If You Stay Blog Tour: interview & giveaway

Hi and welcome. We are today's stop on the If You Stay Blog Tour hosted by InkSlinger Blog Tours. We have a great interview with author Courtney Cole and there's a giveaway to enter. We'll post our review of this book soon.

If You Stay (Beautifully Broken #1) by Courtney Cole

New Adult contemporary*Paperback & ebook, 220 pages

Published February 5th 2013 by Lakehouse Press

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?

**Warning -Contains sex and violence**

About the author:

Courtney Cole

Website | Author Facebook | Twitter | Author Goodreads

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. She loves chocolate and roller coasters and hates waiting and rude people.

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.

1) How do you do it all? Write YA, New Adult and Adult? How do you get your story ideas?
I’ve decided that my muse is schizophrenic. Or maybe that’s just me. J Haha. I really just write what I’m in the mood for. And my mood swings in a wide circle.

2) What is your writing day like?
After I take my daughter to school, I come home and drink a massive amount of coffee and stare out my office window for a long time. Then I get my butt in gear and write, because I know that I can’t leave my office until I get 2,000 words done. That’s my daily goal and I’m pretty militant about reaching it.

3) New Adult seems to be a hot genre at the moment and yet there's confusion about this new genre and some question its authenticity citing the genre's creation as a marketing ploy. As an author writing in this genre, what are your thoughts? Is NA the new YA?
I think that the idea that it is a marketing ploy isn’t accurate. There has always been a hole in the market--- the college-aged character had nowhere to go. They were too old for YA and too young for Adult. New Adult is for that age bracket. In my opinion, NA is about 20-somethings who still have issues to deal with. It’s not the new YA. It’s simply a new and specific genre. It’s been a long time coming and I’m glad it’s here now.

4) "He’s a tattooed, rock-hard bad-boy with a bad attitude to match." You even call him an "asshole" in the book's blurb. Tell us about Pax: his name, his background, where did he come from?
Pax Tate is an asshole. He really is. But he has reasons. His issues have issues and they stem from a very specific thing that he can’t remember. He suppressed his memories long ago. Meeting Mila triggers his memories—because she evokes specific emotions in him that he hasn’t felt in a long time.

Pax comes from an affluent family, but due to tragic circumstances, his family sort of fell apart and he only speaks with his father right now. He decided to quit trying in life and now only does things that make him feel good—specifically, drugs and women.

That is, until he meets Mila. And then everything changes.

5) How long did it take to write If You Stay?
It only took me about a month to write the first draft. This story really just flowed out of me. Of course, the editing process took much longer.

6) I like that your characters have uncommon names. Pax. Mila. Is this on purpose? How do you go about creating your character's names?
Pax means Peace in Latin. And it was on purpose. Pax’s mom felt such peace when she held him in her arms when he was born, that she knew she couldn’t name him anything else. Mila… I just liked the name. J

7) Is it easier/harder writing a stand alone book than a series?
It is far harder to write a series, because you have to remember details from all of the books as you go along. If You Stay will have companion novels, but each book will feature different main characters. This way, it’s still a series and you will still hear from previous characters, but since the main characters are different in each book, it will be slightly easier to write than a series based on the same main characters.

8) When did you know you had to write?
When I was a little girl. But it didn’t occur to me that I could make a living at it until I was an adult.

9) If you couldn't write, what could take its place?
I hate to even consider such a scenario. The only thing that would keep me from writing is if I didn’t have hands.

10) What can we expect next from you? What is your publishing calendar look like for 2013?
I’m working on a companion novel for If You Stay… it’s called If You Leave and it focuses on Madison Hill (Mila’s sister). Later this year, the second book in the Minaldi Legacy will come out as well as the second book in the Cougar Chronicles. At least, that’s my plan right now. That could always change.

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