Cinder& Ella blogtour: Interview with Kelly Oram [english]

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Hi guys, welcome on my blog. Today is special day, because I have for you surprice- interview with my favourite writer Kelly Oram. This is part of the Cinder& Ella blogtour to promote the newest Kelly's book Cinder& Ella. In the end of this article you can find bonus- giveaway of Signed Kelly's Contemporary books.

That you haven't heard about Kelly Oram yet? You have to fix it! There is breath information about her:

Kelly Oram wrote her first novel at age fifteen—a fan fiction about her favorite music group, The Backstreet Boys, for which her family and friends still tease her. She's obsessed with reading, talks way too much, and likes to eat frosting by the spoonful. She lives outside of Phoenix, Arizona with her husband, four children, and her cat named Mr. Darcy.
Author Links: Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter and Kelly's website

And of course, because this event is thanks to Cinder& Ella book. For those of you who haven't know anything about the book there is an abstract. 

Cinder&Ella
It’s been almost a year since eighteen-year-old Ella Rodriguez was in a car accident that left her crippled, scarred, and without a mother. After a very difficult recovery, she’s been uprooted across the country and forced into the custody of a father that abandoned her when she was a young child. If Ella wants to escape her father’s home and her awful new stepfamily, she must convince her doctors that she’s capable, both physically and emotionally, of living on her own. The problem is, she’s not ready yet. The only way she can think of to start healing is by reconnecting with the one person left in the world who’s ever meant anything to her—her anonymous Internet best friend, Cinder.
…
Hollywood sensation Brian Oliver has a reputation for being trouble. There’s major buzz around his performance in his upcoming film The Druid Prince, but his management team says he won’t make the transition from teen heartthrob to serious A-list actor unless he can prove he’s left his wild days behind and become a mature adult. In order to douse the flames on Brian’s bad-boy reputation, his management stages a fake engagement for him to his co-star Kaylee. Brian isn’t thrilled with the arrangement—or his fake fiancée—but decides he’ll suffer through

Ohh yeah and finally to the interview. Which I devoted into two parts. I hope you'll enjoy it.

 First part is about Kelly's books

The first book I read from you was "V is for Virgin". Why did you decide to write about so complicated a topic as after marriage sex?
I didn’t do it intentionally. I set out to write a bout about a guy who has everything except the one girl he really wants. When I was developing the characters of Kyle and Val, I needed a reason that Kyle couldn’t win over Val. That was just what popped into my head first based on the type of people Kyle and Val were. But I ended up liking the message that went along with the book and have been truly humbled by the amount of letters I’ve received from people thanking me for tackling the topic. I’m amazed and grateful I can touch people’s lives in such a way.

If I'm right you have written 9 books that have been published so far. You're books are for children/youth. Half of them are fantasy/sci-fi genre and the rest are contemporary. Why did you decided to write in these genres? Do you plan to write something absolutely different from your current books? What is the biggest inspiration for your books?
I write for teens simply because those are my favorite kinds of books to both read and write. I think I will always be a teenager at heart. However, I’ll never be able to stick to one genre. I love all kinds of genres and I need projects that I can work on no matter what kind of mood I’m in. I’ll always have a contemporary story in the works somewhere, but between those novels I love to be able to bend reality. I have plans for a lot of different types of books. I’m currently in the middle of writing a ghost romance, and a high fantasy about leprechauns. (I swear it’s not as weird as it sounds!) So yes, I think you can expect to see a lot of variety in the types of books I write in the future.

I heard that The Avery Shaw experiment was translated to Hungarian and published in Hungary this year. Are any of your other books on their way (translation, publishing) abroad?
Going through the translation process with Avery has been a lot of fun. Right now, V is for Virgin is in the process of being published in Thailand. I don’t have a release date for that yet, but I’ll be sure to share it when I know. I’m also having The Avery Shaw Experiment translated into Spanish right now. Depending on how that goes, I have plans to have all my books translated in Spanish. Then I hope other languages will follow. I would love to expand my books into lots of other languages and be able to share my books with people all over the world. But it’s a process that is going to take me time, so please be patient with me.

Have you ever read any of your books after publishing just for yourself again? Is it strange to read something what you wrote?
Actually I enjoy reading my own books. If I’m ever in need of a good book and don’t have one (and have already bought way too many books that month) then I’ll re-read one of my own. I don’t know about most authors, but I don’t think it’s strange. I love my stories and for some strange reason they tend to play out exactly the way I want them too. ;)

Are any characters in your books based on real people (e.g. your friends, family,..)?
I’ll pull different personality traits from different people that I know, and a few of the characters in my book V is for Virgin were named after family members. (there’s a story behind that, that you can read all about on my blog.) But most of the time they shape themselves as I write the books.

Ok let's go back to the Cinder & Ella book. Why the adaptation of Cinderella fairy tale? Do you like adaptations (movies, books, serials,...) of classic fairy tales? What is your the most favorite adaptation and of which tale?
Why Cinderella? Because it’s my favorite fairy tale. I’ve loved it since I was a kid and I’m a junkie when it comes to watching/reading different adaptations. If I see one, I buy it. Even if I’ve never heard of the author. I can’t help it. My favorite movie adaptation is the Hillary Duff movie called A Cinderella Story. My favorite book adaptation is Cindy Ella by Robin Palmer. Both are very cute, fun versions of the tale. I’m really excited to see the new Disney movie that’s coming out next year!

In the Cinder & Ella book is Ella book blogger. Have you ever had your own book blog?

I’ve considered it many, many times. I’d love to be a book blogger. I would have done so already if not for the time. I know how time consuming running a blog is, and with four kids, writing full time, volunteering for my church, and my baseball and reading addictions, I just don’t have the time to keep a consistent blog. But I have thought of letting other authors guest blog on my blog. I might start doing that in the future.

Where did you find inspiration for Ella's story? (I mean the single-parent family with Hispanic roots, bullying, move to new family,... simply the adversity.)

A lot of those elements came from the story of Cinderella. (The losing a parent/bullying/stepfamily stuff. I chose the Hispanic roots because I’ve been serving in a Spanish congregation of my church for the last two and a half years working with a youth group. I loved my kids and love the culture and thought it would be fun to have a Hispanic character. As for Ella’s physical complications, I don’t remember what made me think of that. I think I had several options in a brain storming session and that’s what I ended up with.

You are the most active writer in communication with fans I know. Do you think it is important to communicate with fans often/regularly? What do you like the most about the communication with your fans?

I think the being in contact with your fans is a lot more common among indie authors than traditionally published authors. I know a few who interact with their fans like I do. I do it for a lot of reasons. First, because I’m a very outgoing-friendly person to begin with, and I talk way too much. (Ask anyone who knows me personally.) I also love talking about writing, books, and especially my books, which is want my fans always seem to want to talk with me about, so it works. My fans are book lovers, and I’m one of the biggest book lovers I know, so we automatically have a lot in common. We’re kindred spirits! :) I think it’s important to let your fans see a bit of the real you, and if people reach out to me I try my best to answer them. My fans are my livelihood after all. If nobody bought my books, I wouldn’t be able to write as much as I do. I support my family on my book sales, so I will forever be grateful to my fans. It does get very time consuming, though, so I can see where if authors get so popular they are constantly being bombarded, they might not be able to interact with the fans as much. For now, I guess we should just consider me lucky that I’m not that big a deal yet. LOL.
 

Second part is about Kelly & her life

What do you like to do in your free time?
Read, watch sports and cheesy Disney movies, read, play board games, spend time with my family, and read.

Do you have any pets?
Do my husband and four kids count? Because sometimes they seem like animals! Kidding. I have one cat. He’s a snowshoe names Mr. Darcy. (Yes, after one of my favorite book boyfriends!)

Imagine, that you meet a fairy godmother and she offers giving you the knowledge of 2 foreign languages. Which two you would choose?
Spanish and then maybe German or French. I actually really want to learn several languages. I plan to do that someday. Maybe when my kids are grown up and I can take some classes. I want to learn Spanish first because my husband speaks it, and living in Arizona, it would come in handy on nearly a daily basis.

If you could choose any place, any time to live and any person (dead or alive) to meet, What/who would you choose?
Well, I can rule out any time before indoor plumbing because cold showers and chamber pots? No, thank you. It would have been very cool to meet Jesus though, or watch da Vinci sculpt a masterpiece. I would loved to have seen Rome in it’s glory days when they built the Coliseum. And getting a glimpse of prehistoric Earth and seeing some of the dinosaurs would be pretty awesome. (so long as they weren’t trying to eat me.)

Do you like to travel? What is destination of your dreams?
I LOVE to travel, though I hardly ever get to go anywhere. I want to see the entire world some day. I want to see all of Europe, especially Italy and Greece. So far I’ve only seen Germany, but that one short trip made me desperate to see the rest of the continent. I would love to see Ireland, Australia & New Zealand. I’d love to explore the rainforests of South America. Brazil looks like an awesome place. And one of these days I’ll even get out to Hawaii.

Have you ever been in the Czech Republic? Do you know anything about Czech? Would you like to visit the Czech Republic?
Basically all I know about the Czech Republic is that it’s next to Germany, the capital is Prague, and (from pictures) it’s an absolutely gorgeous city. Unfortunately I have not been to the country. I really want to go someday though. The closest I’ve been is when I visited Germany. That’s the only part of Europe I’ve been to so far.

Big thanks to Kelly for her time and patience with my questions.

And in the end there is C&E blogtour giveaway. So don't hesitate and go for it ;)
a Rafflecopter giveaway