My Story…As a Writer
I'm pleased to welcome fellow Clean Reads author to my blog. Krysten Lindsay Hager is here to talk about her new release, Best Friends…Forever?
I’ve loved
reading and creating stories for as long as I can remember. I used to watch
soap operas with my mother and take my Barbie dolls and finish off the
cliffhanger storylines so I didn’t have to wait for the next week! I also used
to make up ongoing stories with a whole cast of characters and a come up with
backstories for all of them. When I got a little older, I thought maybe I’d be a
TV show creator—like Agnes Nixon who created shows like All My Children and One Life
to Live, but I also had a dream of having a young adult series just like
the ones I was obsessed with all through grade school and middle school.
When I was a senior in high school, I told my mom I wanted to
pursue writing. She wanted to make sure I was going to take it seriously, so
she signed me up for two writing conferences. One was just days after
graduation and I was the only kid in a room full of adults. There wasn’t even a
college student there. The next conference (that summer) was even more
overwhelming as it was on a college campus and involved a critique of my work
from a professional writer. I remember walking down the hallway and seeing a
bathroom directly across from the room where I was having the critique and I
thought, “Oh that’s convenient in case I get so nervous I have to throw up.”
Yeah, so that’s where my character, Landry, gets that from!
But my critique went great that day and the writer who critiqued
my work told me I definitely had a future in the business, which was a relief
to hear. Still you trudge on through all the hard work, revisions, workshops,
public critiques, publications, and criticisms. A friend and mentor of mine
from my writing group, Bernie Riegel said, “It’s a labor of love,” when you
work on a novel. We lost Bernie to cancer in 2012, but yet I hear him whenever
I’m revising a piece and I’m always reminded that when you write, it is always a labor of love. And if you
love something then you’ll purse it in both good times and bad.
****
The Landry’s True Colors Series is a clean reads young adult
series about friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, middle school and high
school, frenemies, modeling, crushes, values, and self-image. Best Friends…Forever? was ranked at #1
on Amazon’s Hot New Releases in Teen & Young Adult Values & Virtues
Fiction and #1 on Amazon’s Hot New Releases in Children's Books on Values. True Colors is an international
bestselling book.
Tag line: Good friends have your back, but
some go behind it.
Blurb:
Landry Albright hopes the new year will start off in an amazing
way—instead she has to deal with more frenemy issues, boy drama, and having
most of her best friends make the cheerleading squad without her. Suddenly, it
seems like all anyone can talk about is starting high school next
year—something she finds terrifying.
Landry gets her first boyfriend (her crush, Vladi), but then
gets dumped just as things come to a head with her friends. She feels lost and
left out, but finds good advice about dealing with frenemies from what she
considers an unlikely source. Landry faces having to speak up for what’s right,
tell the truth (even when it hurts), and how to get past the fear of failure as
she gets another shot at competing in the American Ingénue modeling
competition. Will she get a second chance with her friends, fame, and Vladi?
Excerpt:
“Landry, it’s gotta be
so awkward for you to be going to Vladi’s school next year,” Tori said. “I
mean, what if you run into him during the tour?"
"It’s a huge place,ʺ Ashanti said. “People break up all
the time. It’s not a big deal.ʺ
Tori raised her eyebrows as if to say, “Yeah, right,” and
went back to her sandwich. Meanwhile my delicious homemade soup was no longer
sitting well. It never occurred to me Vladi might be around during the first
pre‑freshman tour. I would be mortified if I ran into him and he
was with a girl. Or worse yet, running into him, and he was with Yasmin. Plus,
I hadn’t told my mom about the breakup, so if she saw him, she’d probably go
over to talk to him. I could already imagine it: “Landry, Vladi’s here! Hon?
Why are you hiding behind the garbage can? Your boyfriend, Vladi, is here. Come
say, ‘hello.’ Stop trying to run away. Why is everyone laughing and pointing at
you and calling you a ‘loser dumpee?’ What does that mean?”
Well, maybe the world would end and I wouldn’t have to deal
with high school or Vladi and my mother running into each other.
****
Sadly, the world did not end, and on Thursday, we all had to
go to the high school for a freshman information night from 6 to 9 p.m.
Author bio: Krysten Lindsay Hager is a book
addict who has never met a bookstore she didn’t like. She’s worked as a
journalist and writes middle grade, YA, humor essays, and adult fiction. She is
originally from Michigan and has lived in Portugal, South Dakota, and currently
resides in Southern Ohio where you can find her reading and writing when she’s
not catching up on her favorite shows. She received her master’s degree from
the University of Michigan-Flint.
Buy Links:
Connect with Krysten:
Website:
http://www.krystenlindsay.com/
Thanks for having me on!
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome! Great to have you here:)
ReplyDeleteLandry sounds like she's got her hands full! Congrats on the new release and having another best-seller.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Patricia! That means a lot to me coming from you :)
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