It's Finally Friday! (6): Interview with Courtney Cole

Hi everyone! We're back with another It's Finally Friday! interview. This week, we're featuring YA/NA author Courtney Cole of The Bloodstone Saga, The Paradise Diaries, and the Beautifully Broken series among others. I've actually gotten the chance to read Every Last Kiss (The Bloodstone Saga #1) and I fell in love with the world Courtney created. I'd highly recommend it for historical fiction, mythology, adventure, and romance fans. Now, without further ado, the interview!

Zareen: What is your favorite book of all time?

Courtney: The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom.

Zareen: What was your inspiration to write your book?

Courtney: I wrote If You Leave because I think that attention should be paid to soldiers who come home from war with PTSD. It’s got a stigma attached to it—and it shouldn’t.

Zareen: What is one book you wish you had written?

Courtney: I wish I had written Harry Potter. :) I LOVE that series. And if I’d written it, I bet I could skip to the front of the line of Harry Potter World in Universal.

Zareen: Why did you start writing books for young adults? Why this genre?

Courtney: I started out writing YA, but I phased into New Adult. I love all the growing up issues—but in NA, I don’t have to worry about being appropriate enough.

Zareen: What makes your book so different from all the books out there?

Courtney: I think books are different because of the author’s voice. It’s like a fingerprint. It makes us unique.

Zareen: Are you currently working on anything new? If so can we get a clue on what it is ;D?

Courtney: I’m working on book three in the Beautifully Broken series—Before We Fall.

Zareen: Who was your favorite character in the whole story? And why?

Courtney: I loved Maddy- I think I identify with her a lot- because we’re fairly similar.

Zareen: Any tips or tricks for aspiring writers?

Courtney: Write every day- and write what makes you feel passionate.

Zareen: What is your writing atmosphere like?

Courtney: My office is quiet. I can’t listen to music while I write- I get too distracted.

Speed Round Questions 

Zareen: Favorite food?

Courtney: Mexican. I could eat it every day of the week.

Zareen: If you were stranded on an island, what 5 things would you take? One person=one item!

Courtney: My husband and kids (that’s four items) and then… um. A case of antibiotics in case we get sick.

Zareen: Turtle or fish?

Courtney: Turtle

Zareen: Reading or writing?

Courtney: Writing

Zareen: Print books or e-books?

Courtney: Both

Zareen: Favorite book store?

Courtney: Crossroads. It’s a bookstore in my hometown—I’ll never forget going in there with my grandma as a kid—the smell of the books!

Zareen: Favorite city in the world?

Courtney: My own. It’s not the coolest or the prettiest, but there’s no place like home. 

About If You Stay (Beautifully Broken #1)

24-year old Pax Tate is an asshole.
Seriously.

He’s a tattooed, rock-hard bad-boy with a bad attitude to match.

But he’s got his reasons.

His mother died when Pax was seven, leaving a hole in his heart filled with guilt although he doesn’t understand why. What he does know is that he and his dad are left alone and with more issues than they can count.

As Pax grew up, he tried to be the kid his father always wanted; the perfect golden boy, but it didn’t work. His dad couldn’t overcome his grief long enough to notice and Pax couldn’t keep up the impossible perfect façade.

So he slipped far, far from it.

Now, he uses drugs and women to cope with the ugliness, the black void that he doesn’t want to deal with. If he pretends that the emptiness isn’t there, then it isn’t, right?
Wrong.

And it’s never more apparent than when he meets Mila.
Sweet, beautiful Mila Hill is the fresh air to his hardened frown, the beauty to his ugly heart. He doesn’t know how to not hurt her, but he quickly realizes that he’s got to figure it out because he needs her to breathe.

When memories of his mother’s death resurface from where he’s repressed them for so long, Mila is there to catch him when the guilt starts making sense. Mila is the one…the one who can save him from his broken troubled heart; from his issues, from the emptiness.

But only if he can stop being an asshole long enough to allow it.

He knows that. And he’s working on it.

But is that enough to make her stay?

About the Author

Courtney Cole is a novelist who would eat mythology for breakfast if she could.

She has a degree in Business, but has since discovered that corporate America is not nearly as fun to live in as fictional worlds.

Every Last Kiss is her debut novel and she followed it with the rest of The Bloodstone Saga (Every Last Kiss, Fated, With My Last Breath and My Tattered Bonds).

Courtney lives in quiet suburbia, close to Lake Michigan, with her real-life Prince Charming, her ornery kids (there is a small chance that they get their orneriness from their mother) and a small domestic zoo.

Learn more about Courtney and her books at www.courtneycolewrites.com.