Raleigh novelist Kim Church has received excellent reviews from authors and readers alike for her first novel, Byrd. Church said the release of her novel was both gratifying and rewarding. 

Byrd recounts the life of Addie Lockwood, a single woman in her 30s, who, after a reunion with a childhood friend, finds herself pregnant. She eventually gives birth to a baby boy, named Byrd. In secret, she immediately gives him up for adoption. From there, the novelist reveals how this decision affects Lockwood and the important people in her life in ways she never could have imagined.

More than 16 years prior to the novel’s release, Church came up with the premise. She attended a dinner with a man who casually relayed to her that he was the father of a child who was put up for adoption.

“I don’t know how he felt about that,” Church said. “There was no emotion attached to the telling of the story, and I wasn’t quite sure why he was telling me.”

After that conversation, Church said she began to ponder what happened to the mother who gave up her daughter for adoption. This was how the character of Addie Lockwood was constructed, a character who Church dwelled on for years.

“The character haunted me,” Church said. “I thought about her a lot over the years, and I wondered what it would feel like to know that you had a child in the world, that you had carried and given birth to someone you didn’t know.”

Eventually, Church resigned her partnership with a law firm and began writing fiction, starting with short stories and soon moving on to begin the first draft of her first novel. She knew she wanted to explore this character, the character of Addie Lockwood, before she even knew what story to write. According to Church, her inspiration for writing was Lockwood’s character, not the story itself.

The first draft took about five years for Church to write. Because of her interest in Addie Lockwood as a character, she originally wrote the novel in a traditional, first person narrative, relaying details of Lockwood’s thoughts and conceptions. However, while attending a writing residency in Vermont, she realized that the structure may need to be rethought.

“We had a visiting writer there,” Church said. “I had a critique session with her, and I said to her, ‘I’m not going to write my next book this way,’ and she just looks at me and says, ‘why would you wait for your next book?’”

According to Church, after a few nights of tears and regret, she started again, and took another five years writing the newly structured book. Instead of a first person narrative, Church decided Lockwood’s story should be told through the viewpoints of those Lockwood affected through her decisions. While the story is still primarily about Lockwood, the novel is now structured into episodes told through the perspective of a variety of Byrd’s characters, including Lockwood.

“I’ve always been fascinated by alternative realities, the what-ifs,” Church said. “Writing through more than one viewpoint would give me the chance to explore different versions of the story.”

Even though Church said she encountered a few setbacks in writing Byrd, she said she found the most excitement and inspiration when she was not even writing. She enjoyed talking to people and doing fieldwork to give her insight about Lockwood’s story.

Church felt at times that she didn’t have the authority to tell the story of a woman who gives her child up for adoption. However, this changed after talking to mothers and fathers about their experiences giving their own children up for adoption. She said she realized how diverse the stories of those people were, which gave her permission to use her imagination in writing Byrd.

“I do love talking to people about different things,” Church said. “I had millions of questions, not just about what it’s like to give up a child, but what paint colors were available for a Plymouth Barracuda in 1973.”

Once Church finished writing the novel, she said she took years to find what she believed to be the perfect agent, editor and publisher. Soon after this, Byrd was released and quickly developed a strong community of readers, who fell in love with Lockwood and her story.

“Even though it’s told episodically, I think there is a strong dramatic arch,” Church said. “I think what makes it appealing is the combination of the voice and the dialogue, but also just the story itself.”

Kim Church is still in the process of marketing and endorsing her novel, but this has not stopped her from beginning her next. Church is currently writing a historical fiction novel taking place in 1929, during the Loray Mill strike in Gastonia, N.C. She said the writing process can be slow and varying, so there is no knowing when her next book will be released. For now, however, Church said she is overjoyed to find that her novel has been received well by those close to her and a broad community of readers.