Let’s solve it! Welcome to my mystery writing website.

Interview with Award Winning Author, Kym Brunner

May 5, 2020

If Kym Brunner, author of three YA books, had been my seventh-grade teacher, I would have had way more fun in school and possibly would be a published novelist by now.

I interviewed Kym to learn more about her journey from teaching middle school to creating her stories, to getting an agent to when her first two novels were published within a month of each other. When a teaching assistant suggested Kym put the stories in her head onto paper, she took the challenge and is now an Illinois Reads YA Winner. According to The School Library Journal review of Flip the Bird, the novel that won her recognition with the Illinois Reading Council, “Readers will think deeply about their beliefs and why they hold those values right along with the protagonist.”

Because I am an aspiring novelist (and former teacher of reluctant readers at a juvenile detention center), I asked Kym for her suggestions.  She provided many, but I will share three I think are particularly useful for new authors.

First, read, read, read. Of course, read in your genre. We all have our favorites in our favorite genres, but Kym stresses the value of reading books just released. By doing so, Kym says, we stay current with trends in publishing—an important point as we try to make it in today’s market.

Secondly, she says to join groups. I discovered Kym when I joined Sisters in Crime, a professional organization for published or unpublished women crime writers. She benefits from the interaction within various organizations. She partners with other writers in on-line and in-person critique groups. She spoke frequently of the value of in-person conferences for writers as well as on-line learning opportunities.

Lastly, Kym had these strong words for a writer like myself who lingers over revisions until what I wrote is no longer fresh or relevant. She likes to “live her story” and “plow through the book” to finish it, and then move on. She says it is better to finish a book than work on it for many years only to have it never see the light of day. She, herself, prefers spending about six months on the first draft, and then another six months on the next draft before moving on to the next project.

Thank you, Kym, for your advice to new writers. We eagerly await your adult suspense thriller that you are currently working on. We will watch for Big Girls Don’t Die.