By Donna Campbell Smith
K.F. Whatley has released her first novel, Making Corrections, after twenty years of being a technical writer and journalist. She has also had short fiction and poetry published in literary journals including County Lines, which is published by Franklin County Arts Council.
Known to friends as Kay, she is owner and publisher of The Grey Area News. The online news covers local and national unusual news from North Carolina, the US and beyond. Some of the unusual news includes everything from UFO sights to an art event in Denver, Colorado that features a “hug huddle.” So, it should be no surprise that her novel, Making Corrections, which she describes as a love story, has an element of science fiction with one of the main characters being a time-traveler.
In the novel, main character Carrie didn’t believe in time travel, but she’d do anything to go back in time to when her husband Mig was still alive – when he was still standing at her side doing yard work, running the newspaper, sleeping beside her every night. She calls Mr. Braggin, expert in time travel, a strange character who raises the question, “If you could go back in time and change events, will you also be ready to deal with the consequences?”
Whatley says her motivation in writing this particular novel was to try and deal with the death of her husband several years ago. She says writing the novel was a cathartic exercise, enabling her to bring him back in an emotional way. Through her story she says, “We can still have adventures together.”
The book is also aimed toward anyone dealing with loss or regret. “Anyone whose life didn’t go as planned; they might wish to meet this time-traveler,” Whatley says.
Whatley is already working on a second novel, a sequel to Making Corrections. Kay says she plots her stories with sticky notes, writing down her ideas and organizing them in a notebook. She says she definitely has enough sticky-notes for a second, and possibly a third novel.
Making Corrections is available in two formats:
As a special Amazon.com Free Book Promotion, the e-book will be available to read for free July 1-5, 2018.
Kay plans to be at the Zebulon Farm Fresh Market for “Literacy Day at the Market” on July 7, 2018 with copies of her book, books by other local authors, and information on local writers’ groups. Be sure to drop by her booth and visit with her and enter a drawing to win a copy of Making Corrections.
