Kim is kindly sharing with us today the inspiration behind her debut novel Amazing Grace. Reading this after reading the book has made Amazing Grace so much more special to me.
Over to Kim…
Total and utter devastation reigned on our family when my darling Mom, the heart of our family, lost her ten-year-battle with cancer in 2006.
I had no idea how to cope. As a family, we were all trying to protect each other from how we felt, so I’m not sure we really opened up to what we were really going through. My sister and I busy were trying to make sure that my dad and each other was ok, that our own feelings got pushed to one side.
Opening up a word document one day, I wrote down the words that I thought Mom would say to me if she were watching me. I found it cathartic. I wrote down how I felt about her and how much I was missing her. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I tried to type and read the words back through my blurred vision.
A year later, my son was born. The biggest sadness that I have ever and will ever have in my life, is that Mom never got to meet him.
Life was busy, family came first. Then a couple of years later, I decided to set up a book blog. Through that, and being immersed in the book world, another couple of years down the line, I was given the opportunity to blend my love of books with my background in PR and sales and marketing and started working for Bookouture.
Being surrounded by authors who were following their dreams every day, I found in me a passion to try to achieve mine. I was encouraged by so many author friends along the way to which I shall be eternally grateful. I had more life experience under my belt by then. I’d become a single parent, my son was growing up fast, his dad was very much in his life and I had to part with him for period of time, which was a huge wrench for me. So I put the time that he spent away from me to good use and wrote.
Amazing Grace was the result.
There’s a lot of me and my experiences in Grace, but there’s also a lot of elaboration and a whole lot of imagination too. Even my sister has asked me which bits were true. LOL! I couldn’t possibly say!
A lot of readers have said that anyone who has ever lost someone close should read the book. It makes people wonder whether those who we’ve lost, ever really leave our sides
Thank you Kim for sharing your story with us. It is truly special.
Until next time xxx
Ritu says
I always love to find out the background of a story that resonates. Thank you, Kim, for sharing with us <3
nickimags @ The Secret Library Book Blog says
What a lovely post xx