Interview with Author Kim Cormack
Kim Cormack is the always comedic author of the epic, sci-fi, paranormal fantasy, romance series, “Children of Ankh.” She worked for over 16 years as an Early Childhood educator, in preschool, day-care, and as an aid. She has M.S and has lived most of her life on Vancouver Island in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. She currently lives in the gorgeous little town of Port Alberni. She is a single mom with two awesome kids, a son in grade 9 and a daughter in University at VIU. If you see her back away slowly and toss packages of hot sauce at her until you escape.
A personal note from the author…
I began writing this series shortly after my M.S diagnosis. I had many reasons to fight. I had incredible children, wonderful family, and amazing friends, but this series gave me a purpose. Whenever things become dark, I use my imagination to find the light within myself. No matter what life throws your way, you are stronger than you believe. My hope is that the character’s strength becomes an inner voice for the readers that need it. Stand back up, and if you cannot stand, rise within yourself. We are all immortal.
All heroes are born from the embers that linger after the fire of great tragedy…
She slept a dreamless sleep free of dragons for she had slain them once again…
Tell me more about your latest book
Tragic Fools picks up where Handlers Of Dragons left off. Our heroine, Kayn has survived Immortal Testing as a Dragon and Conduit. In this series, being a Dragon is an emotional state but there are also a few scaly ones to in the Third-Tier world. Zach is her Handler capable of pulling her out of an emotionless warrior state and she is coming to grips with her Guardian paternity bombshell and surprise sibling within Clan Ankh.
The Enlightening- Where an immortal’s brain expands as new abilities are revealed.
Our Heroine is a hot mess of emerging abilities, inappropriate behaviour and endearing accident-prone majesty. In a new relationship, the magical attachment to her mortal best friend in Triad causes drama as Ankh awaits the birth of a newbie’s baby to begin training the next group of Correction survivours for their Immortal Testing. The Daughters of Seth Prophecy is underway, and every dark entity out there is trying to stop it. It is a gong show of pulse-racing sexy bust a gut laughing sci-fi fantasy mishaps, as our trio struggle through duties way beyond their ability level. You’ll be on the edge of your seat with jaw-dropping plot twists that will blow your mind and make you question everything. It’s a Hard Knock Afterlife.
What was the most challenging aspect of writing this book?
I’ve been bedridden sick for a month and a half so that put a wrench in my release date expectations but I’m 99,000 words in, just tying up my usual mic drop ending. After the first draft, I go over it again and paint the walls. Once I’m feeling like it’s perfect in my mind, it goes to my three editing buddies. Round one, goes over it for errors. We sit on the phone as she reads it aloud, finding spelling my brain glazed over. This is where I hear any pacing issues. I always look forward to this part, it’s hilarious when scenes get racy. Editing round two, is a straight up grammar go through from my grammar Batman. After she’s done, and I’ve gone over it thoroughly again, there’s a thorough beta reading, catching storyline glitches from past books. We always find something we’ve missed.
What is your normal procedure to get your books published?
My indie label is classified as a small press. I only publish my series. I barely have time to run promotions for Mythomedia and maintain the release schedule of my universe. I could turn the company into something if I had two dozen copies of myself running media and financial backing for distribution. Honestly, I just want to keep writing. If a larger publisher came knocking, I would be all in. I know how to do everything, but I’m not a huge fan of the formatting and design part of things.
What, in your opinion, are the most important elements of good writing?
For me, it is emotional response. If you sob like a baby while writing a scene, your readers will do the same. I’ll share the opening scene from, Let There Be Dragons.
She walked with Lexy for what felt like hours into the backdrop of the glorious crimson sunset. Something changed and the warm, soothing sensation of her steps in sand gave way to the rustling of grass underfoot. They were now standing in the centre of an endless field. Her soul had brought her to see something beautiful. The scenery before her that she’d once adored, now felt like a devastating symbol of her mortality. The field was overflowing with delicate purple flowers. She closed her eyes and listened to the soothing hum of the bumblebees, hoping it would bring her back to a better time. Visions of her childhood flashed through her mind. There they were as children, lying in the field together, watching clouds drift by. She couldn’t even think of this. Kayn ran towards the bees, waving her arms and they took flight. She crawled around on her hands and knees, yanking flowers from the soil. Lexy made no attempt to stop her. The girl that looked to fields of bees for solace was gone. She couldn’t be the girl that saw purple flowers and reminisced about her best friend slipping one into her shoe as a child. He was gone. She wanted to burn this whole field to ash and kick it into the air. She wanted to do that to every memory she had of him. He’d slit her throat during the Testing and left her to bleed out into the sand. When she’d retaliated, she’d become a Dragon. She wanted to destroy everything beautiful and right for it was all a lie…
How many books have you written so far?
Two children’s books, Being Four and Shark Boots. I’ve bought these back from publishers. I plan on releasing these books through Mythomedia, I just need the time to do it. My series readers may revolt if I don’t release a book in each series out first.
The Children Of Ankh Series Universe
Children Of Ankh (YA Crossover Series)
Book 1 Sweet Sleep
Book 2 Enlightenment
Book 3 Let There Be Dragons
Book 4 Handlers Of Dragons
Book 5 Tragic Fools (Coming in 2020)
COA Series (New Adult side series in the same universe of characters)
Book 1 Wild Thing
Book 2 Wicked Thing
Book 3 Deplorable Me
Children Of Ankh Series Shorts (A Middle Grade Side Series)
Book 1 Bring Out Your Dead
How long on average does it take you to write a book?
If everything is going well, maybe five months. Most of my books are high word count.
How hard or easy is it to establish and maintain a career in writing?
I’ve been at this for over a decade. I have my loyal series readers, but it is a long game. It’s not going to happen overnight. If you are writing for the right reasons, it’s worth it.
What is your advice for aspiring writers?
First things first, learn how to write a kickass query. You send that query to hundreds of agents. Check their websites, find out what they are looking for, direct it to the right person. You’ll find out how to get past their spam filter on their website. If you randomly send out your query without looking, it goes in their junk mail. They won’t even see it. Once you have an agent, they get you a publisher. A real publisher does not charge for anything. A publisher’s purpose is to foot the bill and take a chance on your work. A publisher pays an advance and foots the cost of all marketing and distribution. If you do not have a distribution deal, you might as well do it yourself. There is nothing you can’t learn on YouTube. Please, check companies out properly online if you don’t want to be scammed. There are lots of vanity presses masquerading as publishers. They will tell you how wonderful your book is and say things like joint venture program. (That is a red flag, run. They are in sales. You need a real publisher with enough clout to market and distribute your books. It’s a long game not a short one. This is your field of dreams and you want to hit a homerun, not sit on a base until you fall asleep. Do not pay for anything; I cannot stress this enough. Don’t be discouraged. There are a million reasons why someone may roast you. Maybe they were having a bad day and you stroked a pet peeve in your first chapter? You don’t know what’s going on in other people’s lives. Some people hate things because it’s Tuesday. You will develop a thicker skin. It’s going to be hard, but nothing worth it is easy.
Warning
The information contained within this series is not intended for mere mortals. Reading this may inadvertently trigger a Correction. If you survive or have shown great bravery during your demise, you may be given a second chance at life by one of the three Guardians of the in-between. For your soul’s protection until your 18th year, you must join one of three Clans of immortals on earth… Ankh, Trinity or Triad. You are totally still reading this, aren’t you?
Visit Author Kim Cormack book links:-
https://kimcormack.blogspot.com/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4456923.Kim_Cormack
https://allauthor.com/author/kimcormack/
https://www.pinterest.ca/childrenofankh/
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