9:53 AM

In the Author Spotlight & Contest

Kimber Chin

CONTEST: - Kimber will give away 3 copies of both Breach Of Trust and Invisible in PDF to those who leave a comment, so please make sure to leave your email addy for a chance to win. Characters from these two novels appear in my latest release Flawless.

AL: Hi Kimber Thanks for being in the “Author Spotlight” this week.

Kimber: Thank you for having me, Ann. Ann is one of my favorite names. The heroine of my first novel Breach Of Trust is Anne but with an ‘e’ ‘cause she’s a fancy schmancy type of chick.

AL: So, tell us what’s happening with you.

Kimber: I’m currently on a business gig and working 12 plus hours a day. Combine that with the release of Flawless, my follow up novel to Invisible, and what I’m NOT doing is sleeping. If this interview gets a bit Alice In Wonderland strange, you know why. Not that getting Alice In Wonderland strange is a bad thing, especially if Johnny Depp makes an appearance.

AL: Business, high-stakes and murder….Tell us about one of your upcoming or recent releases.

Kimber: Flawless is my latest release. It stars Tavos Santos. Some readers will remember this scarred, f-bomb flinging man from Invisible. Tavos is a bad, bad man. He is a killer, and he doesn’t magically change his ways because he falls in love.

Grace thinks she is about to die. She has a list of things she wishes to do before that happens. She gets the bright idea that Tavos is exactly the right man to do them with. Yep, she is a wee bit crazy.

AL: What are you currently working on?

Kimber: I just submitted Nik’s story. Nikolay also appears in Invisible. He is the grandson of a Russian mafia godfather. He is determined not to become his grandfather but we all know how history repeats itself.

AL: Working in the fast paced financial world, and meeting different “characters”, do any of your smug villains sound and look a little bit like a person you have squared off against in a conference room?

Kimber: My characters are their own people but as with anyone, I can see similarities to people I know outside of the fictional world. I know a lot of people so that’s bound to happen. I love people, love, love people. I think that’s why I write romance. Romance is all about people and personalities.

AL: What do you hope for your writing career in the next few years? Any goals that you have yet to obtain that you have set for yourself?

Kimber: I’d love to have a book in every library on the planet. I grew up dirt poor and quickly read through my local libraries. I donate quite a few of my books to libraries, along with cash donations, as a way of giving back.

AL: Which of your heroines best resembles you and why?

Kimber: There are a lot of stories swirling around my brain. The heroines I decide to write about are usually the heroines I most relate to at that time. With Breach Of Trust, I was feeling out of my comfort zone in the writing world. Like Anne does, I did more observing than talking. Maeve in Invisible is in a dark place at the beginning of the book. I was coming to terms with never having kids and was in a very similar dark place. Grace in Flawless doesn’t take anything too seriously. She gamely tackles each day as it comes. That is where I am right now.

AL: Now, let’s get personal. What is the most unglamorous thing you’ve done this week?

Kimber: I should say clean the toilet but I’ve been delaying that task (yeah, I know, too much information). Mom-in-law (a wonderful woman) gave me a chicken carcass. I stripped all the remaining meat off it and then boiled the bones for soup stock. Chicken fat must be the best moisturizer on the planet. My hands feel like a newborn baby’s bum.

AL: You’re the actress in a must see blockbuster movie that everyone’s been waiting all summer for. What’s the movie about? Who’s your character? And who’s your leading man?

Kimber: Yikes! That is my worst nightmare. I don’t like being in the spotlight so I’d be in an animated movie. Ohhh… maybe a remake of Beauty and the Beast. I’d wear big gowns and dance and sing (off key as I do). James Earl Jones could be the voice of the Beast. Darth Vader would make a yummy Beast, don’t you think?

AL: If you could drop everything tomorrow for an extended vacation, where would you go and why?

Kimber: The hubby and I do this all the time. Travel is our drug of choice. We are currently planning an extended vacation to India. For some reason, that is one country we haven’t yet visited. That is crazy, I know. We love the people, the culture, the food, and wowsers, the rich history. I’m sure the plot bunnies will be greatly multiplied after that trip.

AL: What would people be surprised to know about you?

Kimber: My internet buddies would be surprised to find out that I’m not Asian. My heritage is English/Irish. I had to marry a tall, dark, handsome Asian man to get the last name. I love the trend with headless heroines on covers because in my mind, ALL heroes are tall, dark, handsome Asian men.

AL: Your characters cuss a lot, what's your favorite curse word and why?

Kimber: That’s the amusing thing. I don’t cuss… AT ALL. Sometimes I say dang or jeepers or sugar but I don’t use the big profanities. I grew up babysitting. Use a cuss word just once and those little darlings will repeat it forever, telling everyone whom they heard it from.


My characters cuss for their own reasons. Hagen in Invisible uses the d-word to express his anger over his beloved great-uncle dying. Tavos in Flawless uses the f-bomb because he grew up in the slums of Belize. His first exposure to the English language sure wasn’t from English teachers. He is a smart guy though. He could stop using the word if he wanted to but he doesn’t want to. He uses it to warn the world ‘I’m a bad, bad man. Stay away.”

AL: Please share a favorite quote(s) with us.

Kimber: “If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space.” – unknown.

Life isn’t TV. There should be no repeats! We’re given additional years of living to do something different than we’ve done the year before. Push your boundaries.

AL: Thanks so much for sharing with joining us this week, Kimber.

Kimber: Thank you SO much for letting me drop by, Ann. I had a blast!

AL: If you’d like to find out more about Kimber please visit:

http://businessromance.com/

FEATURED TITLE: FLAWLESS
 
Blurb:
 
Grace Williams has a list of things she wants to do before she dies: walk a tightrope, dye her hair purple, skinny dip in the ocean, kiss the scarred stranger sent to kill her…
 
Yeah, Tavos Santos is a killer but f— it if he’s going to be Grace’s killer. There are other relationships he’d rather have with the gloved beauty. None of them requiring knives.

It takes a killer to catch a killer. Now Tavos must decide… Is love worth killing for?

Excerpt:

“Excuse me.” She rested a gloved hand on his sleeve. Was that a flinch? No. His face was like granite as he turned to face her. This man would never flinch.

“Fuck,” he said under his breath. “What do you want?” Louder. The grating language offset by a deep, low voice, the sound touching the very depths of her.

What did she want? Looking in his flat brown eyes, she knew. To live. To love. To…

“This.” Grace plucked the toothpick away from his lips and, before fear overwhelmed the impulse, she leaned forward, into his warmth, and brushed her mouth against his.

His lips were hard. Unyielding. Like him. Like fate.

She didn’t know what she had expected. Not that. Disappointed, Grace withdrew to the safety and coldness of her own personal space. She had expected more. She took a pen out of her purse. Didn’t matter. Number four. She crossed it off the list. It was done.

“Fuck.” A hand gripped her waist, spinning her and the stool around. His face fierce. He was going to kill her now. Right here, in public. For daring to kiss him. Grace opened her mouth to scream, only to have it covered with his. She struggled. His hand gripped the back of her neck, not allowing her to retreat, hard lips grinding down, his body slamming against her, knocking the wind, the fight out of her, allowing his tongue inside.

It was hungry. Primitive. Deadly. Was death by kissing possible? Her body sagged against his, all resistance gone. Her right hand crept up, around his shoulder and into his hair. He was so lean, hard, not an ounce of softness in his body. A finely trained weapon. To be used against her.

She didn’t die. He stepped back, a dazed look in those eyes. She touched the corner of her mouth with the tip of her tongue, tasting…blood.

“Fuck.” The killer ran a hand through his shiny black hair, smoothing down the tuft she had clenched. “Fuck.”

REMEMBER: Kimber will give away 3 copies of both Breach Of Trust and Invisible in PDF to those who leave a comment, so please make sure to leave your email addy for a chance to win. Characters from these two novels appear in my latest release Flawless.

21 comments:

J.A. Saare / Aline Hunter said...

Great interview Kimber and Ann~

All of these stories sound fascinating. ;-) Can't wait to read them.

It's amusing when characters take on traits we don't possess (cursing, for example) but I suppose that's all part of the fun.

Wishing you many sales!

Jaime

jasaare at gmail dot com

Eva S said...

Thanks for the great interview! I loved Flawless so much and would really like to read these two books too!

eva.silkka at gmail.com

Unknown said...

It's always interesting to learn what goes on behind the scenes in the author's mind. When I'm working on a story, I have a large screen television in my head where I can play scenes as I create them. If they don't play good for me, why would they for the reader?

Thanks for sharing this interview, Ann and Kimber. I think of blogs as somebody's front porch. Thanks for inviting me over.

Paidra Delayno
ddinpaidra@yahoo.com
http://paidraspen.blogspot.com

Andrea I said...

Ann & Kimber, i enjoyed the interview. Kimber, what do you do in the financial world?
I'm an accountant working for a company who does IT outsourcing in India.


ainfinger@comcast.net

Tarra said...

Great interview, am off to go explore your books!

Julie Cohen said...

I really liked reading how you've used your own feelings to help create your heroines, Kimber. And how those heroines have taken on a life of their own. That's where the magic happens.

Great excerpt, too. I love the conflict there.

Thanks Kimber and Ann!

Julie (julie at julie-cohen dot com)

Ann Lory said...

Hey everyone! Thanks for stopping by and thanks Kimber for being in the "Spotlight" this week. It's been super busy on my end so I'm really appreciative of all of you posting. Hope everyone had a good V-day. :-D

Ann

Nan D Arnold said...

Great blurb, Kimber. Best with your book.
Nan

Kimber Chin said...

Thanks J.A. Yeah, my writing process is very much like dreaming. I can't control what I dream about. If I did, I'd never have nightmares. And the characters in my dreams may or may not be based on real people.

Ahhh... thank you SO much Eva! I'm glad you liked Flawless. That Tavos, he is quite the personality, isn't he?

Hi Paidra! I need to envision my scenes also. That's why the first flush through is more recording than writing. I'm trying to write down anything and everything that happens. Then after that I edit and I try to make sense of the images.

Kimber Chin said...

Hi Andrea, a fellow bean counter. I have an accounting base also. I've since specialized in new business development. I love leading product launches or system implementations and other special projects.

I love business. I don't think I'd ever write full time. On the flip side, I love writing and I don't think I could do business full time either (though I did for years). I write for 4 months out of the year and play in the business the other 8. That's a good mix for me.

Cecile Smutty Hussy said...

****Waves frantically to Kimber**** I am here to say that if you have not read anything by this woman... run do not walk... go now... download... hit pay now... her work is f-ing awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, so I take it you can guess that I love her work! =)
And Darth Vader as the beast... you crazy woman. I can so seeing that work for you too!!! LOL!
Great interview!!!!!
I just wanted to drop by and say HIIIIII!!!!! And show much loving and support to a wonderful woman!

Blodeuedd said...

Hi Kimber, and Ann :)
No need to enter me as I have read the stories.

A fan of the headless torsos on covers I see, not a fan of those myself. Fun finding out more.

Ann Lory said...

Hi Cecile -

Will you please run around frantically to all other blogs and push my work too. LOLOL! :-) Thanks fo stopping by, hon.

Ann

Cecile Smutty Hussy said...

Hey Ann!!! Sure, come over to my place and we can talk, lol! I love letting my fellow readers when a great author is around!!! =)

Kimber Chin said...

Hey, Ann, no stealing Cecile!
And I see you have your eye on Blodeuedd also.

Just joking of course, steal away as long as you steal me too. The bigger the parties, the better.

(If you really want a wild party, convince Cecile to write a short for your site - oh, la, la, that woman writes some steamy stuff!)

Kimber Chin said...

Hi Tarra! Explore is the right word. I am a travel bunny and I always feature a few exotic places.

Julie! Glad you could drop by. Writing is magic, isn't it? It is hard work too (one wrong word can pull a reader out of a story) but there's magic in them their stories.

Hi Nan! Haven't seen you around in a bit. How have you been? Busy writing?

Victoria Roder said...

Hi Kimber,
Enjoyed your interview and humor. I'm looking forward to reading your work.

mariska said...

Am i too late ? i hope not !

i'm so wanting to read this book !

and your quote : Life isn’t TV. There should be no repeats! We’re given additional years of living to do something different than we’ve done the year before. Push your boundaries.

LOVE it !!

uniquas at ymail dot com

YzhaBella's BookShelf said...

Thank you both for a wonderful interview! You've introduced me to a new author and that's always a great thing!

Have a wonderful day!
Kate @ YzhaBella's BookShelf
http://yzhabellasbookshelf.blogspot.com/
(mleger0546 at rogers dot com)

Ann Lory said...

I don't believe you're too late Mariska. :-D

Best wishes to you all!

Ann

Kimber Chin said...

Thank you ALL for dropping by.
The grand prize winners are Jaime, Andrea, and Tarra but everyone should have gotten a little something, something in their inboxes. If you didn't drop me an email at kimber @ kimberchin dot com.