Awesome Book Event! Kimberly Derting!

Kimberly Derting signing copies of her debut novel, The Body Finder.

On Saturday, I attended a Powell's book signing event featuring the lovely author of The Body Finder, Kimberly Derting!  Hearing more about Kimberly's writing process and upcoming novels was so much fun, and I am extremely excited to be able to give away a signed copy of The Body Finder as well as a few signed bookmarks and a couple of stickers and bracelets!  [Stay tuned for contest details in my next post this afternoon!]  But the fun didn't stop there.  Several local authors also came out to attend Kimberly's signing, and it was great to see Lisa Schroeder, Suzanne Young, and L.K. Madigan again.

Suzanne Young, Kimberly Derting, and Lisa Schroeder

In addition to all the author-filled fun, I also met a very sweet book blogger, Candace from Candace's Book Blog, as well as blogger/reporter/producer Sara from Novel Novice & Novel Novice Twilight.  I have been following Novel Novice for several months & always enjoy Sara's examiner.com articles, so it was wonderful to meet her in person.  Candace and I 'met' online the day before the event, and it was tons of fun to visit with her at the signing!  We met and chatted excitedly before the signing, had the opportunity to ask a couple of questions during the signing, and happily waited to be the last couple of people through Kimberly's signing line so that we could visit longer & have time to chat with Kimberly without holding up the line.  It was such a blast to attend the signing with another book enthusiast who was just as thrilled as I was to be there!  Awesome authors are definitely like rock stars to both of us, so we were both a little giddy by the end of the signing!!  :)  After the signing, Candace and I had a great time snapping pictures with Kimberly Derting, Lisa Schroeder, and Suzanne Young.  Then we continued chatting as we did a bit more book shopping together and even hung out in the Powell's parking lot cheerfully visiting in the chilly wind & drizzle (in short sleeves with no coats on) for quite a while after the signing.  It was way too much fun!!  Candace and I plan to get together for more fabulous book events in the future, so you will definitely be hearing more about our book adventures in the months to come!

Now onto a few details about Kimberly Derting's book presentation and Q & A session.  She talked a little about her long-time love of scary thrillers, like Stephen King's novels, and how she always enjoyed frightening books and liked the idea of writing a suspenseful thriller that kept readers on the edge of their seats.  Kimberly also read The Body Finder's prologue to us and took questions from the audience.  I asked if she'd always intended to write some of the chapters from the serial killer's point of view, and she explained that she had originally written just a few chapters from that alternate perspective, anticipating that her editor would tell her they were too creepy for a YA novel & should be cut out, but instead they loved those chapters & requested that she write more chapters from that chillingly creepy point of view.  For those of you who may not have read The Body Finder yet, the chapters from the serial killer's point of view are truly haunting and will give you chills with their psychological spookiness (but they are also impressively non-graphic).

I also asked Kimberly if it was difficult to balance the romantic aspects of her story with the suspenseful elements of her story, and it sounds like that balance fell into place very naturally for her.  She knew she wanted to write a thriller and she really enjoyed writing about a romance in which the characters already knew each other well enough to truly love one another.  I absolutely adored the romance in this book, and the best-friend romance is refreshingly different from the meet-and-fall-instantly-in-love kind of romance that is fairly common (and not always believable) in YA literature.  

The best news of all is that Kimberly has already written the second book in the Body Finder series, entitled Desires of the Dead and due out in 2011.  She also has two additional books mapped out to continue this series should the publisher be interested.  As a reader who thoroughly enjoyed The Body Finder, I am VERY interested in seeing all four of her Body Finder books make it to publication.  So I definitely want to encourage everyone to go out and buy The Body Finder as soon as possible.

You can find The Body Finder at:  IndieBound | Powell's | Amazon | The Book Depository | Borders | Barnes & Noble   

I will be giving away a signed copy of The Body Finder here on The Eager Readers and Candace will also be giving away a signed copy on her blog, so be sure to enter both contests to double your chances of winning.  :-)

Happy Reading!