Interview with Kim Karras

About the Author

Kim Karras writes contemporary fiction for adults and teens. Follow her at kimkarras.blogspot.com for notes on life, writing, and motherhood..

The Interview

1. How did you get started as an author?  What or whom inspired you?
I don’t ever remember not feeling an affinity to language and stories. I vividly remember being in second grade and staying up late into the night to read The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White.  Around the same time, I had a brief but prolific stint as a poet, yielding a collection of poems that my dad compiled in a three-ring binder, complete with my school picture on the cover. My paternal grandparents had that binder on their piano for years, an act of kindness which initially thrilled me and, as I aged, became increasingly embarrassing.
 
2. When did you write your first book and how old were you?
I took my first stab at writing a novel shortly after I had my first child. I was twenty-seven and living in Indiana. I started a blog to keep in touch with my family in Utah and rediscovered how much I enjoyed writing and being creative.

3. What authors inspire your writing?
Oh, wow, I don’t know which authors inspire my writing, but I know which authors inspire me. I am in awe of John Steinbeck, George Elliot, Joan Didion, and J.D. Salinger. One of my favorite parts of motherhood is revisiting the classic writers that enchanted me as a child: Laura Ingalls Wilder and Roald Dahl and L.M. Montgomery.

4. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?  Did becoming a writer ever cross your mind?
I’ve harbored some nebulous goal to become a writer since childhood, but for a long time I didn’t think it was a realistic aspiration.  I majored in English in college, primarily because I enjoyed being asked the question, “What do you do with an English degree?” Let’s just say, I can shrug with the best of them.

5. What writing projects are you currently woring on?  What can you tell us about this project?
Currently, I am working on a sequel to Accidentally Me, although “working” is a generous term. As I full-time mother, I have to fight for writing time, and right now I am losing that battle. I love contemporary fiction, and have an idea for a middle-grade family story that I hope to make time for…someday.

6. What inspired the idea for Accidentally Me?
Although Sabrina, the main character, is not based on my sister, she did work at the zoo and she did have a stalker – a real one. I remember thinking, after she told my family about her unwanted admirer, wouldn’t that be a great thing to lie about to get attention? And wouldn’t that make a fun story? But what would motivate a person to need that kind of attention? Shortly after, I saw a bumper sticker that read “Drive Carefully – 90% of People are Caused by Accidents.” Eureka!  I wrote a draft of the first chapter that night.

7. What other hobbies do you enjoy when you are not writing?
​I wish I had something really exotic or mildly jaw-dropping to say here. But, alas… I am kind of your typical, Honda Odyssey driving mom. I run. I garden. I read. I dream of island beaches and a world without laundry. And sometimes, when the mood strikes, I write.