Guest Blogger: Kim Smith

Books, books, books!

By Kim Smith

What is your favorite book?

This seems like one of the most asked question of authors in interviews. I don’t know why, as it is normal for a writer to be an avid fan of books, and therefore, a reader. And all readers, whether they are authors or not, have favs. My daughter is not an author, but she is a heavy reader and her favs are books found in the classic section of the bookstore. With the exception of Harry Potter books. She loves the HP books with an unstoppable passion and I have found her in arguments with her friends over which of the books are better, the Twilight series, or the Harry series. She is good at pleading her case too, so few of her friends have succeeded in winning the argument.

As for myself, my tastes really run the gamut. I fell in love with reading when I discovered huge tomes like Gone with the Wind, Treasure Island, The Arabian Nights, and The Lord of the Rings. When I was younger, there was nothing I would not read. I could be found curled up on the couch or draped over a chair deep inside a fantastic voyage, or fighting goblins with sword and dagger, or sipping tea from fragile tea cups as I sat with kings and queens on fine settees.

As I have gotten older, my tastes are more settled, with mystery and suspense keeping me up at night, and fabulous romance keeping me over late from my house cleaning. I also love good nonfiction that is about the writing life, and have a good collection of it on my shelf. I am known for reading several books at a time, and sometimes my family or friends will ask how I manage doing that. Many of them find it difficult to fit one book a year into their busy lives.

It’s easy, I tell them. You have to find places to put them! Places where you are apt to sit down and read.

I keep one in the first bathroom in my house, one in the back bathroom just off my bedroom, one on the nightstand, one in my purse, and one on the treadmill. Right now I am reading Native American nonfiction in the back bathroom, a mainstream fiction in the first bathroom, a literary classic on the nightstand, a good old-fashioned romance in my purse, and a cozy mystery on the treadmill.

The one in the purse is a must do. You never know when you will have spare minutes with nothing to do. I read while riding in the car with my husband, while at the gas station and he is filling our tank, while sitting idle at the doctor’s office, dentist’s office, or at the vet’s. The biggest time for me to read is when it is my week to back up the receptionist at my office job. For one hour and thirty minutes a day for a week, I have time to do nothing but read and answer a phone. Geez, I LOVE that!

The fun thing is figuring out which one I will finish first!

My goal for 2009 is to read 52 books. I figure if I keep at least one going at all times I will succeed. I would love to learn how to do book reviews. If I read enough, maybe I will attempt to do a few of those too!

So many books… so little time!

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Kim Smith was born in Memphis Tennessee, the youngest of four children. After a short stint in a Northwest Mississippi junior college, during the era of John Grisham’s rise as a lawyer, she gave up educational pursuits to marry and begin family life.

She has worked in many fields in her life, from fast food waitress to telephone sales. “I always got the seniors on the phone who were lonely and wanted someone to talk to. My boss couldn’t understand why in the world I spent so much time talking to them and not enough time selling. That was when I realized I love people and care deeply about their lives.”

After the birth of her two children, she gave up working outside the home for the more important domestic duties of wife and mother. When her kids decided they wanted to pursue theater as an extracurricular activity, she gave up her free time to drive them to rehearsals, training classes, and plays. During those years, she found herself bored with nothing to do to while away the hours stuck in a car. She began thinking of stories to entertain herself and pass the time. Before long she started telling her husband about her stories and he assured her she could write a book if she really wanted to. She put the idea away once she landed a job as a network administrator for a small corporation, and together the Smith’s started their own video production company.

Writing was a dream, hidden but not forgotten, and soon Kim began to talk again of trying her hand at it. She played with words, and wrote several poems, one of which was picked up for an anthology

One day in the early nineties her husband came home with a desktop computer and sat her in front of it. “Now you have no more excuses,” he said, and she realized the truth in his words. Procrastination, now no longer an option, she took off on the pursuit of penning her first book. Though that book, a young adult fantasy, was lost due to unforeseen circumstances, she kept going, writing a historical romance, and another YA.

When she decided to try out her hand at mystery writing, she discovered her true love and niche in the writing journey. She has since had four short stories, and her first mystery novel accepted for publication.

Kim is a member of Sisters in Crime, and EPIC. She still lives in the Mid South region of the United States and is currently working on her second book in the mystery series.

You can visit her website at http://www.mkimsmith.com.

Kim is giving away an ecopy of her book Avenging Angel. Kim will stop by the blog to answer any questions you have for her. To enter the contest, comment either on this post or on the excerpt from the book. This is a one day contest, so the winner will be chosen tonight, Friday February 13th around 8:00pm PDT.