Week 2: Author of the Week: Katherine Rochholz Giveaway & Interview

Hurray - the time has come that the second week of our new feature 'Author of the Week'.

For this week: 21st July - 27th July, Bex 'n' Books is hosting the charming and generous Katherine Rochholz.

Over the week, both on this blog & on our Facebook page, we'll be providing lots of wonderful and interesting information about Kati Rochholz, her books, The Katy Lily Series & A Guardian's Life Series and of course a large rafflecopter giveaway (see below) as well as daily giveaways on our Facebook page.

So, I have great pleasure to introduce you to Kati Rochholz. Lets get know Kati a little bit better in her interesting interview - part one. Once you've read, we'd love you to enter the giveaway, and come back over the next week to read her interview - part two and our review of Truth and Lies Past and Present! You're in for a treat!

 

1. Tell me a bit about yourself.  I am super strange!  I am a bit dark in my thoughts, and it shows up in my writing, but I am from Waterloo, IA and I am the oldest of 9 (yes 9) kids.  My last name is German, but my ancestry is mostly Irish, there is a touch of Native American and English in these veins.  My paternal grandfather was adapted and thus my last name, I am a big advocate for adaption because of that, my grandfather was 12 and he respected the man that adapted him so much he named my father after him.  Oh and I say bloody a lot!  I edited a lot of bloodies out of my books, I started saying it after reading a book when I was 9 and haven’t stopped.  It gets on some people’s nerves but I think bloody is a bloody fantastic word!  I also love kids. I don’t have any yet; I am still waiting for Mr. Right, but I love working with them.  I used to be Vice-President of the Youth and Young Adult committee before my church combined with another.  I miss that, so I just volunteer in the schools a lot now.  If I am not at my day job or at work, you can usually find me at a school or library surrounded by kids.  I can’t wait to have my own. If I haven’t had a child by the time I am 35, I am going to look into adopting as a single (I plan on adopting even if I do find Mr. Right and even if we do have our own children.  I want to adopt pre-teens or teens).
2. Wow, that's amazing Kati. I can see immediately how your passion has influenced your character Katy Lilly. What inspired you to write your first book?  Katy Lily is my first story I ever created actually.  It started out as a story for my baby brother back in 1993/1994.  My family had gone through some tragic losses the 3 years before he was born. We lost 3 of my brothers, 2 were stillborn and one was born just too early.  Because of this, I spent every waking moment with him, and I told him about a magical world, thus the name Katy (a play on my nickname Kati) and Riley (my brother’s middle name).  What got me inspired to share my stories, is simple… Life is short.  My family knows this; we lost my dad, my hero, in 2009 suddenly, and he was only 50.
3. I love that you've managed to turn so much sorrow into such a lovely story. What books have influenced your life the most?  All work affects my life somehow… for better or worse, you can’t be unchanged from a book you read, rather it is a new word you learned or a different style of writing that encouraged you to write in that style or voice.  But I have to say if I read Edgar Allan Poe or Jane Austen I tend to change my writing style.
4. A lover of the classics. Two of my many favourites too. Thinking about your first book, Truth and Lies Past and Present, how did you come up with the series title: Katy Lily Series: Bridgette's School for the Magical Arts?  Katy is a play on my name. Lily just seemed to fit and Bridgette is a play on my Great-Grandmother’s name, which happens to be my confirmation name.  Family is very important to me, and it shows.  Katherine was my grandmother’s confirmation name, so I chose my great-grandmother’s first name as mine.
5. That's lovely to include that personal lineage. What was your favourite chapter to write in Truth and Lies Past and Present and why?  The end of book one as a whole, it just shows how things can be shown to be one thing and completely another.  My favourite scene is near the end when Katy goes after Riley.
6. Five words that describe your main character. Strong, Protective, Insecure, Loving, Good
7. I couldn't agree more. What do you have in store for your main character Katy?  A lot, there is a lot more pain headed her way sadly, but there is a lot of happiness as well.  I am working on combining years 3 and 4 into one book because they go together the most and I didn’t think it was fair to split them and make people wait 6-12 months for 4.  Book 5 is going to be exciting.  Book 3 finds Katy Lily accepting a lot of pain.  I have a lot of ideas to counter the pain she has to endure before the ending of her school years.
8. Lots of exciting things then! As long as there's lots of happiness too, that sounds good to me! What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?  I am surprised on how much I learned about myself, I found myself being more outgoing becoming more of an extrovert.  I found myself and that shocks me most of all.
9. What do you think makes a good story?   Conflict, I love conflict.  But it only goes so far. I have to love the characters, and if I love your characters, I will tend to love your book. 
10. Good answer. I couldn't agree with you more. Is there anything you find particularly challenging when you’re writing?  The editing is my issue, I love to just write, and afterwards I go and format and edit, and that is the hard part because I want to go onto the next project.

Stalker Links:

Website / Facebook EAR / Facebook Katy Lily / Facebook Guardian's Life /  Blog  / Goodreads

Purchase Links:
Truth and Lies Pat and Present: PB US Amazon / Kindle US / Lulu HB / Kindle UK / 
A Nightmare Within a Dream: Kindle US / Kindle UK / 

More to follow tomorrow on the blog and daily on Facebook!

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

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