✪✪✪ AUTHOR INTERVIEW + GIVEAWAYS!!! with C.M. KARS - author of NEVER BEEN KISSED ✪✪✪

SYNOPSIS

Sera Delos has a secret. 

She wishes it were something important or life-altering like owning a key to a blue Police Box that’s home to a time-travelling alien, or that she must hide the secret identity of her alter-ego. 

No, Sera’s secret is un-extraordinary. At twenty-five, she’s never been kissed. There just haven’t been many opportunities for the self-acclaimed nerd. There have always been too many shows to watch, too many books to read, and the rest of the time is spent fangirling over Tom Hiddleston. 

When the hottie next door and his son need a ride to the hospital, and Sera becomes the only available driver, her life is changed forever. Hunter MacLaine makes Dean Winchester seem like a mediocre-badass, even if he is a diabetic and doesn’t think much of himself. 

An old flame, nerdy references and the ups and downs of slowly falling in love with her next door neighbour, Sera’s wondering the obvious. Maybe, just maybe, if all the nerd-gods are smiling down on her, Sera Delos might have just found the man who her first kiss belongs to.

read the fairies' convo review for this book: here

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✼What inspires you to write?

Hmmm… An oldie, but a goodie , right? (That was a Back to the Future reference). What inspires me? Well, lots of things really – books I read, songs I hear, people I happen to see on the metro or bus. People are all just stories waiting to be written, and you end up surprising yourself with what you come up with if you just let your mind wander off on a tangent.

✼Have you always wanted to be a writer? When did you start writing? What was the first thing that you wrote?

I can’t say I always wanted to be a writer, ‘cause when I was a kid, I didn’t know that could be a real job. I first wanted to be a teacher, then a doctor, but always during that time, I wrote. And wrote, and wrote, and wrote. I’m embarrassed to say the first story I ever wrote back in the day (I was thirteen) was a rip-off of S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders. I loved the characters so much that I wanted to be just like them. Of course, the dynamics of the whole group would change if there was a girl as part of their group so that’s where I went with the story. I called it “The Original Gangster” (clever, huh? NOT!), and it’s been eaten up by a computer virus circa 2001 or 2002.

✼We saw in your posts on Facebook that you are still studying. Are you still in college? If yes, what's your major and why did you choose that? 

Yeah! I’m actually pursuing an MBA right now! Like I said, I wanted to be a doctor for a little bit, but that didn’t work out, so I was fresh out of college and needed to work full-time to even be considered for this program, which I did, and now I’m here. Taking a summer class to speed up the degree was not such a good idea – I have so much writing to do!

✼Aside from writing, what other job(s) do you see your self doing?

As I get older, I can’t see my career pulling me far from my first love (Ponyboy Curtis) books! So maybe using my MBA degree, when I’m done, to work in publishing, either through marketing or something like that. We will see! But I promise, whatever happens, I will keep writing!

✼How long did it take for you to finish NBK? 

From start to finish about six weeks.

fairy interviewer: WOW, THAT'S KINDA FAST!!!

✼We are dying to know... Did you have a person in mind for Hunter? For Sera? What about for Matty? 

Hahaha! This is a great question! Well, the inspiration originally came from Jax Teller (season 4) from Sons of Anarchy, the overall look; brown/blond hair cut short, and the blue eyes. As I began writing him, he sort of just evolved into something even sexier (if that’s allowed), and more human. For Sera, well, there’s bits of my nerdiness in there, and every single girl who has ever felt bad about her body and thinks she can’t be loved for it. For Matty, I had no one in mind, actually, the little bugger practically wrote himself.

If yes, who are they? If no, we will be very happy to assist you in finding them! Kidding! haha! 

I would gladly take a Hunter of my own! And a Matty!

✼In NBK, you wrote some pretty nerdy stuff. Can we assume that you're a nerd too? How much of Sera can you relate with?

I’m a GIANT nerd. I can always be nerdier, I suppose. I’ve never been into the comics, because when I was a kid and my parents would give me money, well, it was just seven-year-old common sense that I’d buy a book, that has a TON more pages than a comic for the same price. Duh. So I spent my money more on books, but I always watched the cartoons on Saturday morning, and all the direct-to-tv movies issued by DC (Batman: Under the Red Hood is probably my favourite, and it has nothing to do with the fact that Jensen Ackles voices one of the characters). Books and movies HAVE seriously ruined me for life. I keep wishing my book men to come to life and have a laugh with me, or hell, a beer and a pizza. Why the bloody hell not? (I also very much wish I was British like Sera. The accent is just so much fun.) I just really love to learn about anything and everything – I like knowing how the world works, I like learning about fictional characters that have impacted us over time; I love all of it.

✼How did you feel when you first published this book?

Terrified.
Actually, one of my best friends had to tell me to calm down maybe about a million times once I hit ‘publish’ on Amazon. And to have the response I got, well, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside and makes me want to give everybody chocolate.

✼Do you read reviews? How do you feel when you read positive and negative comments?

Of course I read reviews! There are some real lovely ones out there (ahem, bookaholic fairies!), and some that are not so good. The negative ones do bother me, as I’m sure it does to all authors. Reading a book is not the same for everybody and I have to keep reminding myself of the fact. But still, I read some reviews on goodreads, and people are all like “I want to smack Sera upside the head!” and I so want to write “Yeah, well, she’d bust you in the kisser, too”. But of course I don’t write anything because that is lessening someone’s opinion of my work and what they got out of it, which they are completely entitled to.
 Does it hurt that they didn’t get my characters and they think Hunter is a giant a-hole? Yes, of course it does. It may mean I didn’t do my job as a writer to get you to like him as much as Sera did, or really understand what he’s going through. But I’m hoping I can fix that with the next few books in the series.

✼What's next after NBK?

Aha! The question of doom!
Umm… okay, I want to get TWO books out before September, which I think I can do. Never Been Loved is going to be Hunter’s POV of NBK, what’s going on in his mind, what’s happening with him and Matty, with more scenes added in.
Never Been Nerdy is going to be Katie’s story with her guy. This one is going to be a bit harder to write, because I was just so comfortable writing Sera, but I’m sure it’ll end up okay, just gotta trust my brain, and wherever the story takes me.
I also want to work on Russia’s book, but he’s so hard to get anything out of! Russia is mysterious because he doesn’t speak unless it’s to wreak havoc (the jerk), so I’m hoping he gets his HEA.

✼FAST TRACK QUESTIONS!

Give the title of the one book that you will save in a fire

S.E. Hinton The Outsiders. I’ve had it since I was thirteen, and re-read every single year. It’s got wrinkles down the spine, and my awful cursive writing on the front page. It also was the first time I truly ugly-cried over a character.

List down 3 things that you can't live without.
Ah! Chocolate, a pen and a paper.

How important is the internet for you?
Um… it’s a devious tool to try to get me to spend hours on it. Pinterest is a pitfall. I’ll be telling myself I want to do some research (yeah, right), then of course I look up pins of Tom Hiddleston, and hey! Three hours have passed me by.

Best fiction hero?
This is so hard!
Ummm… I’m going to go with Parmenion from David Gemmell’s Lion of Macedon.

Best fiction heroine?
Arya freaking Stark.  Or maybe Penryn from Angelfall by Susan Ee.

Best author?
Don’t make me choose! I have so many!
Okay, okay, okay, I’m going to go with… J.K. Rowling. Just because of the whole seven book intricacy of the plot that blew my brains.

List down 3 things you look for in a man or love partner
Has to have a smile that’s attractive to me, makes me laugh, and knows how to make a crappy day into a good one.

Complete the sentence: I get turned off big time when  you’re rude to someone for no reason at all.

If I were to be stranded in an island, I want to be with Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) because I’m sure he did research for being stranded on an island and can help me survive. Added bonus, he’s pretty to look at.

What do you call your fans? :)
Nerds!


What's your message to your nerds?

"Hi nerds! It means so much to me that you have read NBK and taken the time to let me know through your reviews or liking my page.
I hope you stay tuned for the rest of the Never Been gang!"

GIVEAWAY!!!

Post by Musings of the Bookaholic Fairies, Inc.