I’m participating in the Reverse Author Interviews meme sponsored by Book Munchies. It’s the authors’ turn to put us on the spot! Over the next month, a series of authors will pose questions for participating bloggers to answer.
Today’s author is Kim Harrington, author of The Dead and Buried, the Sleuth or Dare mystery series for MG readers, and a YA paranormal mystery series, Clarity. According to Kim’s webpage, she lives in Massachusetts with her husband and son, is left-handed, loves pizza, the smell of coffee, and the color purple, and has been to DisneyWorld 16 times. (Wow!)
Kim’s Questions:
Kim: How do you find out about new books? Blogs, browsing a physical bookstore, chatting with friends, etc.
Lark: For about five years after I graduated, I worked in and then managed a bookstore — that was wonderful, because I got to see the new books as soon as they came in! That was years ago, though. After I left bookstore management for teaching, then working at home and homeschooling, I found new books when I came across them in a store or at the library. Once Amazon came along, I started checking on my favorite authors every few months, and marking release dates on my calendar.
Blogging has been wonderful in terms of finding new books. Now I find a lot of titles by reading other bloggers’ reviews, author interviews, and “waiting on” posts. I also keep a close eye on NetGalley and request review copies of books that look good. I check the Goodreads giveaways every week or so, too — I’ve stumbled onto a number of books I want to read through those, and even won a few of them!
Kim: Do you prefer series, standalones, or a mix of both?
Lark: Series, hands down. I’ve read some terrific standalones, too, and sometimes a book really should stand by itself. But I get attached to a world and the people in it, whether it’s the glittering social whirl of Regency London or a mythic fantasy world, and I often want to return again and again. I think I’m also very comfortable with series because I’ve been reading fantasy for so long. Ever since The Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia, fantasy writers seem really drawn to series… especially trilogies.
The drawback to series, of course, is that if it’s a new series, I have to wait (and wait!) for the next book. There are a few series I’ve refused to read until they’re complete for that reason. I’m particularly bad with cliffhangers! Mystery series aren’t as bad, since the mystery is always resolved by the end of each book. But I’m so excited to read the next books in the All Souls trilogy (Harkness), the Kingkiller Chronicles (Rothfuss), and about ten other fantasy series I’m following — and some of them don’t even have release dates yet! It’s really hard to wait, even when I would rather the author took his or her time to write the very best book they can.
Thank you, Kim, for your questions — and I’ll be checking out your Clarity and Sleuth or Dare series! Thanks also to the Book Munchies for putting this together. It’s an interesting experience, being on the other side of the interview!
