Take Tewes with Kelley Lynn

Every odd Tuesday (because Tuesdays aren't odd enough), I feature a different young adult fiction author YOU should know - from best-sellers to debuts. And what better way to do this than asking them TWO fun questions. Short, sweet, and sassy - just the way I like interviews.

I'm thrilled to be meeting all the fantastic authors at Bloomsbury Spark. Like Kelley Lynn. She's a vocalist, writes, plays a lot of sports (okay, I don't, but I should!), and she loves to colaborate which implies she plays nice with others. Here's bit about Kelley from her website:

Kelley Lynn

Eventually the day came when the voices in Kelley Lynn’s head were more insistent then her engineering professor’s. So instead of turning to her Thermodynamics book, Kelley brought up a blank page on her computer screen and wrote. Somewhere along the way she became a Young Adult author. FRACTION OF STONE (Sapphire Star Publishing) was released in March 2013. ROAD TO SOMEWHERE, Kelley's collab with Jenny S. Morris, is to be released by Bloomsbury Spark in the near future.

The Questions:

1. Your website includes a cool tidbit. You're a vocalist and you occasionally perform with local bands. I so love this about you. As a member of an all-woman band, (bass/vox) I'd be all over a jam session! (I've always wanted to start a virtual / all-author band. Just saying - it's an agenda. You've been warned.) Since music is a huge part of you and your writing process....whatcha got cued up on your current writing playlist? The top ten tunes?

An all-author band!!! That sounds like a fantastic idea! I'd totally be in for that. (I'm not as talented as you though. I don't play an instrument...haha)

My current writing playlist hey? Well... I don't have one. *gasp*. I usually use Spotify or Pandora and pick stations that will fit the mood of what I'm trying to convey in the chapters I'm writing at that time. So for FRACTION OF STONE (Sapphire Star Publishing) I used the Evanescence channel A LOT. For ROAD TO SOMEWHERE (coming January 2014 from Bloomsbury Spark) I used a good amount of country channels (a lot of it takes place in Texas...with cowboys ;)). One thing about me is I don't have 'favorites'. Music, colors, foods, etc, I can't pick the best ones. I like it all :)

2. You are one smart cookie. Your bio says you spent some time in school studying engineering before venturing into the world of young adult fiction. Do you "engineer" your stories - aka, are you a plotter? Or do you let your tales unfold organically - aka, pantser much?

You know, this is a great question. I do have my BS in Chemical Engineering, and for my day job I work as a Tech Service Chemist for an adhesive's company. I think because my nine to five job is much more structured, I avoid having that much structure in my writing. I do not plot. I have general ideas of where I think the story should go, but I don't write them down. Just start at the beginning and see what happens. Oftentimes, where I thought I would end up, is not even remotely close in the end.

Not being a plotter is tough when writing a collab, however. ROAD TO SOMEWHERE is a collaboration with the super talented Jenny S. Morris, and we did have to plot our a basic idea of where we were going. After all, even though she's amazing, she can't read my mind!

Thanks so much for having me Judith! This was so much fun! No, thank YOU, Kelley!
Want to know more about Kelley and her upcoming Bloomsbury Spark title? Check out her website.

Thursday, 24 October 2013