Ask the Author: Kasie West
Answered Questions (1000)
Kasie West
Thank you so much!! I never tire of hearing that people like my books. :) And yes! I plan to keep writing! So I hope you plan to keep reading them. ;)
Kasie West
Thank you for reading my books! What's my favorite of my books or what's my favorite book in general? I can't pick a favorite of mine, I like them all for different reasons. Usually my favorite is the one I just finished writing and my least favorite is the one that's about to be released (because I know other eyes are going to be on it and I start getting nervous and judge it more harshly). As for a favorite book in general, I love so many books. I'm a big fan of The Raven Boys series and Anna and the French Kiss and Catching Jordan and Pride and Prejudice and and and I could go on and on.
Kasie West
Thank you! I'm so happy to hear you enjoy my books. Inspiration comes to me in so many different ways. Whether it's a place I visit or a story I hear or a movie I watch, I get the spark of an idea and then sit with it and let my brain dream up a story for it. When I get writer's block sometimes I need to step away from my computer and stop putting so much pressure on myself, sometimes I need to go back in the story and work the plot from a different angle, sometimes I need to skip the part I'm stuck on to a part of the story where I know what happens and then come back to the part I'm stuck on later. All the time I have to tell myself that it's okay to write badly and I'll go back and fix it later. If I could write a book with another author?? Hmm, I don't know. I'm kind of a 'work alone' type. It's hard for me to write with someone else because I don't outline and I need to be able to write my first draft knowing that nobody else is reading it. It helps me write more freely. But there are so so many authors I admire and love their work, so it might be fun to be in an anthology or collaboration with some of my favs. :)
Kasie West
Thank you!! I'm happy you enjoy my books. And yes, I'm in the middle of writing one right now! Plus, I have another book coming out in March of 2020! So they'll keep coming as long as I'm able to keep writing. :) Thanks for reading my books!
Kasie West
Hi, Mollie, yes this is a great place to ask me questions. Or you can ask me questions on twitter or Instagram. I check all these places all the time.
Kasie West
AW! I love hearing this! You made my day. I visited Austria about 10 years ago now and it was one of my favorite places! So beautiful and full of great people! Seriously, everywhere we stayed, the people were so good to us. Thanks for sharing this with me!
Kasie West
Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it. And no, we probably won't see these characters again, but who knows. Sometimes I get ideas that surprise me.
Kasie West
That would be fun. Sometimes in a romance, it's hard to keep the tension up and make readers keep turning the pages once the couple is together. But yes, I have definitely thought of a book where the couple gets together a little earlier and the conflict is more of an outside-the-relationship force. We'll see how that story turns out. Stay tuned. :)
Kasie West
Thank you!! And let's see...my top three authors? It's hard to pick three because I read a lot of different authors and I don't necessarily draw inspiration from the same ones all the time. But I'd say before I started writing, the authors that inspired me to move forward with my dream are: Sarah Dessen, Ann Brashares, and Kristen Britain.
Kasie West
Well, four of my books have crossover characters. In On The Fence we see a Caymen and Xander (from The Distance Between Us) sighting. And in my last three books from Harper: Love, Life and the List, Fame Fate, and the First Kiss, and the title that comes out in March 2020 there are also crossover characters. So the answer to your question is: yes! I definitely would. But if you mean an entire story where the characters from different books hang out the whole time, probably not. But...I've learned to never say never.
Kasie West
Yes! It is a standalone novel. You do not have to read any of my other books before reading this one. Thanks for asking! :)
Kasie West
No worries! :) Hmm, my characters....well, I'm sure they all have a little bit of me in them, but I don't think any of them are a close representation of me.
Kasie West
If I'm rereading my own work and I find that I'm bored in a section, I cut it and either replace it with something more conflict driven or interesting, or cut it altogether and realize it doesn't need to be replaced with anything. The first draft for me is getting from point A to point B and sometimes I realize that I filled in too many parts getting from A to B. But I don't worry about that when I'm drafting. I just work on getting to the end and when I'm rereading, that's when I realize some things in the story were unnecessary or slow. And I don't know how many I typically remove, it's different for each book. :)
Kasie West
Yes! I do that all the time! Probably with every book. :)
Kasie West
Hi! Glad you're enjoying my books. I've thought about writing from a male POV. And if I had an idea that needed to be told from that perspective, I wouldn't shy away from it. But so far, I haven't felt compelled to do that. I would assume, if I did feel the need, that yes, it would be contemporary romance. :)
Kasie West
I love music and I listen to a lot of music, but I rarely make a playlist for the book I'm writing. Mainly because I don't listen to music while I'm writing. That is very distracting for me. Sometimes I hear songs that remind me of the book I'm writing but I don't use songs to put me in the mood to write. :)
Kasie West
So the new title is: Hearts, Heroes, and Heath Hall! And no, the story is very similar to the original. It fits into the series nicely without having to change much. And I love this story so much.
Kasie West
Hi! Thanks for reading my books! And keep trying and practicing! The more you do, the more and more stories you will end up completing. Push through the hard parts. Middles of stories can be hard sometimes. But if you get through, then you can go back and edit and cut out the boring parts and rearrange and make it better. You can't do that unless you finish. So keep at it until you can finish. My ideas come from a lot of different places: sometimes it's somewhere I visited or a story I heard or a movie I saw or a character I thought of. Inspiration comes from many places so I try to keep my eyes and ears open. My favorite book?! I can't pick a favorite! :)
Kasie West
Thank you for loving my books! I love to hear that. The idea for The Fill-In Boyfriend? That's a good question. I'm trying to remember how that book came to be. Oh! That came out of the idea of the fake boyfriend trope. I love that trope. I will read any book that says it's about characters having to fake a relationship. It's such a fun trope with this wonderful built-in conflict. I love it so much. So anyway, I knew I wanted to write my version of that idea and that's how The Fill-In Boyfriend was born.
Kasie West
Hi!! Thanks for reading my books! I love hearing that. I don't have any plans to write epilogues or novellas, but if I did do anything like that, I'd post them on wattpad. I have one tiny short story over there about Caymen/Xander. So if you're on wattpad, check it out. And maybe one day I'll add to that collection of 'bonus scenes' from other books.
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