📖Authors To Watch: Michelle King Author of Breathe In #authorstowatch #interview #PUYB

 

Michelle King lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband Chayne and her children. She loves coffee, Superman, rollercoasters, and has an addiction to chapstick.

She works in healthcare management and in her spare time writes novels. As a multi-genre author, she has written in the categories of romance suspense, young adult, women’s fiction, and literary fiction. She has won four literary awards.

She is the author of the thriller, Breathe In.

Visit her website at https://www.authormichelleking.com/ or connect with her on Twitter and Facebook.

Breathe in. Breathe out. This mantra gets Tessa Benson through the day. The man she loves walks all over her, and she just wants to get by without her heart shattering to pieces. If she could find her voice, she’d scream. Everything changes in one night, when she’s snatched from the streets and tied to a bed, a camera set up to capture her dying moment. And the person who paid to watch her die…is still out there somewhere. Tessa prowls dark neighborhoods in a quest for justice, but she doesn’t find the killer. Not until they strike again…in the place Tessa is least expecting, and where it hurts most.

“Dark. Disturbing. Absolutely out of character for Michelle Bellon (compared to her other books). You absolutely feel for Tessa. Your heart & soul breaks with her. You will get angry & you will cry with her. Simply amazing.” – Amazon Reader

“This story is a very, very dark thriller. It has some things in it that might upset some people. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! Tessa is trying to just get through each day with the man she loves. He is not a nice man. He walks all over her, belittles her, he is a scum bag! Then she gets kidnapped one night and tied to a bed. There is a camera on her to show someone or some people just how she is going to die! Can she get away? Who would do such a thing? You will need to read the book to find the answers.” – Amazon Reader

Book Information

Release Date: November 15, 2019

Publisher: Limitless Publishing

Soft Cover: ISBN:  978-1640347953; 272 pages; $13.99; Read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3grB5TS

We welcome you to My Bookish Pleasures! Can you tell us how you got started writing fiction?

I started having dreams about book ideas and plots. I would wake up with ideas flowing but I had no idea where to start. I’d never written anything other than college papers at that point. However, I couldn’t stop obsessing on these ideas so I thought what the heck, might as well sit down and try. So I set a goal to write twenty-minutes a day. My youngest child was just a baby at the time, and I had three other children. Some days I didn’t write at all, but some days I would write for two hours while the baby slept. I learned I had an ability to get my ideas to paper fairly well. Six months later I had a book. It was a total mess and needed some serious revisions and editing, but it was a book. That’s how it all began.

Describe your writing process. Do you plot or write by the seat of your pants? When and where do you write?

I jot down all my ideas haphazardly. Just a bunch of messy notes. I typically have a few key scenes in my head and build my plot around those. Then I sit down and start writing and see where it goes from there. It’s pretty organic. I write somewhere quiet where I can focus. I’m not one of those who can have a tv or music on in the background.

Can you tell us about your most recent release?

Breathe In is meant to be an inspiration to women who feel less than or who are experiencing abuse. It’s the story of a simple, weak-minded woman who finds herself in a horrifying situation and is tested to her limits. It’s through this experience that she finds her inner warrior and discovers what she’s really made of.

How did you get the idea for the book?

Well, I love to create characters who are flawed and struggling with something dark or complex in their lives. I had the general idea for the plot for a few years, but it wasn’t until I was going through my own difficult time in life that I finally sat down and started writing it. I knew it would be good for me to have an outlet for what I was going through, and Tessa was the perfect character for that. I wanted to take a woman who saw herself as weak and test her to the point that she would find out what she was really made of. As I began to write, the plot changed and evolved quite a bit from what I had originally intended but I’m happy with the way it turned out.

Of all your characters, which one is your favorite? Why?

Hmm, that’s hard. I enjoy them all for different reasons. I love Tessa from this book because its so fun to watch her evolution throughout the story. But I have a special love for Aiden in The Fire Inside. That story is a bit of a tearjerker.

What was the most challenging aspect of writing your book?

Tapping into my own emotions was challenging and necessary. I had my own challenges in life at that time and writing the book served as an outlet for a lot of rage and sadness. It was very cathartic.

What projects are you currently working on?

Nothing at the moment. I’m very busy in my career and also finishing my master’s degree. Hopefully I will get back to it soon though!

What advice would you offer to new or aspiring fiction authors?

Learn the industry. Listen to critique as a positive thing even when it’s hard to hear because it helps you get better.