Interview with KC Richardson |

Happy Friday!

Bold Strokes Books author KC Richardson is here.

She’s giving away two books and both winners will be able to choose ONE of the following: New Beginnings, Courageous Love, or A Call Away. More details are below.

Please welcome KC Richardson.

Before we begin, thanks so much for stopping by today for a chat.

I really appreciate you inviting me. I’m really looking forward to this.

Tell us where you grew up and how it has impacted your writing.

I grew up in a beautiful mountain town called South Lake Tahoe in northern California. The state line for California and Nevada runs through Lake Tahoe, and if you’ve never been, you have to go. It’s the most beautiful place, at least in the United States, but I might be a wee bit biased. My family moved up there right after I started first grade and we left after I graduated high school. It was a great place to grow up. I made great friends, I went on great adventures (in my mind, anyway) by hiking and mountain biking deep in the woods. My brother and I would explore and I’d make up stories about the Native Americans (Washoe tribe) that came from that area and how they lived off the land. I guess that’s where my imagination was developed.

You received a basketball scholarship to college. What was the experience like? Were you ever injured?

Haha! Yes, I was definitely injured. In fact, in all the years I played basketball while growing up, I don’t think there was ever a season I didn’t end up in the emergency room getting x-rays on my feet or ankles. Every year I played college basketball, I dealt with injuries to my feet, ankles, and lower back. With that said, I don’t regret playing in college. I made some great friends, I met my best friend when we were freshmen, and I had some amazing professors, all because basketball paid for my college education. I hated pre-season conditioning, six weeks of running, weight lifting, and plyometrics, but I loved practices and games. I got to travel and see new places that I would never have thought of going. In my first novel, New Beginnings, Jordan Roberts is a former college basketball player, and some of the stories she reveals to Kirsten are real life stories that happened to me. I went to a small, private university that I now live just two miles from, and it’s the setting for my next novel that I have yet to start. 😊

What prompted you to write your first story? When?

When I was first introduced to lesbian fiction, I couldn’t get my hands on those books fast enough. I read so many fantastic stories. I felt that I had a story to tell, but I didn’t know how to get started. One year, about 2012, Bold Strokes Books had a book/author event in Palm Springs, CA, and there was a panel with Kim Baldwin and Nell Stark on how to get started writing. The best piece of advice they gave was write what you know. That day, Jordan Roberts and Kirsten Murphy, were born and they told me about their New Beginnings.

How many fur babies do you have and how different are their personalities?

We have a dog and a cat, both rescues. The cat came first. She was a neighborhood stray that we found out was living under our house. We checked around the neighborhood to see if she belonged to anyone and had her scanned for a microchip, which she didn’t have. She had been coming around our house for a couple of months and she was very friendly, so we had her chipped with our information, vaccinated, and spayed, and she became our cat. The vet thought she was about a year old at that time. Nine months later, we went to a pet expo with the intention of possibly adopting a kitten to keep our cat company, and we came home with a 10-week-old puppy instead. Our dog, Derby, just turned five at the end of January, and Hunter, our cat, is still planning our demise for bringing Derby home. In all honesty, Derby is a dog-cat, and Hunter is a cat-dog. They’ve learned behaviors from each other and they get along very well. They really love each other and play well together.

What’s your day job?

I work as a physical therapist assistant in an out-patient orthopedic setting. I’ve been at the same clinic for 22 years, and I’ve been licensed as a PTA for over 13 years. I injured my low back pretty badly when I was in my early 20s and had to go to physical therapy as a patient. My therapist literally saved my life and my sanity. I was so impressed with her knowledge and compassion, and I felt like PT would be a better field for me to be in. I fully recovered with physical therapy and avoided surgery. I felt with my experience as a patient, and all of my injuries I experienced when I played sports, I felt it would make me a more empathetic clinician. I love what I do, helping people return to the activities they love, and I love the fact that I’m constantly learning new things.

Tell us about your latest release.

A Call Away is a story that I really enjoyed writing and researching. Sydney Carter is a biracial woman from Chicago who quit her job as an investment banker so she could work at a community youth center. When her estranged maternal grandmother dies and leaves Syd her farm in Iowa, she must go there to pack up the house and get it ready for sale. She’s also hoping to discover why her grandparents disowned her white mother just because she fell in love and married a black man. While in Iowa, she meets her grandmother’s neighbor, Abigail Price, who helps Syd pack up the house and helps her get to know her grandmother a little better. There is definitely a spark between them, and the sex is off the charts. The only problem is Syd was born and raised in Chicago, and Abby lives in Iowa. How will they ever stay together? 😉

What was the inspiration for your latest?

My wife and my best friend are biracial. My wife has told me of the racism she experienced in high school because her skin wasn’t dark or light enough. She said people had a hard time figuring out her nationality. My best friend’s mom had some hard feelings from her own mother because she fell in love with, and married, a black man. To this day, I still can’t understand why some people have a problem with interracial marriage or relationships. Or have a problem with gay marriage. Or have a problem with marrying people from different religions. We all breathe the same air, we all bleed the same color, and one day, we will all die. There’s no getting around that. While we’re here, we should consider ourselves blessed that we have someone to love and that someone loves us.

When you aren’t working, writing, or reading, what do you like to do for fun?

Well, lately I’ve been pretty lazy and watching a lot of television and Netflix. I love the documentaries on Netflix, especially the ones about the royal family. When I’m in an active mood, I go to the gym, hit the heavy bag, kayak, or play golf. Although, I haven’t played golf in four years because of a few different injuries, but I hope to get back to it soon.

If you were planning a soul-searching vacation, where would you go?

That’s easy. Ireland. I’m Irish on both sides of the family, along with German, Scotch, and English. My mother’s maiden name is McNulty and her dad’s ancestors are from Cork. For my 50^th birthday next year, I’d love to go there and spend a couple of weeks traveling the country and having a pint in the pubs with the people. Try saying that five times fast. LOL!

The other place I’d go, and I have gone to a lot, for soul-searching is Lake Tahoe. I’m at my most peaceful when I’m there. I always make it a point to drive around the lake with my windows down, breathe in the fresh air, and stop at all my favorite places for the best views of the lake. There’s something about the air up there, it smells a little like pine and vanilla, that relaxes me. I take a deep breath in, let it out, and feel the stress leave my body, like a weight is being lifted off my shoulders. I would love to one day own a cabin up there that’s deep in the woods, that’s off the beaten path, and be able to forget about everything for a while.

What’s the one thing you need each morning to get going? (Coffee, tea, hot shower, a moment’s peace…?)

All of the above. LOL! Just kidding. I’m not much of a tea drinker. 😉 I wake up early because I start work at 7:00 a.m. I like to slowly wake up, spend five or ten minutes stretching and reviewing what I’ll be doing throughout the day. I go feed the fur kids, grab my coffee, then get in the shower. I have a routine every morning, and if one thing changes, it makes me feel off for the rest of the day.

Thanks so much for chatting today.

Thank you for asking me to join you. I had a great time answering these questions. My third novel, A Call Away, is available this month (April) from the Bold Strokes Books website, www.boldstrokesbooks.com, and mid-month from other book sources.

A CALL AWAY
by KC Richardson

Release date: April 2018
Romance

Sydney Carter is shocked to discover her maternal grandmother, a woman she had never met, just recently passed away and left Syd her farmhouse in Iowa. She has questions about her grandparents that she hopes to find the answers to while preparing the farm to sell.

Abigail Price, a neighbor of Syd’s grandmother, has lived on her grandmother’s farm in Iowa for most of her life, leaving only to promote her latest novel. In helping Syd find the answers she’s looking for, they develop a mutual attraction and deeper feelings for each other.

Syd has to return to her life in Chicago, but will Abby stay in Iowa, or will she give the big city, and love, a chance?

MEET THE AUTHOR

KC Richardson has spent her whole life in California. Her numerous sports injuries led her to a career in physical therapy, which in turn inspired her to write her first novel, New Beginnings. She loves the creative process of developing characters and story lines. Her favorite aspect of being an author though is the editing process, which allows her to continuously learn.

Her first novel, New Beginnings, was released by Bold Strokes Books in September 2015. Her second novel, Courageous Love, was released in December 2016. Courageous Love was a Golden Crown Literary Society Award Finalist in the Traditional Contemporary Romance genre. Her third novel, A Call Away, is scheduled for release in April 2018.

CONNECT WITH KC RICHARDSON

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