Kiera Atkins, a University of Miami graduate student, is making her class assignment into a novel. She’s taking her past and turning it into a fully-fledged story.
Atkins is currently a masters student at the University of Miami, studying for an M.A. in live entertainment management.
She graduated from Towson University with a bachelor’s degree in electronic media and film. She recently founded her own publishing company, Starlight Dynasty Publishing and hopes to publish her first novel, “That Night: The Dynasty Series” (book one) by the end of 2025.
The urban fiction follows four friends in Baltimore whose lives change after one night. Atkins said that this novel began just as an assignment for a class; however she expanded on her idea and incorporated some of her own experiences from growing up in Baltimore into her novel.
“The inspiration came behind myself and my life kind of growing up,” Atkins said. “Throughout the time I was [writing I] put myself into some of the characters, some of the experiences that I had over the years with my friends and things that I’ve seen in life.”
One of the main characters, Ryann, is a basketball player who goes D1 at a college. Ryann has her friends at home and her friends at college and therefore kind of lives a double life.
The novel follows the ups and down of these four friends, Ryann, Taysean, Amir and Mark or otherwise known as Ace. But one night one decision changes the trajectory of their lives forever. The novel cycles through the twists and turns of emotions.
“I did put a lot of my experiences because Ryann, she’s in a toxic relationship. [When] I was in college and I was just learning about myself and coming out as gay, I ended up in this bad relationship,” Atkins said. “It just so happened to be at times where I was putting myself around people I probably shouldn’t have been around.”
Atkins’ life experiences and time periods are reflected in her novel. After Atkins graduated from Towson she was working at a bank and not progressing in her career. She states that coming to Miami gave her the motivation to persevere and work on her novel.
“I was [thinking], ‘it’s been like nine months now, since I’ve graduated. Because of the government and some of the things that have been going on, I haven’t been able to get a job.’ So that was my fuel to write this book.” Atkins said. “But going back to school and coming to Miami really made me say, ‘I think I have the confidence in myself to actually do this.’”
In terms of pushing her novel into the publishing stage, Atkins explained how important it was for her to research whether to work as an independent publisher or go the big publishing route. As a self publisher, she states that a lot of funding goes into it.; however, there are many benefits to owning your own publishing brand.
“At the end of the day, everything is yours. You have the rights to that, which I’m a big believer in, because, if you want to go big, your stuff can be on merchandise and they want to be able to have control over that,” Atkins said. “So that’s why [you should] do your research on whether you really want to have someone else publish this for you or if you want to publish it.”
While Atkins is very proud of her novel, she states that it has been a long time coming. Her family members, other writers and friends have all been a part of the editing process. She urges future writers to put their work out there despite the fear of criticism.
“Don’t be afraid to get out there and get into the community. There are a lot of people that would love to read your [work] and would love for you to read their [work] and give a review,” Atkins said.
Atkins hopes that in the future her novels will be turned into episodes of a series. She wrote each chapter as if it was an episode.