Day In the Life

What’s an author’s typical day like? Hopefully, it includes writing. Otherwise, we’d lose rights to claim the job title. While my fictionista goal is to squeeze new words on the page as often as I can, I also trade my writing hat for many others.

A sneak peek from my desk-cam might find me researching, editing, scouring Google Maps of settings, reading articles on the craft of writing, blogging, Tweeting @KKMHOO, designing the graphics to promote my published works, or even shooting photos.

Why on Earth would an author sport a camera?

My goal is to include a photo in every post, promo blast, and bookmark I create. Rather than hire a professional photographer or license the rights to stacks of photographs, I don my *amateur photographer* hat and become DIY-girl.

Take this morning’s photo shoot. Next spring, my short story of historical suspense, “Czech Mate” will be published in the anthology, MALICE DOMESTIC 13: MYSTERY MOST GEOGRAPHICAL. Since my story’s title is a play on words of the chess term--checkmate--I plan to leverage a chess-themed image to promote my story.

Easy peasy, right? Not quite. Before my photo shoot, I researched chess positions and used the four pieces above to symbolically portray the dire situation my main character ultimately faces in my story. I also recognize that some chess enthusiast, at some point in time, will feel duty-bound to correct me. Technically, the positioning in my photo is a stalemate, not a checkmate. C'est la vie.

In case you suspect my DIY studio is glamorous, trust me, it’s not. Check out my photography studio complete with dining room chairs holding up my bed sheet backdrop and my two-decades-old hand-carved wooden chess set.

An author’s got to do what an author’s got to do. Say, “cheese!”