Sandra Kitt
Author Interview - Sandra Kitt
Author of The Time of Your Life
THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE is a tender, emotional compelling read, which answers the timeless question: What would you do with 5 million dollars? Bestselling author Farrah Rochon attests that this novel is a winner, saying that it is a “charming, multilayered, thoroughly entertaining tale, in which readers are the real winners. Prepare to fall in love.”
Author Interview - Sandra Kitt
Author I draw inspiration from: Alyssa Cole (for her contemporary inventiveness), Donna Hill (whose stories have matured and become complex), and Colson Whitehead (whose stories are very entertaining, clever, and good reads)
Author Interview - Sandra Kitt | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book: When I was growing up it was a big comfortable Queen Anne chair in our living room. I could curl up in the space, which I loved being able to do. The high back made me feel cocooned and protected. Now I have my own Queen Anne chair, and a cushioned club chair in my bedroom; with a cup of tea and a good reading lamp (and occasionally instrumental music VERY LOW in the background) I’m really in a very good place. Peaceful.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: He used to be a very smart and charismatic character in one of the earliest romance books (GOLDEN ILLUSION by Ginna Gray) I read BEFORE I started to write myself. Sorry to be self-serving but for now I have to answer SLOAN KENDRICK, the hero in my next novel, FINDERS, KEEPER. I write heroes that are men with characteristics I not only admire and/or I’m attracted to, but who also demonstrate moral strength and sensitivity, is no pushover, but also has room to grow.
Author Interview - Sandra Kitt | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: I never had an actual thought that ‘I want to become a writer’. While at work one day, with my regular job, an idea for a story flashed in my mind. I went home that evening and began writing the story. I finished it in about 6 weeks. But I never thought I wanted to try and publish it because, at first, I wrote the story to entertain myself, and because I’d never seen or read a story remotely like the one I’d written. Half way through that first book I got an idea for another story. When I finished the first story, I then wrote the second story. It was only as my thinking began developing a 3rd story that I began to think that maybe I had something that could be published. But I still did not pursue that avenue until I had 3 fully written manuscripts. When I did reach out to a publisher I sold two books in 10 days.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: Hardback or paperback/Trade. I’m not a big fan of ebooks/KINDLE. You can’t ‘cosy’ up to a mechanical device. And the enjoyment of an audiobook depends almost entirely on the reader(s). I’ve become distracted in listening to a book being read if the person reading isn’t really experienced in ‘acting’ the characters, using their voice and intonations to bring the characters to life.
The last book I read: JOY SCHOOL, Elizabeth Berg (Fiction); SOMEBODY’S DAUGHTER, Ashley C. Ford (Memoir)
Author Interview - Sandra Kitt | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer: When actually working on a book it’s absolutely computer…it’s faster. But if I don’t happen to have my laptop handy when inspiration hits I find paper wherever I can and write long hand; then I transcribe later.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: Have to pass on this question. I’m drawing a blank!
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a: I would have continued my pursuit to become a productive, selling fine artist. Art was my first love, since age 6. I have two degrees in Fine Arts. I have become a fairly successful author but I’m now turning some of my attention back to art, with sketch and watercolor classes, and working from nature and life.
Favorite decade in fashion history: I learned from my Mom NOT to follow fads…here today, gone next year…but to concentrate on clothing that was actually flattering to my shape and height. I’m not fond of trends, either, but I like the fitted, structured look of the 1940s women’s suits and jackets; mini or just shorter skirts (I’m told I have great legs <g>); the little black dress, almost any style 60s-now.
Place I’d most like to travel: I have traveled to amazing and what used to be exotic places in the world. But I want to see more of Japan, Vietnam, North Africa, Egypt.
My signature drink: Riesling (white wine); Drambuie (sweet scotch liquor); Malbec (red wine)
Favorite artist: Michaelangelo; Romare Bearden; Augusta Savage; Bisa Butler
Number one on my bucket list: Skydiving
Anything else you'd like to add: I want to learn how to knit, renew training in scuba and go diving, Take cooking classes in Tuscany, Become fluent AGAIN in Spanish, Live or work AGAIN overseas, Attend an Oscar after-party, Around the world on a three month cruise
Find more from the author:
@SandraKittAuthor on both Facebook and Instagram
@SandraEKitt on Twitter
Author Bio: Trailblazer SANDRA KITT is an innovator who was the first Black author to write for romance publishing titan Harlequin Enterprises (1984). Kitt, who holds a fine arts degree, worked for many years as a museum librarian at the Hayden Planetarium (now the Rose Center for Earth and Space) at New York’s American Museum of Natural History. There, she ran in circles with such space-minded literary peers as Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan. Asimov even asked Kitt to illustrate a book he wrote.
Kitt is the author of more than twenty novels, including the acclaimed bestseller, The Color of Love. Her work has been nominated for the NAACP Image Award and has appeared on the Essence and Blackboard bestseller lists. She is the recipient of the Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award and the Zora Neale Hurston Literary Award. She lives in New York.
