Chit Chatting with K.E. Bonner
Chit Chatting with K.E. Bonner
Interviewed by: Jill Sheets
J: At what age did you start to write? Tell us about it.
K: I've written my whole life, mainly letters and journal entries when I was a youngster. In high school, I was the nerd who loved term papers; going to the library to research, scribbling on note cards, carrying them around in that sweet little file box, then spreading out the note cards and writing the actual paper was thrilling to me. I knew that I needed a good job to support myself, so I decided to study nursing in college. (Note: I flunked out of nursing school, took six months off, returned to college as a biology major, graduated, and entered the Anesthesiologist Assistants program at Emory University). I had a technical job taking care of patients in the operating room, but I felt devoid of creativity. When I turned 40 years old, I asked myself what I wanted to do with the time I had left on earth, and the answer was that I wanted to write. At 40 years old I began writing poorly, but over time I improved. I'd say that I wrote for about 10,000 hours before I began to feel competent.
J: Tell us about your book "Witching Moon."
K: Every once in an eon, when the Earth eclipses the moon on a winter sol-
stice, an immortal is born under a witching moon. Anne has always had thestrangest feelings —memories she couldn’t place; strangers she inexplicably
yearned for. After she and her sister rescue Phillip from a shipwreck, the mysteries of her past start to fall into shape. Phillip convines Anne to travel with him to Amaranth, where her sister and immortal tribe wait for her return. Anne is a healer and a talisman. The immortal tribe that holds her has immeasurable health and wealth. As Anne and Phillip travel up the Atlantic seaboard, the other immortal tribes give chase. The closer Anne gets to Amaranth, the more powerful her powers become.
J: How did you come up with the idea for this book?
K: The character of Anne had been floating around my head for a few months, but I couldn't come up with a setting to place her in. One morning on my way to work it hit me that Anne would be in the lowcountry. I liked the symmetry of Anne's story beginning on an island and ending on an island. I didn't have a firm outline, I knew the beginning and the ending, so I just started writing and the middle spooled out as I went along. I've always been fascinated with life after death, and reincarnation, so I decided that Anne should be immortal. I had to take some time off of writing the book to figure out all the rules, history, and culture of the immortal world.
J: Are any of the characters based on real people?
K: Every character I write is an amalgam of myself and people I know. Mama Jane is loosely based on my Grandma Lottie, Phillip is my ideal teenage boyfriend.
J: Do you have any plains on writing more books? If so, would you be able to tell us a little bit about the book/s?
K: I am currently working on a middle grade book about a sister and brother who are sent to Daufuskie Island to shuck oysters for a season. The time period is 1908, back before there were laws that children should attend school, and many kids worked in the textile industry, in coal mines, as newsies, and in the seafood and agricultural industries.
J: You are dyslexic. What advice would you give someone who is also dyslexic and wants to be an writer?
K: Persistence is key. How do you eat a whole elephant? One bite at a time!
Reading and writing is a slow process for me, so I 'chunk' the work. No matter what is going on in my life, I sit and write for 50 minutes every single day. That's also how I learned to swim, I practiced for 50 minutes 5 days a week. You can do anything if you just break down the work, and are consistent in your practice.
J: What was the hardest thing you had to deal with in school and how did you overcome that challenge?
K: School was messy. I was insecure, unhappy, horrible at math, and confused most of the time. My saving grace was that I had a true-blue best friend and we both loved to read. We both read everything we could get our hands on and lost ourselves in stories. Books helped me survive adolescence and being a teenager. Even today, I read and write to escape, I consider both therapy.
J: What are some of the things you talk about on your blog?
K: Why and how I write. Advice to my teenage self. Survival and persistence. Travel, food, cooking, and how i'm conquering fears.
J: Are you on any socail networking sites? If so, which ones and their addresses? What about your website?
Instagram: @kebonnerwrites
J: Is there anything else you would like to add?
K: Life can be hard, and unfair. My goal is to be kind and show grace to others. If I feel a twinge of jealousy, I flip it over until it becomes understanding. I actively practice kindness and supporting others, especially other writers. It is far better to lift others up, than to push them down.
Book Summary
Every once in an eon, when the Earth eclipses the moon on a winter solstice, an immortal is born under a witching moon. Anne has always had the strangest feelings—memories she couldn’t place; strangers she inexplicably yearned for. After she rescues the enigmatic Phillip from a shipwreck, her comfortable life on the island of Cusabo is shattered, and the mystery of her destiny starts to fall into place. Anne leaves behind the life she’s always known and sets out with Phillip on an arduous journey to Amaranth, where her ancient family awaits her. But the path is dark and daunting, and Anne’s powers have only just begun to manifest.
Publisher: Belle Isle Books
ASIN: B096ST3G4Z
ISBN-10: 1947860925
ISBN-13: 978-1947860926
Print Length: 298 pages
You can purchase a copy of Witching Moon on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Bookshop.org. You can also add Witching Moon to your Goodreads reading list.
About the Author
K. E. Bonner, author of Witching Moon, was always the first kid to sit down during a spelling bee. It wasn’t until she was an adult that she was diagnosed with dyslexia, which explained why she always had to study three times harder than her peers. Being dyslexic taught her perseverance and kindness, her two favorite attributes. She lives in Georgia with her husband, two sons, and two dogs. When not writing, she loves to read, swim, explore new places, and meet fascinating people. If you have a dog, she would love to scratch behind its ears and tell it what a good pup it is.
Learn more about K.E. Bonner on her website or follow her on Instagram @kebonnerwrites.
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