Who Is R.K. Slade?
Like a lot of independent authors, I write under a pen name.
Part of that is practical. I like having a little separation between my everyday life and my author life. Writing, publishing, marketing, newsletters, social media, book covers, reader emails, all of it becomes its own little world after a while. A pen name gives that its own little word.
But R.K. Slade is not just something I made up because it sounded good on a book cover.
Slade is a family name, inspired by one of my ancestors who was artistic and musical. I got to thinking: If I was going to write stories rooted so deeply in music, memory, and the strange magic of being a band kid, I wanted the name on the cover to carry a little family history with it.
Band Kid
I grew up around music. I was a band kid. I played trumpet. I know what it feels like to sit in a section, count rests like your life depends on it, miss an entrance, nail a part you were scared of, sweat through band camp, and ride home from a football game with your ears ringing and your band tee drenched in sweat.
Music Mentor
I also know what it means to spend a life in musical spaces, mentoring and leading others, watching people discover confidence through a song, an instrument, a rehearsal, or a performance.
That is a big part of why I write the band geek fiction.
The stories are fiction. My characters are fictional. The friends, the schools, the bands, the directors, and the storylines are all crafted with care and intention.
But fiction is rarely made from nothing, right?
Storyteller
A lot of the layers woven through these books come from real memories, real places, real people, and real feelings. Not copied straight from life, but shaped by it. The nerves before a performance. The weird humor of a band room. The friendships that form because everyone is tired, sweaty, and 100% needing a water break. The way music can give a quiet, shy kid somewhere to belong. The way a hot summer band camp can feel ridiculous and beautiful at the exact same time. Jazz band. Concert band. All the band nerdy stuff.
That is the stuff I keep coming back to.
I write about band kids because I know what those spaces actually feel like. The smell of valve oil, the weird intimacy of spending that many hours that tired with the same people. The music was almost beside the point. It was the container for everything else. Who you were. Who you were becoming. Where you belonged.
Band Dad
And now, I get to see some of that from another angle too, as a parent watching my own kids march into that world. That has brought back a lot of memories, and also given me a new appreciation for the parents in the parking lots, the directors on the towers, the students carrying cases bigger than they are, and the whole magically, strange ecosystem that makes band life what it is.
This blog will be a place for some of that.
I’ll share behind-the-scenes notes from my books, memories that helped inspire certain moments, thoughts about marching band and music, character and world details, writing updates, book announcements, and probably a few other things that only make sense if you have ever spent too much time near a band locker.
So, who is R.K. Slade?
- A former band kid (Or as I like to say “young-at-heart band kid”)
- A lifelong music person (career in music)
- A storyteller (aspiring author)
- A band dad (it’s the circle of life!)
A guy who still believes there is something powerful about a group of students standing on a field, trying to make something bigger than themselves.
And yes, probably still that same “confident” trumpet player at heart. Even though my chops have been mush for two decades.
R.K. Slade