Please help me welcome author Kimberly Baer…
Good morning, Kimberly. Please tell us a little about yourself, where are you from? Where do you live now? Family? Pets?
Sometimes I feel like a character in someone else’s novel. So much drama! My husband died unexpectedly when our children were six, eight, and twelve. Over the next decade-plus, I focused on raising the kids and putting myself through college. I didn’t date, because it didn’t seem fair to make the kids share their only parent with someone new. Eventually, the kids grew up, I got that college degree, and I landed a good job as an editor with a federal agency in my Pennsylvania hometown.
Then came the second blow: the agency I was working for shut its doors for good. I was fortunate to find a new job with a federal agency in the Washington, DC, area, but that meant I had to leave the town I’d lived in all my life. Saying goodbye to friends, neighbors, and family members—not to mention my comfortable house and idyllic suburban neighborhood—was one of the most heartbreaking experiences of my life.
Nonetheless, I made the transition and settled into my new life. I even met a wonderful man, Clint. Things were good until 2018, when Clint was diagnosed with a terminal lung disease. Only a lung transplant could save him, and the odds were low that a matching pair of lungs would become available in time. Miraculously, Clint got those new lungs. It’s now been four years since the transplant, and he’s doing well. Alas, my three children and two grandchildren live far away (Chicago and Sacramento), but I’m blessed to have Clint nearby. And as of now, the drama seems to have simmered down—for the time being, anyway!
Where did you get the idea for Out of Body? Sometimes I dream that I’m flying, and at one point I wondered, “What if these aren’t dreams? What if my spirit actually leaves my body when I’m sleeping and goes flitting around town?” Thus, the concept for Out of Body was born.
Why did you choose this genre (is it something you’ve written in before)? Many of my story ideas are rooted in some sort of paranormal or science fiction scenario. For instance, my first novel, The Haunted Purse, is about a girl who buys a vintage purse at a thrift store and learns that it’s inhabited by a ghost. I have a weird imagination, so I just run with whatever it churns out.
What is your favorite quote? “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”(John Milton) This quote reminds me that attitude is everything. You can turn a negative into a positive (or at least mitigate it) by looking for the silver lining or simply choosing to make the best of every situation.
What is your most prized material possession? Why? I have a wall calendar from the year my husband died. His death occurred in April, and there’s a strange anomaly on that calendar page: the whole page is upside down! I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this particular calendar ended up in my hands. The metaphorical message is clear: my family’s world was about to be turned upside down, but we would be okay, since all the subsequent pages are right-side up. I’ve kept the calendar as a reminder that there’s more to existence than the world we see around us.
What’s your favorite book of all time and why? It’s impossible to pick just one, but two young adult series I really enjoyed were Neal Shusterman’s Scythe and Unwind. I’m a sucker for a unique premise and a well-written story, and Shusterman’s two series deliver on both counts. What’s your favorite childhood book? As a child, I would have said all the Nancy Drew books, especially The Secret in the Old Attic. As an adult, I have a different favorite: The Velveteen Rabbit. The ending never fails to choke me up.
Who is the most famous person you have ever met? Bill Cosby.He was the keynote speaker at my college graduation. I was the last student to walk across the stage, and he grabbed me in a bear hug, lifted me off my feet, and spun me around. I have photos of me in his arms. I gave one to my mom, and after the Cosby scandal hit the fan, she cut out a picture of Mark Harmon (her favorite actor at the time) and glued his face on top of Cosby’s.
If you were stranded on a deserted island and you could have 3 (inanimate) objects, what would they be? I’ve learned from watching Survivor that flint, a machete, and a tarp are essential. But I also have a less practical list: a fully loaded Kindle, a solar-powered Kindle charger, and my bed pillow. (Can I bring six items?)
What’s the main thing that you could get rid of in your life that would give you more writing time? Cooking! I hate doing it and would love to have a personal chef to prepare all my meals and bring them to me at my desk so I could keep working. (Naturally, this person would do the dishes, too.)
What do you want readers to come away with after they read Out of Body? My intent is not just to entertain but also to uplift and inspire. Let’s face it: life can be tough—and my stories reflect that. My characters endure all sorts of hardships, but they prevail in the end. They come through their struggles stronger and wiser. I hope readers are able to draw strength from that message, to internalize it. I want to plant the idea that no matter what life throws at you, you can get through it.
Blurb:
Those weird dreams Abby Kendrick has been having? Turns out they aren’t dreams after all. They’re out-of-body experiences, like the ones her cousin Logan is having. At first Abby has fun with her new ability, using it to spy on her neighborhood crush and spook a mean girl. But when Logan gets in trouble on the astral plane, the game changes, and Abby must bend the rules of out-of-body travel as she journeys to a distant realm. Her mission is a perilous one, and success is not guaranteed. Can she save Logan and find her way home again? Or will the cousins be lost forever on the astral plane?
Excerpt:
The girl slept on, never stirring, breathing deeply. Arms and legs akimbo, hair spread out like disconnected wires, mouth hanging open. Was that how I looked when I was sleeping? It wasn’t pretty.
Something twinkled below me, a translucent silvery cord tethering me to my body. I’d never noticed it in my dreams-that-weren’t-really-dreams, maybe because I hadn’t realized I was out of body. The cord, thick and round as Italian sausage, was weird but reassuring. I assumed it would keep me from getting lost, because no matter where I went, I could simply follow it back to my body.
But how did the cord work? Was it retractable like the cord on our vacuum cleaner? Stretchy like a bungee cord? If so, how far could it stretch? I wanted to test it for myself, but before I could do that, I needed to figure out how to move. For now, I was stuck in place like a stalled weather front.
A few nights ago, I’d traveled all the way to Sorcery Place. I’d gone to Sophia’s house, to Grandma’s. How had I done it?
More important, how could I get back into my body? I gave a psychic grunt, straining toward that sleeping form, but nothing happened. I was anchored to the ceiling as firmly as my physical body was anchored to the bed.
What if I couldn’t get back? What if I was stuck up here forever?
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Out-Body-Kimberly-Baer-ebook/dp/B0CQ34D8H5/
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/book/1144460559?ean=9781509253074
Apple books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/out-of-body/id6474144928
About Kimberly:
Kimberly Baer is an author and professional editor who was born and raised in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a town marginally famous for having endured three major floods. She even lived there during one of them. She now resides in northern Virginia, where she enjoys power-walking on days when it’s not too hot, too cold, too rainy, too snowy, or too windy. On indoor days, you’re likely to find her hard at work on her next novel or binge-watching old episodes of Survivor, her favorite guilty pleasure.
Kim has had her nose in a book practically since birth. Her first story, written at age six, was about a baby chick that hatched out of a little girl’s Easter egg after somehow surviving the hard-boiling process. These days she writes in a variety of genres, including adult romantic suspense, young adult, and middle-grade. Her books are published by The Wild Rose Press and have won several awards.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KimberlyBaer14
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Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Kimberly-Baer/e/B08D3RVKCH/
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/kimberly_baer
Author Alicia Dean 