The Kinmils

Claire and Ryan Kinmil are a wife and husband, book enjoying duo. They're squeezing the book reading and writing parts of their lives in between the work work and the unpaid work of raising two children.

While they enjoy reading almost anything, they spend most of their time on Sci-Fi, (urban) fantasy, murder mysteries, and personal development.

In their stories, as in real life, they encourage different ways of thinking when facing problems and finding solutions. Not unlike how having no time to read books and no drive to clean the bathroom sound like two distinct issues, yet have a single solution - listen to an audiobook while scrubbing the toilet!

Claire Kinmil

Claire Kinmil is a former books avoider who discovered she actually liked (some) books in her 30s. To her dismay, she spent a lot of her 20s on becoming a physics and computer science teacher instead of reading. Now, she tries to compensate for all those "lost" years by listening to as many audiobooks as can possibly fit into a self-employed mother's daily life.

After listening to a book, or two, or ten, she generally feels a great urge to discuss the books with others. That has lead her to join multiple book clubs and to create a YouTube channel devoted to the book collecting and reading hobbies.

The stories Claire writes focus on the interpersonal relationships between friends and family members. More specifically, on what we can do to better understand others, without completely disregarding our own wants and needs. The inspiration for those stories may or may not come from her personal struggles to understand the people around her.

Ryan Kinmil

 

Ryan Kinmil’s reading journey started in middle grade, mostly through works outside the curriculum. He consumed the books, without much consideration of the content or what messages the story sent. It was only later he realised the world view the books helped him build was off. Turns out, self-reliance and self-isolation aren’t the same thing, and most conflicts should not be solved through combat.  

Nowadays, he enjoys figuring out how to lead an engineering team through handling a critical data issue, fit D&D mechanics onto his character's backstory, and get the kids to bed on time. Yes, they are ordered by increasing level of difficulty.

Ryan's goal while writing is to highlight both the positive and negative aspects of a character’s actions and the system they found themselves in. He does this by forcing the characters to question personal and societal beliefs of what is right or even possible.