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TBP: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
KC: I always think of myself as a big mash of things. It’s hard when people ask “what do you do?” I don’t have a clean answer. I teach, I write, my daughter is in a homeschool cooperative so I spend a lot of time being her teacher (which is probably my favorite of all my ‘jobs’), I have a fabulous husband. I also love to travel and be outdoors and hang out with my friends. I love lattes and chocolate chip cookies and pizza and funny movies. That’s some of the mash J.
TBP: Describe both of your YA novels in nine words or less.
KC: Songs for a Teenage Nomad: Lost girl finds herself through music and love.
Instructions for a Broken Heart: Italy trip lets busy girl heal her broken heart.
TBP: What inspired you to write Songs for a Teenage Nomad? Instructions for a Broken Heart?
KC: My teaching is probably my biggest inspiration. My students really motivate me to write. There is so much richness in watching teenagers evolve and make their choices – both good and bad. Being a teenager is so complex – it makes for great fiction.
TBP: Writing a book is never easy. (Except for those people who have a ghost writer doing all the work.) Which of your YA novels do you feel you had an easier time writing and why?
KC: Honestly, Instructions was probably easier simply because I had more time to do it. When I wrote Songs I was teaching high school full time and I was also running the after school drama program so I had to fit writing that book into tiny slivers of time whereas with Instructions I just had more actual time to write. But I have a funny writing process. I’m not that steady writer who has a schedule. I tend to write in bursts when a novel is just literally knocking about my head so much I have to get it out of there so I can get other stuff done (which sounds super weird but that’s how it seems to happen with me).
TBP: Instructions for a Broken Heart takes place in Italy? Have you ever been? If so, what was your favorite thing about it? If not, what would you most look forward to experiencing if you could go?
KC: In my second year of teaching high school, another teacher and I took 16 students to Italy for spring break, so I’ve been on a school trip to Italy, just as the teacher and not the student. There are so many things to love about Italy, seriously not enough room in this post to cover them but I especially loved the color of the light in Italy. It’s so lush and dreamy. It’s an incredible place. I’d love to go back there someday.
TBP: Acc
ording to your Author Page, you've taught drama. What would you say was your favorite play ever done by your students and why?KC: So many good ones. I really loved directing The Breakfast Club with a group of students in my early years of teaching. There was something really special about that play mostly because that movie was so important to me as a teenager. And it was a small cast and we all got really close and talked so much about stereotypes and choices we make as teenagers. Yeah, that was a great experience.
TBP: It also appears you are a serious coffee drinker. What is your favorite way to take your coffee?
KC: Ha! I’d say I’m actually not a very serious coffee drinker since I drink lattes and my husband likes to tease me that that’s more like having some coffee with my milk. Still, I love Illy brand espresso in my lattes. It’s my favorite. But the way I most like to take my coffee is sitting across the table from my husband or my daughter or a dear friend and hearing about their day.
TBP: If you were to create your own 'Bucket List', what would be the first three things on it?
KC: Okay, that’s a super hard question. I think my bucket list changes each day but it
would involve places with mountains and the ocean. I love mountains and the ocean. So I’d like to go to Nepal. I’d like to rent a beach house for a summer somewhere on the central coast of California. And third? There is a special hike through the mountains up near Squaw Valley where there is this old grove of Aspens and it’s supposed to be totally amazing in the fall. We’ve been meaning to go do it every year and we only live about an hour away but we can’t seem to get our acts together. I’d like to do that.TBP: If
your house caught on fire, what would be the one material/personal item that you would have to save?KC: My computer – it has my writing, my pictures, my music….
TBP: Anything else you'd like to add before you go?
KC: Just a big thank you for having me on your blog!
And thank you, Kim! After having read Instructions for a Broken Heart and coming back and reading this interview, I can see where actual facts from Kim's experiences played into the book and I always love that! Hope you all enjoyed the interview!
My Review of Instructions for a Broken Heart
Instructions for a Broken Heart
Amazon / B&N / Kindle / Nook / Book Depository
Songs for a Teenage Nomad
Amazon / B&N / Kindle / Nook / Book Depository
Great interview questions Briana! They're so different from any I've seen before and I know that is hard to do.
ReplyDeleteKim, I'm more than a little jealous about your trip to Italy. It's one country I'm dying to visit someday. And The Breakfast Club is one of my all-time favorite movies. I can only imagine how intimate an experience it would have been to work with students to recreate it. Thanks for stopping by :)