About Kim Cox:
Author of Romantic Suspense, Romance and Paranormal Mysteries, Kim Cox, lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina with her chainsaw artist husband and their two Westies – Scooter and Harley. She’s a mother and a grandmother.
Kim has another romantic suspense novel available now, Suspicious Minds. She has written research articles on the WWI and WWII eras previously published, but now freely available on her website; an essay on the death of Princess Diana received a byline in True Story’s Special Edition. Her short stories have been published in True Love Magazine, The Pen Is Mightier, and various RWA Chapter newsletters. Two short articles were published in Crumbs In The Keyboard the Spring of 2002—proceeds went to the education and awareness of domestic violence.
Besides writing, Kim designs and maintains Web sites, creates book covers and works as an MIS Specialist with Mountain Area Workforce Development Board in Asheville, North Carolina. She’s a graduate of two writing schools, Writer’s Digest’s Writing To Sell Fiction and NRI’s Fiction Writing. She has received an associate’s degree in Office Systems Technology (winning the Academic Achievement award) and Web Technologies, and she obtained a diploma in Medical Office Administration.
What inspires you to write?
Life and a great imagination. I’ll watch, read or experience something and think those magic words “what if” and then my imagination grabs hold of that something and goes wild.
Tell us about your writing process.
I’m actually both an outliner and a seat-of-the-pants writer, but more of the latter. I normally begin with the idea or a situation, I write a short synopsis and if I’m writing another story at the time, I keep it for later and if not, I start writing the story. I go back and research and flesh things out during the first rewrite. I believe this type of writing can add to more rewrites later on, but it’s easier for getting the first draft written. This type of writing is also more inspiring for me in that it’s very satisfying to write the end to a book or story. This was the way I wrote my first book.
With the second full-length book, I started with the synopsis as normal, then I did a characterization chart and an outline, but when it was about three-fourths completed, I was stuck, had writer’s block or whatever you want to call it. I knew where I wanted to go, but the book was getting long and I wasn’t sure how I wanted to get from where I was to the end. Finally, after writing other short books, I figured it out and finished it.
With the next books, I plan to go back to writing by the seat-of-my-pants. If I know too much about what’s going to happen, I seem to lose interest like when you’re reading a book and someone who has read it spoils the end for you.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I do listen to my characters. I love writing when the characters themselves take over and the words just seem to flow from your fingertips.
What advice would you give other writers?
Never give up. Be persistent. If you want to write and be published, you can’t be sidetracked by rejection letters from publishers or criticism from readers, judges or reviewers because not everyone will like what you write no matter what you do.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
With the first book, I sent query letters, the next three chapters, and then the full-length multiple times to one publisher at a time. The last time, it took 18 months and from what I hear was in the last step before being accepted and then I received the rejection letter. I decided to go the small publisher ebook route after that because life is too short to sit around and wait a year or more for acceptance or rejection. Not too long ago, a few months ago while writing this last book, after much research, I decided to self-publish my books from now on to see if that works for me.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I believe there are more and more authors moving toward self-publishing. I believe there will always be the big publishers, although, fewer of them, and there will always be the small online publishers but again, fewer.
What do you use?: Beta Readers
What genres do you write?: Romantic Suspense, Mystery, Paranormal Mystery, Paranormal, Western Historical Romance
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Kim Cox Home Page Link
Link To Kim Cox Page On Amazon
