Kimmery Martin's Blog, page 2

Interview with Meg Wolitzer, Author of The Female Persuasion

I met Meg Wolitzer in Iceland. (How great is an opener is that sentence? I could hardly have invented better words to pass myself off as some sort of globetrotting, namedropping force.) I am going to have to tarnish the portrayal of my image a bit by fessing up that I didn’t just serendipitously encounter her traipsing up an Icelandic glacier or pounding bourbon in a Reykjavík bar; Meg was mentoring a group of aspiring writers at a conference, one of whom was me. But still. We have stayed in...

Interview With Jessica Strawser, Author of Not That I Could Tell

I am all kinds of delighted to be able to interview one of my writer heroines this week. Jessica’s Strawser’s debut novel, Almost Missed You, was named to Barnes & Noble’s Best new Fiction shortlist upon its release in March 2017 and it was one of my favorite books of the year. I’ve admired Jessica for years at the fantastic Writer’s Digest Conference held in New York City each summer; she’s the editor-at-large at Writer’s Digest magazine, where she served as editorial director for nearly a d...

My Junior Partner Ella Biber Reviews The Land of Stories

Please welcome Ella Biber, my newest junior partner! Ella is a third grader and an avid reader. When she’s not swimming or playing with her friends and family, she’s curled up devouring the latest book series. I am thrilled to have her book recommendations!The Land of Stories: Beyond the Kingdoms (Book #4)by Chris ColferI liked this book because Alex and Connor Baily are always up to something – either saving the world or chasing a bad guy. I’m on the edge of my seat every time I read their s...

Interview with Anna Quinn, author of The Night Child

I met Anna Quinn through a Facebook group for debut authors and was immediately intrigued both by her background and her book. Anna, a bookstore owner in the glorious northwest corner of Washington state, has a life I might have over-romanticized in my imagination: I picture her ensconced in a cozy backroom in her shop, pecking away at an old-fashioned black typewriter, a steaming mug of coffee at hand as outside her window the gray Pacific surf pounds. Or maybe that's not all that romanticiz...

Review of Small Victories: The Off-Camera Life of an On-Camera Mom by Molly Grantham

Okay, first of all, for those of you who don’t know, Molly Grantham is an Emmy award winning anchor and investigative reporter who has been named TV News Reporter of the Year for both Carolinas, one of Charlotte's top "40 under 40" and one of Mecklenburg County's "50 Most Influential Women.” If all that isn’t enough, she’s now written a book based on a popular series of personal Facebook posts, Small Victories: The Off-Camera Life of an On-Camera Mom, in which she chronicles the first few yea...

The Debutante Ball and the Princess

At my wedding, my sister told a story of how we used to play a game when we were little called The Princess and the Servant. In this game an inviolable rule existed: the older child would always be the Princess and the younger child would always be the Servant. My sister, being a sweet and unsuspecting soul, went along with this rule for years before thinking to question it, at which point the Princess apparently suggested moving on to a new game. Despite this excellent training, I did not gr...

A Celebration and a Smackdown: An Update on The Queen of Hearts

I was contemplating the time course of novel-publishing the other day, after someone asked me an interview question about how long it will have taken to get my book into the world. The short answer: it's slow. The long answer: one year to write, one year to edit and have other people critique, one and a half years to get picked up by an agent and a publisher, and two years between signing the contract and finally holding the hardcover book in my hands, which will happen on the glorious date o...

New YA Fiction: Elle Boyle Reviews The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

“Fat moths the size of palms wreathed my hair like pearls and moonstones. And then, as I had done since before language burgeoned in the velvet clefts of the mind - I danced.” (230, Chokshi)Ripe with vivid descriptive language and an enthralling story with roots in Hindu myth, The Star-Touched Queen is unlike any fantasy novel I’ve read before. Mayavati is a brilliant, but ostracized Princess of the kingdom of Bharata. Maya is not welcomed in by the harem wives or their children because of he...

An Interview With Holly Goddard Jones, author of The Salt Line

I am so excited about this book! It has already vaulted up to become one of my favorite thrillers ever and I think it is going to be HUGE. But you have to be careful how you describe The Salt Line: if you mention it is set in a dystopian future crawling with killer ticks, some people are undoubtedly going to recoil as they picture engorged pincer-wielding monsters hellbent on inflicting maximum carnage. I’ll admit I worried when I started the book that it might be the literary equivalent of t...

Kimmery's Guide to Toronto

O Canada! The True North strong and free! It is July, and the temperature at my home in the Carolinas is hovering at a hellish 100 degrees accompanied by near-lethal humidity. I’m about as productive and motivated as a wrung-out wool sock. I’m as fresh as one, too. I need to get out of town, even though we only have a couple days to spare. Canada, with its pristine lakes and its chipper people, could not sound more enticing. Plus there’s always the chance I might run into Justin Trudeau, the...