Meet Kari Wolfe!

Today we are going to meet Kari Wolfe!
Kari Wolfe is a writer and a blogger at Imperfect Clarity (http://www.imperfectclarity.net) in whatever time is left over from being a stay-at-home-mom to a very precocious and energetic three-year old. She blogs on a number of topics including writing, book reviews, interviews, and setting and meeting goals.

Currently, she is on a mission: to combine fiction writing articles with and articles on how she’s trying to live her life to the fullest and she’s going to bring you on that journey with her through her blog.

Here's an exciting interview with Kari to know all about her and her books.
Enjoy!


Hi Kari, tell us a little bit about your background.

Well, I’m originally from Huntington, West Virginia, and currently live in Colorado Springs, CO. Before moving to Colorado, I received my bachelor’s degree in science, majoring in physics and mathematics from Marshall University in my home town.

It’s always been my dream to write. And, by dream, I mean I have written my entire life but always have been told that I should do something else.

That and I’ve had setbacks, mostly in school.

During middle school, I wrote erotica—not the most appropriate topic for a pre-teen—and my writing was confiscated by the guidance counselor who pulled me into her office for a good talking to. I don’t remember what she said but I remember the embarrassment I felt. I don’t write erotica anymore.

In high school, I co-wrote a book with my best friend, Mikie—my character would flirt with his character, his character would tell mine no and that we were just really good friends, etc. So on and so forth.

As an adult, I kept a journal that was used against me by an ex-boyfriend who threw anything negative I wrote about him in my face. Same guy who would take me to a secluded spot, make me feel guilty for whatever he was upset at me about and once I cried, he’d take me home.

When I married my husband, it took me a while to finally realize that I was safe. If I didn’t want anyone to read my writing—regardless of what it was—no one would. He wouldn’t go through what I’d written without my permission. I participated in NaNoWriMo in 2008 and, with his encouragement, I won.

For my blog, Imperfect Clarity, I’ve interviewed some awesome people: Seth Godin, Peter Straub, Conrad Williams, Christopher Moore, Les Edgerton and more.

Tell us about your current book. Give a short summary and also how you got the idea for this book.

Realizing there is more than to life than observation, a voyeur kidnaps a struggling stay-at-home mother and her children only to fight the trapped evil spirit of the house they are hiding in through his possessed partner-in-crime.

For this work, I combined several different ideas.

First, the newest Tool album has a song called “Vicarious” about how some people watch the news and the worse the news is, the better they like it. The idea is they are “living vicariously through the eyes of others,” a phrase criminologist Jack Levin used in a personal conversation with me about why people are so fascinated with the idea of serial killers. The song reminded me of our conversation which gave me Jake, the story’s protagonist.

Second, I wanted to try my hand at a novel about a haunted house. Easy as that. As to what the house actually does… I took a subject I was interested in, memory, and started asking myself questions about what I could do with that subject.

Last, the overall theme of the story is forgiveness of self. It probably took longer to come up with the overall theme than anything else. Plotting out the book’s main points and what I definitely wanted to have happen helped a lot in discovering this.

What is a typical writing day like for you?

I have a three-year-old daughter who is autistic, so in some ways, I really don’t feel like I ever have a typical day. On Monday and Wednesdays, she goes to preschool and, after my own physical therapy, I have an hour before picking her up. Tuesdays and Thursdays, we have hippotherapy and speech therapy.

Fortunately she takes a nap most afternoons—or, at least, I’ve instituted a rule of quiet time where she plays in her room. This is when I do most of my writing.

After Natasha goes to bed, I have some time available then, but I use it for reading and relaxing mostly. My husband is home, so it’s more difficult for me to concentrate on writing fiction.

What do you enjoy most about writing?

I love to talk. You can ask my husband ;)

Seriously, I love to create. I love to come up with an idea and to work it out on the page. Recently, I’ve been inundated with new ideas and I keep jotting them down. Hopefully one day I’ll be able to get to them all! J

What is the most difficult part of writing?

Sometimes it’s just DOING it. I freewrite, to get my hands flowing across the keyboard and to kickstart my brain.

Sometimes it’s just time—there are days I have no energy to focus on fiction and I only focus on nonfiction, blog entries, that type of thing.

And sometimes it’s focusing on the here and now. Daydreaming about having your books in bookstores and name on the publishing lists is great—but you have to do the work first.

Do you have a website?
Yes, Imperfect Clarity at http://www.imperfectclarity.net/

From the About Me page: (http://www.imperfectclarity.net/?page_id=4)
Imperfect Clarity is a detailed look at the thought processes of a fiction writer trying to improve her life and become successful by living her life to the fullest.
The idea here is to combine fiction writing articles with my own fiction and articles on how I’m trying to live my life to the fullest that I can. I am learning how to do this not only from different websites I have found talking about motivation but also by actually DOING these things I talk about.
I’m in the process of branding it and hopefully will be able to institute those changes within the next month. I’m really excited about it.

You can sign up to receive Imperfect Clarity both through email (http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=ImperfectClarity&loc=en_US) as well as through your favorite RSS reader (http://feeds.feedburner.com/ImperfectClarity).

What are you working on right now?

Including The House (my fictional work-in-progress), I am currently working on a four or five-post series for my blog about resistance and procrastination. I have several nonfiction ebooks in the works as well as a guest posting position.

Thank you, Kari, for sharing all this interesting information with us!
And Good luck to your life journey!

Storytime on Amazon

My first book is on Amazon!
I have just created an author page and a new blog on Amazon, and I hope that someone will stop by and preview my book!

The three stories Storytime includes deal with the following issues:

self-esteem

friendship

nature.

I believe each story will not only entertain the readers but will make them think about certain topics from a new angle.

I welcome your feedback!

Have a great day,

Liana

Read my Angel story!

An Angel in my Arms

by Liana Metal

I was lying in bed half asleep, when I had a feeling of something warm and eerie surrounding me. Suddenly, I saw myself standing in the middle of a room, and I knew I was not in my house, but in someone else’s. I was holding a baby in my arms.

It was soon just after Christmas when my pen friend Marie, from Toronto, Canada, told me the good news. "I'm going to have a baby! Imagine that, after so many years of expecting a miracle I'm finally going to become a mom! I am thrilled that I’m going to have a child at this age! Isn’t it a miracle? Peter can’t believe it either. We are both so excited and can't wait for the great day."
A week later I got her letter.
"I believe God has finally heard my prayers," she wrote," and I am grateful to Him. I’ve never lost my faith that one day I would have my own child. The doctor said I may have difficulties, but I believe that God will help me once more. Please, pray for me."
I read the letter of my pen friend over and over again, in amazement. Marie and I had been friends for over twenty years, since the day I found her address in a school magazine, and despite the great distance that separated us - I live in Greece- we clicked from our very first letter. It looked as if we had known each other for a long time, probably since our early childhood years, and we shared a lot of our daily problems, and good news as well.
That day, I was happily surprised when I read her letter. I had always known she wanted a child, but somehow, God had not let her have one, despite the fact that there was no obvious physical reason for this. Now that her husband, Peter, was in his late fifties and Marie in her early forties, they were going to become parents for the first time.
The announcement of her baby-to-come must have been a great surprise to both of them as well as to everybody else who knew them. I wrote back to her instantly, sending a beautiful card with a baby carried by a pelican.
“Please, tell me when the baby is due,” I wrote. “I would like to know. Everything will be fine so don’t worry. I pray for you every day. God will give you a beautiful baby, and I am grateful to Him for helping you.”
Weeks passed, and one day I got a letter from Marie.
“My baby is due in September,” she wrote. “The doctor already knows the sex of the baby but we told him not to tell us. We want to have a surprise.
I am still very worried about the possible implications of the birth, but when I am thinking of my baby, I forget all about it. I just want to have a healthy baby.”
I knew how she was feeling. Being a mother is a unique experience that a woman cannot take for granted. I kept writing to her trying to encourage her that everything would go on as planned.
“Don’t lose your faith,” I wrote. “If you strongly believe that you are going to succeed, then you will. Nothing bad can happen to you, so just let yourself enjoy these moments of happiness. Think that it is God’s will to happen this way, and everything will be done as He has planned.”
September came and my thoughts were there, with Marie and her baby. Then one night, something strange happened.
I was lying in bed half asleep, when I had a feeling of something warm and eerie surrounding me. Suddenly, I saw myself standing in the middle of a room, and I knew I was not in my house, but in someone else’s. I was holding a baby in my arms.
I looked at the baby. There was a hazy light all around and the baby smiled at me opening his blue sparkling eyes. I also noticed that the baby’s hair was golden.
I felt warm and strangely peaceful as I was holding the beautiful baby in my arms. Somehow I knew that that was not my baby. A voice inside me told me so.
When I opened my eyes the next morning the image of the baby was still vivid in my mind. The whole dream- was it a dream?- looked so real, I wasn't sure what to believe. I kept wondering whose baby I was holding for I had not forgotten the voice telling me, ‘this is not your baby’.
A few days later I got a letter from Marie.
“I had a baby girl last week,” she wrote. “She’s so beautiful! She’s got golden hair and bright blue eyes. I’ll send you a picture of her soon. I can’t tell you how happy Peter and I are! For the first time in our life we’ve experienced the ultimate feeling of happiness. We keep looking at our little girl and still can not believe it!”
Then I remembered my dream. I was ecstatic. It felt like the baby I had seen that night was Marie's. I wrote back to her and asked her about the exact date of her baby’s birth. It was as I had guessed. Everything fell into place. Marie had her baby on the night I had that strange dream. I was thrilled. I had to let her know about it, so I sent her a long letter describing in every detail what I had seen that night.
She was amazed too. God had given me a sign that everything was going to be fine with her. The little angel I was holding in my arms that night showed me that faith could do miracles. Marie’s life changed dramatically from that night on. We all prayed and hoped to be able to see more of God’s miracles.
Today, Marie lives happily with her husband and her only daughter. Her little angel has grown up and is studying in college. Life is good to them and they are grateful for God’s support, we all are.

Liana Metal is a teacher; artist and writer based in Europe. Visit her at www.lianametal.tripod.com

(This story is included in the Angel anthology titled: "Then Along Came an Angel" compiled by Julie Bonn Heath http://www.amazon.com/Then-Along-Came-Angel-Deliverance/dp/141410443X/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222082602&sr=1-7