Our featured author for today is Kim Bannerman.
Hi Kim! First off, please tell us a bit about yourself. Have any super powers or secret talents?
I can whistle air through my eye sockets, although this isn’t exactly a ‘secret’ talent, as I take great pleasure in using it to gross out friends and acquaintances. I try to spend as much time in nature as I can, either hiking or kayaking or simply sitting at the beach, and I am very active in local conservation efforts and learning about botany, biology, and astronomy. I like to remind myself that I live in a vast ecosystem that stretches into the depths of space; it helps to ground me.
Can you tell us a bit about what inspired your story in the anthology?
I had written a novella in which the main character, who had never known her father, had recently been abandoned by her mother; it was later revealed that the mother had simply transformed into a bear. I thought it would be fun to write a love story about how the main character’s parents met, and I enjoyed creating a mythic, long-ago feel for the tale, which in truth only takes place in the 1970s.
What have you been up to lately? Do you have any books out right now? Are you working on anything new?
My latest novel, ‘The Tattooed Wolf‘, was published by Hic Dragones in 2014; it is a contemporary fairy tale that follows a werewolf as he stumbles through a messy divorce. My earlier novels, ‘Bucket of Blood’ (2011) and ‘Mark of the Magpie’ (2014), are historical murder mysteries, and I am now working on the third in the series. I also have a number of short stories coming out in 2015 and 2016.
I’m always fascinated by where and how people work. What is your writing setup like? Any tools you enjoy using?
I have two coffee shops that I haunt, as well as a small office set up in the laundry room of my home – oh so glamorous! I suppose my most valuable tool is my travelling coffee mug, as it provides me with gallons of inspiration, everywhere I go.
Most writers are lifelong readers and books tend to be important to them. What books or stories have most influenced your life (genre stories or otherwise)?
Neal Stephenson’s ‘Baroque Trilogy’ and ‘Cryptonomicon’ have been very influential, as has the work of Eden Robinson, Robertson Davies, Neil Gaiman, and Susan Musgrave. I love mythic works that root themselves in a landscape, providing a glimpse at in-between worlds and allowing us to find new perspectives in mundane places.
Where can we learn more about you and your writing?
Visit me at www.kbannerman.com, where I will endeavour to make you feel welcome. I also do the Twitter-thing, at @kimbannerman and the Instagram-thing, at @bramble_fox.
Thanks Kim! We’ll be sure to keep an eye out for story!
If you’re intrigued by the inspiration behind “Mother Bear”, consider getting yourself a copy of “The Best of Luna Station Quarterly: The First Five Years” and read it for yourself, along with the other forty-nine awesome stories and gorgeous cover art by Julie Dillon.