Interview with Author Kristin Billerbeck

https://www.kristinbillerbeck.com/

By Kelvin Oliver

T4JYM: Briefly tell me what was it like for you to start writing?

KB: I have always written for a living. After majoring in journalism in college, I wrote advertising copy and press releases for luxury hotels and malls. I was an avid reader, and didn’t find enough new books I liked, so I started writing novels.

T4JYM: What is generally your target audience? How do you decide on what audience to focus your writing on?

KB: Now I’m writing for young women, aged 16 to 40 with Christian chick lit, which is Bridget Jones goes to church. It’s light, fun and hopefully has a lesson wrapped in a good beach read.

T4JYM: Have you written any other books? Do you have any ideas for books you would like to write?

KB: I have a new series I’m going to be writing about three Christian friends who meet twice a year at a California spa and overshare. I have been writing romances for the last seven years, but chick lit is truly my calling.

T4JYM: Who were the biggest influences in your life generally speaking, and who were the biggest influences since you decided to write?

KB: My grandmother, who was constantly nitpicking, and knew I could aspire to more if I weren’t lazy. The same could be said for a high school English teacher after I’d been kicked out of advance English for the same reason. Mrs. Diamond kicked my behind, and told me to shape up.

For writing? I would say it’s Thomas Hardy, Jane Austen and Jane Peart who inspired me to write novels.

T4JYM: How do you find time to write? Life is busy and time management is hard to do sometimes. When do you do your best writing and where?

KB: Writers just write. When I used to go to bed, I’d be writing letters to the editor in my head trying to solve the world’s problem. I can be completely asleep and yet thinking about a current problem in a novel and why something isn’t working. Sometimes I think it’s easier to write with less time than more because you manage your time and word count better.

T4JYM: What advice would you give to someone who wants to pursue a career in writing?

KB: I would say to read a lot of the genre you want to write. Find your voice, listen to what you have to say and learn the craft. Once I got a rejection that said this was a book that needed to be written. Just not by me. Without craft, what you have to say, can’t be conveyed properly.

T4JYM: What advice would you give to someone interested in publishing their works?

KB: Do your homework. Publishing is a business. No one wants to publish you for their health, they want to publish you because your passion shines through in a work. If you saw what an editor gets on their desk, it’s so much of the same thing. What makes you different? That’s what will make your “voice” different.

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