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An Interview & Giveaway with Kelly Rae

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An Interview with Kelly Rae

The Reading Cafe would like to introduce Author Kelly Rae. 

This is Kelly’s first novel, so let’s find out more about her and welcome her to The Reading Cafe.

 

 

 

 

Hi Kelly and welcome to The Reading Café.  We would like to start with some background information.

Kelly: Thank you so much for having me, it’s a pleasure to be here and visit with you and The Reading Café fans.

TRC: Please tell us something about yourself?

Kelly: I am a mother to a fabulous nine year old, named Triton. Who, it just so happens, is also my favorite person in the world. I love to drive fast cars if I have a little open road, but only if they are manual shift. A sports car with an automatic transmission, to me, is a waste of talent. I no longer eat meat this includes chicken and fish. For some reason when I say I don’t eat meat, people say even chicken, or even fish…yes those are meats. LOL. It has been almost a year since I made that choice; mostly from a health stand point, although I have always required some deniability when it came to eating meat. I never purchased whole chickens, as it made it too real for me. I could never eat fish that was delivered to the table with its head still on and you won’t catch me at the part of a luau where they make a ceremony out of extracting the pig from the ground. Not eating meat, at all, was a pretty easy step for me, although I will admit that I miss bacon and for Christmas, I did have a slice of ham. That is the sum total of my missing meat and a little about me.

TRC: Have you always been interested in writing?

Kelly: ALWAYS! I won a writing contest in the 6th grade and that was that. Throughout my life, I used writing as therapy by writing poems or little short stories. When I was younger, I just thought it would be something I did for myself, but as I got older, the idea of seeing my name on a bookstore bookshelf became more and more enticing. And What If… came to light.

TRC: Is there anything (in general) you find particularly challenging about writing?

Kelly: Yes, I am a speed-reader by nature, not training, so I tend to skip over detail parts of books. If an author is describing a house as the main character walks up the drive, I skip it. I already have an idea in my head what the house and scenes look like (maybe the writer in me), so it doesn’t seem like necessary reading. However, there is a good chance that my readers are going to want to know all of those details. So, I have trained myself to write into my books the pieces that I would not read myself. It’s a complete challenge and I usually add details after the first run, because then I can be more focused on them.

TRC: “What If…” is your first book?  Would you please tell us something about the premise?

Kelly: What if… is about a woman who was dealt a serious blow her senior year of high school and a decade later is still dealing with the ramifications. She has pushed through life focusing only on her professional life and when that life leads her back to her hometown, she has to face up to the fact that she has let her personal life slide. This means making meaningful friendships, being involved with the community and facing her first love, Chris Staller. It’s a tale about first love and second chances, with a little hope and forgiveness thrown in the mix.

TRC: Is Contemporary Romance the only genre you are interested in writing? Do you plan to try another genre?

Kelly: My next book, currently titled “I Do, But I Can’t” is a Romantic Comedy / Chick- Lit piece. I am about half way done. After that, I am going to do another Contemporary and at some point, I have a series in my head that will be Romantic Suspense with a sense of humor. I hope to cover a lot sub genres, but the basis for all my writing will be about love, both romantic and self, and of course happy endings. 🙂

TRC:What are you working on now? 

Kelly: I am currently working on “I Do, But I Can’t” a romantic comedy about how quickly life can change when you are engaged to a man who can’t/won’t commit.

TRC: What challenges have you faced getting your novel published?  How does it feel to see it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other sites?

Kelly: My biggest challenge with What If… was getting over the notion that it would be perfect. I think we have all read a book in our life where a word was misspelled or it said she, when it should say he. Little things like that, bestselling works with typos. Letting go, to say ok, this is done. It’s been put through three rounds of edits and my snarkiest friend and if there is a typo, someone will find it, they will tell me and I have to be okay with it….you can’t be a perfectionist.

Seeing my work, my name on Amazon and Barnes & Noble was a huge and powerful moment for me. I set out to prove, not only to myself, but also to my son that dreams can come true with consistent effort and belief. Doing that and showing my son, who has NBA aspirations, was a moment of pure joy and immense sense of pride. I said I did it….and then I smiled.

TRC:  Many author bounce ideas and information between each other and their family and spouses.  With whom do you bounce ideas?

Kelly: Anyone who will listen. 🙂

TRC: Would you like to add anything else?

Kelly: Thank you for having me and thanks to your readers for taking the time to stop by and learn a bit about me and my book What If…, which is currently for sale in ebook and paperback on Amazon and Barnes&Noble and ebook only on Smashwords, Itunes, KOBO and Diesel.

******GIVEAWAY******
One lucky person, who makes a comment on this blog today, will win a free copy of What If… via Smashwords coupon so you can download to any ereader or laptop you might have. I hope you enjoy reading What If… should you decide to pick up a copy. Have a wonderful day!

REMEMBER:  You MUST make a comment to be eligible for the giveaway.

LIGHTNING ROUND

Favorite Food        Pizza

Favorite Dessert   It’s It Ice Cream Sandwiches – Mint

Favorite TV show  House

Favorite Movie      Princess Bride

Dark or Milk Chocolate   Oh absolutely DARK

Do you have any pets?  Chocolate lab named Corra and an aquatic turtle named Tommy

Kelly, thank you very much for taking the time to answer our questions.  We look forward to your next book “I Do, But I Can’t”.  The Reading Café wishes you all the best.

To learn more about Kelly, visit any of the following links.

Website: http://www.kellyraebooks.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/KellyRaeBooks
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/KellyRaeBooks


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What If… by Kelly Rae

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What If… by Kelly Rae

What If… is the debut novel by Kelly Rae, and as noted on her website… What If.. is a contemporary romance about losing love, finding it again and a little forgiveness along the way!  Excellent description.

Blurb from Kelly’s Website:
On one fateful night during high school Katie Wright loses everything: her father, the first man she ever loved, dies in a car accident and Chris Staller, the first boy she’s ever loved, breaks her heart. Fast-forward ten years and Katie is a beautiful, successful woman who has spent the past decade doing her best to make her life all about work and to keep everyone at arms length—friends and lovers alike. But she’s lonely and beginning to awaken to the fact that she is only pretending to be happy and content. Working through her emotional challenges while maintaining a stellar career reputation is tricky, but she’s a fighter and always determined to come out on top.

When Katie pays a visit to her old high school, however, she runs into Chris, now a dedicated PE teacher who pines for the one he let get away. An upstanding member of the community and a much better man than he was a boy, Chris is determined to win Katie back at all cost. But Katie is less than receptive to the idea, and when he lays down a challenge, she is determined to come out on top again.

Review:

What If… is a love story that starts when our protagonists..Katie and Chris were still in high school…young love. But tragedy changes everything, and years go by before the two young lovers come face to face again.

Katie returns home, now a grown woman, and a successful attorney to take a job as an assistant DA, in this small town.  Katie has no intention of meeting up again with Chris, as she has never forgotten what tore them apart, and still blames him partially, as well as herself for her father’s death all those years ago.  Katie is only interested in working at her new job, and on occasion will meet with an old friend and her family.  Only friend’s sometimes try to push things they think would help, bringing Katie & Chris together in situations that were uncomfortable for both.    

Chris immediately wants Katie back, and has never really understood why she hates him.  Katie refuses to face the truth… that she still has feelings for Chris.  She has to learn to deal with forgiving herself first, then learning to move forward and forgiving Chris, who is no longer the young boy she knew years ago.

I enjoyed both Katie and Chris, and rooted for them to finally put the past aside and move forward.  I thought that Katie was far too stubborn and despite all the signs, friends advice, her own feelings…she just couldn’t get past her fear to love.  She truly needed to forgive, and see the light, before she could move forward.

The background story within the romance arc, was the trial Katie was working on to help prosecute a child rapist.  Chris, who is a high school coach, was able to bring one of the boys to Katie and the DA to tell the truth about the rapist, and then others came forth.  It was a good side story, and the closing arguments were good.  I enjoyed some of the other characters that added to the town…Paul (DA), Sarah (her best & conniving friend), Sarah’s children, and other townsfolk. 

I did like this book, but though I really liked Chris and Katie, I thought that some of their encounters were a bit repetitious, as I had noted about Katie’s annoying stubbornness. But I enjoyed the humor that Rae added to the story,and  the aggressiveness of their friends trying to push them together.  It did work out beautifully, and this turned out to be an excellent first novel by Kelly Rae. 

Reviewed by Barb

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