Interview with Krysten Lindsay Hager

I'm joined today by the every loving Krysten Lindsay Hager, a fellow young adult author, for an interview. She has written amazing fiction and here's a little bit about her.

Besides mining her teen years and humiliating moments for her novels, Krysten is also a book addict who has never met a bookstore she didn’t like. Krysten writes about friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, frenemies, crushes, fame, first loves, and values. She is the author of True Colors, Best Friends...Forever?, Next Door to a Star,  Landry in Like, Competing with the Star (The Star Series: Book 2) and Dating the It Guy. Her debut novel, True Colors, won the Readers Favorite award for best preteen book. Krysten's work has been featured in USA Today, The Flint Journal, the Grand Haven Tribune, the Beavercreek Current, the Bellbrook Times and on Living Dayton. 

And now onto the interview:

 1 - What made you want to be a writer?
I always liked creating stories as a kid and I used to pay attention to the soap operas my mom had on during lunch time. Then I’d go and act out the way I thought the storylines should go with my dolls. I hated when they kept a couple apart for a long time, so I always had the couple I wanted get back together. I remember playing with a friend and saying I wanted my Ken to break up with one of the Barbies because he belonged with this other one and I’ll never forget it—she must have been 5 years old and she suggested we use my Barbie corvette to run the other doll over. I suggested we go another route. I wonder where that girl is today….

2 - What kind of books do you read for pleasure?
I love biographies and memoirs. I read a lot of YA, MG, and women’s fiction and I have a thing for the non-fiction section. I just finished reading a YA version of Northanger Abbey by Rosie Rushton. It was my escape from reality.

3 - What kind of writer are you: plan or not?
I don’t plan out much, but I do have two different series (the Landry’s True Colors Series and the Star Series) and I’m working on a sequel to Dating the It Guy, so I do need to know where I’m going with a storyline that way.

4 - What book/character of yours is your favourite?
Landry in Like is one of my favorite books because of the journey Landry goes on of discovering who she is and that’s she’s okay with being more introverted than her best friend who is going off to teen dances and the cheer squad. My favorite character is Emme from Dating the It Guy because I enjoy writing from her perspective and her sense of humor.

5 - If you had the chance to write anywhere, where would you choose?
A cute little cottage in England. Ever see George Michael’s house on the river? Beautiful backyard overlooking the Thames. I would have been very happy there.

6 - What attracted you to your chosen genre?
I turned to YA books when I was a preteen to help me feel less alone in the world. I remember being on my bed after closing a book and thinking that being a YA writer must be the best job in the whole world—and it is!

7 - Would you ever like to branch out to a different genre?
I have written middle grade as well as young adult and I’m working on new adult and women’s fiction as well. I read all different genres and I sometimes want to write from the perspective of an older character who is dealing with different issues.

You can find Krysten here on Facebook or on her website.

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