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!
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