06 December 2006

Meet Kim "Kimberly" Iverson Headlee

Hello, and thank you, Carrie, for inviting me to be a part of this online community!

My full name is Kim Deirdre Iverson Headlee, and I am a Seattle native currently living in the Appalachian foothills in southwestern Virginia on a 100-acre farm with my husband of a jillion years and daughter. Our son currently attends college at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, though he visits when he can.

As Kim Headlee I published DAWNFLIGHT in 1999, which featured a Pictish warrior-queen Guinevere many years before Jerry Bruckheimer got the idea for his King Arthur movie. (Please don't get me started on Keira Knightley's leather bra strap that was supposed to be "armor"!) I have several manuscripts planned for this millieu; please visit my web site for more details.

Fate intervened in the form of a near-fatal car accident, among other things, so it would be several years before the release of my next novel, LIBERTY, which features a Celtic female gladiator who must fight for her freedom in ancient Rome. This novel I published under the pseudonym "Kimberly Iverson," for several reasons, all of which are suitable for their own discussion thread. LIBERTY is only remotely connected to DAWNFLIGHT; it's set about 330 years earlier (AD 160 versus AD 490), but Pictish warriors do make an appearance in LIBERTY.

I hope to delve further into Pictish culture with PROPHECY, one of my current works-in-progress. LIBERTY's editor loved the proposal I created for PROPHECY, but HQN management had already made the decision to cut me & 7 other authors from the line. She recently began working at Pocket Books, as a Senior Editor, so I have hopes she'll be able to acquire PROPHECY for Pocket. We had a terrific working relationship on LIBERTY, and I know she loves my writing ... please keep your fingers crossed for me!

The status of my paranormal, Norman Conquest-era manuscript, SNOW IN JULY, is a bit up in the air. I thought it had made the rounds of major houses, via my literary agent, so I sent it to a small press, who wants to publish it. Then I learned that two major publishers still have yet to respond. I'll keep you posted on that score.

My latest work-in-progress, which is still pretty much in the research phase and doesn't have a suitable working-title yet, will feature a 7th-century ancestor of my husband, who was king of the Swedish territory in what is now Russia. I like to think the heroine, Audr Ivarsdottir, may have been an ancestor of mine! I have a great deal of Viking blood in my veins.

On the non-fiction front, I contributed a chapter regarding how to write about the Arthurian Legends to THE FANTASY WRITER'S COMPANION. By the way, the links to published books in this post will take you to Amazon.com. Buying them via these links will garner me a commission on the sale, so please shop "early and often!" If you do purchase any of these books in this manner, please drop me a line and I'll let you know how you can receive a personalized, autographed bookplate from me.

Take care, and write on!
Kim
Kim D Headlee
Author, LIBERTY, writing as Kimberly Iverson, HQN Books, ISBN 0373771347, on sale now
Author, DAWNFLIGHT, ISBN 0671020412
Contributor, THE FANTASY WRITER'S COMPANION, ISBN 1896944159