Kimberly Derting's
The Last Echo Launch Party
April 28th 2012
Third Place Book in Ravenna
Kim started off by talking about the book for a little bit, then she moved on to a Q&A and finished with a reading from The Last Echo. She decided to read from the killers POV when she usually doesn't.
(All has been summarized from my memory)
Talking a little about the cover
The cover flower was original going to be for another book, Wings by Aprilynne Pike, but when they were doing the cover shoot they weren't liking how it was turning out so they scraped the idea. Kim's cover designers were trying to come up with a cover that would off set the gruesome title The Body Finder and they ended up recycling the flower and using it for the cover. The flower has been on each cover, it also isn't a real flower it was made. The cover for the next book has already been made and Kim says it is her favorite one.
Kim told us a story about how she knows she is working too much when her daughter came up to her crying and sobbing "You don't love us anymore". She ended up starting to call her daughter Violet, but stopped herself before she finished. Yep Kim is working a lot and we love her for it!
How do you name your character?
Kim names her characters after people she knows. A lot of dead girls are her neighbor's kids and she will call them up asking for permission to use their name as a dead girl. Most have said yes, but a few have said no, when they said no she ended up turning them into the bitchy girl at school. The lesson for today, never say no to Kim when she wants to kill you. The neighborhood boy begged Kim to make him a murderer, so the next murderer is named after him.
Violet was a name that if she had another
child she would have named her Violet, but since she isn't having
anymore kids she named her character Violet instead, a different child
of sorts. Her husband insists Jay is named after him since his name is
Josh and it could be shorted to Jay.
How did you come up with the killers?
The killers mostly have been themed/inspired by real life killers, expect for the first one. Kim stated that real life is scarier than anything created in fiction. Kim knew she wanted the killer to be a pair of people working together to kill the girls in The Body Finders. Gary Ridgway inspired The Lost Echo killer, Charles Manson inspired the next book's killer.
When Kim was first writing from the killer's point of view and how they snagged the girls she was concerned with how the publisher would take it since her books are YA. They actually really liked it and she has added more with each book. Their was a scene in The Last Echo when Kim was done writing it she felt gross and dirty.
Why Rafe's character?
Rafe and Sara were created because Violet needed a way to access other killers and bodies. Kim didn't want to have that many dead bodies being found in Buckley, since she lives near there and the area doesn't actually have that many dead bodies and killers.
I made Kim a bit nervous with all the photos I was taking, she was afraid I would have all of these bad ones of her, but I assured her that bad ones get deleted.
She also had some prizes to give out, everyone got a lilac nail polish, bookmarks of all the books, a stick of The Last Echo and Last Echo wrist band. If you pulled a bookmark with a red heart you got to choose an extra prize, either a bag or a tee shirt. I was lucky enough to get the bag, along with all the rest of the swag.
Kim and I
This is the 3rd time I have seen her but the only time I have taken pictures
Kim and Jorge
he doesn't have a blog, but he a local book/event fan that I have meet and chatted with on Facebook
The event was awesome and Kim is so much fun. I really enjoy going to her events and I can't wait to see her again this Saturday for Spring Into Future event. I love how many local authors Washington has, we are pretty lucky to be the perfect place to write and read with all the crappy weather and rain we have.
Have you meet the lovely Kimberly Derting?
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