K L Kaine shortlisted for the Bath Children’s Novel Award and won the Northern Writers Award. Her debut Blood of Gods and Girls was acquired by Penguin Random House Children’s in a major pre-empt and published on July 2nd 2026. She tells us about writing feminist fantasy YA and her literary agent’s transformational advice to “beef up the romance”.
Congratulations on the publication of Blood of Gods and Girls. For those yet to read it, what is it about?
Thank you so much!
Blood of Gods and Girls is about a girl called Nisha who is chosen to be the Mortal Goddess, the vessel for the great Goddess of her island. But when she leaves her family and goes to live in the Temple, she discovers that would should be a blessing is actually a nightmare.
One day she escapes, causing a great scandal, and is forced to live in hiding on the city streets, where she takes a little girl called under her wing, who becomes the most important thing in the world to her. So when, some years later, Ratna is selected to be the next Mortal Goddess, Nisha will do anything in her power to stop it.
The story is set in exotic landscapes, including: cities built into red canyon walls, secret villages hidden in snowy mountains, and caves with ceilings that drip light.
Nisha is joined on her adventure by a Golden Eagle Huntress, a very bad Holy Man and a hunky horse whisperer, among others.
What do you love most about the feminist fantasy genre?
I strongly believe in the power of story to shape our beliefs and our world.
And I love how feminist fantasy allows us to challenge limiting narratives in a rich, joyous, colourful way.
I love seeing female characters bursting out of the restrictive roles they’ve been caged in for so long, and being wild, unapologetic, demanding and messy. In doing so, they inspire young women to live freely too, rather than believing to be ‘good’ girls they need to be well-behaved and dressed in ways that appeal to certain men.
I am seeing more and more novels which reflect this awakening (not only in the fantasy genre), some completely original stories, and other taking myths that have cast women as villains, or weak, or nothing more than objects of desire, and retelling those stories to centre the agency and desires of women. In many cases this is actually a return to the true heart of these myths, which have distorted by male storytellers with their own agendas for hundreds of years.
What inspired you to write Blood of Gods and Girls?
It was learning about how many women’s stories in history have been erased or misrepresented, meaning that people today are so conditioned to believe that girls and women’s treatment as less than men is actually natural – and something that is good for us.
I got tired of seeing young girls apologising for taking up space, of having opinions. If their thoughts and opinions were taken seriously rather than ignored or laughed at, we might actually point humanity in a better direction than we’re going at the moment.
Two key inspirations were the female Pharoah Hatshepsut and the Living Goddess tradition of Nepal.
Hatshepsut’s statues and monuments were systematically destroyed, so she was almost erased from history. In the Living Goddess tradition they actually do actually take a little girl from her family to live in the temple, and say that she is the vessel for the great Goddess.
When I heard they wanted to place the power of a Goddess inside a helpless little girl completely controlled by male priests, I thought, that’s the perfect metaphor for what the patriarchy wants to do with women’s power – and I felt compelled to write a story which restored the Goddess to her true power and glory.
How did your manuscript evolve editorially between signing with your agent, [Maddy Belton of MMA], and going out on sub to publishers?
Four words: Beef up the romance! I had been working on that book for a long time before it went on sub and had already had quite a lot of feedback and done many rewrites, so it was in quite good shape by the time it was sent to Maddy, but the main thing was that while there was a romance subplot, it was a fairly minor part of the story.
At first I was a bit resistant, partially because I wasn’t particularly interested in reading romance plots myself, but also because I felt I didn’t really know how to do it.
But the more I thought about it, the more I got behind the idea, because I might not be so interested in reading romance storylines now, but I remember how I hungered for them and devoured them as a teenager. Once I channelled teenager me, I was excited to get to it!
And then once I was all fired up, I actually found it fascinating analysing romance plots and subplots in other stories and trying to work out what made them work – how characters built intimacy, trust and closeness, and how it sometimes went wrong. Now I love writing romantic relationships.
Maddy secured a six-figure deal with Penguin Random House – can you recall hearing the news?
I remember it so clearly. I had been out with a friend to see the cinema showing of Taylor Swift Eras Tour the night before, because neither of us knew much about the pop sensation and felt this was an important cultural phenomenon we ought to know about. Or as my friend put it, we were ‘Swift-curious’.
I had a missed call from Maddy when I got back, but it was too late to call her back. And in the morning, I thought I would have a shower and sort myself out before calling her back, because we’d only been on sub for about a week, so it couldn’t be anything that urgent.
I got out of the shower to have six missed calls from her. As you can imagine, I called her pretty sharpish, so I was in my attic writing room, with dripping wet hair when she told me the news.
I wrote the name of the publisher and the offer amount on a post it note, and then stared at it thinking I must be having that number blindness I sometimes get, because that looked like far too many zeroes….
Afterwards, I went to the park with my family and I remember there being a very dreamy hazy sunshine, which perfectly mirrored my dreamlike state…
You’re the creator of The Novel Factory software which helps authors to organise and structure their manuscript as they write. Can you give some examples of how you used it while writing Blood of Gods and Girls?
Absolutely. I designed The Novel Factory to help me with my own writing, and then decided to share it more widely, and now it’s used by thousand of writers across the world.
I use the software throughout my writing process, right from when I put together my concept up to polishing the final manuscript.
One of the sections I use constantly is the Plot Manager, which is basically a board with drag and drop index cards, I find it so useful to write summaries of what I want to happen in each scene on those cards, and then I can add, delete, and shuffle around as the story develops. Those summaries are also linked to the scenes when you write them in the manuscript, so you can view the summary as you’re writing the scene.
The other areas I’m in all the time are the Characters section and the Locations section. In these areas, you can click to add a character then add all the relevant detail for them, including images, I find it so help to have all my characters easy to reference in this way. And the same for the locations.
Finally, when I’m writing my first draft, I am constantly checking the statistics area, because it has graphs which plot a line in red based on how many words I want to write by what deadline, and then once I start writing, it creates a line in green which updates every day depending on how many words I’ve written, so I have to keep the green line over the red line and I find that very motivating!
How, where and when do you write?
I write first thing in the morning and last thing at night.
My natural tendency would be to get other tasks ‘out of the way’ before I start writing, but I find if I do that, then those tasks seem to expand until they’ve taken up the whole day. Also, by the time I get to writing, my head is always full of shopping lists and school emails and work projects and I find it hard to concentrate.
When I start writing first thing (well, after meditating), then my mind is clear, although it does take a while to fully wake up and get into gear. I try to write for at least a couple of hours most mornings.
And I find that writing last thing at night, after I’ve put the kids to bed, works really well for me. I think the glass of wine plus knowing I’ve done everything I need to for the day helps me really relax and enjoy it and so the writing flows, and knowing I only have one hour also helps me stay motivated. Sometimes I’ll do as much in that one hour as I achieved in the first two or three hours of the same morning.
I’d also like to mention that I really struggle with distractions, and particularly when you get to a hard bit to write or work out, my brain is very keen to ‘just take a little break’ and quickly check my emails or Instagram or whatever. But if I bend to that (which I often do) then not only do I find that I’ve wasted half an hour, but my brain is now full of more random content, and it’s harder to get back into what I’m doing.
To try to help with this, I use the Freedom app, and go on weeklong meditation retreats where I’m totally off grid, and this tends to ‘reset’ my brain so it has less of a tendency to have the urge.
What do you hope readers take away from Blood of Gods and Girls?
My dream is that this book inspires girls to question the narratives we are fed about what it is to be a ‘good’ girl, and to realise that a lot of the reasons we fall down is not because we’re not as good as men, but because the world has been deliberately designed to trip us up.
And also that far from being supporting characters to men, women have been contributing a great deal to our civilization since the beginning of time, but most of our achievements have been hidden, or attributed to men.
One of my favourite examples of this is a prehistoric bone with 28 notches marked into it – which was widely regarded to be ‘man’s first calendar’ until someone pointed out that women have far more reason to want to count 28 days, and therefore it is far more likely it was ‘woman’s first calendar’.
I would love for girls to want to explore this more, and read books like Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez, Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, and Mother of Invention by Katrine Marçal. Those books pick apart received wisdom and show a different perspective.
What’s next for you?
I am currently writing my next book, which is another standalone, but its set in the same world as Blood of Gods and Girls, with similar themes.
It’s inspired by Cheng I Sao, the greatest pirate to ever sail the seas – who just happened to be a woman.
I’m also doing quite a lot of events and interviews to get word out about Blood of Gods and Girls, check out my Instagram, website or substack if you’d like to know more about what I’m up to, or to say hi!
Lastly, any words of advice for any writers thinking of entering this year’s Bath Children’s Novel Award?
Only to go for it!
While I was in the trenches, I entered any competition I could get my hands on, and it was so useful to find out when I was actually getting somewhere, because over the years I went from nowhere, to being longlisted, to being shortlisted.
When you’re trying to get published, this sort of impartial feedback is invaluable to show you you’re getting somewhere and to encourage you to carry on.
And the Bath Children’s Novel Award is genuinely one of the best ones out there. Not only is Caroline extremely supportive and champions participants at all stages, but it is one of the most highly respected and prestigious – and that’s before you even talk about the mega cash prize and epic trophy!
KATJA KAINE is a Yorkshire-based writer of fantasy novels. She is also the creator of the Novel Factory software for writers and the Novel Writing Roadmap. She has won Northern Writers Northern Promise Award, the SCBWI Undiscovered Voices competition and been shortlisted for the Bath Children’s Award. Katja is half Singaporean and half German and when she’s not writing can be found cooing over forest fungi, bending into pretzel yoga shapes and raging against the patriarchy.
Follow Katja on Instagram @katjalizabethk and Substack @klkaine
Blood of Gods and Girls: A fierce feminist fantasy
A young woman on the run from her fate must face her past to save her future. This fierce fantasy of blended cultures is the perfect read for fans of For She is Wrath, We Hunt the Flame and Children of Blood and Bone.
When she bleeds, the Kingdom falls.
At five years old, Nisha was selected to be the Mortal Goddess – a vessel for the great Goddess Shantavi. But on her twelfth birthday, Nisha escaped the temple before she could be sacrificed at the hands of the Immortal King.
Now the Kingdom searches for its new Mortal Goddess and their eye has fallen on Ratna, the only family Nisha has left.
Helped by a Golden Eagle Warrior and the only boy she has ever loved, Nisha must learn to embrace her power in order to liberate her people.
It’s time to take the Kingdom back.
‘With immersive worldbuilding and a heroine that burns off the page – this is YA at its most powerful’ Annaliese Avery, author of The Wycherleys
‘Bold, defiant and adventurous’ Sebastien Castell, author of the Court of Shadows series
‘This is a gorgeous, gripping adventure, and a vivid exploration of power and control, myth, storytelling, and magic. Both tender and angry, Blood of Gods and Girls immerses you in its richly imagined world and doesn’t let go’ Sarah Brooks, author of The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands
‘A thought-provoking feminist fantasy set within a richly developed, immersive world. Brave, brilliant and beautifully written, Nisha and the Mortal Goddess stayed with me long after I turned the last page’ A J Clack, author of Lie or Die
‘Brimming over with myth and magic’ Charlotte Bond, author of The Fireborne Blade
Katja Kaine’s debut is vivid, thought provoking and powerful. Five shining stars. Sue Cunningham, author of Cloud Nine
‘A beautifully written, fierce and intoxicating tale that explores the irresistible cost of becoming more than mortal. I enjoyed every minute’ CL Miller, author of The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder
As an affiliate, Bookshop.org donate 10% of book sales through our bookshop page, at no cost to you or the author, to our sponsored places scheme for writers on a low income.