Interview with women’s fiction author Kim Pierce

Today’s special guest author is women’s fiction author Kim Pierce to chat about her debut novel, My Dead True Love.

During her virtual book tour, Kim will be awarding a $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!

Bio:
Kim Pierce is a former Dallas Morning News writer and editor who completed the Writer’s Path fiction program at Southern Methodist University. My Dead True Love is her first novel, inspired by events surrounding the death of her fiancé in 1998. She lives in Dallas, Texas, with her partner and three cats.

Welcome, Kim. Please tell us a little bit about your new release.
Here’s the blurb:

When a newspaper reporter’s fiancé dies abruptly, she questions how he could just cease to be.

Dogged by unbidden thoughts, odd coincidences and unexplained phenomena, Ann Stewart becomes obsessed with finding out what really happens after we die and whether her beloved Gregory is still out there. She finds her answer, which takes her and a close-knit coterie of women to the edge of the cosmos—and the core of their own hearts.

Based on a true story.

Tell us something about your novel that is NOT in the blurb.
There is a scene where Ann, Ann’s daughter and Gregory walk-skip together to the drugstore just as the sun is setting and champagne pink clouds are streaking across the sky. It was inspired by the real-life, happiest moment of my life. Not to say I haven’t been happy before or since. Just that the synergy of that moment was magical.

Excerpt from My Dead True Love:
“Hello, and welcome to our lab,” Dr. Koslow said, radiating confidence and pride.

“Let me walk you through what will happen. You and I will go into the chamber and get comfortably seated in the two chairs. Adrian will hook us up to the monitors and, as we go through the synchronized-sound sequence, he’ll use the monitors to track everything that’s happening to our physical bodies. Physiologically, it will resemble sleep. But it’s not. Also, I can assure you that you will be in good hands. He and I have both done this many times.”

I wanted to believe him, and again I had the impression of a calm, steady pilot. But no matter what he said I still had that chattering sensation in my teeth and felt as if tremors were going off in my body.

I worried: Could I overcome my fears and do this? Or would I completely wash out? Would I get “out,” only to be unable to get back in? Connie had spent hours preparing me for this, showing me how to focus on my breathing and quiet my monkey mind, but… I still felt so utterly unprepared. And my questions persisted: How would I know Gregory? What would he look like? Would he see me? Could we touch? What if I didn’t want to leave?

Connie moved close to me and slid her arm through mine.

“I know you’re still scared,” she said. “Just trust the process and do the best you can.”

How long have you been writing?
Since I could hold a pencil. Writing came easy in school, whether it was answering essay questions on a test or putting together a research paper. I didn’t really comprehend that this could be a career path till my last semester of college, when I took one journalism class. Following graduation, my first freelance assignment was with the Chicago Sun-Times Sunday magazine—a story about a glam-rock Chicago band that got busted in Conroe, Texas. I was hooked.

What advice would you give a new writer just starting out?
First, be persistent and disciplined. Write every day. Writing is a muscle that you develop with reps. Second, read. Read for pleasure. Read for knowledge. Notice the kind of writing that attracts and inspires you. Then, once you figure out what you’d like to write—fiction, non-fiction, sports, romance, poetry—get thee to a class or workshop to learn the basics. The basics aren’t a straightjacket, by the way. They free you to create intelligently.

Do you have any tattoos?  Where? When did you get it/them? Where are they on your body?
Yes, I have two. They are on either side of my pelvis at about hip-socket level. I got them in 2012 when I was diagnosed with cervical cancer. They’re the line-up marks for radiation treatment. Probably not the answer you were expecting.

Is your life anything like it was two years ago?
A qualified yes. The pandemic was a factor in giving up my farmers market beat at the newspaper, facilitating a fairly painless slide into retirement. But I still was working on my novel. The biggest change has been less travel. My partner and I haven’t visited our beloved Vancouver Island, Canada, for several years. We miss Point No Point.

Links:
Website | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter

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