five-things-i-learned-writing-the-resurrectionist\/","title":{"rendered":"Kathleen S. Allen: Five Things I Learned Writing The Resurrectionist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Death is just the beginning.\u2028\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When seventeen-year-old Dilly Rothbart finds her recently deceased father’s hidden journal, her entire world is upended\u2015for what she finds within are the steps to bring a dead soul back to life. \u2028\u2028Intent on finishing her father’s work and establishing herself as the greatest scientist in history, Dilly plunges into a medical underworld of corpse-stealing, grave-robbing, and even murder. And when her twin sister steps in the way of her studies, she’ll do whatever is necessary to secure the recognition she deserves.\u2028\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This twisty, atmospheric, Frankensteinian tale is about a group of ambitious young scientists who descend into corruption when a breakthrough discovery grants them the power of gods.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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IT\u2019S OKAY TO START OVER AS MANY TIMES AS YOU NEED TO<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started this novel in 2014 as a young adult reimagining of Jack the Ripper with the main character being the daughter of JTR. However, because it evolved into being more the father\u2019s story than the daughter\u2019s, I decided to start over and write a reimagining of my favorite book.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY COPIES OF FRANKENSTEIN (20\u00a0so far) AND WHY IT SPEAKS TO ME<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frankenstein is my favorite book (I read it when I was eight and fell in love with gothic horror). It\u2019s\u2014dare I say it\u2014the book of my heart. It led me down the path of other gothic novels like Dracula, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Raven and other Edgar Allan Poe works to name a few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gist of it is I wrote this novel because I\u2019ve always been fascinated by the concept of \u201cthe other\u201d which Mary Shelley explores in Frankenstein. The term \u201cthe other\u201d is a philosophy term used by several philosophers and writers to describe someone who is different than the societal norm. This \u201cother\u201d is ostracized from regular society and is perceived as different from society and therefore shunned. As a child I often felt like \u201cthe other.\u201d I was a gifted child often bored with schoolwork. I learned to read at the age of three and by five I was reading adult (no not those kinds!) books way beyond my age. I often lugged giant tomes to school like The Complete Works of Shakespeare (in the third grade) to read during silent \u00a0reading time. Or when I finished my work which was usually quickly done. I memorized The Raven by Poe in the third grade to recite in front of the class. Add to the fact my family moved often so it was difficult to make friends since I never knew how long I\u2019d be staying, I didn\u2019t fit in.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing a character who didn\u2019t fit into whatever role society deemed she should fit into appealed to me.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This led me to\u00a0write a story from the point-of-view from a\u00a0seventeen-year-old\u00a0Victorian who\u00a0despite being told over and over again she can\u2019t pursue her dream of becoming a surgeon she persists.\u00a0She is relentless in her pursuit of this ambition to the eventual detriment to herself shaking her belief in what she\u2019s capable of doing. She fights to claw her way back to her own true self as she questions her motives surrounding the decisions she makes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION IS FUN! <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love to do research. I even worked as a research assistant for a university professor once and so I went down the rabbit hole of all things Mary Shelley. Did you know she had a half-sister named Fanny Imlay (she was three when Mary was born) who unalived herself at the age of twenty-two\u00a0soon after Mary wrote Frankenstein? In fact she was helping Mary edit Frankenstein. It was rumored she might have been in love with Mary\u2019s beau, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and her feelings were not reciprocated. Or perhaps she failed to find her footings among the strict societal standards for women of the Victorian era. We\u2019ll never know.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EDITING IS IMPORTANT AND IT\u2019S WHERE YOUR STORY SHINES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So many writers, especially new ones think they\u2019ll edit once maybe twice and be done. Oh, sweet summer child\u2026no. This is my process and it\u2019s not everyone\u2019s. You have to find what works for you.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I usually start with a character. I consider myself a pantser meaning I don\u2019t plot or outline. I rarely know the ending ahead of time either. I let the story show me where it\u2019s going. My first drafts are bare bones but each edit puts more and more flesh on the bones until it\u2019s a fully-formed story. And I did many, many, many (ad infinitum) edits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EASTER EGGS GALORE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I like doing plot twists and putting Easter eggs about Mary Shelley in the book because how could I not? See if you can find them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing Dilly\u2019s story was and is one of my greatest achievements. I hope you enjoy reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kathleen S. Allen<\/strong>\u00a0is a young adult writer of gothic horror, historical, fantasy, and speculative fiction. She has published poems, short stories, novellas, and novels. She prefers dark to light, salty to sweet, and tea to coffee. She is a fan of K-Pop, classic rock, and British detective shows. She lives in Los Angeles with a sassy Tortoiseshell cat.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Resurrectionist<\/strong>: Macmillan<\/a> | Bookshop.org<\/a> | Amazon<\/a> | B&N<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kathleen S. Allen<\/strong>: Website<\/a> | Bluesky<\/a> | Instagram<\/a> | TikTok<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Death is just the beginning.\u2028\u2028 When seventeen-year-old Dilly Rothbart finds her recently deceased father’s hidden journal, her entire world is upended\u2015for what she finds within are the steps to bring a dead soul back to life. \u2028\u2028Intent on finishing her father’s work and establishing herself as the greatest scientist in history, Dilly plunges into a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-62081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-theramble","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pv7MR-g9j","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62084,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62081\/revisions\/62084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}