Welcome to the second in my series of interviews with the authors of the Twitterscape!
Well…now that I’ve actually got a second interviewee, it’s now become a series.
For a while now I’ve been following and interacting (from time to time) with the #WritingCommunity on Twitter. While I support ALL the authors on there (especially the Indie ones) sometimes you find yourself getting into a conversation with someone whose work piques your interest.
Such as the conversation that started with @Kayla Hicks when we started to chat about our prospective book launches.
I thought that she was someone you guys should learn more about. So here’s my little interview with the one and only…
Okay, bit of intro blurb first.
Kayla’s new book is set for launch on the 5th March, which is only a week or so before my own book launch. Hence the chat. What’s more, it’s a book with a ‘Superhero’ theme…which plays almost directly into my wheelhouse (I mean, just go look at my Femme Fatales stories on this site, or see my little review of Marisa Meyers ‘Renegades‘ trilogy on this blog post. You’ll see just how much this subject interests me!)
Her new book is called ‘The Backup Superhero‘, and is a fresh take on the superhero shenanigans. Here’s the blurb…
Becoming a superhero isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. Let’s be realistic, people don’t have super- powers. But if you have enough determination to make it through training, you have a chance to be the modern-day superhero, stopping one criminal at a time…or doing everyone else’s job and getting none of the credit. After Tanser girl comes to terms with her non-celebrity level status in the superhero world, someone else from Level D decides it’s their moment to shine, shaking up the entire system, while leaving her to pick up the pieces.
It out on 5 March and is currently available for PRE-ORDER on Amazon (linky to eBook)
So, without further ado, here’s my interview with Kayla Hicks.
Let’s let my readers get to know you. Tell me a bit about your life and hobbies outside of writing.?
So I was a preschool teacher for 8 years before becoming a stay-at-home mom, for now, allowing me time for writing. I also enjoy photography, reading (of course) and I am learning how to code and design games.
How did you get into writing?
I actually started writing as a kid, writing my first book at 15. I then wrote for my school newspaper (don’t know if those are still a thing) and then finally wrote a full-fledged book at 19, Kale Stone: An Outliers Tale.
Your new book is called ‘The Backup Superhero’, and it sounds fascinating. Can you tell us a little more about it – No spoilers!!!
Sure, it is a story where people don’t have superpowers, they basically become a superhero through training and using athletic ability. The main character is a Level D superhero which means she makes all the other superheroes look good. She catches the bad guys and the lead superheroes take the credit. After accepting this as her fate, the whole superhero world gets shaken when a backup superhero takes credit and questions are asked about all the other superheroes in the league.
Where did the inspiration for the book come from?
I love superheroes. I find the characters very interesting and thought there was a hole in the superhero world. I mean when we think about it, how realistic is it that a few superheroes can take on all the criminals. Someone has to help them.
You already have one book out there in the wild, ‘Kale Stone: An Outliers Tale’, and now this is to be your second book. Obviously, the story and subject matters are different, but can you tell me a little about the differences between the two books? And did that mean you approached each one differently when writing?
For Kale Stone: An Outliers Tale, I was very inexperienced and it took me four years to write it. This novella was so easy to write with so much more experience under my belt. For The BackUp Superhero, I actually meant for it to be a side project that I only sent out to my subscribers but I had surprisingly great feedback and then the beta readers asked if I could make it into a series of novellas, so it just grew into something bigger.
Okay, so here’s a fun one. On my website, I have a section called ‘Casting Call’ where I (and my beta readers) speculate on who would play the characters in my book if it were a TV Show or Movie. So who would you cast as the main character in ‘The Backup Superhero’?
Oh, this is a tough one!
I would say Hailee Steinfeld as Tanser Girl.
I read the article on your awesome website (https://kayla-hicks.com/) about author collaborations. So who would be your ultimate author collaboration?
I can’t say that I have one author in mind. I do have a Short Story Collection out where I have a guest author, a good friend, Steph O’Connell. I think collaborating with any author would be so special!
So, what is Kayla Hicks working on next?
I have so many projects in the works. I am writing the sequel to The BackUp Superhero called The Original Superheroes. I wrote a contemporary romance and a children’s picture book with I am trying to get traditionally published. And last but not least, I am working on the sequel of Kale Stone called Galestand: An Outliers Tale.
Thanks so much for your time, Kayla. I can’t wait to read ‘The Backup Superhero’ and I hope the launch goes fantastically!
Kayla’s Links
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