Cari Kamm, Voices and a Giveaway!

Yesterday, I posted my thoughts about the wonderful book For Internal Use Only by Cari Kamm. You can read them here. Today, I am so happy to have Cari here, talking about her voices.

Cari, I have heard other authors say that they 'hear voices in their head' and that is how they write their books: the characters are telling their stories. Not being a writer myself, that concept has always intrigued me.

When some people hear voices, we get them medical attention, others end up becoming writers. Does this happen to you? How do you come up with your stories?

This is a great question and one of the many reasons I'm so passionate about being a storyteller. I don't necessarily “hear voices in my head” as someone that would require medical attention. Ha! My imagination is always alert. It’s on twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week. Yes, even when I'm sleeping.

Life inspires me to create a character. In an instant, I can go from sipping my cappuccino, to walking along a tree-lined street, while sitting in a movie theater, to having lunch with a friend, if inspired by a sound, a person, a smell, or even a shadow, my mind will wander off and absorb something specific in a moment. That moment can lead me into a story idea or a personality for a character. When a theme moves me, I sketch out an outline breaking down Act I, II & III and create a character description. Then, I just write. I don’t look back. I don't reread. I would say it’s a crappy first draft and then I spend months on revising – editing – revising – editing. Over the next several months, I begin to realize where the character is leading me.

Writing isn't my job. It’s my daily habit. I begin first thing in the morning. I make coffee and hit the keys. Writing is my big morning stretch. I write from anywhere, anytime, and on anything. A notebook, a cocktail napkin, or even taking a photo of a person, place or thing that inspired me. I take a lot of photos to capture details that I want to write about later and add into a scene or character description. I love being surrounded by music, strangers, voices… simply just life. Throughout my own daily life, a moment may capture me and I think, “Wow... my character would eat that, do that, say that, adore that.”

The plot, the characters, and the setting are all inspired from my daily life once I've created a character. I don't go searching for inspiration, I prefer to bump into the unexpected beauty of life. Whether it is spotting a shadow, hearing a whistle, or walking through dog poop on the street because I was distracted with a scene idea (It’s happened!).

I write a lot in New York City and also on my family’s ranch in West Virginia. Traveling pushes me as a writer in my descriptions. For example, in my first novel, Fake Perfect Me, the scenes in Italy where Isabella Reynolds is enjoying a creamy burratta in Rome... I wrote that scene while doing that exact thing. In my latest novel, For Internal Use Only, I was a passenger in a car on a major interstate in Atlanta writing a similar scene with my protagonist Chloe leading the way!

Thank you so much, Cari, for the wonderful insight into your writing world. (btw, love the dog poop story ~ sorry it happened to you, but it is funny)

About the author

Cari Kamm has worked in the beauty industry for over a decade, building brands, working behind the scenes, and even selling her own skin care line. She has a master’s in clinical nutrition from New York University. Kamm currently works in corporate social media management with clients in the beauty, fashion, and restaurant industries. Living in New York City with her mutt Schmutz, Kamm loves finding inspiration in the most unexpected places, being a novelist, and convincing her fiancé that ordering takeout and making dinner reservations are equal to cooking. More information can be found on her website, CariKamm.com

Connect with Cari

Website | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Goodreads

Chloe Kassidy has just been accepted into one of Manhattan’s most exclusive art exhibits, Love Through Light. However, with her singular dedication to her career, she soon realizes that in sacrificing her personal life, she has never been in love. A hopeless romantic who is terrified of heartbreak, Chloe begins to enlist the help of her circle of friends to learn about love through their very different stories and experiences.

In Chloe’s emotional rollercoaster to having the greatest love story ever told, she'll learn that like her photography she must use the negatives in life to develop and prove that she’s a strong woman who found her way to love through light.

Inspired by the notion that women grow up with ideas of true love and destiny, For Internal Use Only approaches those ideas with a decidedly twenty-first century viewpoint. A humorous love story with an edgy and dramatic twist, For Internal Use Only is a vastly entertaining novel that gives each of us a new fairy tale to look forward to: our own. ~~ synopsis from Goodreads

For Internal Use Only trailer

Giveaway!

Cari has graciously offered 2 copies of her book for this giveaway.
Thank you, Cari!

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