Author Kimberly Derting Interview

Kimberly is a part of my 2010 Debute Author Challenge. I read the synopsis of the book and I was like "MAN I HAVE TO READ THIS!" I contacted her in hopes of getting a review copy, unfortunately there weren't any available. However I did get to do this amazingly & awesome interview with her. She made me laugh quite a lot, and I anticipate reading "The Body Finder" as soon as I can get my hands on it. Thank you Kimberly for this fun interview I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did?!

Where did you come up with the idea for "The Body Finder." a dream, or did it just come to you, or....?

It all came to me in a dream and when I woke up the next day, I wrote the entire book on the back of a napkin! Ok, so that didn’t happen, but how cool would that have been??? Actually, my husband came up with this random idea about a boy who could find dead bodies. As soon as he said that, I immediately started creating Violet’s creepy ability and of course, changed the main character to a girl. Of course if you ask my husband, he will still tell you that he’s my co-author!


Your book is YA. Are you like Stephen King, not allowing your children to read your work? Which is funny because you reference him in your Q&A's.
Wow, my first comparison to Stephen King! Ok, so maybe you didn’t actually compare me to him but I’m going to pretend you did! My oldest daughter read the book when it was still in manuscript form and my 16-year-old probably never will! He’s such a teenager (meaning that anything his mom does is flat-out embarrassing)! My nine-year-old has been begging me to read it, and so far, I’ve only let her read the prologue and first chapter. I don’t have a problem with her reading it in a couple of years, though; she understands that I made it up.


How did you feel on your first book tour, surrounded by vast talent?
I haven’t actually gone on the Supernatural Summer Tour yet, but I’m super-excited to be included with such a talented group of HarperCollins authors. I did go to one of their signings last year when they stopped in Seattle , but only has a crazed fan-girl! I may have been a little nervous when I met Kim Harrison because I introduced myself as a “Harper Arthur” instead of a Harper author. :)


How stressful was it to write your "first" book? First being loosely titled since you had a previous unpublished novel. Do you feel the sequel is going to be more or less easier, and why?
Before The Body Finder was picked up by HarperCollins, I was about half way finished with Desires of the Dead so there wasn’t a lot of pressure to write book two then. I do think that any time you write a sequel, there’s a lot of pressure not to disappoint your readers. Now that it’s all done, though, I’m very very excited about the sequel and can’t wait for it to be released!


Can you recall the first book you ever read? What was it about?
I still have my very first “favorite” book, the one that I used to read over and over again. It’s called “The Sesame Street Book of Puzzlers”. (My grandparents gave it to me when I was four.)


What was your first reaction to your very first review?
For me, it was a dream come true! I couldn’t believe that someone had actually read my book and (fortunately for me) loved it! What made it extra-special was that it was from a blogger who lived in the same state as me, and I’ve had the pleasure of meeting her several times now…and even her dad has read my book! How cool is that??


The unpublished FIRST novel, what was it about?
I wrote my first horror novel when I was 19, called ONE OF THEM. It was about a town of people that were basically a secret cult, and there a little bit of a supernatural twist as well. To be honest, it was a complete mess! Let’s just chalk that one up to good practice. :)


Three minutes to pitch a script? I can't imagine anyone subjecting themselves to that amount of stress.
I was so nervous that I confused the words “urban” and “rural” when my agent (who wasn’t my agent at the time) asked me about the setting for the book. Umm…DUH! Fortunately, she saw past my nerves and signed my anyway, but yeah, it was incredibly nerve-wracking!


Any heads up on the sequel?
Desires of the Dead will be release in 2011! We will get to see the love story between Jay and Violet develop and there may or may not be a dead body or two!