When author K.J. Gillenwater of Cody, Wyoming, a self-described sci-fi junkie, was looking for inspiration for a new series of books, she leaned into her career at the National Security Agency (NSA) for the Navy.
“I realized that I should make a Russian linguist character, because I was a Russian linguist in the Navy,” Gillenwater said. “I put together the Voynich manuscript, which is real, and my Russian linguist background and married it into this story.”
Her first attempt at the story dissolved into cyberspace when her computer crashed and she lost her first draft.
“That deflates you,” Gillenwater said. “But I came back to it about ten years after I dropped it, and I'm really glad I did.”
Popular Sci-Fi Series
Even though much of Gillenwater’s work at the Cryptological Center at Fort Meade, Maryland, is still considered top secret, Gillenwater found ways to pull from that experience to give her readers an exciting story based on truth.
“I wanted to draw on my military experience,” Gillenwater said. “I have some really great reviews from men who thought I really nailed it on some of the character types that are military.”
One of these characters is a chief who Gillenwater said she built from the chiefs that she personally knew while in the Navy.
“I think a lot of guys really appreciated that I made the characters realistic,” Gillenwater said. “Having been in the military and writing about the military was pretty easy for me.”
Her Genesis series is now one of the top 75 reads on Amazon in three separate sci-fi categories.
Gillenwater’s story follows a Navy linguist and cryptographer, Charlie Cutter, who isrecruited into a shadowy wing of the NCIS. In this sci-fi thriller, the main character discovers that aliens have arrived on earth, and it’s not the first time.
The Genesis series is billed as a thrilling mystery that takes readers from the political swamps of D.C. to the scorching Las Vegas desert. Cutter’s job is to race against time to crack the code and save humanity from a possible alien invasion.
K.J. Gillenwater of Cody, Wyoming has written a three-book sci-fi series that is currently listed in the top 75 of three sci-fi categories on Amazon. "The Genesis Machine” is a story based on her Navy experience as a Russian linguist working on top secret government documents. To make it more exciting than the office job she personally held, Gillenwater added aliens and a race to save the world. (Courtesy K.J. Gillenwater) 
K.J. Gillenwater of Cody, Wyoming, has 24 books currently listed on Amazon and more planned for 2026. She began her career as a traditionally published author but discovered that she could be more creative as an independent author. Her genres ranges from rom-coms to supernatural thrillers. (Courtesy K.J. Gillenwater) 
K.J. Gillenwater of Cody, Wyoming, has 24 books currently listed on Amazon and more planned for 2026. She began her career as a traditionally published author but discovered that she could be more creative as an independent author. Her genres ranges from rom-coms to supernatural thrillers. (Courtesy K.J. Gillenwater)
An Author’s Past Life
Gillenwater’s journey to become an author of 24 published books began when she was in college as a double major in English and Spanish. She had the opportunity to study abroad and decided to pursue a career in language.
“I stumbled across a language program through the Navy where you attend the Defense Language Institute,” Gillenwater said.
She was accepted into the program after joining the Navy and fully expected to use her skill as a fluent Spanish speaker. The Navy had other plans.
“If they find that you are good at languages and can learn languages, they generally want you to learn another one,” Gillenwater said.
For the next two and a half years, she was immersed in the Russian language. Gillenwater was then stationed at Fort Meade in Maryland and worked at the NSA for the next three years.
Although it sounds exciting, Gillenwater said she spent most of her time working behind closed doors. However, it also exposed her to a unique world that she was able to share with her readers.
“My work was top secret so it's easier to just say I was in an office, and it was boring,” Gillenwater said. “It was very interesting to be in the building because it was just like a massive city where you could get your hair cut and go banking without ever leaving.”
This experience became the foundation for her science fiction series and found her an audience. Gillenwater relished the idea of sharing the truth behind her own experiences.
“It really annoyed me when I would watch TV shows and they would be in a secure environment and have big windows,” Gillenwater said. “It was nothing like that.”
Gillenwater knew that some of her readers would understand how clearances and top security worked and so her attention to detail in the storyline was crucial. However, it is still fiction, she said, and deals with aliens and strange pods so expect some stretches of the imagination.
“There had to be some dramatic, creative license to make the story move at a certain pace or have certain characters be able to discuss things outside of a closed box with a combo lock,” Gillenwater said. “I had to get my characters out in the real world and, when that happens you have to change up how things are done.”
The First Novel
When Gillenwater got out of the military, she became a tech writer. This involved technical writing and editing which quickly could become very tedious.
“I hate business writing, even though I know I have to do it as a career,” Gillenwater said. “Business writing is incredibly boring, so I much prefer to do creative writing.”
She started writing fiction on the side as her creative outlet. Gillenwater’s first attempt at a book-length project was through the NaNoWriMo challenge. National Novel Writing Month was a nonprofit program that encouraged participants to write a novel in just 30 days every November.
It was 2003 and her son was out of the baby stage, so she finally had free time in the evenings. She had always wanted to write something longer than a short story, so she took up the challenge.
“I made myself write a novel and when I finished, it was a disaster,” Gillenwater said. “But it made me less afraid of writing a novel.”
From this shaky start, Gillenwater kept writing. Finally, she felt ready to submit a paranormal suspense, “The Ninth Curse,” directly to a publisher. To her delight, they accepted the novel, launching her career as an author in 2009.
The Wild West Of Being An Author
This first book remained her only book for years. Shortly after it came out, Gillenwater went through a painful divorce and took a break from writing.
When Gillenwater had the emotional capacity to write again, Amazon had made self-publishing available, and she decided to give it a try.
“I had tried to find an agent but that went nowhere, and I was submitting to small presses that also went nowhere,” Gillenwater said. “I just thought, if I can't sell it to someone else, why not just put it out there and see what people think? It was the Wild West days of Amazon.”
Her plan worked, and every day, new readers discover her books, especially her Genesis Machine series. Gillenwater has now partially retired from business writing and has been able to concentrate more on her creative writing, releasing up to four books a year.
“I released another sci-fi one earlier this year that has a robot theme that's a little bit different,” she said. “It's not military-based but had a different idea that I had that I really wanted to follow.”
Gillenwater enjoys exploring various genres and is currently working on a contemporary suspense thriller that will be out in January. She also has plans for 2026 to write more romance although, right now, Gillenwater is focused on growing her sci-fi series. With the growing popularity of her Genesis Machine series, she will next be working on a sequel in the military world of aliens.
“I found the most positive reaction to what I was doing with that series,” Gillenwater said. “I have plenty of characters and plenty of ways this could be developed into more so I have a sequel in the works that I'm hoping will come out sometime next year.”
Gillenwater said that what motivates her to keep writing is that she is able to write whatever interests her at that moment.
“The beauty of being independent published is you can do what you want on your own schedule, and you don't have someone dictating to you what you have to write,” Gillenwater said. “You can just write and that is what inspires me to keep doing it.”
Gillenwater said that she never knows what might resonate with people and will continue to explore the different genres.
“Every day is different,” Gillenwater said. “I’m inspired by the world around me, from news headlines to my own experiences. I’m just having fun putting books on the shelf and seeing where it leads me.”
Contact Jackie Dorothy at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
