Author, Spotlight

Kelly Klepfer: author spotlight

Beth Erin

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Faithfully Bookish

Hello, reader friends! Today’s featured author is sharing some of her favorites plus her latest bookish news and a giveaway of her co-authored zany cozy mystery, just for y’all!

About the Author

Kelly KlepferKelly Klepfer had ambitions to graduate from the school of life quite a while ago, but alas . . . she still attends and is tested regularly. Her co-authored cozy/quirky mystery, Out of the Frying Pan, is the culmination of several of the failed/passed tests.

Kelly, though she lives with her husband, two Beagles and two hedgehogs in Iowa, can be found at Novel Rocket, Novel Reviews, Scrambled Dregs, Modern Day Mishaps, and on social media with flashes of brilliance (usually quotes), randomocities, and learned life lessons.

Zula and Fern Hopkins and their shenanigans can be found at Zu-fer where you always get more than you bargained for.

instagram | pinterest | facebook | twitter

 

Five Favorites

Favorite character type

Kelly: I love resilient broken characters who struggle with being too sarcastic and introverted but are forced by their inner strength to work through circumstances to become a better, less broken version of themselves. I didn’t realize that until I just typed it. This is probably why I love the books I do, see the favorite books answer.

I adore Beth Moran’s books because her female characters fit this type of character profile. Making Marion, I Hope You Dance, The Name I Call Myself. I just looked at them on Amazon and am shocked at how few reviews they have. I loved these books! I may be unique in my tastes! But by now you might not be surprised by that comment!

Beth: I completely relate to those introverted characters! I’ll have to check those books out!

Favorite childhood books or authors

Kelly: I love kid literature. My aunts were just a decade older than me and they used to buy us an award-winning book every year for Christmas. My favorites are Miss Jaster’s Garden which is probably why my husband was able to convince me we needed hedgehogs and The Bull Beneath the Walnut Tree which is sadly out of print.

As an adult, I fell in love with Old Black Fly at a conference for those in Early Childhood. The author was a speaker and I remember that he talked about the importance of cadence and read his book out loud to us. I have actually shared his book with several age groups because it’s so simple and just bounces off the tongue. The illustrations are fabulous and it’s a clever alphabet book with fun vocabulary stretches for littler kids and a fabulous ending and a bit of grossness that grabs the upper elementary age.

Beth: Sounds like you have some very cool aunts ????

Favorite books

Kelly: I love all the classic mysteries. The Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christies. I ate those up as a young teenager. And I veer towards books that make me laugh or books that rip my heart out and stomp on it. Deep, heavy or crazy whimsical laugh out loud. If someone can put those two extremes together I’m a sucker.

Tim Downs wrote The Bug Man books. I LOVE Nick Polchak.  He’s a forensic entomologist so there are murder scenes and dead bodies and grossness. But this character is the best of the best. Sarcastic, hilarious and cluelessly brilliant. Love these books!

One of the most heart-wrenchingly stick-with-me-forever books is by Charles Martin’s Water from My Heart. So deep, so powerful, so rich, such a melancholic hopeful read.

Beth: I enjoy an occasional mystery (throw in some romance and I’m all in!)

Favorite words

Kelly: This is fun. I love to make up words smashing two or three together and I love words that sound made up. Some of my favorite real words are discombobulated and serendipity. I love the feel of them coming off my tongue and they are bouncy words that feel light and whimsical.

Apparently, I’m kind of a weirdo. Ha Ha. I also have discovered words that I can hardly pronounce that mean emotions the English language doesn’t have words for. So cool. Here are a couple examples of what I mean. FYI it’s possible there is an unclean word or two etc as these are not Christian sites.

11 Feelings There Are No Words For In English,
For All You Emotional Word Nerds Out There

7 emotions that English doesn’t have a word for

Beth: Made up words are fun, some of my favorites are fantabulous and beautimous! These articles are great! 

Favorite recipe

Kelly: I am a sucker for chocolate. Chocolate and peanut butter, even better. I have so many recipes. So many.

How about homemade magic shell? 1 cup of chocolate chips to 1-2 TBSP of peanut butter. Melt and stir. Drizzle over ice cream. Bam! (You can also use jam or coconut oil in place of the peanut butter) Pour the leftovers in a small glass jar and microwave for future use.

Or grab spoonfuls every time you open the fridge until it’s gone. Yeah. That works, too.

Beth: Oh, we can definitely be friends! Books, word fun, chocolate AND peanut butter?! Kindred spirits for sure!

 

Books

Out of the Frying PanWhen the chef of Sunset Paradise Retirement Village ends up dead, life for sisters Fern and Zula Hopkins is whipped into a froth. Their zany attempts to track down the killer land them in hot water with Detective Jared Flynn. Should he be concerned about their safety or the criminal’s?

But there are deadly ingredients none of them expect. Drugs. Extortion. International cartels. And worst of all…broken hearts–especially when the Hopkins sisters’ niece KC arrives on the scene.

Before the snooping pair gain any headway with the case, it becomes crystal clear that the sisters share a mysterious secret that takes life from the frying pan and into the line of fire.

goodreads | amazon | bookdepository

 

Beth: I am looking forward to reading this book! Doesn’t this look like the cutest little cover (well, besides the part about murder) 😉

 

What are you working on now? 

Kelly: Michelle and I are knee deep in plotting/writing Into the Fire (working title). There will be a wedding, an inferno and our right-in-the-thick-of-it sisters-in-law’s. Zula also may have met her greatest adversary. She may lose far more than the battle of aesthetics if she can’t convince the authorities that she doesn’t play with matches.

Beth: Yay! Happy writing to you and Michelle!!! She’s one of my favorites! Thank you so much for sharing your favorites and bookish news with us, Kelly!

 

Giveaway

Kelly Klepfer and Michelle Griep have generously offered to send a paperback copy of Out of the Frying Pan to one fortunate Faithfully Bookish reader!

Out of the Frying Pan by Michelle Griep and Kelly Klepfer giveaway on Faithfully Bookish

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Say hi to Kelly and share one of your favorite made-up words
OR an emotion not found in the English language!  

43 thoughts on “Kelly Klepfer: author spotlight”

    2. Thanks, Robin! I’m replying late at night (ha, ha) because I’m babysitting my 5 grandchildren for 5 days and it’s currently very quiet. It feels like 3:00 a.m. My goodness. The energy. The activity. The noise! I’m going to sleep like a baby!

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      2. Ha Ha! I survived and thrived. Just came back from a quick weekend recovery trip. My daughter came home late Sunday night, I worked three days and slept in my own bed two nights then we bebopped to Minnesota to go to Michelle’s (co-author) book signing for her latest release! And food and fun fest.

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  3. Hi Beth & Kelly. Thanks for the interview & giveaway opportunity. My word is fridge-surfing – it’s what my 22 year old son does for breakfast in the morning. Forget about breakfast food, this is his go to! We are sure to mark our lunches for the next day, as everything is fair game.

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    2. Ohmygoodness! I am laughing about fridge-surfing. When our son was in college he lived at home and ate anything leftover. He’d come home after work at 10 or 11p.m. and make epic sandwiches. Pasta, a 3 day old slice of meatloaf (he must have missed it earlier) and limp salad ingredients slapped between two slices of bread. Bam! A meal. Then he began making “Ultimate Salads” He had a designated bowl with pickle juice, veggie bits, etc that he’d add lettuce to periodically, and dive in. I guess like a fermented food thing. I just kind of looked away. When he got married I suddenly had food waste. It was so weird. He still does the ultimate salad thing. His wife has given him a fridge shelf for his weirdness and his pickling products are not allowed anywhere else.

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    2. Thank you, Paula. Our characters were so much fun to write. Definitely zany. We had a blast writing each other into corners and tight spots.

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  6. Hi Kelly, you are a new-to-me author, and I would love to win a copy of your book. I guess I’m not very imaginative, as I can’t really think of a made-up word that I use. ????

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    2. I would love to have you win, too, Gobers2013! Good luck. And a smiley face and enthusiasm definitely overcomes any lack of imagination. How about a real, fun word. Kerfuffle. Feels made up. Feels so fun to say. (And Out of the Frying Pan has its share of kerfuffles.) I used it at work the other day and it was like I flung Skittles around the office. Try it. Ha Ha.

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  8. Hey Kelly and Beth! Thanks for the fun interview and giveaway. One of my favorite made up words is COINKYDINK instead of coincidence.

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    2. When our kids were small our 2nd grader got to read aloud to us to practice. One night he read “coinkydink” and we’ve used it ever since! Ha Ha !

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    2. Dianna. Please don’t put the knife on your porch should your dream porch come true. : ) That would be an adultish only porch, and maybe a wee bit scary!

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    2. Thanks, Emilee. Maybe you can find a new favorite made up word here! And thanks for the compliment on the book cover. Lighthouse (LPC) did a great job!

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  12. Coinkydink is a made up word that we have also enjoyed using at our house. This sounds like a really fun book that I would like to read. Thanks for the chance to win it.

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  15. I am such a word nerd . . . . looking words up in the dictionary all the time to make sure I am not making them up. This sounds like a fun series and I am a very definite cozy mystery fan!

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  16. Good morning Beth and Kelly!

    How about the word puddintane? I use to tell our daughter “You ornery puddintane, but I love you just the same!” :

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  17. Hi! I enjoyed reading this interview, and look forward to reading this book! I’d love to win! 😉 I couldn’t think of any made-up words that I use…but enjoyed reading some of those shared above

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