Meet Debut Author, Kimberli Buffaloe

Available at Amazon

I first met Kimberli Buffaloe when she joined the Penwrights Critique group where I was already a member. I soon fell in love with her writing and as our friendship grew, came to love her as a friend. She recently joined the ranks of indie authors with her debut novel Learning to Live Again, written under the pen name of Kimberli McCay, and I’m happy to introduce her to you now, with this interview.

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Kimberli, this is your debut novel. What sparked the story?

The original plot was inspired by a debate I had with my husband, with me setting up the story as I would a chessboard and attempting to move the characters toward checkmate. I was a newbie writer at the time with an agenda, so it was a game I lost. As my writing matured, I dug deeper into the characters’ lives and motivations and found the real story.

What would you do differently if you were starting your publishing career today?

Pray harder, speak less, listen more.

Share a bit of your journey to publication.

After several false starts, my journey began ten years ago after we moved to South Carolina so my husband could attend seminary full-time. We suddenly became empty nesters, and though I worked, I found myself with time on my hands. I joined an online writers’ group, which led me to American Christian Fiction Writers. The story after that is typical of most authors—high points and low, earning publishing credits, and meeting great people.

Where do you write: In a cave, a coffeehouse, or a cozy nook?

We live on a half-acre in a neighborhood surrounded by farmland, so I camp out on my sofa with my feet propped on the coffee table where I can gaze out the window and daydream when I need to think through a scene.

What would you do if you didn't write?

I enjoy Carolina history so much, my husband claims I should teach the subject. But I’m a pastor’s wife, so my work has to be flexible and portable. I would love to work at the Caroliniana Room at the University of South Carolina, though.

What issue makes you struggle as an author? How do you handle it?

Discouragement, of course, but when I look back over the years, I can see how that discouragement led to personal and professional growth.

What are your top 3 recommendations for a new writer?

Present yourself as a professional, whether at a conference or in an online group. It’s easy to grow comfortable and vent or share too much of your personal life.

Always assume you have more to learn. Listen to those in the industry and to those who provide feedback.

My youngest daughter, a former Airman, participates in Spartan Races. She loves that participants often help one another over difficult obstacles and that they encourage one another toward the finish line. The writing life can easily be compared to those brutal races (though the Spartan finish line is far closer!) so do ye likewise.

Then what 3 things would recommend not doing?

Don’t pass up the opportunity to attend a few writers conferences.

Don’t hope an agent or editor will love your story so much, they’ll overlook the flaws in your writing. They won’t. If an agent or editor requests material, send a well written, polished manuscript.

Don’t ignore an agent or editor’s guidelines.

Some say a writer is born and others say anyone can learn. What do you think?

I believe it’s both. Certainly some authors have a gift for prose, but some have a gift for storytelling, and still others have a story to tell.

What's the strangest or funniest experience you've had in writing?

I embarrassed myself in front an author at a Blue Ridge Conference. Next question.

Do you prefer the creating or editing aspect of writing? How do you feel about research?

My preference has switched over the years, and I now prefer editing. That’s where the real crafting begins. Research? Love it.

Do you consider yourself a visual writer? If so, what visuals do you use?

No. Visuals would only confuse me.

Do you work best under pressure or do you write at a leisurely pace??

Definitely under pressure. After my husband accepted a call to a church in an agrarian community, I found myself in the enviable position of having all the time in the world to write. I went from pounding out a draft in thirty to forty days while working full time, to pecking one out in a year as a stay-at-home pastor’s wife.

What are your writing rituals?

If I wanted to accomplish anything, I had to make changes. Following the lead of a professor I know, I started writing for an hour a day. Within the first five days, I had written close to five thousand words. That was motivation enough to continue the schedule. Now I clean my house, then write. I’m generally done before two in the afternoon.

What are your thoughts on critique partners?

I have very warm and fuzzy thoughts about them, especially mine. They do more than offer suggestions and corrections. They challenge me to grow and offer encouragement. I wouldn’t be where I am without them.

Any final thoughts?

We sit alone and write, and then we’re faced with the task of promoting ourselves and rising above the competition. Like the Spartan racers, don’t overlook the joy of boosting a straggler over a wall toward the finish line.

Learning to Live Again -- What's it about?

Some women have to forgive their husbands for being unfaithful. Vicky Morgan has to forgive hers for dying.

A year after a botched carjacking turned her into a widow at the age of twenty-five, Vicky meets a former police officer with connections to the crime that wrecked lives and sent her into hiding. She not only learns the fate of the officer injured in the attack, she has support from the only person who can understand what she suffered through that fateful night.

Clay Waters faces an uncertain future after his wife takes an extended vacation from their marriage. Unwilling to risk leaving their son without a parent, he quits his job at the police department. A decision that leaves him feeling useless until he meets the petite recluse who barely survived a face-off with a murderer.

Vicky gives Clay the sense of purpose he wants, and he provides her with protection she needs as she gradually expands her world and renews a faith she once tossed aside for a man. But when friendship turns to love, will the faith teaching them to forgive now keep them apart?

Kimberli's book is available on Amazon. 

A native of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, author Pamela S. Meyers lives in suburban Chicago with her two rescue cats, an hour's drive away from her hometown which she visits often to dig into its historical legacy. Her novels include Thyme for Love, and Love Will Find a Way, contemporary romantic mysteries and her 1933 historical romance, Love Finds You in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. She can often be found speaking at events around Lake Geneva or nosing in Wisconsin and other Midwestern spots for new story ideas.

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It's Never Too Late!

Patricia Bradley lives in North Mississippi and is a former abstinence educator and co-author of RISE To Your Dreams, an abstinence curriculum. But her heart is tuned to suspense. Patricia’s mini-mysteries have been published in Woman’s World, and her debut novel, Shadows of the Past, is the first of three set in Mississippi and will release February 4, 2014. She will present a workshop, Writing 50,000 words in 30 days, at the Mid-south Christian Writer’s Conference in Collierville, TN on March 8, 2014. When she’s not writing, she likes to throw mud on a wheel and see what happens.

NR: Leave a comment for Patricia and be entered in a drawing to receive her book. The winner will be announced on Novel Rocket's Facebook page tomorrow. Be sure to like us there! US residents only, please. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Novel-Rocket/129877663761335?ref=hl

I was late coming to writing; thirty-five before I even dreamed of characters, sixty-nine before my first book came out. Yep. That’s thirty-four years. Thirty-four years of writing and submitting, and in the early years getting a rejection almost by return mail.

I’ve often been asked what kept me writing all that time, and until lately I didn’t have a good answer, other than I couldn’t not write. But as I considered this post, I realized there was more to it than that. I want to share what I’ve come to realize.

One, I always believed I would be published. Where that came from, I have no idea. Other than that the first thing I ever wrote was published by Woman’s World. A mini-mystery. Then another one a few years later, and in another few years, they bought a third one. That really helped when the rejections came.

Two, I did the discipline. A lot of writers want to “have written.” They don’t actually want to sit behind a computer and write. I wrote every day. Well, not every day, but the days I couldn’t, I worked on the book in my head. When I finally could get to the typewriter (yes, I said typewriter, but at least it was electric) I was ready to write.

Then, in 1987, I bought my first computer, and taught myself to use it. It was a DOS machine, and at first, I shut it down by pushing the button. I’m afraid it took me more than once of not saving my work before I called the guy who sold me the computer—took him about an hour to walk me through the steps of shutting down the computer. Never said I was a fast learner.

Three, I learned the craft. That took a little longer. For a long time I worked in a vacuum. No craft buddies, no critique partners, no Internet, nothing but Writer’s Digest Magazine and a couple of writing books. Finally in 1998 I attended my first writing conference, the Florida Christian Writer’s Conference.

And. Learned. So. Much.

An exciting new world opened up. Since then I’ve attended many conferences from huge ones like ACFW(American Christian Fiction Writers) to smaller ones like the Southern Christian Writer’s Conference in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. This March I will be teaching a workshop at the Mid-South Christian Writer’s Conference in Collierville, Tennessee.

I urge anyone who is serious about writing to invest in their writing. Take classes, study books on writing, attend writing conferences. The conferences can be small, like the Mid-South  Conference or huge like ACFW or RWA, but make those connections. I still am friends with some of the writers I met in Florida way back in 1998. I even first met my agent there. Of course it was fourteen years before she signed me, but every time I ran into her at a conference, we talked. She started remembering me, and when I finally had a finished, polished manuscript we had a history.

Fourth, and the most important—I relied on God’s help and direction to write. He will guide your thoughts and words. I hope that if God has gifted you to write, you will use that gift, do the hard work of learning the craft and doing the actual writing and leave the rest to Him.

Shadows of the Past

Psychology professor and criminal profiler Taylor Martin prides herself on being able to solve any crime, except the one she wants most desperately to solve—the disappearance of her father twenty years ago. When she finally has a lead on his whereabouts, Taylor returns home to Logan Point, Mississippi, to investigate. But as she is stalking the truth about the past, someone is stalking her.

Nick Sinclair pens mystery novels for a living, but the biggest mystery to him is how he can ever get over the death of his wife—a tragedy he believes he could have prevented. With his estranged brother the only family he has left, Nick sets out to find him. But when he crosses paths with Taylor, all he seems to find is trouble. 

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Editor, Novelist, Liars Club ~ Meet Kathryn Craft

by Ane Mulligan

Kathryn Craft was a developmental editor at Writing-Partner.com, following a career as a dance critic. Having served on the boards of the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group and the Philadelphia Writers Conference, she hosts writing retreats and is a speaker. She is a contributing editor at The Blood-Red Pencil blog and a monthly guest at Writers in the Storm with her series “Turning Whine into Gold.” She is a proud member of the Liars Club, a Philadelphia-based group of novelists supporting independent bookstores, literacy, and other forms of paying it forward. She lives with her husband in Bucks County, PA.

Kathryn, you've written memoir essays, articles on the craft of writing for blogs and Writers Digest, and hundreds of articles on dance and other arts. How and when did you decide to turn your hand to fiction?

I was a confirmed nonfiction writer—with so many fascinating true stories in the world, I posed, why make anything up? Then tragedy upended all reason when my husband committed suicide after a daylong standoff at our farm. As story slowly brought order to chaos, I learned that sometimes fiction can feel more “true” than reported facts.

How was the process different to your non-fiction, and what is your process? Are you a plotter, a pantster, or somewhere in between?

With a strong anecdotal hook I could often rely upon intuition, interesting quotes, and flow to structure a cohesive feature. Not so for a novel. I drafted both my first and second novels by the seat of my pants, reaching toward perhaps a dozen predetermined emotional turning points as touchstones—then spent years undoing the damage. I needed to find a better way.

Have you discovered some secret that has helped your process for writing?

Thankfully, yes! I recently employed a process touted by novelist Molly Cochran—writing an extended synopsis. She says hers end up about 75 pages; mine ended up being 100. Writing “about” the story really helped me get to the heart of it and stay on track. When I was really feeling the heat in a scene I did allow myself to take down dialogue notes as well, so I wouldn’t lose them. This really worked for me, and boiling it down to 7 single-spaced pages gave me the multi-layered depth needed to try to sell on proposal.

Was there a specific 'what if' moment that sparked The Art of Falling?

There were several. First, I needed empathy for the kind of despair my husband experienced, even though I’m an optimist. What if a woman felt that way? I create a woman who had always wanted to be a dancer but was at war with her body, then started taking away career, lover, and support systems until I thought she might just give up—then, rather pulling her back from the edge, I let her fall right over it.

The fall was the result of the second “What if.” I read in the newspaper that a woman had fallen fourteen stories and walked away with only a broken arm—and this was the second time she’d failed to kill herself! I thought, “What if this happened to my protagonist—would she get the message it wasn’t yet her time to die?”

The third was what if a woman whose body is unstoppable but her spirit is flagging befriends a woman whose body is failing but whose spirit is enduring—what could these women give one another?

With those layers in place I was ready to write.

Do you consider yourself a visual writer? If so, what visuals do you use?

I envision my characters and places, certainly, but I don’t look at pictures. That feels too limiting. I also can’t listen to music! I need as much quiet as possible.

Some say a writer is born and others say anyone can learn. What do you say?

Not sure biological birth has anything to do with it. I believe a writer is born of her desire to order her thoughts through the written word, in whatever form that takes. As for fiction, I think most novelists have been influenced from an early age by older storytellers in their lives.

What are your thoughts on critique partners? 

The role of critique partners cannot be underestimated while you are acquiring the early skills of a creative writer. Writing for publication assumes a public, and you need a sample public to see how your work adds up in a new reader’s mind. But at some point you need to commit to writing the book, and have it evaluated as a whole. Because no novel can suspend disbelief over a one-chapter-per-month reading, I now only use full manuscript swaps with trusted readers.

Do you prefer the creating or editing aspect of writing?

Editing. For me, that’s where I fully orchestrate what was once a simple melody.

What's the most difficult part of writing for you ~ plotting, setting, characterization?

I don’t think any of these things are particularly difficult on their own. The real trick is in interweaving them to tell an effective story.

What's your strength in writing?

Those early attempts as a pantser failed because I did not yet understand classic storytelling structure. So I brought teachers into my life—Juilene Osborne-McKnight, James N. Frey, Donald Maass, James Scott Bell, Nancy Kress—and over many years of concerted effort I turned my weakness into my strength. For the past seven years working as a developmental editor my specialty has been in assessing story structure.

Did you have any surprising discoveries while writing this book?

Since this novel reflected my own healing journey, from acceptance through empathy to forgiveness, my protagonist evolved as well. Let’s just say she was once a much angrier, less empathetic character! I knew I’d be done once I’d created a woman who could be pushed to the brink, fall off, and then find new heights—in other words, someone whom I’d admire.

When you're not writing at your summer home in northern New York, where do you write? Do you have a favorite chair at Starbucks or hole up in a cozy attic nook?

I’m usually in my lovely, light-filled loft office at home—a real change for me, because before moving four years ago, my office was in a basement walled with exposed stone—also lovely, but much darker. At least once a week I can be found among other women with open laptops in the second floor café of a Wegman’s grocery store, adding a social element to our solitary work.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve heard?

I love this quote from Virginia Woolf: “Each sentence must have, at its heart, a little spark of fire, and this, whatever the risk, the novelist must pluck with his own hands from the blaze.” Not a spark on each page—a spark in each sentence. And when writing fails, I think it’s because the writer did not dare to get close enough to the fire.

Do you have any parting words of advice?

Join organizations. Go to conferences and workshops. Network with writers further down the path. Only you can set the words on the page, but a writer’s life does not have to be lonely. Drink in the support that surrounds you and then pass it on to someone else. We are all mentors.

The Art of Falling

One wrong step could send her over the edge.

All Penny ever wanted to do was dance—and when that chance is taken from her, it pushes her to the brink of despair, from which she might never return. When she wakes up after a traumatic fall, bruised and battered but miraculously alive, Penny must confront the memories that have haunted her for years, using her love of movement to pick up the pieces of her shattered life.

Kathryn Craft's lyrical debut novel is a masterful portrayal of a young woman trying to come to terms with her body and the artistic world that has repeatedly rejected her. The Art Of Falling expresses the beauty of movement, the stasis of despair, and the unlimited possibilities that come with a new beginning. 

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