TC Booth: A Writer's Devotion: Friday Featured Author -Krysten Lindsay Hager

Last summer I featured children's authors on Fridays. This summer I'm starting Friday Featured Authors for young adult writers. I pleased to introduce my first Friday Featured Author, Krysten Lindsay Hager.

What inspired you to become a writer?

I've loved coming up with storylines since I was a little kid. I used to watch soap operas with my mom and instead of waiting for the cliffhangers to resolve on their own, I'd take my Barbie dolls and act the scenes out how I wanted them to play out. I was always scribbling story ideas down and my fifth grade teacher told my parents she thought I'd be an author one day. It took me by surprise, but it got me thinking.

What book(s) have you written that you would like to tell us about?

My new book is called, TRUE COLORS, about Landry Albright, an eighth grader who enters a modeling competition with her two best friends, but runs into jealousy when she advances to the next level without them. Enter the gorgeous Devon, who also made the first cut of the modeling contest and becomes the perfect best friend, but can their friendship survive the competition? Throw in a new boy, jealousy issues, and hair stylist insults. How’s a girl to deal?

Do you have any favorite childhood books?

Hangin’ Out with Cici by Francine Pascal. One of my favorite YA novels of all time. Victoria time travels and sees what her mother was like as a kid. The humor in this one is great.

The Great Mom Swap by Betsey Haynes. (Middle grade novel) One of the characters, Scottie, wants to be an author and I was obsessed with this book as a kid.

Good-bye, Glamour Girl by Erika Tamar. I read this for the first time the summer after 5th grade. It’s a coming of age story about a girl whose family escaped Europe during WWII and she is trying to fit in while in America and becomes a fan of Rita Hayworth.

Do you have advice for aspiring writers?

The best advice I ever got was read over a hundred books in your genre before you attempt to write your own. I'd also suggest taking both writing and literature classes and getting into critique groups.

Where can we find you and your books?