From bestselling authors Becky Wicks (Before He Was Famous, Before He Was Gone) and Sarah Alderson (Hunting Lila, Fated, Come Back to Me)
comes a new romance with a difference…
Series: Lara Craft Saga #1
Author: Lola Salt
Publication date: October 7th 2014
Genres: Comedy, New Adult, Romance
Publication date: October 7th 2014
Genres: Comedy, New Adult, Romance
BLURB supplied by Xpresso Tours
After losing her job and her boyfriend on the same day, Lara’s beginning to wonder if her life can possibly get any worse. Then along comes Jamie, a childhood friend, offering her a job delivering mysterious packages to random destinations around the world and suddenly things are looking up.
Lara packs her bags and sets off on an epic adventure, meeting billionaire Arabic Princes, rugged cowboys, a sparkling wannabe vampire, a love guru with sex on the brain and Angelina Jolie’s bodyguards along the way. But though trouble always seems to find Lara, it seems love is rather more elusive.
Pack your bags. The adventure’s about to begin!
PURCHASE LINKS
Amazon UK
I had hoped to read and review this one but as yet haven't managed to read it yet. However it is on my WTR List.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
&
AUTHORS INTERVIEWED
Lola Salt is the pen name for two bestselling authors:
Sarah Alderson & Becky Wicks.
Becky has written several non-fiction travel diaries for Harper Collins; Burqualicious, Balilicious & Latinalicious, and the new adult Starstruck Series featuring Before He Was Famous, Before He Was Gone and Before He Was a Secret.
Sarah is better known for her Young Adult novels, particularly the critically acclaimed Hunting Lila series (published by Simon & Schuster), as well as the Fated series. She also wrote the new adult romance Come Back To Me under another pen name of Mila Gray.
The two authors met in Bali. Come visit us sometime and we’ll buy you a coconut.
Becky
and Sarah talk about what went into writing their new (and incredibly British)
comedy romance, The Extraordinary Life of Lara Craft (not Croft).
How
does the writing process work with two authors?
Sarah:
It was so fluid and fun writing with Becky. We just took it in turns, throwing
it back and forth. I would write to a point where I didn’t know where to take
the story next and would send it to Becky and then she would write more and
send it back and we continued like that. Honestly now we both look back and
neither of us can pick out who wrote what. It was that seamless.
Do
you ever disagree on the direction of a character or the plot?
Becky:
Sometimes I was like, Lara should do this, but Sarah would say, “she wouldn’t
do that,” and we’d compromise by changing the direction of her adventures, but
to be honest we never really disagreed on the plot because we were too busy
cracking up over it, haha! I just remember erading Sarah’s parts with tears rolling
down my cheeks because it was so silly/funny/both! Lara was a lot of fun to
write. We never really took it too seriously.
Do
you write alone as a sole author of a book too? If so which do you enjoy most?
Sarah:
I really enjoy both but because Becky is such a good friend and we have so much
fun anyway this was the cherry on the cake. We laughed endlessly when writing
this book. It was definitely the most fun time I’ve had writing.
How
do you decide who writes which part of the book?
Becky:
I would write till I got stuck and then hand it over, and Sarah would take over
with fresh eyes, then send it on, and on it went like that for about three
months I think? Like Sarah said, we had so much fun, it was one long laugh
really!
If
there's a disagreement, say about plot, title, cover etc how do you solve it?
Sarah:
We just share our thoughts and usually end up agreeing. Normally there is wine
and cake in the equation and that always helps.
Do
you read all the reviews of your book/books?
Becky: Of course we read our reviews. All
authors do, whether they admit it or not. The bad ones burn a little, or a lot
if people are mean, but ultimately when you write and put your art out there
for public consumption you can’t expect everyone to love everything you do all
the time! I always appreciate feedback, constructive criticism can really help
as I plan out future books. As long as people aren’t mean, I’m fine with low
star ratings. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion.
Do
you enjoy writing with another author more than writing alone?
Becky:
I wouldn’t say I prefer one over the other but it was a really fun experience
and one I would definitely do again, without a doubt!
How
do you find your perfect author partner to write with?
Sarah:
Luck. The universe threw us together. We have a mutual friend who knew that
Becky was going to be travelling to Bali and that I lived there so he
introduced us on Facebook. The rest is history (although we’re meeting up in
London soon to face their Arctic Winter… so the papers say. Gulp).
Who
decides which name goes first on the book?
Sarah:
we decided on the pen name Lola Salt because the character Lara looks like
Angelina Jolie so in honour of that we chose two characters that Angelina has
played on film.
What
made you decide to write that genre of book?
Becky: With Lara Craft I think both Sarah and
I felt like writing something different from our usual stuff. We wanted to try
something light hearted and fun, something that would serve as a good laugh out
loud page turner. Lara’s not exactly the
most sensible person, she screws up a lot but she has a good heart and the
people she meets on her journey ultimately change her. I think that’s what
happens to most of us as we go through life… hopefully without the kidnapping
in Africa part.
Do
you work another job as well as your writing work?
Becky: We both do copywriting work and Sarah
does screenwriting, but yes. I do social media for a global communications
company which is good because it keeps the pennies rolling in and lets me stay
on the laptop writing at the same time. I also write copy for various websites,
blogs, etc. Obviously it’s my dream to just earn a living from my books but
like I said up there, working hard pays off (crosses fingers).
How
long does it usually take you to write a book, from the original idea to
finishing writing it?
Becky: It depends on the book! My travel
books were all written on the go as I lived and experienced everything in those
crazy countries. From start to finish each one was done within 12 months. With
a fiction/romance novel I work much faster. I wrote Before He Was Gone in
roughly 8 weeks, but then I took another month to perfect it. It depends on
research too. I can spend hours on Google figuring out how to walk my character
through a city I haven’t been to!
What
can we expect from you in the future? ie More books of the same genre?
Books of a different genre?
Becky: I think I’ll always try new things, I
just love to write so the need will always win. I’m working on a paranormal
romance about mermaids, and another new adult romance, and I’d love to write
another travel memoir, or just a humorous memoir about something, but you never
know what life will throw at you. I think writers should just do what their hearts
tell them to do - otherwise we don’t feel invested and then neither will our
readers.
Do
you have a favourite character from your books? and why are they your
favourite?
Becky: I love my character Shan, from Before
He Was Gone. He’s a side character but I think really strong and I love how his
relationship with my lead Alyssa turned out. I loved writing the dialogue
between them!
Did
it take a long time to get your first book published?
Becky: I was living in Dubai when I started writing
my first book, Burqalicious, a travel memoir about the craziness of living in
such a luxurious, growing city. I wrote blogs every day about it and I had such
great feedback that I put it all into a word doc, called it a manuscript and
Googled ‘how to get published.’ The Internet told me I needed an agent, so I
emailed one. She signed me and a month later I had a deal with HarperCollins!
Looking back I’d say I got lucky, I was 29 when I got the deal and I’ve learned
a lot since then (I’m 34 now) but I worked hard, so yes, working hard and
following your dreams pays off!
AUTHOR LINKS
***GIVEAWAY***
TOUR WIDE GIVEAWAY
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I love seeing which authors team up to co-write and often I had no idea they were friends! I also think it must be such a fun experience (unless you don't get along lol!) Great interview, ladies! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for hosting this blog, Jeanz!
ReplyDeleteBecky (one half of Lola Salt)