Kat Clark launches Beyond Fate, her YA ghost fantasy partly inspired by Chislehurst Caves, inside the caves on Friday 9 October. The evening has sold out.
Chislehurst Caves will host the launch of a ghost story that the caves themselves helped to shape. Orpington author Kat Clark’s debut young adult fantasy novel, Beyond Fate, is out now, and on Friday 9 October she is holding what she calls an “immersive launch event” underground in the caves. Every place has already gone.
The book mixes ghosts, Celtic folklore, grief and family. Kat says parts of it draw on her own experience of grief and of paranormal events she cannot explain, and that the caves “helped inspire elements of the underground world in the book”.
The quick answer
- What: the launch of Beyond Fate, book one of Kat Clark’s Opals of Daor trilogy.
- Where and when: Chislehurst Caves, Friday 9 October.
- Tickets: none left. Kat says the evening is sold out.
- The book: out now in hardback, paperback and ebook, for readers aged 13 and over, according to the author’s website.
A launch party in the caves
The evening will not be a standard reading and signing. In Kat’s words:
“The evening will combine an author talk and book signing with cave tours, tarot readings, food, drinks and a few suitably dark surprises, all inside the caves that helped inspire the story.”
She thinks the setting is the point:
“I thought the combination of a local author, a newly released book, the spooky-season timing and a visually striking launch event in the very caves that helped inspire the story might make an interesting feature.”
For anyone who missed out on a place, the Bromley Halloween round-up lists what else is on across the borough this month.
From storyboards to sentences
Kat spent about 20 years as a creative director and producer in film and television before she turned to writing. Her website puts it as deciding “it was time to swap storyboards for sentences”, and says she trained as an illustrator first.
She has published Beyond Fate independently, through her own imprint, Aetherian Press. She says the book has already reached No. 13 in Amazon UK’s Coming of Age Fantasy for Young Adults chart.
On her about page she explains why she writes about loss:
“Having experienced grief in her own life, Kat is drawn to stories that explore survival through darkness, finding meaning in monsters and writing for those who have ever felt haunted by loss. She believes fantasy and horror can offer not just escape, but a way to endure and heal.”
The same page describes her as “a lifelong horror fan” who “can often be found exploring haunted landmarks and eerie historical sites, watching creepy films, or practicing tarot”, which explains the tarot readers on the launch night.
What the book is about
Beyond Fate is set in the fictional nation of Daor. Its heroine, Zara, has spent her life pretending she cannot hear the whispers of the dead, because magic brings persecution. When her younger brother, Hatch, is thrown into a brutal prison camp for powers he does not have, she uses the abilities she has spent years hiding, and draws the attention of the tyrant Emperor Balor.
The folklore is Irish. The book’s glossary says Balor is inspired by the destructive king of Irish mythology “who sought to defy fate itself”, the queens of the old kingdoms are modelled on the Morrígan, and the monstrous Nuckelavee is drawn from a Celtic beast “associated with decay, and destruction”.
The author describes it as supernatural fantasy with dystopian elements, for readers aged 13 and over. Her site carries a full content warning, which lists violence, torture, grief, the off-page death of loved ones including children, and genocide among its themes. Parents of younger teenagers may want to read it first.
Corrected 6 October: the book is for readers aged 13 and over, not 16 and over as first reported.
Two more books in the trilogy, Beyond War and Beyond Death, are listed as in development.
If you want to read it
- Beyond Fate is out now in hardback, paperback and ebook, Kat’s website says.
- Signing up to the newsletter on katclarkauthor.com brings the first four chapters free.
- The launch at Chislehurst Caves on 9 October is sold out.
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