NIP Success Stories
Deborah King has been a writer and storyteller her whole life. She published her first short story when she was seven years old. When she’s not writing, Deborah enjoys cartoons, cooking, photography, and Star Trek. Born and raised in Chicago, Deborah has managed to achieve all of her childhood dreams and still lives in the area with her husband and two youngest children. According to her daughter, she has “literally aced her life!”
In Depression-era Mississippi, when 15-year-old Mary is faced with an arranged marriage to an old man, she does the only logical thing: she elopes with the love of her life and heads north to the big city. Soon, tragedy of biblical proportions tests her resilience and destroys her faith. As Mary struggles to get back to the high life and fancy living she loved, she faces all the triumph and tragedy life can throw at her. With the universe seemingly against her, how long can she remain unbroken?
An interview with Deborah
What guided your decision to attend Novel-In-Progress Bookcamp?
In 2018 I won a scholarship to the 2019 NIP Bookcamp. While I was there, I had the time of my life. Of course, the 2020 event was cancelled, but I was ready for the 2021 Bookcamp and Retreat.
Did anything about your writing change after attending?
One evening during our nightly chat, we spent some time brainstorming my latest writing dilemma: what could change my awesome, fun, atheist, happy heroine into an angry religious zealot? Dave Rank hit upon a perfect solution, but the discussion and ideas were mind-opening. When next I sat down, I had all sorts of new approaches and ideas to move my character along.
What were the main take-away values you took from camp?
It’s good to show and tell.
Social media is your friend
Pay attention to good grammar and punctuation, even in the early drafts.
Step back for a while before revising…then REVISE.
How did your publications come about?
After completing my first novel, Glory Bishop, and a few rounds of editing and proofreading, I started the query process. If you’re sending out feelers for a 130k word book, you have to have pretty thick skin. I didn’t take the rejections personally because most of the agents and publishers just weren’t interested in women’s novels of that size. I got 99 rejections before I was picked up by Red Adept Publishing, and I soon signed contracts for my next 2 books as well.
Talk about your book and publishing experience.
Mary Not Broken is the back-story of a character first introduced in Glory Bishop. The story starts in Depression Era Mississippi when Mary is just fifteen-years-old, and her parents have arranged her marriage to an old preacher. Being in love with a local boy, she does the only logical thing…she runs away and heads north looking for bright lights and high living. And she finds that and more…for a while. Mary Not Broken was released as a serial novel by Red Adept Publishing on Amazon’s Kindle Vella platform. So far the story ranks in the top 200 out of 9k+ stories. Typically, serial publishing has been mainly populated by indie authors, but my publisher wanted to get in on the ground floor with the launch of Kindle Vella. I think it was a good decision, and so far so good.
Would you recommend Bookcamp to other writers?
I would absolutely recommend the bookcamp and retreat to other authors. Even without attending all of the sessions, the retreat gave me time to focus solely on writing with the support of talented staff.
Book buy link:
Mary Not Broken is available exclusively on Amazon’s Kindle Vella. Read the first three episodes for free. https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B097Z2D4YF
One Response
Great interview!!! And I am loving Mary Not Broken!