About Kimberly Wylie:
Kimberly Wylie loves to write books about murder, mystery and mayhem. She's especially fond of paranormal cozy mysteries, with some of her favorite authors being Adele Abbott, Emery Belle, and (non-paranormal cozy author) Joanne Fluke.
When not writing, you can find Kimberly enjoying the sunshine, the beach or the reef, from her home on Ambergris Caye, Belize. She lives there with her husband and the best English Cream Golden Retriever in the world—Coco.
What inspires you to write?
I suppose the thing that inspires me to write the most is my love of exploring "What if…?" I love to think about the way the small choices made in life can lead to vastly different results—different endings. I remember as a little girl, I loved the 'choose your adventure' type books for just this reason.
Now, as a writer, I get to explore those possibilities and then make a decision what path my characters will take. It's a bit like playing with literary Barbie and Ken dolls. You have complete control over an entire world, and that's a lot of fun!
What authors do you read when you aren’t writing?
I have a lot of authors I really love and admire. I love Agatha Christie. She's still my mystery inspiration. I'm also a huge fan of JK Rowling. Her ability to seamless weave a series arc across her books, often without the reader knowing it until later, is brilliant.
Stephen King is a story telling master! And his ability to research blows my mind. Have you read 11/22/63? The amount of research in that one book most people won't do in a lifetime. Dan Brown is a super-close second to King in his ability to research and then put this historical reality into his works of fiction.
Madeline L'Engle is the author who first spurred me to begin writing. Wrinkle in Time made me realize in writing I could literally create any world I wanted. That was a very powerful realization.
Tell us about your writing process.
My writing process is a mixture of both outliner and pantser. I have a general idea of where I want my story line to go when I start. And, as in my Jenna Sutton Supernatural Cozy Mystery series, I have series arcs that need bits and pieces included in each new book, so having a quasi-outline is important.
However, I think of writing like a road trip. I may know I am traveling from New York City to Los Angeles. I may know I want to stop in Chicago and go out on the Skydeck at Willis Tower. However, if during my travels I see a sign for the world's largest twine ball that veers me off-course a little bit or causes me to detour, I'm OK with that.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I do occasionally talk to my characters—although not out loud, because my husband already thinks I'm weird enough. 🙂 My conversations are often centered around "What do you want to do about that?" if I get to a bit of tricky spot in writing. I also sometimes try to get them to tell me about their inner feelings/motivations—things that don't necessarily come directly out in the book but are important to having consistent character portrayals.
What advice would you give other writers?
My top piece of advice for writers is—read. Read your favorite genres and authors. Read genres you don't normally gravitate to. Read authors you've never heard of. Learn from every single book you encounter. Think about the character development, the plot pace, the grammar, the character voices, etc. the authors use. What did you like? What didn't you like?
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I was blessed to have worked in the publishing industry for two decades before deciding to start my own boutique publishing company—Cypress Canyon Publishing. I created the company to really be able to focus on my own writing. Of course, I then came across several amazing manuscripts that really needed to be shared with the world, so my own writing was derailed for a few years, while I published those books.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
Print on demand technology has allowed so many authors the opportunity to self-publish. This is both a blessing and a curse for the industry. It means that with very little financial investment needed, many excellent authors who may not have been picked up by a traditional publishing house get their stories shared with the world.
However, it also means too many self-published authors' books that are really not market ready get published. This can be something as simple as an author who hasn't had their book professionally edited (or, worse, they relied on a cheap freelancer to 'edit' their book that did a subpar job). It can be poor quality cover art that really does the story a disservice. Or it could be a story that has some significant development issues that really needed to be worked a bit more before being released to market.
Sadly, I think my crystal ball is seeing virtual bookshelves filled with more of these poorer quality books, which may make it harder for readers to find the really excellent books. For this reason, I think reviews are going to be even more critical for readers in helping to find the diamonds out there.
What genres do you write?: Cozy Mystery, Paranormal Cozy Mystery, YA Cozy Mystery
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Kimberly Wylie Home Page Link
Link To Kimberly Wylie Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
