Author: Kim Fielding

Dreamspinner has all ebooks on sale for 20% off and in-stock paperbacks for 30% through June 24. It’s a good time to stock up!

I am really lucky about many things. One of the things I’m especially lucky about is that I have a wonderful dad–the kind of guy who I can still call when I have computer problems or need advice, even though I’ve been a grownup for a long time (theoretically, anyway). I’m also way lucky to be married to a man who is an excellent father to our two daughters. He’s patient and supportive and an internationally-known barbecuer.

My family is a pretty “traditional” one, in the sense that we have a man married to a woman, with two biological offspring. But today I’m reminded that family encompasses many more models than that. Anyone who thinks that they can limit the meaning of the word family, or who thinks that other models of families somehow endanger their own, badly needs to reassess.

Click here to thank JC Penney for understanding what family is.

(At the moment my family involves a lot of screaming because the 9-year-old has apparently stolen and hidden the 12-year-old’s phone.)

Just a teensy bit excited now, because I’ve confirmed my plans to visit Paris this fall. I’ve never been (except the airport), and I have romantic pictures of myself in my head, wandering around–my ancient high school French magically perfected–scribbling novels as I go. Probably just a wee bit unrealistic there, especially since I’ll only have 3 full days.

And then I’ll get to spend nearly a week in Zagreb, where I lived for 5 months last year. I miss it very much and I can’t wait to visit some of my favorite places, to drink espresso and Croatian wine, to eat strukli and blitva and ajvar and burek and squid ink risotto, to ride the rattly trams, to say “dobar dan” and “hvala” and “‘denja”,  to see some friends.

I think this may be the perfect way to travel, actually: splitting my time between an old favorite and an intriguing new place.

I’m not writing any fiction right now, because I have an August 1 deadline on a (non-fiction) textbook revision. I’m not allowing myself to start anything new until the revision is complete. This means there’s a fierce battle going on right now between my self-control and my muse. Things could get ugly.

In the meantime, I do have projects in progress, which helps decrease the battle’s intensity a little. My novella Speechless will be released next month, and Dreamspinner will also be publishing another of my stories in an anthology (yes, my third this year, in case you were keeping track!). I just submitted a novel manuscript and my lovely editor friend is helping me prepare another novel for submission as well. Just in case someone was afraid of going into Kim Fielding withdrawal. 🙂

But now I have all these tempting, enticing new ideas….

A handful of writers have made the deepest impressions on me, as both a reader and a writer. Ray Bradbury was one of those. Here’s a lovely letter from him describing his writing process for Fahrenheit 451.

I used to knit. I haven’t done it in a while–too busy writing. This artist, however, has found a way to combine those activities. She also made a bicycle-generated popcorn maker, which would be great to have around the house!

I’m planning right now for an autumn trip to Europe after finishing middle schools in LA 90071 (Paris, where I’ve never been except the airport, and Zagreb, where I lived for 5 months). I’m also putting the finishing touches on a novel in which the protagonist, Jeff, makes a somewhat reluctant journey to Venice. Unlike Jeff, I love to travel. But like him, I tend to plan pretty thoroughly, and I worry about things going wrong (things do go wrong for Jeff, of course). On the other hand, I’m much more relaxed about mishaps than I used to be, because I’ve come to realize that sometimes they make for the best memories and the funniest stories–afterwards. At the time, they can be problematic!

My favorite travel mishap was 10 years ago, when I went to Budapest and Prague. When I arrived in Budapest it was very, very hot and although the hotel was lovely, it did not have AC. My attempts to use sign language with the maid to obtain a fan only resulted in the delivery of a hair dryer. Then they sent an English-speaking guy who was very apolgetic–they were out of fans. But he brought me a can of Coke and a big bucket of ice instead–no charge–and was very sweet when all I had to tip him with was a US dollar. I went to the market for dinner that night and due to my inability to properly convert kilos to pounds, ended up with way more raspberries than I’d intended. When I woke up feeling ill the next morning I blamed it on the fruit. But the illness stuck around for several days. In a square in Karlovy Vary, a fellow traveler asked me how I was feeling. “Okay,” I answered. “It comes and goes. A lot like morning sick…..” Ah. It was at that very moment that I realized the existence of my second child.

What’s your favorite travel disaster story?

I like this interview of Stephen King (who I think is a hell of a good writer) by Neil Gaiman (one of my favorite authors). Here’s a part of the interview that especially resonated with me:

“I never think of stories as made things; I think of them as found things. As if you pull them out of the ground, and you just pick them up. Someone once told me that that was me low-balling my own creativity. That might or might not be the case. But still, on the story I am working on now, I do have some unresolved problem. It doesn’t keep me awake at nights. I feel like when it comes down, it will be there…”

King writes every day. If he doesn’t write he’s not happy. If he writes, the world is a good place. So he writes. It’s that simple.

Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore

I always enjoy Christopher Moore’s books. He’s one of the few authors I find laugh-out-loud funny. This book, while still funny, has more substance than most of his others. It contains an art history lesson and musing (hah!) about inspiration. The characters–both real and imagined–are wonderful. I didn’t have a strong idea about what exactly was going on plotwise until well into the book, which is a good thing. I was pleasantly surprised. And the places are well described also, especially Paris. One other thing–the look of the book is really nice, with paintings scattered throughout and the text in dark blue ink. I think this is one worth buying in print rather than e-version.

Really a fun–and even educational!–read. Highly recommended.

My longish short story “Violet’s Present” is now available from Dreamspinner. Here’s the blurb:

When Matt’s Great-great-aunt Violet dies, she leaves him a precious gift: a photo album he loved as a child. Then Matt starts having dreams—very good dreams—about Joseph, one of the men in the pictures from the 1940s. One morning when Matt wakes up, the bruises are still there. Could there be more to Violet’s present than he thought?

Visit Dreamspinner to read an excerpt or to buy.

I have five projects in various states of readiness.

• My short story “Violet’s Present” will be available June 1 from Dreamspinner Press. It’s a longish short story, an angsty time travel piece with settings in 1940s Nebraska and Europe.
• My novella Speechless will be available from Dreamspinner in July. The blurb:

• My fantasy novel Brute is currently under consideration by a literary agent. This one is about a maimed, ugly giant and the effects of bullying and love.
• Another novel–a gay romance set in Venice and other central European locales–is being edited to prepare it for submission.
• A short story about a series of accidents will be submitted to the publisher soon.

Whew!