Character Interview: KC Sprayberry & Erin from “Softly Say Goodbye”
Today I’m happy to introduce a new character to join us here at From Mia’s Desk: Erin Sellers and her author KC Sprayberry. Welcome!
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Mia: What is the name of the book where we’ll find you? Can you tell us a little about it?
Erin: Softly Say Goodbye.
Erin Sellers, an eighteen-year-old high school senior, hates teen drinking. She and her three friends – Bill, her guy, Shari and Jake – decide to use Twitter to stop a group, the Kewl Krew, from using their high school as the local bar. But the members of this group are just as determined to stop anyone from messing up their fun. Despite veiled threats to her safety, Erin continues her crusade.
To make matters worse for her, the stress of school and extracurricular work mounts and suddenly, shockingly, booze-fuelled tragedy strikes. Erin is now under greater pressure as she spends all hours to produce a mural and other work to commemorate the death of a teen friend. Bill, Jake and Shari support her in all this…
But more tragedy lurks nearby… until it’s time to softly say goodbye.
Mia: Tell us a little about yourself. Where do you fit into the story? What should we know about you?
Erin: My name is Erin Sellers, and I recently graduated high school. This is my story about the last three months I was at Landry High School. Everything was almost great, except for the Kewl Krew. They’re into drinking booze, and I really hate how some teens do that. So, I decided to do something about it, but it took me a while to figure out what.
Mia: What do you think of the author? Be honest. We won’t tell.
Erin: She took so long to figure out how to tell my story. First, she tried third person, past tense. Talk about a bomb! Then we went to first person, past tense, but that was hokey. Finally, I kicked her backside and told her first person, present tense was super for this story, and it worked! That’s when we became BFFs, and I let her tell what happened that year.
Mia: How do you feel about the story you’re in?
Erin: Sad, and somewhat happy other people are learning about my story. I mean, I’ve loved Bill Lomax all my life, sort of. We were friends since forever, but it wasn’t until he spilled red fruit punch on my best white shorts back in sixth grade that I figured out how I felt about him. He was so sweet, apologizing over and over, even though I forgave him in like two seconds.
The sad part comes from what I lost in Softly Say Goodbye. But telling about that would be a spoiler, so you’ll just have to read the book to find out.
Mia: Do you like being a character in the book?
Erin: Oh yes! How can I not like being a character in the book? This is how I did something positive for my school. It was so … emotional. I make my author tell everyone to have a box of Kleenex handy for those hard parts. Even I still cry when I read about everything.
Mia: How do you see your future? Without giving anything away about the story, naturally.
Erin: Hmmm? I’ll hint at giving something away. Right now, I’m thinking about how I’ll get into a good college. I had an acceptance, but then I took some time off to deal with the consequences of taking my stand against teen drinking. But I think I’m more than ready to go back to school now. See, I want to be a graphic artist. I’m real good at drawing, and I’ve always wanted to learn how to surf, but Landry Georgia is nowhere near an ocean, so I think I’ll see if UCLA will have me again. They should. My grades are outstanding, and I have been going to a local community college.
Mia: What do you know about your author’s plans? Can we expect to see you in any future stories?
Erin: She says no, I won’t be in any other stories. There really isn’t more to tell. But I love, love, love her plans for other teen books, about stuff that really makes a difference. Like the one she’s plotting now about a girl who grows up in a family that constantly changes who they are – they’re identity thieves, but the girl, she isn’t real sure of her true name, hates all this. I’m betting there won’t be many tears in this one. And it’s supposed to be a love story, too. I really love those kind.
Mia: Let’s say they make a movie about this book. Who do you want to play you, and why?
Erin: Two people come to mind here. I mean it’s a tie, and I can’t decide which would do better.
The first is Bonnie Wright. Everyone knows her as Ginny Weasley from the Harry Potter movies. She’s definitely like me – a teen who knows what she wants and goes for it.
The second is Bella Thorne. Her hair is pretty much the same as mine, what my dad calls an “evening sky before a storm red.” Bella was in Big Love and Shake It Up!
Wow, those are a couple of well-known actresses. But they’d do a great job with Softly Say Goodbye!
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Author Bio: I am happily married to a man I met while in the Air Force. We recently celebrated our eighteen years of marriage. Our teen, the youngest of eight, keeps us on our toes with his band activities. Writing is something I’ve done since I was very young. At first, it was in a diary and then I poured all my energies into English compositions, earning praise from my Advanced Composition teacher in high school for an extremely visual project. While in the Air Force, I placed second in the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge’s annual contest and from then on, was hooked. However, the reality of a military career and raising children forced me to put off attempting publication until my husband and I moved to Georgia. It was after the birth of our now teen that I began taking courses through The Institute of Children’s Literature, Long Ridge Writer’s Group, and Writers Digest in an effort to make my life’s dream come true.
We live in Northwest Georgia, in a small town, where I write Romance, Westerns, Young Adult, and Middle Grade stories, both short and book length. More than a dozen of my short stories have appeared in magazines such as Listen Magazine, Brio, and The Pink Chameleon website. I also have two short stories in anthologies, Passionate Hearts Anthology and Mystery Times Ten.
My westerns have garnered interest by avid readers and appear on The Western Online and Frontier Tales.
My work appears under the pen names of KC Sprayberry and Kathi Sprayberry. Softly Say Goodbye, a young adult novel, was my NaNoWriMo winning project for 2010. This story was inspired by a quote from a song and hearing of an auto wreck involving teens and drinking.
Author Site: http://www.kcsprayberry.com/
Author Blog: http://outofcontrolcharacters.blogspot.com/
Buy Link: Solstice Publishing
Buy Link: Amazon
Buy Link: Barnes and Noble
Buy Link: Smashwords
