The blog of author Stacy Kingsley

Author Interview with Kim Darnell

12/5/2019

I'd like to introduce you to Kim Darnell, author, wife, and mother. She recently released her debut novel Ready to Give An Answer. I was with Kim through part of this journey and trust me her book is one you don't want to miss. Her book is about life, and although many might look at it and think they don't want to read about someone's spiritual journey, trust me, you will. It is a book everyone and anyone can relate to, in several different ways. So without any more from me, let's meet Kim Darnell.

Let the internet world know what your debut novel is all about:
Ready to Give An Answer is a book I started out writing for myself and my family, but ended up wanting to share more widely once it was complete. It’s really the story of how I came to faith and how that impacted my life in high school, college, marriage, moving across the country, and handling an early miscarriage.

What do you want people to know about you and why you write?
As a little girl, I loved to write short stories and poems, and in school, I was one of the weird people who actually enjoyed writing book reports and essays, so much so that I ended up being a writing major! I write because it’s the best way I can express myself. I’d like to consider myself an articulate conversationalist, but writing has always been the way I feel I can best organize my thoughts and communicate clearly.

Why do you write the genre you do?
I hadn’t even heard of memoir until I took a class in college, and it was the perfect fit for me! I felt a bit out of place in poetry and fiction classes, but memoir was a place where I could bring my own stories to life.

What is the first book that made you cry?
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White. It was one of my favorites as a child. How can you not cry when Wilbur has to say goodbye to Charlotte? *I think everyone can feel the same about this one - inserts interviewer*

What are common traps for aspiring writers?
Not being in a critique group. I was so much more productive as an aspiring writing when I regularly attended one. Critique groups keep you bringing new material, enliven your old material, and you get to meet a bunch of great writers — it’s what Michael Scott would call a win-win-win! *Oh yes, who gets this awesome reference?!?!*

How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?
Publishing my first book hasn’t really changed my writing process. It’s made me want to do it again! Self-publishing and marketing is a lot less fun than actually writing, but it is very rewarding to get to hear readers’ feedback. *Agreed

What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?
Probably on books. I don’t think you can be a good writer if you’re not a reader!

How do you select the names of your characters?
Although I write about real people, I do have to change names from time to time. Sometimes I’ll just go with the first name that pops into my head. Other times there has been someone else that the person has reminded me of, and I’ve used that name.

Do you Google yourself?
Not until you just asked that question… I’m pleased to see that my author picture came up!
*It is surprising how many people DON'T google themselves!!!*

How can people get in touch with you?
People can get in touch with me via Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Kim-Darnell-Author-405507216844829/?modal=admin_todo_tour.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on a new book called No One Ever Told Me and am soliciting feedback for readers to be featured in it! This book will be a collection of quotes and short stories from my own life and readers’ lives detailing things we had to learn on our own. Please consider sharing: What is it no one ever told you that you wish they had?
*Internetland, the link to answer this question, and maybe be a part of Mrs. Darnell's next book is below. Please feel free, if you have time to help Kim out!
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8B8B953

Kim's book can be found on Amazon, or you can click on the link below, and it is available as an eBook and a paperback:
www.amazon.com/Ready-Give-Answer-Kim-Darnell/dp/1072014866

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What's in a Critique Group?

11/28/2018

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I'm not sure, when a critique group says this, that is it creates a creative environment to keep a writer going: The admin team had a discussion about your writing sample and we think that's it's slightly below the standard for the group. This is by no means a conclusive judgement and you may feel that an alternative sample will better display your skills. Or you can resubmit the original sample with changes made according to the critique it received. Another option is to spend some time working with another group member to hammer it into shape.

I don't mind critique, in fact I welcome it. But I don't like being told that something (when it has been stated is a rough, rough draft) gets a comment that the writing is below standards for a group, or that one can stay in the group if the suggested changes are made (that's not how critique works, you can't demand an author make the changes as they are suggestions). I also am not sure I appreciate being given the suggestion that another member can help me hammer it into shape. I do know what I am doing. The sample I submitted was written this month for Nano. I haven't even edited it yet. I submitted a sample thinking it was just to give an idea of what I am working on right now. If I had known I was to be judged acceptable or not for the group, I would have submitted something perfect (nothing is ever perfect though). I also am not sure I feel comfortable with a group of people discussing me without including me.

I have been kicked out of a writers group for being a menace to society (one romance author hated horror and gore and thought society should be protected from it). I've been called disgusting because of my writing. I've been asked very personal questions because of my writing. I've had people think they were better than me (and maybe some were, it isn't a contest) and tell me I should quit. But, too often, I have people tell me that my writing isn't up to their standards, but isn't that why I am in a group? To help me improve? I, like most authors out there, am full of doubt, and anxiety, and devaluing of self because of writing. I get scared anytime someone buys my book that they will write a scathing review. I myself try not to write bad reviews, although I will admit, I have. But more often than not, it isn't the writing that bothers me, it is the characters, or the plot, or the formatting.

I'm a damn good author, but no one has a good first draft, and often no one has a good second draft. I want critique, how can I fix what I don't know is wrong? However, I don't think we, as writers, should be judged good or bad or worth being part of a critique group by someone else's standards. In Huntsville, Alabama, I was in a critique group that I truly miss. We accepted all types of authors and all genres, but we still did what we were supposed to, we critiqued. We told people what we thought was good, and what needed work, and we didn't pussyfoot around feelings, or at least I didn't feel like we did. I don't want people to tell me my stuff is fabulous, I know it isn't. But, I want acceptance, just like everyone else does. I want people to read my work and see the value in what I have so far, while telling me that this is what I can do to make it better. Don't just tell me it "is below standards for the group" and insinuate that other members in the group can help me do a what I do better than I do it by telling me "another member can help hammer it into shape." We've just met. You got 250 words of a rough draft, give it a moment.

I'm not mad, or angry, or upset, but I feel like we are so ready to be critical and put someone down, that we forget everyone is struggling. I mean, I know authors who have some 20 books, and had books made into television mini-series, and they still have to work a day job. Help each other out but offering real help. Don't make assumptions that lead an author to believe that only your opinions matter. Really, the thing about the message that bothered me most was this part, "you can resubmit the original sample with changes made according to the critique it received." I don't even know if I am keeping what I have, and when you critique something it is a suggestion (as previously stated).

As authors, we need to help when we can, because being an author is such solitary work. We need friends who will give us honest critiques, without making us feel like we should give up. It isn't about being better than someone, because some of already know people who are better than us, it's about strengthening a community that has already failed so many.

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Poetry

11/25/2018

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I don't write much poetry, but I thought I'd share this one here. If you like you can tell me what you think, or if it is good or godawful! I've written few poems in my adult life, and when I was a teenager my poems were called disgusting ad gross. I was told to never write again, and that was the first time, but not the last. So I share with a little bit of hesitation, because a lot of my work is not well received. Later, if I can find it, I will share a story that got me kicked out of one writer's group.

Anyway, here is the poem:

Tin Soldiers

Bright and shiny, new in box
Unused soldiers waiting for their day.
Opened plastic, rosy cheeks,
Wide innocent eyes, waiting to be deployed.
A moment later, battle bound,
Shiny faces dimmed down,
Soldiers waiting, cheeks tanned and brown
Standing, watching,
Battle found.
One year later, homeward on,
Sinking soldiers,
Broken down.
Boxes beaten, weathered and faded,
Soldiers begging, brains broken,
Guns in hand.
No one helping, paint fading,
Tiny tin soldiers,
In the graveyard now.

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Maine

5/10/2018

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There are some places that tug at us, they call us as a writer and beg to be written about. I have yet to write about Maine, but part of that is because I wasn't living in Maine, and still don't. I do enjoy visiting, and have for the last 15 years or so. I enjoy the coast, I enjoy the flavor of the stillness, and I enjoy the food. The people are interesting, and the scenery is both breathtaking and eerie. Two nights ago I watched the fog roll in over the ocean. It was fascinating and frightening. It made me think of the movie THE FOG and I wondered what could come in with the fog.

Now I write horror, mostly, but lately I've been working on both science fiction and non-fiction. I've got one book in the realm of science fiction already finished, and it is in the editing and rewriting stage. I've got to get it through the a critique group first to see if it makes any sense. I am also working on two non-fiction pieces, one about the stupid things people say when someone dies, and the other is a fun little humor book of conversations I made up that I've has with my cat.

And back to Maine. Today was another day like any other. The reason I am in Maine, my Father-in-Law's memorial service. There will be a few popular, or once popular people there, and I know mostly none of their names. I look around and I can see why Stephen King liked it around Maine. There are a lot of spooky people and places here. There is the fog the rolls in, and sweeps its light fingers over the land, crawling in like the tendrils of an octopus's arm.

There are islands with single homes on them, and you can't help but wonder who lives there? Is it a person who likes to bring people to their island to hunt them down and kill them for sport? Is it a person who likes to torture women in his dining room by tying them to dinner chairs and forcing them to converse with them while the sit shaking in a fancy cocktail dress? Is it a person who likes to keep different men trapped in different rooms of their house so they can mate with them, or possibly use them as a brothel for special women to vacation at? There are several possibilities and they are all enchanting and fascinating.

Maine can be the home of horror and terror. Maine can be a nice place for a summer vacation where one can gorge themselves on lobster, or a winter solace where they can sit with a hot toddy and read a frightening book under a super warm blanket. There are a lot of things to love about Maine, and as an author, I really enjoy the look and feel of it. Of course I may also gorge myself on fresh seafood, but that is life. If I can't get good Mexican food, I will eat all the fresh seafood I can get!

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NaNoWriMo

11/24/2017

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I've done it. Yesterday I finished the contest for the month for NaNoWriMo at 50,334, but this doesn't mean I am done writing. I feel both good and bad about it. Why? Let me tell you.

I have been working on a new project this month. It has been wonderful since it has also been a while since I've written, really written. This idea came to me in the form of a book title, and then the first chapter, and then it kept going. I've gotten a little sidetracked in it and it will need some major work, but at least it is something, and it might even, eventually, be something good. It feels good to have written, and most days I actually got 2,000 words, which means it isn't impossible. The problem, or at least what I tell myself is a problem, is that I am also an English Professor, and I often have 2-4 classes of papers I have to grade, and I have to do it in a timely manner. Do you know how hard it is to write and grade papers at the same time? Well, for me it isn't easy because I get so stuck in the editing of everything and making sure my grammar is correct that I don't know what to do.

But, I can do it, if I space things out properly and don't have to grade all of the papers from all of the classes in one week, which I have planned for better this next semester. So I am planning, after this weekend because I need a break from thinking so I can read for a minute, to write every day like I have been, and my continued goal is to write at least 2,000 words, which is not impossible.

I feel bad because I shouldn't have been working on something new when I have the last installment of my zombie series to complete. I know, sometimes as a write you can't help but get sidetracked by an idea, but I have been, and it hurts because I really do want to get this zombie novel out of me, and round out the series. I know where it is going, but I've been having problems getting there, partly because one of my characters is refusing to die, and I need them dead. Now, there is a flip side and a good part! I know I can keep writing, so next week I will be working on both books, it might be one thousand words in one and on thousand in the other, but I can do it. I look forward to doing it.

My new novel might be crap now, and honestly it probably is, I mean no one writes a great novel in the first draft, no matter what they say. There is always editing, and cutting and refurbishing, and if they tell you any different they are entirely full of themselves. Even the greats don't have a perfect first draft, and they are honest about it. I'll keep plugging away, and we will see where it gets me, and we will see if you out there in internet land even likes it, or me!

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Moving

8/9/2017

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So I've moved. Moving is an interesting process. You cry over leaving friends and family (if you have them to leave). You cry over leaving stuff or getting rid of stuff. You cry over the idea and fact that most of your stuff not fitting in boxes. You cry in frustration. You cry because you have to take two cats in a car for 11 hours. You cry because starting over is hard. I did none of that. I didn't cry over any of it, although I worried. I worried that my 17 year-old cat wasn't going to be strong enough to take on an 11 hour drive. I worried that my boy cat might be stuck under a blanket the entire time and overheat. I worried that when I got to my new location I'd go insane because there was going to be so much to do and not enough time. But then, sometimes there doesn't ever seem to be enough time.

Moving is traumatic, and hard. Now that I am in my new location I haven't a clue what to do. I have to build a new writing community from the ground up. I have to build new friendships from the ground up. I have to put myself out there. That is frightening. Putting yourself out there is frightening. Not knowing what people will think about you when they first meet you. It is really hard, especially when you don't know how much strange to let out.

For a little while I am going to go insane. I'm going to try to learn my way around. I am going to learn my way around and eventually I'll get to a grocery store.

Well, that is all I can say for now, but only because I don't know where I am anymore. My life is in chaos, but that is okay because I thrive in chaos. I love it, and when things get organized I will be okay with that too.

But starting over is hard, and I hope I can meet some awesome new people soon, otherwise I just might go insane.

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Author Interview with Kim Darnell

What's in a Critique Group?

Poetry

Maine

NaNoWriMo

Moving

Stacy Kingsley

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