STORKED! Adoption Secrecy and the Search for Identity received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author KC Sanford.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
STORKED! Adoption Secrecy and the Search for Identity was published in June 2022.
What’s the book’s first line?
The message took me five minutes to write and five times as long to send.
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
K. C. Sanford’s STORKED! tells the emotional true story of a child born as Baby Girl, whose existence was erased by the closed adoption system. Through her quest to find her identity, Sanford sheds light on the legal barriers and emotional toll of closed adoptions and the importance of knowing one’s roots.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
STORKED!’s inspiration comes from my adoption journey and decades-long search to answer the question, “Who am I?”. Knowing who I was before I became K. C. Sanford is illegal. I am not allowed a copy of my original birth certificate, medical history, or genealogy. There is shame in secrecy, and I wanted to give a voice to the many adoptees who are denied access to their past.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
Whether you are an adoptee, a birth parent, an adoptive parent, someone working in government or the courts, or simply someone interested in the complexities of the human experience, this book will challenge your assumptions and leave you with a deeper understanding of the power of identity, connection, and family. And if you like a mystery, STORKED! is a page-turner.
When did you first decide to become an author?
The seed of an idea was planted after hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2012. That book wasn’t ready to be written back then, but stay tuned…
Is this the first book you’ve written?
Yes (unless a 167-page dissertation about saving historic windows counts).
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
I managed to turn my love of historic buildings into a career as an architectural engineer.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
Not enough! My writing ebbs and flows depending on what’s happening in my life. I find the more I read, the more I write.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
Best—You are in the driver’s seat. Hardest—Hands down, marketing. Like many women, I’ve never been good at selling myself. So, thank you IndieReader for this opportunity!
What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors?
Consider working with a writing coach. They won’t write the book for you, but a good coach can help you find and elevate your voice. Coming from a technical writing background, this helped me hone my creative writing craft.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
Stephen King—I love a good scary story, and he is the master!
Which book do you wish you could have written?
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.
