Marcus Kimbrough, 1991 KHS graduate, recently published his second book, a novel called “Deranged.”
When asked about growing up in Kosciusko, Kimbrough said his parents, Ben and Alice Kimbrough, have been the biggest influences in his life.
The challenge of growing up here, he said, was the lack of outlets for someone with his talents due to the absence of social media when he was a youngster. Kimbrough said social media has changed the landscape when it comes to writing and that he might have been able to break into 
publishing earlier had social media existed during his younger years.
Kimbrough said he has been writing “pretty much ever since I could write.”
Some of his earliest writings focused on wrestling, thanks to his mother, who enjoyed watching wrestling on television.
In his stories, Kimbrough said he always won the matches, though he was the shortest and smallest of his social group. He said that spurred him to craft stories in which he was always the wrestling champion, beating out his larger friends in contests.
Once his friends read his stories, however, they too wanted to be fictional winners. Kimbrough found himself often rewriting stories several times so that everyone would eventually win the belt.
In addition to fiction, Kimbrough writes poetry and plays. He even has a play planned which he would like to see performed in Kosciusko someday. The play would involve a man upset about not getting a promotion, a dead body and other characteristics of thrillers similar to those found in his novels.
As for “Deranged,” it is a thriller about a man named Nick who only likes girls named Valerie. The story takes place mainly in Florida and Minnesota, which was chosen because some cold weather scenes are important to parts of the book.
Kimbrough is also planning book two in a “Deranged” continuation. Book two of the series will involve a woman named Rose who only likes men named Jack. He says that Rose will be even more diabolical than Nick in “Deranged” because, “in general, women are smarter than men.”
Kimbrough said he has been writing thrillers since the seventh or eighth grade, and that they tend to play in his head like a Stephen King movie. As he writes down his thoughts, he said when the mental movie stops playing, he is finished writing the book.
When asked about how hard it was to break into publishing, Kimbrough said that it was not very hard to self-publish. During an internet search, he found Xlibris, a self-publishing company that asked for samples of his work. After sending in some poetry, the company contacted him asking for more samples.
Soon after, “Peeking into the Soul,” a book of poetry, was published. Later, Xlibris also published “Deranged.”
The hard part of the publishing process, he said, has been promoting the book.
Kimbrough’s work can be found at the Attala County Library and on Amazon.
