Guest Post: Interview with Courtney Cole

1. What's the best writing advice you've received? 

Well, a long time ago, I absorbed a bunch of good advice from Stephen King's book, On Writing.  I think the most important bit, though,  was when he tells writers to write every day.  It’s pretty good advice.  There are definitely days that I don’t feel like it because I just don’t feel creative. But I’ll plug at it anyway, even though it feels like every word I write sucks hard core.  But you know what?  When I re-read what I wrote days later, it isn’t as bad as I thought. So, definitely write every day.  It’s important.

2. Do you like drafting or editing better? Why?

It depends on my mood.  But I really don’t mind editing… because I don’t feel the pressure of writing something new or creative… and I like making what I’ve already done better. 

3. How many drafts did you write of IYS by the time it was published?

I think I lost count.  Probably eight or ten. 

4.What character in If You Stay are you most like? 

I think I’m a blend of Madison and Mila.  I’m easygoing and laidback, but I’m also a big sister, so I’ve got those big sister traits, too. 

5. What are you top  3 favorite books you've read lately?

I loved the Edge of Never.  And Hopeless.  And the Sea of Tranquility was amazing, too.  I think those are my most recent reads…

6. I know for me, there are certain books that have absolutely changed my life. Has this ever happened to you? (Mine is The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen)

Yesssss.  My dad died a few years ago, and a couple of weeks before he died, he gave me The Five People You Meet in Heaven to read because he thought I’d like it.  I put it aside and forgot about it until a couple of weeks after he died.  It was perfect for where I was at during that time—right in the middle of grief.  It is a perfectly written little book that reminds us that each of us affects people we’ll probably never even know about and every life is interwoven with others.  It’s beautiful and Mitch Albom is a genius.

7. What book are you most excited for this year?

Hmmmm.  Well, my friend Kristen Proby has a new one coming out in March—Play With Me.  I’ve been lucky enough to read it as she writes it—and I’m super anxious for her to finish it so that I can read the whole thing. 

8.  New Adult has emerged in the past year or so with much more success than it'd been able to do before. Why do you think it's gaining traction now? 

I think that with the explosion of YA, it’s a product of evolution.  All of those girls who exploded the YA genre are now growing up and they want books with more meat, but still about characters in their current age range.  

9. I've heard several people say that it's just a new version of chick-lit, do you think there's any truth in that? I like the idea of New Adult, but I don't know enough about it to really understand it's purpose or target audience?

No, I don’t think it’s just another version of chick lit.  New Adult is a genre targeting 20-somethings who still have issues to sort out.  It can be explicit and it can be about deep subjects.  It’s a fascinating genre and I think there’s been a need for it for quite a long time.  I’m really glad it’s exploding now.

Thank you so much for having me here.  It’s been a pleasure!  :)

::

Thank you so much,  Courtney!

Synopsis:

24-year old Pax Tate is an asshole.

Seriously.

He’s a tattooed, rock-hard bad-boy with a bad attitude to match.

But he’s got his reasons.

His mother died when Pax was seven, leaving a hole in his heart filled with guilt although he doesn’t understand why. What he does know is that he and his dad are left alone and with more issues than they can count.

As Pax grew up, he tried to be the kid his father always wanted; the perfect golden boy, but it didn’t work. His dad couldn’t overcome his grief long enough to notice and Pax couldn’t keep up the impossible perfect façade.

So he slipped far, far from it.

Now, he uses drugs and women to cope with the ugliness, the black void that he doesn’t want to deal with. If he pretends that the emptiness isn’t there, then it isn’t, right?

Wrong.

And it’s never more apparent than when he meets Mila.

Sweet, beautiful Mila Hill is the fresh air to his hardened frown, the beauty to his ugly heart. He doesn’t know how to not hurt her, but he quickly realizes that he’s got to figure it out because he needs her to breathe.

When memories of his mother’s death resurface from where he’s repressed them for so long, Mila is there to catch him when the guilt starts making sense. Mila is the one…the one who can save him from his broken troubled heart; from his issues, from the emptiness.

But only if he can stop being an asshole long enough to allow it.

He knows that. And he’s working on it.

But is that enough to make her stay?

**Warning -Contains sex and violence**
 

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