K.M. Jackson

I am so excited to introduce K.M. Jackson, who I met about a year ago via twitter there are many attributes that I like about K.M. Jackson but the main one is how genuine she is to her fellow writers, K.M. is positive and offers motivation to others when she announced her book deal I was so happy for her because its well deserved for a great person. So enough of my chatter take it away K.M. Jackson. Thanks so much for having me here today Keisha to talk writing and THROUGH THE LENS. My first thought upon seeing your questions was, wow, tough questions! But I hope I can do them justice and give your readers something to go on or at least an opportunity to say, that K.M. is a piece of work maybe I should pick up her book. LOL. So now to the questions… Here goes. Describe your path to publication? What were the highlights and stumbles along the way? My path to publication has not been a straight one. I always tell people that as a kid I always had two “when I grow up” dreams. I guess both my dreams came from mostly living half my life in my own little “dream state” of having my nose buried in either a fashion magazines or a romance book. I went from being a science and math geek in high school to a fashionista and attending FIT for college. Then I spent years in the not quite so glam world of New York fashion. After 10 years designing for New York houses (and then losing my perfect caregiver for my twins) I left that world to be a stay at home mother. Not long after (with a few tries a various freelancing endeavors. Yes, that was me with the nametag organizing your closet.), I started to pursue my 2nd dream to be a being a writer. And bam! 10 short years later and 6 or it could be 7 manuscripts later (I may have blocked 1 out) and more rejections than I would ever dare count I’m finally debuting my first romance THROUGH THE LENS. Clapping here is allowed. What were the challenges? The challenges were getting back to the page and writing after yet another rejection. As I said above and it’s really no joke there were yes, more rejections than I could count and more near misses. So many of the ‘oh you are so close’ and ‘please think of us and send us your next work’ letters. Well, I’ll tell you, I think I wanted to scream more at those than the flat out rejections at times. It was like, why won’t someone just put me out of my misery? Why string me along with this just give it one more try stuff? But you know what? I did give it one more try and kept giving it one more try and still do to this day. I guess I always will. It’s my never say die make up. As writers we are always up for criticism and possible rejections and my constant challenge is fear and the blank page. I have to always tell myself to just give it one more go. That the next work may be better and it may be that “yes” that I’ve been waiting for. Besides I have to live the words I tell my kids every day. What is at the heart of the enduring appeal of romance, for reader? Now this was the tough one. I think that this is a broad question and people may read romance for many different reasons. I know that I do at different times of my life. Sure, I can easily break it down and say they are there for the happily ever after but it may not be as easy as that. I think the romance reader is a lot more complex than just the happily ever after and they are there for more. The developing stories and the interesting characters, the high emotions and yes, the chance to for a while escape to another world. I know, for me, it all depends on my mood at the time and where I want to go in that moment to get the emotional story satisfaction that I’m looking for. What advice do you have for beginning writers? My advice for the beginning writer would be to keep writing. And then write some more. That “No writing is wasted” saying (that I’ve long hated) turns out to be true. The more you write the better you get and the more you learn to trust yourself and your voice. Happy Writing! Well at least as happy as your mood can make it on any given day. Just get to the page and write. That will make you happy. Thanks so much once again for having me here today Keisha. It’s been a real pleasure. And now a bit about THROUGH THE LENS available now from Crimson Romance Mika Walters is a normal woman working in the not so normal world of New York Fashion. As long time assistant to uber sexy photographer Alejandro Vargas she’s tired of being the girl in the background. Just once she wants Alejandro to look at her with the same smoldering look he gives to his willowy models and now she has her chance. Stranded. After a travel mishap where the rest of the crew and the models can’t make the remote location shoot for another three days Mika is taking her moment to catch Alejandro’s eye and put herself in front of Alejandro’s camera and if all goes to plan, his bed… at least until the real world catches up with them. Alejandro doesn’t know what’s gotten into Mika maybe it’s the sand, maybe it’s the sun, but he doesn’t really care. All he knows is that he’s finally opened his eyes and is seeing her clearly for the first time as the smart, gorgeous and incredibly irresistible woman she is. But why can’t she realize that what he’s feeling for her is not one of his usual one, well, three night stands? This is real. Real love, real passion. What’s it going to take for him to prove to Mika that she’s the woman he wants? Now and forever. available from Amazon Barnes & Noble iTunes K.M. Can be found on here blog twitter