Welcome to Zane's Blog Tour,
Meet author Kimberly Lewis
In November of
2011, author Kimberly Lewis stepped into the writing world with her first
original western contemporary romance novel, When the Heart Falls.
Born and raised
on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, this country girl at heart caught the
creative bug at an early age, doing everything from drawing to writing short
stories.
After the birth
of her son, Kimberly found the inspiration to pick up a pen, or in this case a
laptop, and began writing her first novel. Since then she has continued to
write and credits her husband, Rob, and her wonderfully crazy family, who with
their love and joking demeanor provide her with the ideas that inspire her
novels.
In her spare
time she enjoys reading, horseback riding, and spending time with her amazing
family.
I would like to take a moment to share an interview with
author Kimberly Lewis.
Could you share a little about yourself and what led you to
become a writer?
I am a country girl, born and raised on the Eastern Shore of
Maryland. Some of my favorite activities to do are: reading and writing
(obviously, lol), horseback riding, anything crafty, and spending as much time
as I can with my little family. I have always had a love of reading and
creating stories, so I guess you could say that my journey to becoming an
author stemmed from that. I didn’t take it seriously though until a few years
ago when I fell in love with contemporary western romances and decided that that
was what I wanted to write. When inspiration finally hits, it hits you hard :-)
Do you write full time? How much of your life is set aside
for writing?
As much as I’d love to be able to write full time, that is
just not an option right now. I currently have a day job, I am a mother, a
wife, a home owner and a pet owner, so all of that comes before writing. Most
of my writing time happens when everyone in my house is asleep :-) I’ll set up
my laptop at my dining room table—my office for the time being—and work until
the wee hours of the morning. I lose a lot of sleep doing it that way, but it
is so worth it.
Could you tell us a little about your novel?
The story is about a woman, Kellan (aka Andi), who runs away
from her abusive ex-boyfriend and finds herself in cowboy country. At first
she’s just appalled by everything and everyone there, but she decides that it
would be the perfect place to hide from her ex. She meets Zane in the beginning
of the novel and they don’t really get off to a great start. Thoroughly
disproving of one another, they both try their best to avoid seeing each other
again but living in a small town makes that pretty darn impossible. There is a
lot of bickering and distrust between the two at first, but the more time they
spend together the more they realize that they really aren’t so different after
all.
Would you take us on a brief tour of your novel and the
world you’ve created?
Well the story takes place in a little town called Buford,
Texas. It’s one of those tight-knit communities where everybody knows
everybody, one main paved road, lots of dirt, lots of farmland and lots of
livestock. Being in such a small, country town is quite a culture shock for
Andi, seeing as she’s never lived outside of the city before. Zane really doesn’t
have a lot of patience with her at first and tends to give her a hard time. But
his family makes up for his rudeness as they make her feel welcome and make it
their job to help her out along the way. The closeness and support of Zane’s
family is one of my favorite parts of the novel.
Where does the inspiration for your main character and story
come from?
Oh gosh, to be honest with you I don’t really think that I
can target a specific thing that inspired me. I think maybe one day I was in a
really bad mood and feeling depressed about something and thought about writing
my feelings down in a journal. Then the whole journal idea got me thinking
about this random woman and her writing down her feelings in a journal of her
own. Of course then my mind starting to wonder, “Well, why is she
depressed?”,“What brought her to this point?” I went through many plot ideas
before I settled on the one I chose for Zane and I really like having those
excerpts from Andi’s journal throughout the novel because it gives you a first
person point of view in a book that’s being told in the third person. You get a
chance to really feel what she’s feeling and I personally really like that.
What is the message behind the story? Was it something you
specifically wrote a story around or did it develop as your characters came to
life?
I didn’t write this story with the intention of having a
hidden message or deep meaning, but if had to choose one I would say that this
story carries the message to never give up on love. It sounds kind of cheesy
when I say it like that but I can’t really think of another way to describe it.
I honestly just wanted to write a love story about two very different people
who find out that they actually are more alike than they know and eventually
find that special connection with each other.
Do you work from an outline or just go with the flow? If you
use an outline, how detailed is it?
I kind of do both. Sometimes I just start with the idea and
write. Once I get into the story and get to know my characters, I’ll go back
and write up an outline of things I’d like to see happen in the story and when.
But I never stick to that outline and it’s not very detailed. It’s more of like
a list of ideas for each chapter (an example would be: Chapter 10 - Hero and
heroine go out on a date to a rodeo and hero’s ex-girlfriend shows up). I know
that’s something I’d like to see happen, but I just let the details fill in
around themselves as I write the story. I may get to chapter 10 and decide that
I don’t want that to happen anymore and completely toss the idea away.
What is the time span in your novel, weeks, months, years?
How much research went into it?
This novel’s time span is in months (June to September). As
far as research goes... The only amount of research I did was to make sure the
town I created didn’t exist :-) Yes I could have chose to use a real town, but
I always feel that no matter the amount of research I do to learn about that
particular location that I’d never be able to do it justice. Plus it’s a lot
more fun getting to create a whole new place from scratch.
How does this book differ from what you have written in the
past?
To be honest? This book is a lot sexier than my previous
novel. When I published my first novel, When the Heart Falls, I got a lot of
reader emails telling me that they really enjoyed it but wished that it had a
little more “action” in it—wink, wink, nudge nudge :-) The first draft of Zane
didn’t have any actual love scenes (more of a behind closed doors scenario),
but to please my readers I decided to take that step out of my comfort zone and
give them what they asked for.
How have the changes in present day publishing impacted your
schedule as a writer?
Well, I am a self-published author so I have the luxury of
not having to worry with someone setting a schedule for me. I write as fast or
as slow as I want and only when I am in the creative mood. I do try to put in
as much effort as I can to produce my novels as fast as my lifestyle allows me.
How do you handle marketing? Do you have a plan, a publicist
or just take one day at a time?
I do all the marketing myself and my husband helps out as
well. I try to talk about and share stuff from my works in progress as much as
I can. Then as the time gets closer to the book being published, I’ll get in touch
with virtual book tour companies and fellow bloggers about doing promotions. I
also use my social networks to help market my work. I would like to say I have
a plan in place, but I am still very new to the writing world so I tend to just
take things one day at a time and learn as much as I can.
Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
I do and it’s actually one of my favorite quotes:
“Write the kind of story you would like to read. People will
give you all sorts of advice about writing, but if you are not writing
something you like, no one else will like it either.” -Meg Cabot
Could you tell us what you’re working on now?
Right now I’m working on the second book in my McKades of
Texas series. This story revolves around Zane’s younger sister, Norah, and her
love interest, Chase O’Donnell.
Kellan Anderson is in hillbilly hell—or at
least that’s what it feels like. After enduring endless accounts of abuse from
her now ex-boyfriend, Kellan makes a run for her life and finds herself in
cowboy country. Leaving her fancy clothes and expensive lifestyle behind her,
she trades in her high heels for cowboy boots and changes her name to Andi
Ford. With her painful past threatening to catch up with her, hiding out in
this small town seems easy enough – until one blonde hair, blue eyed cowboy
steps in the picture.
Zane McKade has sworn off women, determining
that they are all liars and cheats—including the new waitress at the local bar.
After a rather unpleasant first encounter with the beautiful brunette, Zane’s
radar is set to high as he believes this woman is not who she claims to be.
When his intimidation methods fail to break through Andi’s barrier he decides
to turn on the charm to get her to tell the truth. But Zane’s plan begins to
backfire as the more time he spends charming Andi, the more he finds himself
breaking his own rules and falling for her.
Excerpt from Zane:
Kellan saw the
man coming her way and a nervous feeling began to grow in the pit of her
stomach. She hadn’t noticed it when he rode up, but he was incredibly good
looking. The man had to be a least six two, with long muscular legs leading up
to narrow hips that angled into a very masculine upper body. He looked like an
athlete. He looked…solid. And although his pale blue shirt was soaked with
sweat, it somehow added to his overall appeal. He stopped at her table and
glared at her. Only then did she realize that this man was not coming over for
friendly chit-chat and her mood shifted.
“Is that your
red sports car out there?” Zane asked, tilting his head and jerking his thumb
towards the parking lot.
“Yes,” Kellan
told him. What’s it to you? She stared up at him, waiting for him to continue.
But when he just stared back, his deep blue eyes shooting daggers at her, she
decided enough was enough. “Is there something I can help you with?”
Zane’s jaw
flexed. “You could have four miles ago.”
“What?” She was
utterly confused as to what mileage had to do with his apparent anger towards
her.
“I don’t look
familiar to you?” He stared at her, his eyebrows coming together in
frustration.
She looked the
man over from head to toe. “No, I’m sorry you don’t.”
Zane let out an
exasperated sigh. “How about now?” He raised his arms above his head and waved
them just like he had done when he was trying to flag her down.
He looked
completely ridiculous and she fought back the urge to laugh at him. But the
more she looked at him she realized that he did look strangely familiar. Oh my…
He was the man on the side of the road next to the pickup truck just outside of
town.
“Oh,” Kellan
said. “Yes, I do remember you now. I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you with your
shirt on.” She loaded her voice with sarcasm and crossed her arms over her
chest. If he was going to have an attitude with her, then she was going to give
it right back.
Zane’s eyes
narrowed. “Well, would you care to explain why you just blew past me like
that?”
Kellan laughed,
quietly as to not draw attention. “Why did I blow past you? Hmm, let me think.
Um, maybe it has to do with the fact that you were partially naked and in the
middle of nowhere.”
Well damn. He
hadn’t thought about that. He’d been all riled up thinking that some guy just
ignored him. Now, thinking about it from her perspective, he could see why she
didn’t pull over to help him. As it was though, his built up anger from
everything that had transpired today got the best of him and he continued with
his rant.
“I was not half
naked,” he said, his voice low as he briefly glanced around the room to see if
anyone could hear them speaking.
“Look, cowboy.”
She said the word as though it were an insult and not an affirmation of what he
obviously was. “I’m sorry you’re having a bad day, but don’t come over here and
take it out on me. I had a good reason for not stopping earlier and I’m not
going to apologize for looking after my own safety. You could’ve been a
murderer for all I knew.”
Zane knew that
he should just man up and walk away, but he just couldn’t do that now after her
snarky “cowboy” remark. Why’d she have to go and say it like that anyway?
“Look,
princess,” he said with the same tone she had used. “This ain’t Hollywood. Take
your sunglasses off. You’re inside and you look like a damn fool.”
Kellan’s jaw
fell in disbelief.
Zane smiled,
feeling triumphant that he got in the last word. He turned and started to walk
away from her.
“Screw you,
cowboy!” she yelled after him, saying the word exactly as she had before. “And that
horse you rode in on.”
And—Whoops!—now
everyone in the diner had turned to look at them.
Zane turned
around to face her with amusement on his face. “Very original, princess.”
Enjoy a guest post form Kimberly
My Advice for Aspiring Writers – 3 Things You Should Know by Kimberly
Lewis
Whenever I do an interview I always get the question,
“What advice would you give to aspiring authors?” So today I’m going to share
with you three things I feel that every aspiring author should know.
1)
Make sure
you do your research before you publish.
So you’ve written a book and are now ready for the world
to read it. That’s great! But, how exactly are you going to go about getting it
published? Make sure you do your research before you go jumping into anything.
Some people may find that going the traditional route of publishing is best for
them and others may find that going the self-published way is best. What it all
comes down to is what you feel most comfortable with. Don’t do something just
because someone tells you it’s “the right thing to do”.
2)
You’re job
isn’t not done when your book is published.
All self-published authors know what I’m talking about here, but this
advice isn’t limited to just the self-published world. When you choose to write
a book and publish it, the next step after that is to market your book. You
can’t expect to just throw your book out there and call it day hoping someone
will stumble upon it and buy it—sadly this is what I did when I published my
first book. But I learned my lesson and have since looked into different
avenues for marketing my work. A few of the ones I have found to be successful
are: Virtual book tours, developing a hype on your social networks (you would
usually do this prior to your book coming out), and free promotions.
3)
Make sure
you stay in touch with your readers.
It’s a rare thing that you’ll be producing a
new book every month, so make sure you are keeping in touch with your readers
and letting them know what’s going on in your writing world. Share excerpts
from your work in progress, etc. A good way to do this is through social
networks, a blog, or a website.
I hope you have found
this information helpfulJ Authors, what is the most helpful piece of advice you’ve received?
Book Link:
*Zane is currently only available in ebook format
Author Links:
