Katja H. Labonté's Blog

This post was previously published as a guest post on Cate VanNostrand’s blog, Southern Story Scribbler. Thanks, Cate! When you pick up the average Christian YA novel, you tend to expect there’ll be romance. Especially when there’s a male and a female name mentioned in the blurb. And especially if there’s both a male and aContinue reading "Why Did I Write Single Characters?"

Ah, July. Goodness, what happened in July? I know this update is fearfully late, but hey, at least it’s being written! || Highlights & Lowlights // I’m gonna put this at the top so everyone can see it even if they don’t scroll: That’s right!! The 10th annual FFF blog party is coming soon! I’veContinue reading "July Wrap-Up // 2025 Edition"

Although I made it a hard rule only to buy books that I’ve already read, that doesn’t mean I stick to that rule. If a book is free, all rules are off. And if a book is super old, or is by an author I really love, or if it’s a book I want toContinue reading "The Unread Book Tag"

This paper is the one I wrote for my English exam this March, and I decided to share it here. Hope you enjoy! Let me know your thoughts 🙂 Introduction Libraries have been around for thousands of years. But there are those who believe that libraries are obsolete—a stuffy place full of stern old librariansContinue reading "Libraries Are Still Relevant in the Digital Era"

Greetings, Bookworm Readers! As the author of semi-biographical fiction, I often find discrepancies between real life and what constitutes “good storytelling” in writing. Since I keep to the truth of the history as faithfully as I can, my books fail to follow all good writing advice. The novel-writing advice which is the topic of today’s

My cover is available for voting in the Clean Fiction Magazine Cover Art Contest. The contest runs till August 9, and you can vote daily (and for free). The cover with the most votes wins. If you’d like to vote for my cover you can do so here: https://www.sunsetvalleycreations.com....

Welp, June feels like it was a long, long time ago… and yet I don’t seem to have much to share… *shrugs* || Highlights & Lowlights // The Once Upon a Pen awards are open! I’m really hoping to get my book nominated. I need 5 nominations to get my book listed as available toContinue reading "June Wrap-Up // 2025 Edition"

I wanted Goodreads for so long and I was thrilled when I was finally allowed to get it in 2020. I spent almost all summer copy and pasting my thousands of reviews into the system and tagging it meticulously. For a time, I kept my shelves scrupulously organized and updated my Goodreads constantly. I noContinue reading "The Goodreads Blog Tag"

I recently mentioned in my update post how I’ve reread Jane Austen’s 6 major novels this year. Being on Tumblr, I see a lot of Austen-related posts and I thought it’d be fun to do my own little ranking of the heroes and villains in her novels. (I’m excluding Lady Susan because I have justContinue reading "Ranking Austen Heroes & Villains"

Welcome to the next stop in your tour of the Shattered Lands!  From your position on the mountain flank, you can see the Highlands sprawl out before you. Pines rise tall and proud all along the sides of the cliffs, but taper off in the valley, where grass and wildflowers spreads thick. A herd ofContinue reading "Tour the Shattered Lands // The Highlands"