Kirsten Clark is a clinical psychologist who was born and raised in Durban, South Africa. She works as a behavioural profiler for the National Police Service. She is studying for her PhD in Behavioural Medicine and writes her books as a form of therapy and a way of making meaning about the work she does.
She has authored two (2) books: Grave Intentions – Book 1 of the Sarah Graham series and Poppet – Book 2 of the Sarah Graham series. Her third book entitled Belladonna – Book 3 of the Sarah Graham series – is currently in progress.***
BREW Question: Did you love reading books when you were little? Why or why not?
Author’s Response: Absolutely – I read prolifically as a child, visiting the library weekly and devouring all types of genres. Reading was an escape and an adventure rolled into one.
BREW Question: At what age did you start reading books? What were your best memories of that time?
Author’s Response: I started reading at 4. I remember feeling the thrill of recognizing words and the fact that letters on a page meant something.
BREW Question: What was the first book you loved reading? Why?
Author’s Response: I loved the Far Away Tree – I still have my first copy forty years later.
BREW Question: When did you first think about writing your first book? Why?
Author’s Response: I started my first book 3 years ago when I joined the police. I had worked in the health sector before that and forensic psychology and behavioural profiling was and still is a very difficult field to work, because what you do is deal with the worst parts of people every day. The book was a way of making sense of what I saw and was doing. Writing continues to be very therapeutic for me.
BREW Question: What was the greatest obstacle you’ve encountered when you were writing your book? What made you overcome it?
Author’s Response: The writing was actually easy. I finished both my books in under 6 months. Getting published in South Africa is hard – although I made the shortlists in a few open submissions, it never worked out and that was very disheartening. I decided to self-publish on Amazon Kindle.
BREW Question: What pieces of advice can you give aspiring authors? What worked for you?
Author’s Response: Writing the first draft in an actual book – the act of writing your thoughts out by hand allows you to think about what you want to say and how you say it before it gets on to the paper. Plus you can (write) the book anywhere.
BREW Question: Who are the authors or what are the books that had the greatest influence on your own writing? Why?
Author’s Response: Ayn Rand – for her concepts which were way ahead of her time;
JRR Tolkien – for his amazing way with words and the ability to write about a forest for 2 pages and not make you bored;
Susan Cooper – she is one of my favourite childhood authors because she sparked my imagination in a way that no other books did;
Sarah J Maas – for her rich fantasy worlds; and,
Jeffrey Archer- for his quick and easy reading, with delightful twists on the tales.
BREW Question: What are your current or future writing plans? What can readers further expect from you?
Author’s Response: I am busy with my third book, Belladonna, part of the Sarah Graham series. I will continue to write about her until she loses her relevance to me or she has “gone” as far as I can take her. After that, I would like to try something in a different genre.
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Know more about our author and her books via the following links:
***The author or publisher provided the above write-up.
Dear Kirsten, congratulations!! Your works look very interesting! I am glad to learn about my Fellow Author’s works!
I love Jeffrey Archer, too. And I wonder how the fascinating job of the author has influenced her writing, or if she plans to write her memoirs. That would be awesome.