Kings River Life Magazine



This year, Kings River Life Magazine celebrated its fourth anniversary and it's been quite a ride so far. About four and a half years ago, I was let go from my job at a local newspaper for creative differences and I didn't know what I was going to do next. While I was working at that newspaper I had been told several times that no one would read articles on several topics I wanted to write about. So I got this idea--why not start an online magazine made up of just those things! Some of the things she told me no one wanted to read about were book reviews, local history, local bands and theatre, and pets--most of these have become the foundation of KRL so I think perhaps she was wrong!

Over the past four years, KRL has changed a great deal and expanded far beyond our home area of the San Joaquin Valley of California. While we still have some local focused articles, especially in the area of entertainment, at least half of our issue each week is focused on articles that can appeal to people all over the world. We have also added many new areas of coverage such as mental health, going green, and several food columns.

One area that surprised me with its growth was that of mystery. When we started out we planned on only covering local authors and they didn't have to write mystery. However, I quickly found that with my background in mystery (I have published five mystery novels) I had connections to bring in mystery readers from all over the world. We now publish anywhere from three to five mystery related items per week, usually including one short story. We have book reviews and giveaways, author interviews, author guest posts, special mystery related articles like one on the Pinkerton Detective Agency, short stories, and TV reviews. Also, we have expanded into the area of fantasy and vampire novels.

From a handful of local writers, including the wonderful Marilyn Meredith, we have gone to over half of our staff being scattered around the world. We have a food columnist in New York, mystery reviewers in Tennessee, St. Louis, Hawaii, and Australia, and a pet writer in North Carolina.

Now that KRL is pretty much settled into who we are (though things still are always changing) I am finally taking the time to write the first book in a brand new series which is tentatively set in Fresno, California featuring an entertainment and animal rescue blogger named Roxi Carlucci. I hope to have it done by early in 2015.

So I encourage all of you, if you have a passion about something don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't do it. Go for it! KRL now reaches about 10,000 a readers a month all over the world, a number we hope to see continue to grow. If we can accomplish that in four years, you can make your dreams come true as well!

You can find KRL at http://KingsRiverLife.com. We have a new issue every Saturday morning and movie and theatre reviews, and sometimes bonus short stories, throughout the week. Come check us out! 

Comments

margaret mendel said…
Lorie, you're the best example that doing it your way works. KRL is a fantastic read with lots of local and far reaching interesting information, and delicious tidbits. I wish you all the luck with this work-in- progress and applaud your concept of letting KRL change and be what it wants to be.

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