8 more days!!
The next author to cross out on our TBF check list is Kate Brian. She is the author of the Private series, the Privilege series, Fake Boyfriend, The V Club, Lucky T, Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys, Ex-mas, The Princess and the Pauper, Sweet 16 and Shadowlands, the first book in her paranormal trilogy.
Miranda Reads: You have written a ton of books; two series about high school drama that could rival Pretty Little Liars and stand-alone novels ranging from fake boyfriends to a lucky t-shirt. Now you have a paranormal series. What are the pros and cons to writing contemporary and paranormal?
Kate Brian: Paranormal doesn’t come naturally to me, so I when I’m writing something paranormal, it takes a lot more time and thought. Not that I don’t put thought into my contemporary work, but with those books it’s the plotting that takes up most of my time. Once I have a good outline, the voice usually comes easily. With paranormal, I spend a lot of time making sure it doesn’t sound false or cheesy or like it’s been done before, and I concentrate on making sure that the rules of the paranormal world I’m making up are adhered to. Writing paranormal is a challenge. A fun challenge, of course, but a challenge.
MR: For readers who don’t already know, you write under as “Kieran Scott”. How do you decide what pen name to use?
KB: I write for Alloy Entertainment under the pen name Kate Brian, so anything I work on with them is published under that name. Everything else is published under my real name, Kieran Scott. People have come to expect Kate to be a little edgier and mysterious, while the Kieran novels are sweeter and contemporary, so that’s usually how I draw the line if I’m deciding whether to pitch an idea for the Kate name or the Kieran name.
MR: Shadowlands is the first book in your new paranormal series. What inspired you to write it?
KB: I always wanted to write a story about the relationship between two sisters and how complicated that can be, and after Privilege my editor wanted me to write another serial killer (apparently people thought I created a likable, believable monster with Ariana), so we decided to meld the two together. I wasn’t sure how long I could sustain a girl-being-stalked-by-a-serial-killer story, so we brainstormed about how to make it into a three-book arc, and that’s when the paranormal angle came up. I can’t give away the ending, but I can say that when the idea was pitched everybody just lit up. We all thought it was a cool place to go.
MR: There are some authors that can or cannot listen to music when they write. What is your personal preference?
KB: I almost always listen to music when I write. It keeps me energized. There are a few albums I always go back to, for whatever reason. I feel like they’re good writing music. One is the Felicity Soundtrack from back in the day. I also listen to Some Nights by fun, How to Save a Life by the Fray and the Glee Soundtracks.
MR: One of your five fun facts says that your favorite thing to write about is a first kiss. Why?
KB: I always get giddy writing the first kiss scene, as if I’m one of the characters involved. It’s the moment when the two characters realize there’s something there between them, something real. What better feeling is there than the moment that you become one hundred percent certain that the person you like, likes you back? I feel like once I’ve written the first kiss scene, everything for those two characters is going to be all right.
MR: What author are you most looking forward to meeting at the 8th annual Greater Rochester Teen Book Festival?
KB: I’m excited to meet Margaret Stohl because we have the same agent and I’ve heard so much about her, but we’ve never met. I finally read Beautiful Creatures and I thought it was so interesting. That’s an example of a seriously developed paranormal world! I’m also excited to meet Sara Zarr because we’ve been communicating on twitter for what feels like forever and this will be the first time we meet in person. A lot of the authors participated in a fundraiser I did last year after Hurricane Sandy hit my home state of New Jersey particularly hard. I know a few of them personally, but many of them communicated with me via email (we did an online auction), so I’m psyched to thank them in person!
Thanks Kate. See you soon!
Make sure you check out all of the book reviews and author interviews!
Miranda
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