Welcome to the Blog Tour for Chasing Kensie by Drew Taylor,
hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!

About the Book

CB: Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions,  Drew. I look forward to hearing more about your journey as an author and exploring the story behind Chasing Kensie. 

What part of the writing process brings you the most joy as an author, and why? 

DT: Because I’m apparently unhinged, the editing process brings me the most joy! I actually don’t like drafting much at all, ha. Editing is the stage where I get to mold an already-formed story. I love getting to view the story as a puzzle—rearranging and reworking until everything fits together perfectly. I especially love line editing because it’s where I get to make the polished story SPARKLE. I love poetic prose, and this is where I get to embellish simple phrases and descriptions into something beautiful and lyrical. Alliteration, assonance, consonance, metaphors, similes, juxtapositions, and paradoxes are my best friends! I also love to pretend I’m Shakespeare and make up new words or assign new meanings to old words (don’t worry, my editor cuts most of this out, haha). 

CB: How does your faith influence your writing?  

DT: I don’t see how I could ever separate the two, you know? My faith is my worldview; everything I take, I filter through a Biblical lens, holding it up against scripture. I view writing as another form of worshipping Jesus. Through the gift of writing, I’m able to process different worldviews, convictions, and stories. I’m able to explore situations, sins, and scenarios I’m unfamiliar with. I get to show beautiful stories of redemption through character arcs. I’m able to get a minuscule taste of what it must’ve been like for God to create the world, and it’s unfathomable to me how He made the world and everything in it (us included) so precisely, perfectly, and poetically. Goodness, I love this calling. Just writing this out makes me shiver with excitement and gratitude that He’s gifted me—a sinner redeemed only through the blood of Jesus—this ability. 

CB: You teach high school English. I’m sure that knowledge is useful! However, being a teacher can be a challenging career. How do you balance the two callings – writing and teaching? 

DT: Oh, man. Teaching is such a challenging career, way more so than authoring! I mean, I’m in charge of the hearts and minds of malleable teenagers; it’s terrifying and exciting all at once. I don’t know if I necessarily balance the two. Instead, it’s whatever needs my attention more at any given moment. For me, the school year begins late July and ends mid-May. I try to utilize my summers and various breaks to get a lot of writing done, but during normal school weeks, I lean into the grace of God to see me through. I try to be intentional with writing breaks to avoid burnout, and when I do sit down to write, I remind myself that it’s not for me but for the glory of God. He gives me the strength to push through when I’m exhausted and don’t want to. 

CB: Did any of Kensington Smith’s experiences as a high school English teacher draw on your own? 

DT: No doubt! There are many experiences—good and bad—that reflect my own. The brainrot terms, the layout of the school, the activities director position, the dance planning, the school drama, and, well, even some of the Nick/Kensie issues that I won’t necessarily publicly air, ha. 

CB: Chasing Kensie, as well as some of your other books, have trigger warnings. As someone who suffers from PTSD, I find this helpful. Not all authors share these warnings. Why do you feel it’s important? 

DT: I may have a bit of a different take on this than many authors. When writing a trigger warning, I only list majorily big triggers, and I don’t include them in the book, opting to only have them on my website. It’s impossible to know every reader’s triggers, and I’ve had friends get slammed in reviews because a reader didn’t have a trigger warning for what triggered them personally but there were other trigger warnings in the book. On the other hand, I’ve heard stories from friends who had readers reach out to them and thanked them for not having a trigger warning in the book because they most likely wouldn’t have read it. They were thankful to read it because the story helped them heal in unexpected ways. This is a nuanced issue, I know, but at the end of the day, I’m one person who can’t foresee all the potential triggers my book may have. The Holy Spirit’s guidance and conviction are important for readers to listen to!  

CB: Kensie and Nick have such opposite personalities. How did their dynamic develop as you wrote them?   

DT: I struggled SO MUCH with their dynamic. In one draft, they were more annoyed-to-lovers. In another draft, I actually had them being friends. Obviously, in the final, they genuinely are enemies to some extent, though definitely more on Kensie’s end. This is going to cause many readers to bring their pitchforks to my house, but I don’t really like enemies-to-lovers! *ducks and hides* I don’t like mean men. I don’t like petty women. So to write this story, I had to step outside of myself a little and try to write from father wound-specific perspectives. How would they react in any given circumstance? What are their triggers? Answering these questions caused me to write some painful dialogue, dialogue that had me righteously angry and wanting to slap my characters. But at the end of the day, their rocky dynamic paved the way for maturing and redemption. This book isn’t just a slow burn; it’s a slow, refining love–not only refining love for one another, but also revealing how the love of God refines us. It was a challenge for me to make them truly enemies and then truly lovers. For that to happen, there HAD to be change, forgiveness, and redemption. 

CB: At some point, Nicolas starts to catch a glimpse behind Kensington. It seems that they are both suffering from past trauma. Many romance novels focus on one person rescuing another. Why was it important for you to bring two broken people together? 

DT: We are all broken people. There’s not one of us walking on this earth who is without sin; therefore, there’s not one of us without brokenness. It’s important for me to reflect that to some degree in every novel I write. Yes, some of my books have “more healed” characters who help lead the other, but at the end of the day, we are all in need of grace, mercy, healing, love, and someone to accept us—flaws, faults, and all. 

CB: Why did you choose Alaska as the setting, and how does the environment influence the story? 

DT: It had to be Alaska; this story wouldn’t have worked any other way. I started writing this book while living in Alaska, and this novel ended up being a long love letter to the state that stole my heart over the span of three years. I’m now back in Mississippi, where I grew up, but Alaska will forever hold a big piece of me. 

CB: Do you have a favorite cozy winter tradition that made its way into the book? 

DT: Hmm, I don’t think so. Drinking hot chocolate while watching Jane Eyre isn’t necessarily a tradition of mine, but I think I might want to make it one now! 😀 

CB:  What do you hope readers carry with them after finishing Chasing Kensie or any of your other stories?  

DT: I pray readers will either see themselves in the characters or, at the very least, see a new worldview/way of thinking. We are all different. We have different sins, different ideas, different looks, different skills, etc. So, whether or not a reader can relate to one of my characters, I pray they are able to appreciate the diversity of humanity. I pray readers do as Tarin guided Kensie to do in the book: Love others like Jesus. See others as Jesus sees them. Ultimately, I pray my books bring readers closer to Jesus. 

CB: Drew, thank you again for taking the time to engage with me and my readers. I hope that Chasing Kensie falls into the hands of all the readers who need it.  

DT: Thank you for hosting me! May the Lord bless you and keep you! !