Never Too Old For Y.A. & N.A. Books discussion
This topic is about
Colleen Hoover
Author Interview of the Month
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Author Interview with Colleen Hoover
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Thank you so very much Colleen Hoover for taking the time out and doing this interview with us...we look forward to more of your amazing and awe-inspiring work and I love love love your writing :)
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Are we suppose to ask her something and she will respond?
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LOL you can ask and I will have to post on her FB page and ask her and the we've had the interview for a while...just trying to find the time to add it .. we have had to work through so many author interviews...that's why it was only posted now ... does that make sense??
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Well, luckily it's a group effort LOL I think Adriana got this one off Colleen so all credit to her ... I just post LOL but yeah we have had some great interviews lined up in the past and will do in the future :)
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Well, luckily it's a group effort LOL I think Adriana got this o..."
Seriously, you mods are great. We need a thread where we can talk about how fantastic you guys are...oh I know a thread titled TELL YOUR MODS HOW GREAT THEY ARE!
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Well, luckily it's a group effort LOL I think ..."
LOL why thank you we do try to make our group the place to be ... and there was a thread like that ... get to know your moderators :)
I really enjoyed reading her interview. I totally agreed with her in respect to lengthy descriptions. Sometimes authors tend to over describe things like scenery or clothing. Personally I like some description but when it goes down to describing the colour of a tank top, pyjamas or every they're doing step for step I start skimming. I also like that she doesn't jump to whatever is trending or popular to write her books. How many vampire books came out after twilight, or dystopian after Hunger Games!
After reading her interview I love and respect her even more as an author! Thank you for posting it.
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Lol no need it's so much better to be yourself cause all authors are just as fun as us :)
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Lol no need it's so much bett..."
OK, I will.
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Lol no need..."
Lol good
Really great interview.
Awesome interview! Must start reading her books :)
Thanks for the interview, I really enjoyed it!
What an awesome interview!!!! Love it!!! Congrats to Colleen, I am loving Slammed!! It's taking my Hopeless book funk away, slowly but surely!!!! :)
I wish the Slammed and Point of Retreat continued....
I have only just recently heard of Colleen Hoover but her name's on so many lips right now. I am always a little sideswiped to hear about someone making it so big who wasn't trying. It's just a fairy tale thing. Amazes me every time. What a WOW WOW WOW moment it must have been to realize something just uploaded for free for one's friends had become a runaway best-seller. Amazing. Obviously it was meant to be.
Congratulations on your books!Loved the interview! I plan on adding your books to my TBR list :)
Sorry if you hate gif! But I freaking love Colleen Hoover's works! Words can't describe how I feel! :DDD
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Sorry if you hate gif! But I freaking love Colleen Hoover's works! Words can't describe how I feel! :DDD"
Who doesn't like gif?? LOL gif away
I'm exactly like that with lengthy descriptions and I find myself skimming over them. They never match the one in my head anyway lol. Great interview.
The first chapter in Will's pov that she mentions, do you know where I can find that?
Tiana411 wrote: "I really enjoyed reading her interview. I totally agreed with her in respect to lengthy descriptions. Sometimes authors tend to over describe things like scenery or clothing. Personally I like some..."Ditto! Couldn't have said that better myself!
Great interview, Colleen you're a awesome writter, I've been crying and laughing and feeling all kind of feelings with your books! Really great!
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Great interview.
The first chapter in Will's pov that she me..."
It's on her blog, here's a link:
http://colleenhoover.com/what-im-work...
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Well, definitely check out
when it comes out! I can't wait for more Will!!!
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Thanks for reposting this interview. I loved the poetry in "Slammed!" It was very powerful!
I love you even more now, Colleen Hoover!
Never Too Old For Y.A. & N.A. Books
Books mentioned in this topic
This Girl (other topics)Slammed (other topics)
Point of Retreat (other topics)
Hopeless (other topics)
1. When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
I was about seven years old and when I wrote my first "book." It was titled, Mystery Bob and my mother raved and raved about it. I don't remember if it was any good or not, but I remember loving my mothers reaction and I immediately wanted to write something else. It never stopped, although I did take a long break while I was in college.
2. How long does it take you to write a book?
I wrote Slammed and Point of Retreat in about 30 days each. Now, I know that sounds really quick. BUT-I wrote all day, every day. Sometimes 16 hours a day. So if you spread that out over the a few hours a day, it would have taken me a lot longer. Once I start a book, it consumes me.
3. What do you think makes a great story?
You know, this is an interesting question. It really depends on the reader, but for myself I love to be surprised. I'm fairly good at guessing plots, so I wanted to throw readers for a loop in Slammed.
I will tell you what my motivations were behind the way I wrote Slammed. I am a very picky reader. I've never been a fan of flowery prose or a lot of description. To me, I just want to get to the "good stuff." I tend to skip over entire paragraphs when I read books. It got so bad that I started just finding the screenplays online and reading them instead. I love dialogue and am easily thrown off by writer's who try to showcase their vocabulary. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that. A lot of readers actually prefer that. But when I wrote Slammed and Point of Retreat, I wanted to focus on writing it in a way that would make it interesting to me as a reader. Therefore, I use a lot of dialogue, simple dialogue tags and not a whole lot of description. Some people love it, some people hate it. That's the beauty of this industry...the variety that is available to us.
4. What is your work schedule like when you're writing?
This one is a bit tricky. When I wrote my first two books, I also worked a full-time job. I worked 11 hour days. When I could fit writing time in at work, I would. When I got off work at 6pm, I would come home and write until around midnight, sometimes later, then have to be at work at 7am the next day. On the weekends I would write when I woke up, periodically taking breaks throughout the day. I would usually write until 2 or 3am. Now that I don't work, I can't really say what it's like. I'm so incredibly busy with all that is going on with the first two books, I've been to scared to dive into another one. I know how consumed I get and I've been waiting until we got moved into our new house to start up again. However, I'm sure it will be much of the same.
5. How do you balance family and writing?
Simply put, I don't. My husband does. He is so incredibly supportive of my writing career. He works a full-time job and never complains about ANYTHING. He cooks supper, makes sure the kids get their baths. I actually thanked him in this blog post. http://colleenhoover.com/2012/04/05/h...
6. Where do you get your information or ideas for your books?
I got the idea for Slammed because I was watching Slam Poetry on youtube and actually wanted to read a book where the characters Slammed. After doing a lot of research trying to find one, I couldn't locate anything. So, I decided to try and write one myself.
7. What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
The entire publishing process. When I wrote Slammed, I initially started it just as a gift to my mom. Once a few of my friends started reading it, I was getting requests from other friends. I looked online into how I could print copies of it for them when I ran across Amazon's self-publishing program. It seemed easy enough and I could load it for free for 5 days, so I did it. I put it up on Amazon New Year's Day. After that, I started getting sales and reviews from the 4,000 free downloads it received. I honestly had no intentions of this book becoming a best-seller. It has been an insane ride, to say the least.
8. How many books have you written? Which is your favourite?
I have written two. Slammed and Point of Retreat. I love them both for different reasons. I honestly couldn't say which one I love more.
9. Are your characters based on anyone you know?
Not really. I take bits and pieces like characteristics, names, habits, etc. Kel is actually a lot like my own sone, Cale. Very unique. ;)
10. Do you have a favourite place you love to write?
I don't. I have a favorite time, and that is when everyone in the house is asleep. I do most of my writing after ten o'clock at night.
11. How hard is is to get published?
It's pretty darn easy to get self-published. Whether or not you get sales is another question. I wouldn't know about traditional publishing, since that isn't a route I took. I know it is very difficult to obtain an agent and even more difficult to actually sign with a publisher.
12. What do your family and friends think about your books?
Some love them, some are in different, a couple of them hate them. It just depends on the reader. Luckily, I have a lot of brutally honest people in my life. My own mother even tells me when a scene I'm writing needs works, is great or downright sucks. She is one of my best beta-readers.
13. What do you like to do when you are not writing?
I love to read, unfortunately I don't have a lot of time. I have three young boys so we stay pretty busy with them.
14. Do you have any suggestions to help aspiring writers better themselves and their craft? If so, what are they?
I have read a lot of advice that tells writers to read, read, read as much as you can in the genre you are writing in so you can get ideas and identify trends. However, I don't feel this advice works for me. I actually had never read a contemporary romance novel before writing Slammed. I'm not so sure Slammed would have been what it is had I been taking cues from other books. I think the absolute best thing a writer can do is write from the heart. When you start trying to identify publishing trends and you write based off of what is selling, it takes the passion out of the story.
15. As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?
A writer, actually.
16. What are your favourite books and which authors inspire you?
I have a lot of favorites. I love Tammara Webber, John Green, Charlaine Harris. There are also a lot of authors whose drive, determination and personalities inspire me like J. Sterling, Tarryn Fisher, Jamie McGuire, Liz Reinhardt.
17. For an aspiring writer what do you feel are certain do's and don’ts for getting their material published?
DO research every aspect to see what is best for you, be it self-publishing or traditional publishing. Each has its own benefits and drawbacks. Also, I've noticed a lot of authors are extremely active on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. However, its disheartening to see another professional author talking about other authors or their books. Also, it's VERY important to build a network of authors that you can bounce ideas and questions off of. I can't tell you how much I've learned from other authors. And don't submit your work to be published or viewed by an agent until you are CERTAIN it is ready. I can understand the excitement of wanting it to be out in the world, but you don't want something out there that you can't be proud of.
18. What are you working on now?
I've had an overwhelming response to a chapter I posted of Will's Story. It's Will Cooper's point of view in Slammed. Once I get that one completed, I've got an outline for a book titled Fall Together that I'm extremely excited about. It's another Young Adult Contemporary Romance.
Thankyou!!!