As a book lover, there are two things I’ve often fantasized about doing. Being a bookseller and writing my own novel would be at the tippy top of the list. Our guest today, Kim Colette Ballard, has hit the booknerd jackpot. She is a book buyer for Riot Book Cellar, a new independent bookstore and wine bar in the small town of Bardstown Kentucky, a place known for its bourbon distilleries and being at the heart of the Bourbon Trail. She helped the manager and owner develop the book bar concept in this quaint tourist town about 45 minutes outside of Louisville KY. She is also the author of a young adult novel, Running on Empty, published in 2014 and winner of several regional awards for young adult fiction. And while she has several other novels on the backburner she is very honest about the extreme highs and sometimes extreme lows you can experience during the publishing process.

Kim talks to us about the great features Riot Book Cellar has added to make coming into their bookstore feel like hanging out with “Friends”, the experience that sparked her journey to writing her first book, and why she stopped reading for awhile but vows to never let that happen again.

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Perks airs on Forward Radio 106.5 FM and forwardradio.org every Wednesday at 6 pm, Thursdays at 6 am and 12 pm. We have purchased the rights to the theme music used.