Kimmery here. I am so excited to be a member of the Debs! However, I must confess that the challenge of writing a post introducing myself caused me to spin off into a brief but dramatic existential crisis where I stared at my blank computer screen for a few hours wondering who I was. Eventually my writer’s group poured some ice water over my head and I snapped out of it long enough to write a list.
Here goes:
I am:
—A Wife. I’m married to a smart, funny, handsome guy, who was once my chief resident. More on this later.
—A Mama. I have three delightful children, who spend their days devising clever parenting challenges for me to solve. I figure I can post funny stories about them here for at least a few months before they find out and start a revenge website.
—A Doctor. I’m an ER physician by training, which indirectly led to me becoming a writer because, you know, the humanity. You cannot work in my field without getting bowled over daily by all the anguish and glory of life. Not to mention the humor.
—A Nerd. Reading is my superpower. I read everything: all genres, all subjects, at least three books a week, and a zillion articles. I’m an information junkie.
—A Writer. I started by making book recommendations and branched out to my own book review website. (Which is where you should go, immediately, if you need ideas on what to read!) Then I started interviewing authors and writing social commentary and opinion pieces for some national websites. Now, by some miracle, I have written a novel. More on that later too.
—A Traveler. I love getting out of my bubble! I also write travelogues, where I detail all the things I manage to screw up on trips.
I Am Not:
—A Dancer. I’m enthusiastic but uncoordinated: basically Elaine from Seinfeld, except I’m tall with long arms and legs. (If you rated me on an arm-length scale ranging from T-rex to ape, I’d be 100% ape.) Nobody really wants to see that on the dance floor, amirite??
—A Singer: I have a decent two-note range. On every other note, my voice breaks. This doesn’t always stop me, though: sometimes I like to wail it out with my eyes closed, especially in church. (Side note: I’m Presbyterian, and the nickname for Presbyterians is the frozen chosen, so you can imagine how hilarious I must look to everybody else.)
—Organized. Writing a post every week for a year is going to kill me.
—On time. See above.
About My Book:
Not ever having written a book before, I took the ubiquitous advice hurled at all novice writers—write what you know—and ran with it. Therefore my working title for the book in its early phases was Doctors Behaving Badly.** Eventually cooler heads prevailed and my writing group retitled it Trauma Queen, an amusing and apt title that was immediately rejected by the publisher. After I suggested 78,409 other titles, we settled on The Queen of Hearts.
The story centers around the friendship of two women, one of whom is hiding a significant secret from the other: Zadie, a cerebral but scattered cardiologist, and Emma, a cerebral and introspective trauma surgeon. When a former colleague—a chief resident from their training days—makes an unexpected return to their lives, his presence spurs a series of personal and professional crises that ultimately threatens everything the women thought they knew about one another. My publisher is describing it as a fusion of Big Little Lies and Grey’s Anatomy, which I think is pretty accurate: it’s entertaining, it’s smart, and it has a compelling blend of drama, humor, death, betrayal, romance, and intrigue, along with an insider’s peek behind the scenes in the medical profession and some very normal family dysfunction. Whew.
**Actually, doctors behave well overall but that would have made for a boring book. I would also like to stress to everyone, particularly my mother and my husband, that this book is NOT AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL.
How To Find Me:
My Website: Again— book recommendations, author interviews, travelogues, and blog posts. If you’re a book nerd, you will like it. You can also sign up for the enchanting newsletter at the bottom of the website if you don’t want to miss any book reviews. It comes out every few months, so you’ll probably forget you subscribed and wonder who handed over your email address to this particular book-loving freakshow, but I hope you’ll move past that. (And if you have kids, check out my son’s middle-grade book reviews. Plus, he’s really adorable.)
Instagram: I kinda thought I’d dislike Insta, because I communicate better with words than photos. But I was wrong. I LOVE Insta. There’s something so satisfying about all those gorgeous aesthetics. Bookstagrammers! Fashionistas! Travel freaks! Foodies! Whatever you love, you can drool over it here. I’m currently obsessed with #shelfies.
Twitter: I’m not a big fan, but every now and something succinct will occur to me.
Facebook: This is an auxiliary outpost of my website, basically. I do love FB for staying connected to far-flung peeps and my 5000 writer/doctor/mama groups.
Goodreads: I’m hoping at some point someone will click on the Want To Read thingie by my book.
Amazon: If you sign up and I manage to write another book, you’ll get notified. Seems worthwhile, yeah? Or you can preorder The Queen of Hearts here.
It’s going to be a fun year! Can’t wait to connect with all the readers and writers out there.
Kimmery
I was so LUCKY to meet Kimmery at BookExpo. Her cover if fabulous and I can’t wait to read her novel. She such a lovely gal. I’m thrilled she’s a Deb.
I was so lucky to meet you too, Cindy!
Yay for You!