Friday, December 6, 2019 ~ WEST SHORE
BOOK PROFILE by Mary P Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
When anyone loses a family pet there is sadness. When George the cat passed, for local author Joanne Kimm it was a springboard to self publishing as she found herself exploring the grieving process of pet loss with photos and the story of her beloved pet.
Now living in the Halifax area, Joanne Kimm raised her family in Esquimalt, moved to Langford, and worked at the SD62 school administration office for many years. Her husband is retired military, and they moved to the east coast this year. But they’ll be back to the west shore here for the Christmas season and Joanne is hoping the book “The Story of George: A Memoir” will be something people want to talk about and include in their Christmas gift-giving.
“People remember their pets. But for me, I just had to write about George,” says Kimm.
Recently ranked the #12 best seller in the pet loss genre on Amazon, it sells there for $17.99 Canadian or just $5.29 if you buy the Kindle version.
Now using the marketing banner of Exclusively JK, the self-publishing author is going to roll out a second book about another cat, it’s a sequel called “Along Came Felix”.
From every book sale, one dollar is being donated by Exclusively JK to animal rescue organizations. Recently she donated $150 to the Broken Promises organization, and as sales pick up, more will be donated.
The book about George is presently being translated into French, and Kimm is working on getting the book into a format for blind and deaf children — in braille and audio format.
Sometimes she goes out to speak to small groups about her book and the process of grieving for a pet that has died. She has also spoken to groups about writing and getting published. One such group was CUPE workers during one of their professional development days at EMCS in Sooke.
This month ahead of winter break, Kimm will be donating a copy of “The Story of George: A Memoir” to each of the 10 elementary schools in SD62 (in Langord, Colwood and Sooke). Copies can also be purchased online through the Exclusively JK website (where there’s a link to the book on Amazon). She also hopes to see the book sold by Scholastic Books, once the French version is also available.
While Joanne will miss George this and every Christmas, the feline lives on through the good work of helping people interface with the loss of a pet.