Interview Brittainy C Cherry The Queen of emotional, sensitive and raw stories!

Dear Readers,

Drum roll here as Brittainy C. Cherry the “Queen of emotional, sensitive and raw stories” agreed to play the interview game with me!!!!

To give you some context, here is what I wrote:

” Hi Brittainy,

First let me thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. My love affair with your books began with Loving Mr Daniel (5 stars) and never ceased. Art & Soul made me fall even deeper in love with your writing! So I feel VERY lucky right now  😉 Anecdote: I was trying to convince a forty years old man that he didn’t need to fear reading Art & Soul as he reacted saying “No, no. They don’t wind up together? She gives away the baby? Must.. Not. Read. » and I had to convince him without spoiling the book. I found so cute that a guy would react this way. It made me realize I’m prejudiced or conditioned to expect a certain kind of reaction from men LOL

I guess you must be very busy so I truly value the time you will put into this interview. I can’t thank you enough.”

Now time for you readers of future readers to know more about this incredibly talented author!

• First question about the child you were: how was little Brittainy like?  Did you always know you would write books one day?

I was a wildflower climbing trees and making up stories in my head. I knew I wanted to write pretty early on. It was when I turned 14 that I wrote my first book.

• You’re going to take the plane for a two week vacation and you can’t take your E-reader with you. You have a limited allowed weight in your luggage. So name 5 books you would take to keep you company.

1. Archer’s Voice
2. The Five People You Meet In Heaven
3. Hopeless
4. Girl on the Train
5. Gone Girl

• Do you listen to music while writing? Or in life? If so what are your favorite band/singers? I must confess reading Art & Soul made me want to listen to Little Ghost by Birdy as Levi was truly seeing Aria when no one saw her before her pregnancy.

I love music! It’s such a big part of my life and my writing. When I sit down to write, I always have a playlist with me.

• Now could you share some interesting tidbits about who the Brittainy is?  What are your guilty pleasures

My guilty pleasures are binge watching my favorite shows on Netflix. I hardly ever start new series, because I just keep replaying my favorites.

• One last word about you: if you could interview an author (or two or three) who would they be and what question would you ask them?

I’d love to interview JK Rowling and get into her mindset. I think she’s such an intelligent person and I’d love to know more.

• Let’s get into your books now. Do you recall how you felt when you published your first book? Was “The Space In Between” your first work published? What are the “lessons learned” or the “mistakes” you would not do again?

I was scared, yet excited. I think the biggest lesson learned is to go back to that feeling that I had when I first published that book. The joy of publishing was the best part. I’d remind myself to not overthink everything.

• Your books all broach sensitive topics be it forbidden love between a teacher and his student with Loving Mr Daniel; grief and guilt in The Air he Breathes; addiction and its destruction on people and relationships in Between High and Lo; unplanned pregnancy and grief (again) in Art & Soul; abuse and being a parent in The Gravity of Us… so What’s inspiring you? Do you have a muse? Real life events you experienced? Where did you get your ideas for the plot? What’s your writing process?

I just think people as a whole are interesting, in the way that we oftentimes experience hurt and happiness in the same way. Not many of my stories come from real life experiences. A majority of it is fiction, but I like to imagine how I’d react if I were in the shoes of my characters. That helps me oftentimes.

• Each and every time I’m sucked into your story. I become your characters and I suffer alongside them. What’s your secret? How do you build your characters? Are you inspired by friends, celebrities (I compared Lucille with Louisa Clark)? Do they become part of your life? What do you need to make us see through their eyes?

I just need the reader to have the same human emotions as I place in my characters. I think mostly, they are created from a place of hope. I want all of my characters to be driven toward something bigger than them—love, happiness, career, success. And in that way,  I hope the reader can connect because they too strive for the same great things.

• You’ve written about incredible friendship in your stories. I have crushes on Simon and his incredible support to Aria and I want Faye as best friend because the girl made me laugh so much! So what is your idea of friendship? What qualities do you expect from your friends? And what would you do or wouldn’t you do for your friends? Did some of them inspire these characters?

My idea of friendship is that your real friends tell you the truth, even when it’s hard to hear. They stand up for you, but they also tell you to face reality when you’re floating away too much in your thoughts. And since I care much about keeping my friendships close and private, I won’t go into too much more detail on this 😀 

• Were you afraid some readers would not love some of your main characters? I must confess I did not like Logan but I have personal issues with addicts (I can’t understand why someone chooses to destroy his/her life when so many have bad health). Same goes here for the topics as cheating (The Space in Between; The Gravity of Us comes close to it), forgetting your lost loved with “sex” in The Air He Breathes, etc. And if readers have strong (negative) reactions with your books what do you make of it? (Personally I would say write what you like but I’m not a writer LOL). Do you read your books reviews?

That’s exactly why I wrote Logan. Logan was tossed into a world of drugs as a child, and I think it’s just so hard for people to see that it wasn’t his fault. A childhood surrounded by those drugs and addicts isn’t the same as a childhood born without those demons. Yet when Logan turned 18, it’s as if society is shocked that he’s still an addict. It’s a tough book not for everyone, but I hope it connected with the ones it was meant to.

I write from my heart, and if others don’t connect to my stories due to their personal likes and dislikes, that’s fine. I just assume the book wasn’t meant for them.

I don’t read book reviews, good or bad anymore. I realize that I must disconnect from my stories at some point. I have to learn the art of letting go and moving on to my next project. My job is to craft a story to my best of ability. After it’s released into the world, it’s theirs to judge. And it’s best for me at that point to walk away and take care of my own heart and soul.

• This will be a hard one but who is your favorite character so far? And which female character would most likely look like you? Personally I loved Levi and then Graham flawed and all 😀 
  

Levi is my favorite character, and I think it’s because I’m overprotective. I feel like the other heroes are older, and can hold their own, but there’s such a gentle innocence to Levi that I just adore. He holds such a special place in my heart.

• Could you tell us something about your future books

I have a book coming out this fall called Behind the Bars—anddd that’s all I can give you now! But I will say I have a lot more stories inside of me.

Now some light and fun questions to end this interview:

• What country would you love to visit and what was your favorite travel so far?

I’d love to go to Scotland and Ireland! And I loved going to Colorado and being in the mountains. Outside of the US I loved London, France, and Brazil so much! It’s hard to choose a favorite!

• Name 5 things that would be on your bucket list.

1. Sky diving
2. Swimming with dolphins
3. Visiting all national parks
4. Driving up the east coast.
5. Having a book turned into a movie.

• Favorite quote(s)?

 

“We’re all just walking each other home.” – Ram Dass

• If you were Harry Potter (or Hermione Granger) what spell would you invent?
  

A truth spell where people had to speak their biggest truths.

I hope you enjoyed this interview! Just know if you haven’t read her books yet you should!  I’m always a wreck reading her books with not one tissue left after but it’s cleansing!