Allison's Book Bag

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Interview with Kimberly Kinrade

Posted by: on: March 4, 2012

Thanks to Kimberly Kinrade for requesting me to read Forbidden Minds. I enjoyed corresponding with her and reading her first paranormal entry. Forbidden Minds is part of a trilogy, the next of which I have also been asked to review. Enjoy the interview. Then stay tuned for future reviews of books within the Forbidden trilogy.

Allison: How can you be so open on your blog about personal events and feelings? What has been your worst moment with social media such as Facebook, Twitter, etc?

Kimberly: I’ve always been a heart-on-my-sleeves kind of girl, so opening myself up in the blogosphere wasn’t as hard for me as it might be for some. I never write anything I’m not comfortable with the whole world knowing (even if only 1 person ends up reading it… which is basically where my blogs started.) For me, being a writer is being transparent in so many ways, and I hope that by allowing people into my life in this way, it helps others to open up and take chances too.

My worst moment in social media happened when someone I had befriended online turned on me and started attacking me after I did a guest post for her. It was a very strange, and somewhat frightening, experience and it taught me to be a bit more cautious. Still, she had her own issues, and eventually apologized for what had happened. I try really hard to stay open and loving, even when being attacked like that, because attacking back does not serve any purpose for anyone. Also, I have worked hard at my online persona. I represent my work as an author, so I always strive to be personable and professional in how I handle myself online.

Allison: What is one of your favorite marriage memories? What is one of your worst dating moments?

Kimberly: Well, I’m engaged to Dmytry Karpov. We aren’t married yet because we have to work out immigration issues. (He’s Canadian and I’m American.) But in our hearts, we are married. This may sound overly simplistic, but I think my favorite memory is of him carrying our sleeping 5-year-old daughter to bed. He is such an amazing father to our girls, even though he doesn’t share their biology, he is their father in all the ways that matter.

My worst dating moment… ack! It would have to be when I had a date as an adult with a guy I dated in high school. We went out to eat and the conversation was so boring and pompous that I ended up drinking too many martinis to get through it. After dinner, we went to his hotel so I could recover and he ended up stepping on my broken foot! The next day we were going to the movies, but after buying the ticket (I paid for mine) he was too sick to go. He got a refund but didn’t give me my money back. It was a truly awful date!

Allison: What is the funniest moments with your daughters? What about the scariest?

Kimberly: My kids are so hilarious sometimes! It’s not so much one moment, as all the funny little things they do and say in the course of the day. It’s the little moments in life that make it so sweet and wonderful. I remember one time when we were driving on the freeway in traffic, I was so tired and stressed. I said to the girls, “I wish the magic button in our car worked so we could fly out of this traffic.” It was a random comment that was never mentioned, until about three months later when we were stuck in traffic again. My 3-year-old piped up from the back seat. “Mommy, did you fix that button yet?” I couldn’t believe she remembered that! My girls always make me smile.

The scariest moment had to be when my oldest daughter was only five months old. I was still married to my ex at the time and I thought he was staying sober, but it turned out he was writing bad checks to bars and drinking while I was at work. When I asked about a missing checkbook, we got into a fight and he left, taking our daughter on a walk. They never came back. I had laid down to take a nap and when I woke it was dark and the house was empty. He had left her with someone he barely knew to go out drinking all night. She was still nursing and spent the entire night away from me until the police found them and brought her home. I have never been so terrified in my entire life.

Allison: What kind of dogs do you have? What is their most human moment? What is their most doggy moment?

Kimberly: We have a Chihuahua named River, and a Royal Frenchel named TayTay. They (especially TayTay) are most human in their expressions. TayTay will smile when he’s happy. It’s the cutest thing. He has this old man face that is so full of emotion! They are most doggy-like when they first wake up or when we come home after being out awhile. They bounce around the house, wagging their tales–so happy to see us.

Allison: If you had to pick a career other than writing, what would it be?

I can’t imagine not writing, but if I had to… I’d pick editing or marketing writers. It’s something I still do now, and I love both jobs, but writing will always be my soul’s calling.

Allison: What has been your biggest writing success? What about your biggest failure?

Kimberly: My biggest writing success would have to be how well Forbidden Mind (my YA paranormal thriller/romance) has done so far. It won the Forward National Literature Award last year and became an Amazon bestseller in January. It’s actually starting to generate a livable income for me, which is so exciting. I can’t wait to see what happens when the whole trilogy is out!

Allison: I guess my biggest failure is the lack of success for my first book, “Bits of You & Pieces of Me.” I don’t really consider it a failure though, as I knew going in that an eclectic collection of poems, essays and short stories wouldn’t sell well. It was an experiment to help me learn about what the publishing process, and I learned a great deal, so in that way it was also a success.

Allison: You are most passionate about fantasy and specifically the paranormal. What do you like best about fantasy? If you could have any paranormal skill, what would it be?

Kimberly: I love magic, or paranormal-type adventures. I love the worlds that can be created when we take away the normal rules of our universe. This is when I feel most alive and fulfilled as a writer, when I get to play in these alternate realties. If I could have any paranormal skill, I would want to be able to always tell when someone was lying like Lucy in Forbidden Mind. (Especially when buying a used car!)

Allison: Your book is somewhat of an exception in the paranormal craze in being about kids who can read minds instead of witches, werewolves, and vampires. How did you come up with idea of telepathy? What is your favorite paranormal creature?

Kimberly: I dreamed about Sam, a girl who could read minds and who was rented out for her powers. The rest of the series was pieced together based on this one dream!

My favorite paranormal creature would have to be… shape shifters. I am fascinated by the human/animal connection and what it would be like to experience both worlds. But I do have a thing for biting, so vampires aren’t out of the question! :)

Allison: Forbidden Mind reminds me of Dollhouse. Did it inspire Forbidden Mind? Where did you get your idea for hired spies?

Kimberly: I actually dreamed up the idea for this series many years ago, before Dollhouse ever aired. I saw the whole thing in my dreams… the Rent-A-Kid organization and how these kids were paranormal and rented out as spies for their gifts. The dream centered on Sam, the mind reader, as does the series. I tabled it for a long time, and only recently remembered the idea when I was getting ready to publish Death by Destiny. I wanted a short story to put out while finishing up my other book. What started as a short story ending up being a trilogy!

Allison: What inspired Wordone2done? How is the venture going?

Kimberly: Dmytry Karpov, Patti Larsen and I were talking one day about how to draw out more YA paranormal and fantasy readers and we came up with the idea of starting a site for readers and writers of YA. It’s geared for younger writers, but we will be expanding it to include all writers. It currently has informative posts on writing, marketing and publishing and has a YA Book of the Month Club. Unfortunately, because we are all so busy writing book after book, we haven’t done much with it in a while. But we have plans to get it up and running again soon!

Allison: What inspired your publishing business? How is the venture going?

Kimberly: Evolved Publishing was created by D.T. Conklin and Lane Diamond, both authors with a lot of business experience who wanted a different kind of publishing paradigm and couldn’t find a model they liked anywhere else. Evolved puts the author first, while guaranteeing a certain level of quality that our readers have come to expect from us. You may not like a given genre, but you know that if it has the Evolved Publishing name on it, it will be high quality, well-edited, and well-formatted. I first joined the team as an editor and very quickly signed with them as an author, then as Marketing Director. We are growing daily, always adding more authors, editors and artists to our amazing team. You can learn more about us by visiting the Evolved Publishing site.

Allison: What’s next?

Kimberly: Forbidden Fire, book #2 of the Forbidden Series, will be out on March 27th. I’m very excited about this second book. I think it’s much stronger than Forbidden Fire and has all sorts of surprises! I also have the third book in my children’s illustrated fantasy series coming out soon. Maddie World, book #3 of the Three Lost Kids trilogy, is a wonderful chapter book that takes place in a magic world with Lava Fairies and Bubble Fairies and deals with themes of bullying and self-confidence. Great for kids 3-9 years old and beautifully illustrated by Josh Evans.

As soon as Forbidden Fire is in my editor’s hands, I’ll be working on Forbidden Life, the final book in the series. Then onto The Reluctant Familiar and Death by Destiny. I have so many books in me to write, I’m pretty much booked for the next several years or more. I even have two more trilogies in mind based in the Forbidden world.

Also, Evolved Publishing has some great new titles coming out in the coming months in addition to mine. An epic fantasy, another YA paranormal, a sci-fi novel and more! So I get to promote and work with those authors to help them get their books out there. It’s a really exciting time to be an author!

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Forbidden Mind by Kimberly Kinrade

Posted by: on: March 3, 2012




If you listen to movie reviews, you might hear a comment along the lines of, “The leading actor carried the movie.” In the book Forbidden Mind by Kimberly Kinrade, the female character of Sam possesses enough charm to pull me into this quick paranormal read.

The story itself reminds me of the television series Dollhouse. In the latter, a company hires out “dolls” to wealthy clients for varied purposes from romantic interludes to high-risk criminal enterprises. Dolls have their original memories wiped and exist in a child-like blank state until they’re programmed with new personalities for their new engagement. In Forbidden Mind, a company called Rent-A-Kid hires out paranormal spies to rich and powerful clients. These spies don’t have their original memories wiped, but instead are raised and educated within the company’s confines until the age of eighteen. Whenever spies finish an engagement, they’re drugged and the worse memories of their engagement are erased. As you can see, Forbidden Mind avoids being a clone.

Unfortunately, the Rent-A-Kid setup is underdeveloped. I never did figure out how spies are briefed about their clients or their cases. Perhaps for that reason, I remain confused about the events of the foundational first chapter: Why do clients hire young people instead of adults? How do young people gain access to the bad guys? And for that matter, why was Sam hired for the particular client featured in Chapter One? After a couple rereads of the first chapter, I did figure out that Sam is digging up dirt on a bad guy by reading his mind. Moreover, when Sam discovers that her client intends to use the dirt to bribe the bad guy rather than send him to jail, Sam gets herself in trouble by getting involved.

Unfortunately, this entire setup seems more like a clever ploy to hook readers into Forbidden Mind rather than being actually critical to the plot. Perhaps, as the old adage among writers goes, Kinrade should have thrown out the first chapter. From Chapter Two on, everything made sense: Just when Sam is due for release on her eighteenth birthday, she develops a mysterious sickness. While recovering, Sam receives a telepathetic message from new boy Luke. In what sometimes reads like an information dump, readers learn that Luke has been kidnapped. Moreover, the timing of Sam’s so-called flu is no coincidence. Intrigued? So was I.

Yet the real reason I kept reading is Sam. She is the perfect blend of a savvy spy and the nice girl next door. In one paragraph, she tells how: “This level of wealth didn’t impress me the way it might some. We lived well at Rent-A-Kid, with the best of everything—I’d endured so many formal dinners, etiquette training, and socialization classes…. After all, we had to impress and fit in with some of the wealthiest people in the world.” Later, Sam admits to craving hot showers so she can sponge away the guilt she feels over helping to destroy the lives of others just to satisfy rich and powerful clients. While minor characters too often received token descriptions of body and apparel, Kinrade has successfully created a charming main character.

There’s something else about Sam. One of the rules of Rent-A-Kid is to never leave a trace of one’s presence. When Sam ends up caring for the son of a target, she leaves behind a photo the two had taken together at a country fair.  It had been the first time Sam felt like a kid. While the rest of Forbidden Mind deals instead with Sam’s mysterious sickness and the new boy Luke, this is one of my favorite moments in the book because it shows how torn Sam feels about her spy life. Another scene I like happens later, when Sam realizes that not only does she have the ability to read minds, but she can also control people’s thoughts and actions. After she “convinces” a nurse through mind control alone  to look the other way while she sets about freeing Luke, Sam questions her ethics. Indeed, throughout Forbidden Mind, Sam often questions the reasons for her powers, how they can be used, and what type of person she wants to be. By instilling Sam with these strong morals, Kinrade gives her that extra depth often missing from other main characters in paranormal books.

Because of its sometimes amateur style, Forbidden Mind is almost a near miss. Yet the plot is suspenseful enough to make me want to know what happens next. Moreover, Sam is a refreshing teen, in that she lacks the angst that weighs down too many fictional portrayals of adolescents. Combined with the short length, it substituted nicely for my common evening fare of a one-hour television show.

My rating? Read it: Borrow from your library or a friend. It’s worth your time.

How would you rate this book?

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Fear and Tire Angels

Posted by: on: March 2, 2012

Author Kimberly Kinrade describes herself as having been born with ink in her veins and magic in her heart. As a child, where others saw shapes in clouds, she saw words. Jump forward several years, she obtained a few college degrees and served a long career as a journalist. Jump forward several more years, she is now a published author. Though like many authors she has written in many genres and fields, she is most passionate about fantasy and specifically the paranormal. Her first venture into that arena is Forbidden Mind, which I’ll review this weekend.

Daily Teaser Archives

When not writing and revising, Kinrade enjoys spending time with her three little girls who think they are princess ninjas with hidden supernatural powers, her two dogs who think they are human, and her husband who is her soul mate and writing partner. Each day this week, I’ll share little gems about Kinrade which I gleaned from her blog.

First Post

For now though, I’ll summarize the contents of her first blog post. It appeared in January of 2009 and was called Shit Happens. The post tells about her upheaval of that past year: divorce, broken down car, back taxes, and a non-show by a babysitter. Despite all those bad breaks, Kinrade manages to conclude her post with this positive perspective: “…. I’m letting this shit settle a bit, because I know new growth and new tools are sure to follow.” Perhaps a reason I enjoyed Forbidden Minds is that this upbeat attitude flows through it too, but that’s another post. :-)

Later in the week, I’ll give you a sneak peek at Forbidden Minds. Then on the weekend, I’ll post a review and an interview with Kinrade. Save the dates:  March 3 and 4!

Ant Attack

Image Credit Flickr User Thirteen of Clubs

Under attack! One day while Kimberly Kinrade talked on the telephone, her three daughters came screaming to the front porch: ““Mommy! Mommy! Something is wrong with the house. We have to move NOW!” What Kinrade saw next started her screaming too. Her beautiful African plants were covered in a black swarm of ants and her girls were scratching their arms from bites.

Based on the photo alone, I knew I had to share the post. What posts have sent your fingers scurrying to Share?

The Disease of Fear

What is the biggest disease? On her blog, Kinrade suggests it is fear and then goes onto offer plenty of examples from her own life.

  • She won’t be able to pay rent.
  • She will lose her health.
  • She didn’t meet the needs of her husband.
  • She failed as a wife.

The list goes on. What are your fears?

My list of fears is a little different.

  • What if my husband or I lose our job?
  • What if we have health issues that drain our finances?
  • What if we always rent a house?
  • What if adoption doesn’t work out?
  • What if our pets get incurably sick?

When the fears threaten to overwhelm me, I turn first to God. It also helps to surround myself with family and friends for support. What are your solutions?

On the other side of fear is hope. Kinrade discovered it in a tire angel. One day she took her car in for regular maintenance. At the end of her one-hour visit, she received this bad surprise: “Engine’s great. All looks good. But the back tires are shot. You need new ones immediately.” She had only eleven dollars in her account. She asked for the cheapest tires possible and explained that she had three little girls and no money. What tire angels have come your way?

At the start of the week, I shared Kinrade’s first post. In it, she wrote “…. I’m letting this shit settle a bit, because I know new growth and new tools are sure to follow.” Only one year later in 2010, her life had completely changed for the better through a little social tool called Twitter.

A Year Later

When she first started tweeting, she had no idea what to do. Then she met two key people: Marian Schembari who took her to a whole new level with social media guru magic, and Dmytry Karpov who became her writing partner.

Since that time, she has also made other life changes. For example, she signed on with Evolved Publishing. Oh, she also had a few books published such as Forbidden Mind. Below is the trailer.

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Looking Ahead

The end of my thematic review months is coming to a close. Starting mid-May, I'll review an assortment of books.

  • May 22: Regine's Book by Regine Stokke
  • May 25: Zoo Station, true story by Christiane F.
  • May 29: Boy 21 by Matthew Quick
  • June 1: Sort of Like a Rock Star by Matthew Quick

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Thirty days. Average of 2000 words per day. A total of 58,600 words. I am a NaNoWrimo Winner in 2012.

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