Who is KH?
KH are the initials of Kristen Hyde, twenty-something journalist with a Bachelor of Creative Writing, a weakness for fish tacos and an unnecessarily large book collection.
What are The KH Chronicles?
The KH Chronicles are the uncensored, opinionated, incredibly biased, often sarcastic, sometimes shameless, mostly self-involved musings of KH as she experiences the daily drama of being a woman, a journalist and an embarrassment to all who meet her. It's everything the newspaper would never allow to go to print.
Where does all this take place?
On a small, black ASUS laptop named Black Betty. Because the laptop is black and KH likes both Spiderbait and alliteration. Not because KH is a racist.
Mostly in Sydney, but you never know where Virgin Blue might take you.
When does all this happen?
It's a blog. It happens daily. Do I really have to point that out?
Why the making of The KH Chronicles?
Grab yourself a cuppa tea, it's quite a tale. Originally studying a Bachelor of Journalism, naive little KH was sitting in a news writing class in her first year of study at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in early 2006. She was probably wearing something from JeansWest because in those days, KH was poor and didn't know $20 could get you something much more fashionable at a second-hand store in Fortitude Valley. The lecturer was leading a lesson on ethics, where he used the following example -
If a 17-year old boy is killed in a car accident, a true journalist must put all emotions, opinions and ethics aside and be able to approach the mourning mother in order to get a story that sells.
KH knew in that moment, she would never be a true journalist.
Not just because she resented the idea of approaching a mourning parent who had lost her 17-year old son in a car crash just so her editor would give her a gold star, but because she knew she couldn't spend the rest of her life choking down her own opinionated words for the sake of true journalism.
So she took up Creative Writing and lived happily ever after penning children's picture books in the highlands of Maleny.
Not really.
What she did do after graduating was move to the big smoke and ironically, began a career in glossy magazines where fact and fiction run a fine line.
On becoming a freelance writer shortly after, she spent her days writing pitches and feature stories for local and national publications. Craving a platform where she was the one who decided if her ideas were good enough and needing a place where her satirical and sarcastic nature didn't have to be stifled for the sake of a salary, voila - The KH Chronicles was created. God looked at it and said, "Me likey".
Plus, she kind of likes making a mockery out of journalism.
How does KH eat and have such a nice book collection if this blog doesn't (yet) have any advertising and she doesn't earn a salary? KH still works as a freelance writer, pitching and selling her writing while primarily relying on the generosity of people who lose their spare change in the back of her couch. It's a tough life not being able to buy Dom Perignon in Sydney, but she survives. Mostly on gin.
