Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I used to be a mini celebrity (mostly in my own mind) when I sang for a living in Hawaii. I had a cover band, who did pop music and sang in the big hotels, most often doing convention show entertainment. Once I opened for Maya Angelou’s keynote address for Herbalife and another time I opened for Jay Leno. I was nominated for Entertainer of the Year in 1990 on Maui and lost to a gal who is Hawaii’s most beloved Hawaiian singer now, Amy Gilliom.
This year, my book The Dream Jumper’s Promise is nominated for BEST INDIE FIRST BOOK and it looks like I’ll be second again. But I don’t care! I love to write and Dream Jumper was a blast to formulate in my head. People say there are so many twists, turns and surprises so you can imagine how fun that was. The Big Reveal was a last minute addition, just before I published it last winter.
I am also a published author with The Wild Rose Press in their suspense line. My novel is Necessary Detour, a story about a retired rock star. (Gee where did I get that idea?)
AND, I write under a pen name for my contemporary romance novella series The Husband Hunt. My nickname is Kiki, with my girlfriends, so it wasn’t hard to think up the name Kiki Abbott. The last name was formed by my need to be at the beginning of every list and line.
I have a full length novel coming out this summer (2013) called The Need for Something Sweet. It is the first book I ever wrote and comes straight from my heart.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest is The Dream Jumper’s Promise, a romantic, suspenseful, mystery with elements of the supernatural. The story centers around a second chance love story that involves being able to share dreams. It’s with this ability the hero helps solve a mystery for the heroine who can’t recover from her husband’s presumed surfing death.
I initially just wanted to write about Maui, an island I love and a place I lived for eleven years. They say write what you know so I chose to have the heroine a scuba instructor, which is what I did for my day job when I lived on The Valley Isle.
I wanted to add some elements of the paranormal in a magical realism sense and knowing that women love mysteries, I set out to make the book a mystery. It actually took over two years to write, edit and publish–a long time, but I’m proud of the story. EAch chapter went through my critique group and then the final was edited professionally. If there are typos or grammatical problems, it is only because I went back in obsessively to change phrasing, sentences, words. I still can’t leave the thing alone! Help!
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m sure this isn’t unusual for a mother trying to write a book but I get interrupted every few minutes when I write, either by one of my children, a dog, the phone, my husband who works from home or the 1001 things I should be doing instead of writing. I like to visualize my characters and Pinterest is great for that. I also end up dreaming about them, but that isn’t a writing habit.
Something that I do in my personal process of writing a book, that might be considered unusual is that I first draft a very childishly written version of the story to get the idea down. I don’t edit, go back and fix anything but just plough ahead. Then I go back in about 6-20 times to add, plump up, fix, edit, change, write descriptive passages etc. The second pass is the real writing of the book.
My novellas get three or four passes and that’s why I publish under a different name -Kiki.
My novels get up to 20 passes and that’s why it takes so bloody long for me to put out a book.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love Elin Hilderbrand, Jodi Piccoult, Elizabeth Berg, Audrey Neffenegger, Anita Shreve, Lolly Winston, Carol Mason, as well as Marian Keyes, Nora Roberts, Cherry Adair, Stephanie Meyers,and countless others. I just don’t read Vampires (only Twilight), shapeshifters, poorly written romance or horror. I love really good Women’s Fiction, Historical Romance, if it isn’t cheesey, and love mysteries with a love story, as long as the mystery doesn’t involve grisly crime.
What are you working on now?
I just finished a 15,0000 word contemporary romance for an anthology with three other writers that will be pubbed and out in early June 2013 and next I plan to edit The Need for Something Sweet, my romantic women’s fiction that is set in Asia when a woman from L.A. moves to Taiwan to recover from an abusive marriage.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I like twitter because I can do it fast and easily, five times a day, facebook works well if you have fans on there and not just other writers and I have a networking group of about 50 writers and we cross network each other’s stuff on our sites and blogs and tweets.
But, the best way to promote is these sites like Awesome Gang. For a new writer, having these places to promote for a small fee, and sometimes no fee, is absolutely golden. Thanks Awesome Gang!!!
Do you have any advice for new authors?
If you are really serious about launching an actual career, be prepared to spend a HUGE amount of time promoting. Learn social media as well as writing skills.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
If you want something, never give up.
What are you reading now?
I just finished ‘Shameless’ by Rebecca Clarke which I loved and am now reading ‘An Ear for Lies’, by Christine M. Fairchild. She’s a critique partner (lucky me!) so I get to read it early. When I’m in writing mode, I need to read’ like’ authors to keep focused and both these gals are very good writers of romantic suspense.
I have a very long list of books to be read like Gone Girl, Summerland and Amy Hatvaney’s new book.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Publishing The Need for Something Sweet, this summer, promoting three novels this year, writing the second in The Dream Jumper Series and becoming a New York Times Bestselling Author!
I also teach an online class called Channeling Your Inner Rock Star about confidence in public settings and I’m going to set up a summer class on YouTube for that.
Making trailers is also on my to-do list and I’m excited about the visualization of my novels.
And promoting the summer anthology with Lori Leger, Trish Findley Leger and Karen Sue Burns.
What is your favorite book of all time?
One of my favorites is The Blue Bistro by Elin Hilderbrand
Author Websites and Profiles
Kim Hornsby Website
Kim Hornsby Amazon Profile
Kim Hornsby’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account