Rookie Wednesday: Kimberly Derting

This week's newbie author is Kimberly Derting who's novel, The Body Finder, is set to be released on March 16, 2010.

What's one random tidbit about yourself?

Random…hmm. Okay, here’s random: I only eat chocolate on Christmas Day. But on Christmas, I eat a lot of it. A lot!

What were you doing before you sold The Body Finder

I’ve done several different things, from working at an airline, to being a real estate agent, but mostly I’ve been a stay-at-home mom. But along the way I was always writing. I had a horror novel that I kept submitting, reworking, and re-submitting. I was completely hung-up on it. I just couldn’t give it up. And then one day, I decided that I’d had it, I needed to be done with it. I made up my mind that if I was going to write, I was going to write…whether my work was ever published or not. And from that moment on I never looked back. I got serious about my new projects, and I finished The Body Finder in about six months. Shortly afterward, I met my agent at a writer’s conference in Los Angeles and she sold it. I think I just really needed to get “unstuck” from that one novel that was holding me back. Sometimes you just have to walk away.

Over the past six months, what has been the best book that you've read?

That’s tough. I’ve read SO many great books this year (especially since I’ve been involved in an ARC swap with the 2009 Debuntantes and The Tenners…talk about some AMAZING books!). But the one I just finished, and can’t get out of my head, is NIGHT by Elie Wiesel. It’s absolutely haunting. My son read it in school and then bought it for me for my birthday. Best gift ever!

Was the process of writing and publishing your first novel what you expected it to be?

In some ways it’s been everything I ever dreamed of and more, but nothing at all that I expected. There have been so many “surprises” along the way, like how much I would LOVE editing my manuscript, or how I would feel holding my first ARC in my hands, or how much pressure I would feel writing a second book that was under contract. One thing that I really found surprising was how much power the buyers at the major bookstores have in determining what the final cover will look like. They can veto an idea that the publisher and the author love, and make everyone go back to the table to come up with something new. Fortunately that didn’t happen to me, but I’ve heard some stories! The other thing that’s been difficult to adjust to is all of the waiting. There’s so much more waiting than I ever anticipated, and, unfortunately, I’m not a very patient person. The waiting kills me!

Give us one embarrassing author moment:

I went to the Seattle stop of HarperTeen’s Supernatural Summer Tour and while I was (trying) to introduce myself to Kim Harrison I actually called myself a “Harper Arthur”…when, in fact, I am not actually an “Arthur” but an “author”. Thankfully, she showed tremendous grace and managed NOT to laugh in my face. So far all of the authors (and the Arthurs, too) that I’ve met have been extremely warm and welcoming.

What would you most like potential readers to know about you and/or your book?

Probably one thing I’d like to clarify to anyone who has read The Body Finder is that I’m really not all that sick and twisted. Anyone who’s read the killer’s sections of the book might beg to differ, but seriously, I’m pretty damn boring.

What's your favorite thing about The Body Finder?

I really like the main character, Violet. To me, she’s a good, strong female protagonist. Not the kick-ass, in-your-face kind of strong, but a confident, every-day-girl strong. And she relies heavily on her friendships, which I think is really important for girls. I think sometimes girls need to be reminded to cherish their girlfriends.

What projects do you have in the pipeline?

I’ve already turned in book two of The Body Finder, currently titled Desires Of The Dead, and am working on a new YA project that I’m very excited about. I’m super-secretive about works-in-progress…something about jinxing them and losing all of my mojo. I’m about 30,000 words into it and haven’t even told my agent what it’s about yet!

Any final comments?

I’d just like to say thanks for having me today. Great interview questions, Jacqueline, I had a lot of fun answering them!

Thanks Kimberly for the awesome interview!

The Body Finder synopsis from KimberlyDerting.com:

Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes that the dead leave behind in the world... and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find the dead birds her cat had tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer... and becoming his prey herself.

Make sure to check out Kimberly's site and her blog for more info about her and The Body Finder!