Day 24: The magical Kombi van is back in Queensland and I am visiting with debut author , Kimberley Clark. I have a Q & A session with her and she has her new book to show off. Check out her excerpt and her giveaway.
Welcome Kimberley.
Welcome Kimberley.
AUTHOR BIO:
Kimberley was born in Sydney, Australia, and currently resides in the Gold Coast hinterland.
5 Quick Things
A quote that means something to you.
Never apologise for being nerdy, because unnerdy people never apologize for being assholes.” - John Barrowman
A song that describes you.
Fighter – Christina Aguilera
Who is your book boyfriend?
Strider from The Darkest Surrender
(Lords of the Underworld series) by Gena Showalter
Strider is possessed by the demon of defeat and must accept and win any challenge asked of him. The competitor inside me relates to this character, and I appreciate someone who will strive to beat whatever challenges them. Not to mention that the character has been portrayed as someone quite dangerous and sexy (who doesn’t love a bad boy), and I wouldn’t mind giving him a few challenges myself that has nothing to do with killing or fighting people.
Author that inspired you and why?
Stephen King. He is able to make the ordinary of situations seem so scary that you become afraid to turn the lights out. A testament of a great writer, and a level to aspire to in the way that he makes people feel in the moment the way he wants them to react.
Will you be attending the Indie Author Down Under Gold Coast event 22nd March 2014?
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| Facebook Link |
Yes.
Author: Kimberley Clark
State: Queensland
Series Title: Battles in the Dark
Published By : Self Published
Date Released : October 29th 2013
Genre : Erotic Urban Fantasy
Book Cover Designer : Wayne Nichols www.wayneanichols.com
Kira, a huntress plagued by dreams of fire and pain has worked tirelessly to rid her city of the scourge that has nearly destroyed it…nostvores, mythlend creatures with dark and vast appetites for blood and sex. She does this not only because they had killed so many people in her life, but also because she has an edge that no other human had…she has their abilities. The problem was, these abilities were killing her and she feared time was no longer on her side.
So the moment she found out that Darius, a nostvore leader was threatening to awaken an indestructible species to help him enslave all humans and mythlends, and that she may be the key to his plan, she knew her only choice was to risk her life with the little time that she had left and join her enemy to find out why, and to make sure his plan failed.
If that wasn’t dangerous enough, the more time she spends with the Vanatre nostvore Emmerich, and the mooran Kuron, who she brings with her for protection, the less she wants to kill them. Instead, she feels an unexplainable attraction towards them both, and she fears surrendering to such desire with either is a deadly game to play, for she would not only be risking her life, but quite possibly her heart.
Q & A SESH with KIMBERLEY
Kimberley: Day-dreamer, Motivated, Goal-driven, Dark, Sexual
Michelle: What five words describe the person behind the author?
Kimberley: Nerd, Loyal, Sarcastic, Fighter, Independent
Michelle: What five words each describe :
Kimberley: Darius – Narcissistic, Self-absorbed, Leader, Ignorant, Untrustworthy
Emmerich – Warrior, Sexy, Moody, Tracker, Passionate
Kuron – Loyal, Protective, Gorgeous, Dangerous, Ancient
Kira – Beautiful, Dying, Huntress, Vengeful, Powerful
Michelle: What quote is your favorite from The Species Within?
Kimberley: “Aeternum vale,” ~ What Kira says to her victims before they die. It means goodbye forever in Latin.
Michelle: Is there a song you listened to the most while writing your debut book and why?
Kimberley: No. I can’t listen to music while I write because I get too excited if a song I like comes on and I turn the volume up and start singing. Not good when you’re trying to focus on a story line. I need complete silence when writing.
Michelle: What has been the one thing that stands out to you in your journey as a writer?
Kimberley: That the hard work doesn’t end when you have finished the manuscript. Everything that goes after it is just as hard, especially if you are taking the self-publishing route, whether it be getting it edited, formatted, finding a book cover design, where to distribute it, and most of all, the promotion and marketing involved.
Michelle: Casting call. Could you please give me images of who you think best represents Kira, Darius, Emmerich and Kuron.
Kimberley: Hardest thing I have ever tried to do. In the book, there are a number of characters that I envisioned someone playing, but my main characters I haven’t been able to put a face to yet. I’ll try my best…
Kira – Jenna Dewan-Tatum (Step Up)
Darius – Daniel Gillies (The Vampire Diaries)
Emmerich – Stephen Amell (Arrow)
Kuron – Henry Cavill (Man of Steel)
Michelle: You have interesting names for your characters. How did you choose your character names?
Kimberley: Besides Kira who is a human and therefore I just chose a name that I happened to like, I had to choose names for all my characters that could possible belong to someone that was hundreds, even thousands of years old. I did this by going through all the ancient civilizations and looking at names of those times. Kuron was probably the only exception to this, where it was just a name I came up for a creature.
Michelle: Where were you and what were you doing when you came up for the initial idea for your book?
Kimberley: If I remember correctly, I was most likely in bed going over either a book or movie in my head (most likely a movie) and thinking of an alternate ending for the movie/book, or what story I would tell that was in the same world. It had always played on my mind that I wanted to be in the movie industry, and many people told me as such since I loved movies so much. The thing was, I didn’t know how to write a movie script, so instead I decided one night to write a novel using inspiration from my favourite vampire movies and books and created a story outline in my head that I wanted to be told with an ending I wanted to have.
Michelle: What has been the most memorable book signing or book event you have been to and why?
Kimberley: Have only been to one event, and that was a writer’s convention where people could sit in on panels on different facets of the world of publishing. Going to this showed me how much there was still to learn, and it also answered many questions I had about what direction I would take with certain things. It also motivated me to do a lot more research into the industry, since I was new to all this and had no clue as to what anyone was talking about.
I also found particularly interesting the panel on erotica vs. romance. Seeing these authors speak about something that a lot of people found to be taboo inspired me to continue in the direction I was headed when writing my novel, which in the end turned out to be an erotic urban fantasy. I found this rather funny because I originally started out writing the book as a paranormal romance. It seemed I was a bit more dark and dirty than I ever expected.
Michelle: If your life at this point in time could be described in a chocolate flavor or an ice cream flavor, what flavor would it be and why?
Kimberley: Chocolate swirl. When I think of this flavor, I think about the different types of chocolate involved.
The dark chocolate: The flavor I represent as parts of my life I could take or leave e.g housework (Yes, I know! But sometimes good for therapeutic reasons), shopping. I’m not a huge fan of this flavor, but don’t mind it every now and then.
The white chocolate: The flavor I represent as parts of my life I can’t stand e.g road works, being sick/injured, dealing with aggressive people at work, bills etc.
Then there is the milk chocolate flavor, my favorite type of chocolate. This represents the parts of my life I enjoy e.g krav maga, learning about the book/publishing industry, movies/tv shows, reading, spending time with my cats etc.
That leaves now the swirl of the actual ice cream. The swirl I feel represents all of these parts of my life mixing together and indicates how busy my life is at the moment which each flavor playing a part in my life whether I like it or not.
Jorin and Satre strode over to the foot of the bed and waited, drawing Kira’s attention back to her current problem.
“Instead I am going to let one of the things you hate most eat you.” The female grinned.
Kira’s eyes narrowed.
“But I am willing to let you choose if you like? Which will it be?” She walked over behind the nostvore and put her arms around him, looking over his shoulder at her. “Sucked dry by our lovely Jorin here?” Taking her arms from around the nostvore, she then walked behind the lycrould and put her arms around him rubbing her hands all over his muscle-bound chest and stomach. “Or, eaten by this gorgeous hunk of meat, Satre?” She walked around to the side of the bed again. “Or are you greedy with your men like I am and wish to choose both?” she smiled devilishly.
“Wow! Fancy that! Psychotic and a whore! Never saw that coming,” she said under her breath.
The female heard it regardless. The smile left her face and her eyes darkened in anger. “I think being torn to pieces is the better choice, don’t you think?” She nodded to Satre who smirked in delight and hunger. He turned his head towards Kira and she could see that his eyes had already started to glow that brilliant electric blue as all lycroulds eyes did when they were about to fight or feed, the exact same blue that her eyes would turn, except when they turned silver of course.
Satre groaned as the bones in his body quickly started to break and reshape, his muscles and tendons realigned, fur grew over the entire expanse of his body, and his face turned into a snout with a mouth full of extremely sharp teeth. The process of one transforming into its true form was a fast but painful ordeal and it wasn’t long before a gigantic wolf-creature stood on all fours at the head of the bed next to the certifiably crazy female.
The lycrould growled at her as it made its way to her beside the bed, saliva dripping from its mouth. Its blue eyes glowed brighter as it got closer and it licked its lips with anticipation.
This was definitely not the way she saw herself dying, but she guessed you didn’t always get a say on when and how it would happen. But still…it seriously pissed her off. She blamed that fuckin’ nostvore Emmerich for putting her in this position. Why the hell would he leave her like this, unable to defend herself? Was that the plan…if she got killed in the process of the invasion so be it? One less enemy they had to worry about? Was his attempt at seeing to her welfare when she was in pain his way of providing her with a false sense of comfort? A psychological trick to make her feel safe in his company?
The more she thought about and questioned it the more furious she became. It was her turn for her eyes to glow with menace, pulsing with light. If she couldn’t fight them, then she at least was not going to give them the satisfaction of seeing her scared. Fuck them and their twisted sadistic and masochistic natures.
“C’mon fucker! Come and get me,” she snarled at the lycrould. She didn’t fail to notice the look of glee that was plastered over the female’s face at Kira’s impending doom.
The lycrould growled in response to her taunt and placed its two front paws onto the bed beside her. The bed creaked under the pressure of its weight. It opened its mouth wide, its teeth long and razor sharp, and ready to attack.
As it went for her throat she closed her eyes with acceptance and waited. She heard a huge rip of flesh. But there was no pain.
Something warm dripped over her body and face. She opened her eyes. It was blood…but it wasn’t hers. She looked up at the lycrould puzzled. Its eyes looked down at her, wide with shock. Its throat had been slit, the blood dripping fast onto her body. There was also a sword protruding from its chest. She watched as the sword quickly disappeared into the lycrould’s body, and then she finally saw the person standing behind Satre with the bloodied sword in his hand.
Emmerich! He had saved her and he looked pissed.
He resheathed the sword on his back. His eyes drifted to hers momentarily, but then slid away to the other figures in the room. He snarled and went for the nostvore. Jorin didn’t even know what was happening before Emmerich was ripping his head off with such brute strength it made Kira even feel intimidated by his power. He turned to the human and was surprised when she kicked him so fast and with such an enormous amount of strength in the stomach that it sent him flying across the room.
The female turned to Kira and raised her gun, aiming it at her head before pulling the trigger. The bullet went straight towards her and she moved her head to the side just in time as it went past her and into the timber of the headboard, shards of wood flying everywhere.
Anger filled the female’s face as she realized she had missed. She didn’t have enough time to pull off another shot before Emmerich was upon her. He threw her across the room and she bounced off a wall, cracking it where she hit and landing on the ground next to a table. It seemed she wasn’t even dazed by the action for she instantly picked up a knife that was on the table and threw it at him. He turned his entire body, easily letting the knife glide past him. When he looked back the human was gone. He growled and went to the doorway, looking down the hall, but there was no sign of her.
Kira watched him as his chest heaved up and down, the look of fury evident upon his face. His clothes were ripped and covered in blood and gore, but it seemed none of it appeared to be his. He turned and looked at her.
“Are you okay?” Emmerich asked gruffly. He quickly made his way to her side, inspecting her body for any signs of injury.
“Do I look like I’m okay?” she asked incredulously. “The only way I will be okay is if you let me out of these damn chains. I nearly got ripped to pieces and shot because of you freaks. Let me the fuck out!”
She was angry and it didn’t surprise him. He would probably feel the exact same way if he was in her position. But it didn’t mean he would unchain her, he wasn’t going to take the risk that she would flee if he did. “I will be back shortly.” He headed towards the door.
“What do you mean you’ll be back shortly? Unlock these fucking chains,” she yelled at him.
“I must go help my people. If you haven’t heard, there is an invasion in progress.” With a flash he was gone and the door closed behind him.
He could hear her screams as he headed away from the bedroom and towards the fight again.
The moment he found out that someone was trying to kill Kira he had seen red. He reasoned that the cause of feeling that way was because he wouldn’t find out for Raidan anything more about who she was or how she had these abilities. That was the only reason he didn’t want her killed, he said to himself unconvincingly.
He was also livid that the other human had gotten away, the one that displayed the same abilities as Kira and was working for his enemies.
Where the hell had this other human come from? And why did she want Kira dead?
This attack on her increased his rage towards the ones who had invaded his home, and the more his rage increased, the more he wanted to punish them. Make them regret ever thinking they could defy or defeat the Vanatre. He reinforced this line of thought as he drove his hand hard through the chest of a newly-turned nostvore, holding the nostvore’s heart in his hand and tossing it over his shoulder. Yes. They would all pay.
Social Media Links:
Website – www.kimberleyclarknovels.com
Twitter - @Kim_L_Clark
Facebook – www.facebook.com/kimberleyclarknovels
GIVEAWAY TIME
International
GIVEAWAY TIME
International
