Author Interview and an Exclusive Teaser: Krista and Becca Ritchie

For the past two years, I have gotten to know Krista and Becca as fellow bloggers. Last year they published their debut novel Addicted to You and I was one of the people who got to read it early. Boy did it blow me away, but it has nothing against the novels published after that. Krista and Becca are taking the New Adult romance world by a storm with their quirky humour, original storylines and amazing characters. Today I get to host them here on Little Pieces of Imagination for an extremely fun and insightful interview AND what's best? You get to see an exclusive first teaser for their next stand-alone novel Hothouse Flower. Enjoy, loves!

7 Minutes in Heaven aka 7 Geek Lessons with Krista and Becca

Siiri: All right, so I know you, some of my readers know you, but for those who don’t, give us 3 most random facts about each of you that you think everyone would be shocked to know. Come one girls, I know you can do it! Surprise us :)

Becca: 1) I used to have a huge crush on one of my older brother’s friends, and then strangely he went to the same college as me. *whispers* nothing happened. You totally thought something did, didn’t you? But that’s why I call him a crush. 2) If I have a “type” of guy, it’s pale with black hair – to which all of my friends claim that I am attracted to vampires. That may be so… 3) I can’t dance at all. My rhythm is all screwy, so I stick to jumping up and down. When there’s large groups, that’s even better. They can come jump with me ;)

Krista: Oh this is hard! But I’ll try my best! First fact: You know how everyone has a favorite blanket or stuffed animal as a kid. Well, mine was a small white pillow. And what did I name it? White Pillow. No joke. Look at how creative I was, lol! Second fact: I can’t whistle. Not even a little bit. And the more surprising thing is that Becca can, so twins aren’t always identical. And the third fact: I took Latin in college. Only because I’m terrible at speaking different languages (and I get super anxious for all those oral tests) so I thought I was in the clear. It’s a dead language—no one speaks it. Little did I know that you chant Latin. That’s right, CHANT. Luckily, you chant as a class so I wasn’t alone in my misery.

Siiri: Haha, we're not even two minutes into the interview and I'm already laughing. You guys are unreal. Ok, so how does your writing process look like? How do you even start a book? Do you discuss and one of you just starts writing or you write random scenes and then read, compare and discuss? It seems like a complicate process to co-write with someone. Does it help that you know each other so well and aren’t afraid to speak your mind?

Krista: Our writing process is complicated (and kind of hard to explain) so we usually just use metaphors. The metaphor today will be paving a road. One person lays out the gravel and then the next person has to go through and…roll it down? Okay, bad metaphor, lol.

Basically one person writes the first draft and the other person edits, cuts, adds, and basically transform the first draft into a better product. Then we trade and the first drafter edits again. More edits. And then the finished copy. We talk throughout the process. I’ve never been in a TV writing room, but I suspect we would sound like those writers. We discuss plot, dialogue, characters, motivations almost all of the time so that we’re both on the same page. It’s very much a collaborative effort.

Becca: At least Krista didn’t use her anatomy metaphor with bones and skin again. *shudders*

Krista: Hey! The anatomy example is a good metaphor…okay, it’s a little weird. But it works too!

Siiri: Do I even want to know? O.o Eh, not really. I'm not big on biology, sorry, Krista! Allrightyy, so I know you two like to put your personal experiences into your work: college, career choices, personal life. Where else do you get inspiration from? Oh, and do you write with music? I love, love, love music and I can’t go a day without listening to something, but I usually don’t write any reviews with music playing, because my thoughts always wander to something else entirely and I get no work done whatsoever. School stuff I can do while music is playing, but no reviews. I’m weird like that and I’ve accepted it lol.

Krista: Movies and TV have inspired us greatly. We love how characters develop in TV shows, so when we’re writing our series we pay special attention to character development. We want our characters to feel like they’re evolving with each book, and TV series help us capture that transition between a character you know from season 1 to a character you really know from season 5.

Becca: We love writing to music! And we always do it. I can see how it’d be distracting, and it is if we change songs. We listen to songs on repeat because it stays with the tone of the scene we’re writing. If the song suddenly changes from an upbeat tempo to a sad one, then so will whatever we’re working on. But writing helps inspire the sort of feeling of what we’re working on. “Loud Like Love” by Placebo was my theme song for Kiss the Sky. I almost always wrote with it playing in the background.

Siiri: Who are the authors that got you into reading and who do you admire now? What kind of authors would you like to develop into ten years from now?

Becca: I was a huge Meg Cabot fan when I was younger, and still consider her a contemporary favorite. Also, Eva Ibbotson, Natalie Babbitt and C.S. Lewis—I would go into the library and check out all of their children’s novels. I was obsessed. When I transitioned into YA books, I started with Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies and Libba Bray’s Great and Terrible Beauty. I always gravitated towards adventure stories with a cute romance woven in between.

In ten years, I think both Krista and I want to be the kind of authors that can write in multiple genres. We’re constantly pushing ourselves, and we love so many different genres: fantasy, science fiction, paranormal. But I think we’d stick with younger protagonists since adult fiction isn’t something either of us read often.

Krista: I loved Meg Cabot as well. I think many readers tend to hate on Stephenie Meyer and Twilight, but I honestly loved her books. Twilight was the one of the first books (besides Harry Potter) that I read and felt quite addicted to. Also, from a writing standpoint, Meyer opened so many doors in YA fiction that we’re closed before her books became popular.

In ten years, I would hope that we’re the kind of authors that have carved out our own weird (and maybe a little crazy) niche into the bookish world.

Siiri: These are good aspirations to strive for *nods her head in approval* So, we all know Lo and Lily are huge geeks and the scene where they were up and running after the mentioning of a comic package arrival in Kiss the Sky was hilarious. Who are your favorite superheroes? How much of your comic-related knowledge has been put into the books and how much has it grown since writing the Addicted world?

Becca: I love all the New Mutants—they’re the younger generations. The teenagers were living this idealistic life, happy they had powers and could attend Xavier’s School, and they idolized all the X-Men who would fight to protect their species (Cyclops, Iceman, Rogue). And then catastrophe struck and they lost a lot of their friends, and they all were forced to grow up early and become X-Men before they were really even ready. Favorites: Julian Keller (Hellion), Laura (X-23) – her origin story is so sad – Magik, Cypher, Wallflower, Elixir, and Wither.

Most of my comic knowledge has been put in the books. I can’t say it’s really grown since we’ve written them. I loved being able to insert the fact that Captain America shoved Wolverine out of an airplane. He did that in a pretty recent crossover event called Avengers v. X-Men. Both Krista and I don’t like Captain America that much, so it was fun to finally get Lily and Lo to dislike him too.

Captain America, FAIL! Lol! That’s what you get for dressing up like the Cap. There are much better superheroes to impersonate ;)

Krista: It’s also funny that Captain America is probably the most mentioned comic book character in our books, and yet he’s our least favorite! I don’t read comics like Becca but I love hearing her talk about them. And I LOVE the movies. I’m a big fan of the X-Men movies, and my favorite superhero would be Cyclops. But Magneto (Michael Fassbender’s version) is a close second.

Ahhh! Yes, he is perfection.

Siiri: Haha, Captain America isn’t my favorite either. I actually fell asleep during the first 20 minutes of the first movie and I find his personality to be boring. Though, I guess since he’s so noble, he fits into the hero category well? … Eh, I’m more of a New Mutant lover as well :) Ok, so on the scale of 1-10 rate each other on the geek radar and tell us why you came up with this exact score.

Becca: Krista is probably a… 6.5. I don’t know if I’d call Krista a “geek”—she’s super smart, which makes her more of a nerd (sorry, Krista, but it’s true). But she can spar with anyone if it involves pop culture, so for that, she’s a geek. AND she is insanely attracted to geeks and nerds alike. For geeky love, she gets a 6.5 from me!

Krista: I would say Becca is a strong 8.5 on the geek scale. She’s the comic book reader and regularly geeks out over superheroes. She likes Battlestar Gallactica (I love it too) and professing her geek love via T-shirts. Her pop culture knowledge will put many to shame. I don’t take offense that I’m the nerd between the two of us.

Oh yeah! So me :)

Siiri: Fuck, marry, kill is a fun part of Kiss the Sky so I’m going to put you on the spot. Oh, but did you think I was going to let you girls go already? Without some wicked kill-marry-fuck? Hehehe. No. You’re not getting out of here that easily, so go ahead. Tell us, who would you fuck, marry and kill: Lo, Ryke and Connor. WARNING: NO CHEATING ALLOWED!

Krista: Haha! This is a wicked question. It’s hard to choose between the three. They’re all so sexy and I’d hate to kill any of them. Are you sure I can’t cheat? Okay, okay…I’ll make a decision. I think I’d fuck Lo because he seems to please Lily very well. And I’d marry Connor because he’s my dream man. I love me some intelligent guys. And just because it’s process of deduction, Ryke has to die. Sorry, Ryke!!

Becca: I’d kill Lo because he has Lily, and I don’t want him to cheat on her, not even with me! I’m so sorry, Lo. I’d fuck Connor because… ahem, have you read Kiss the Sky yet? He knows how to take control. (I’d be pretty scared of Rose coming after me though.) And I’d marry Ryke because, despite being such an asshole, he’s a really big feminist and is incredibly selfless and caring.

Siiri: Aw! Mine would be kill Lo for the same reason as Becca. Marry Connor. Um, BECAUSE. And fuck Ryke. We all know he likes to treat his ladies extremely well for them to get the best experience haha. Turns out we all have somewhat different answers which I love!

The Exclusive Hothouse Flower Excerpt

Siiri: Since you two made a devilish promise to give us teasers starting from February and since you put me and Nick and everyone else through this emotional journey of waiting until March (!!!! HOW WILL I EVER SURVIVE? *sobs*) until Ryke and Daisy’s book, then please, please give us a teaser.

The twins: Okay, we’re going to give you an EXCLUSIVE excerpt from HOTHOUSE FLOWER. This is the first time we’ve revealed anything with Daisy and Ryke together within their own book. So it’s super special!

Daisy’s POV

     As I watched each friend call me a sex-addict-in-training and a media whore, stabbing me routinely in the heart, Ryke was the one who pulled out the blades. He even shielded me from them. He’s like my wolf—dangerous, alluring and protective—but I can never get close enough or else he’ll bite me.
     He’s my last real friend. But I know that’s not entirely true. He’s the only real one I’ve ever had.
     “What other things am I?” I ask with a smile, standing by his ankles at the foot of the bed.
     “Hyperactive, fearless, crazy, and probably the happiest unhappy girl I’ve ever met.”
     I bounce a little, about to jostle the mattress, but he side-swipes my calves quickly. I fall on my back, smiling big as I turn on my side towards him. It fades the moment he tosses the pill bottle at my face. It hits me square in the forehead and thuds to the comforter.
     He’s also an asshole.



Siiri: HAHA! This is exactly how I imagine them interacting and if you have read Kiss the Sky or Addicted for Now, you know how explosive these two are together and in the best possible way. Me iz exciteeedd!!

The twins: Thanks for the awesome interview, Siiri!! We enjoyed it!

Siiri: Thank you girls for taking the time off your busy Hothouse Flower writing schedule, because, let’s face it! The fans are in desperate need of some Daisy and Ryke ;)

The books

If you want to read some of their books, you can check out more about them by clicking on the covers. I cannot recommend these books enough. I'm only saving you from future headache and frustration for not having read them any sooner by ordering telling you to go read them ;)

The Addicted series

   

Standalone Companion Novels

 

Meet Krista and Becca

Krista Ritchie has a clone...or someone who looks exactly like her. If she's not writing books with her twin sister, she's pouring over entertainment news and ingesting copious amounts of pop culture. She likes tennis, that thing called the TV, and beating Becca (her clone) on Sega Genesis. She created YA Book Exchange to combat her book buying addiction and started Nawanda Files, a YA Book Blog that features books into movies news, to share her love for all things bookish. Oh, and she does something called science. Whatever that is.
Krista & Becca Ritchie write New Adult books that make you cringe, gasp, and go ooh-la-la. (If you do that sort of thing.) They are currently working on the spin-offs and final books in the Addicted series.

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