The Romance Cover: Promo & Giveaway ~ It all Started with a Lima Bean by Kimi Flores

Title: It All Started with a Lima Bean (Intertwined Hearts book 1)

Author: Kimi Flores

Published: August 8th, 2013

Hosted By: The Book Avenue

A past that haunts can be laid to rest through the act of forgiveness, even if the person you forgive is yourself. It must be gifted freely.

Abby Sullivan cherishes the life she is creating for herself in her hometown of Santa Barbara, California. She adores her best friend and supportive family. Her job as a kindergarten teacher offers her life hope and purpose. She is very talented at many things, especially hiding the pain of her past. That is until her world collides with Caleb Hunter’s, giving them both a lesson in forgiveness and love.

A life changing love is cruelly snatched by sickness and death. A person must be willing to give love, the greatest gift of all, to receive love.

A successful writer, Caleb is living life day-to-day. Giving refuge to his sad and lonely heart since his wife's sudden death from cervical cancer, his primary focus becomes honoring her memory by rearing their five-year-old daughter, Madison. Yet, when Madison Hunter walks into Miss Abby’s kindergarten class, everything changes for all three of them.

With a little nudge from a loving mother-in-law who has everyone’s best interest at heart, anything is possible, especially when forgiveness and love gift even more blessings than ever imaginable.

Can you tell us something we don’t know about Kimi Flores?

I’ve been a vegetarian off and on since I was 16 and a vegan for the past 3 years.

When did you first realize that you wanted to become a writer?

I’ve always loved to write but didn’t have the confidence to actually publish my own novel until I started reading indie books and “hanging out” with fellow indie authors, about 2 years ago.

Why do you feel you had to tell this story?

While I love a good naughty book as much as the next girl, but I missed reading more wholesome, fade to black kind of stories that were not YA, so I wrote my own.

Is there something in this book that is based on real life experience?

Most of the embarrassing things that happened to Abby, have happened to me at one point or another (minus the ex-boyfriend’s brother walking in to do a yearly exam ;) ~ Also, my children go to a charter school and a lot of the school scenes were based on real life events ~ including those Power Moms and the VS angels :P

What was your inspiration in creating the characters?

Honestly, the characters just came to me once I started to think about the story. I never understood authors when they said that but I get it now.

Is there any specific message that you would want your readers to grasp after reading this book?

I would love for readers to really understand the power of forgiveness once they are done reading my book. You can either let others hold all of the cards or you can freely give them forgiveness, taking back the control, whether they deserve it or not, for your own sake.

Name 3 authors you would love to collaborate with.

Jessica Louise, Melanie Dawn and Jennifer Anne Davis

Excluding your own, name 3 books you would recommend to your friends.

I’m going to cheat and name series ~ The Premonition Series by Amy Bartol, The Charade Series by Nyrae Dawn and The Unexpected Series by Anne Leigh

Any advice to give to aspiring writers?

Never give up. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it because although cliché, it’s better to try and fail than to not try at all and wonder “what if” for the rest of your life.

Any message to your followers?

I’m so blessed to have the best, most supportive readers around and I truly am grateful to anyone who takes a chance and reads my books. Thank you for all of your encouragement.

Kimi lives in So Ca with her high school sweetheart, prom date, and now husband of over 20 years as well as with her two boys that bring so much joy and laughter to her life. There is never a dull moment in Kimi's day with these three guys by her side. They are happily involved in volunteer work with several local non-profit organizations and believe that everyone needs to do their part, so a portion of her sales will always go to charity.

At an early age, Kimi discovered the magical world of imagination. Many stories were written as well as illustrated by her as a child. Not realizing at the time that she had dyslexia, schoolwork became extremely difficult, and her confidence as a reader and writer dwindled. Thanks to a high school teacher who took the time to invest in her, Kimi found a love for literary legends such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving and Jane Austen. This teacher helped Kimi create one of the happiest school memories she holds. Discovering in college that she had the learning disability was terribly discouraging since help was not readily available and her reading and writing confidence fell once again.

Needing to find a distraction when her husband unexpectedly ended up in the hospital for a week, Kimi explored the indie reading world. Jumping in with everything she had, Kimi pushed herself to read over 150 books last year. During that process, many characters reappeared in her imagination and insisted that their stories be told. Putting all self-doubt and barriers aside, she started writing the outlines and drafts for the four books in her Intertwined Hearts Series as well as bits and pieces of the three books in her next series, Down by the Bay.

Her message to you is similar to that of pop icon, will.i.am's: