Kim Teilio

Find books by Kim Tielio at sci-fi-cafe,
table number 8
at the summer
Oxford Indie Book Fair
on 13-July 2025

See home page for details, map and more.

I read a lot of Marvel comics when I was young. Some DC, but Marvel had more characters holding my attention. Comic books, as well as films and TV shows my parents allowed me to watch despite my early years, had me filling the pages of notebooks with stories of my own. My school teachers told me I could become a famous writer when I grew up. Classmates had not read my stories, but they viewed me as the talented writer amongst them.

The years went on and I started sending pitches to Marvel Comics and even 2000AD during my early teenage years. Marvel’s submission department responded with nice letters I wish I had kept, 2000AD with the information writers had to first submit one-and-done tales before they could even be considered for an ongoing series. As I grew a little older, this innocence faded. At the start, I would have gladly written these stories for free. With more of an idea to how the world worked, the dream was now to write for big money.

I still enjoyed writing, but the thought of it funding me through life felt to become increasingly unlikely. For every thousand or more published writers, there must be one that is a household name living solely on their royalties.

My outlook changed as the decades moved on, and now I find myself quite settled with my approach. The ideas don’t come as often as they had during my younger years, and it takes me longer to find a rhythm, but I still enjoy writing once something is underway. The big money idea feels more fantastical than anything I could ever put to the page, but the 9-5 job I’m working pays the rent and the bills. Now, my writing is fed by the romantic notion of it being appreciated. To hopefully write something seen by few but recognised as being great appeals to me more than creating something hugely popular despite it being awful (not that you can only have one or the other). I just feel small numbers but respected is the most likely.

There’s enough fantasy in my life without my living it.