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# Write Now with Katie Bernet
- URL: https://justincox.com/blog/2025/12/write-now-with-katie-bernet/
- Published: 2025-12-17T16:00:20.000Z
- Updated: 2025-12-17T16:00:20.000Z
- Description: Today's Write Now interview features Katie Bernet, author of BETH IS DEAD.
- Author: Justin Cox
- Tags: Interview, #katie-bernet

## Who are you?

Hi 👋 My name is Katie Bernet, and I’m an author living in Dallas, TX. After an eleven-year career as a copywriter and creative director in advertising, I recently made the leap to being a full-time author, and I’m absolutely loving it.

## What do you write?

My debut novel, [*Beth Is Dead*](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Beth-Is-Dead/Katie-Bernet/9781665988698?ref=justincox.com), is a modern retelling of Little Women as a young adult mystery/thriller. It wasn’t my first manuscript (lucky number six!), but it was my first mystery/thriller, and now I’m hooked on the genre. When I first started writing, I spent so much time focusing on themes and prose, but writing a mystery forced me to focus on telling a story—tugging the reader to the next page. It’s been so helpful and so much fun.

## Where do you write?

On a perfect day, I’m writing at home with a candle, a cup of peppermint tea, and a pair of cozy socks. But I also love meeting up with my friends from the [DFW Writers’ Workshop](https://www.dfwwritersworkshop.org/?ref=justincox.com), a local writer’s group where I’ve been a member for more than a decade.

## When do you write?

For many years, I wrote in the margins of my life—mostly in the morning before starting my full-time job. That taught me to be very disciplined with my writing, so I rarely go a day without putting words on the page. Now, I’m very grateful to be writing full-time, and I’m able to accomplish so much more. I set word-count goals based on where I am in the writing process, and if I hit my goal for the day, I move onto other things like editing, plotting, or dreaming up new ideas.

![](https://justincox.com/content/images/2025/08/Beth-Is-Dead---Cover.jpg)

Photo courtesy of Katie Bernet

## Why do you write?

I actually tried to quit writing once. I’d been through a lot of rejection, I was struggling to balance writing with my full-time job, and I finally said, “To heck with it.” That only lasted a couple months. I couldn’t ignore the desire to create. But the pause helped me realize that I enjoy the process of writing. I’m motivated by the challenge, the discovery, and the little lightbulbs that go off every day.

## How do you overcome writer's block?

For me, it helps to identify the problem and make it smaller. A lot of the time, my writer’s block stems from thinking too broadly. I stall out because I’m trying to solve the whole book at once, but if I focus on what *this* character needs at *this* moment, I can always get the wheels turning again.

## Bonus: What do you enjoy doing when not writing?

If my sisters are free, we’re hanging out. If they’re not, I love gardening, true crime podcasts, reality TV (anyone else obsessed with “Below Deck”?) and cooking—but not baking. I can’t stand following recipes.

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*My thanks to Katie Bernet for today's interview.*