Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Take Five and Meet Author Kristen Beairsto



Welcome to An Indie Adventure, Kristen Beairsto.  Tell us, what inspired you to write your book, Behaving Badly?

I actually got the first idea for the story after watching the movie Magic Mike. J  What woman wouldn't get inspired after watching Channing Tatum dance around for an hour and half? ;) After watching the movie, I just got to thinking about what kind of hero it would take to have been a stripper.  And before I knew Cyrus formed in my mind.

How do you use setting to further your story?

I'm a big believer that the setting can be almost like a whole other character in the story because of its effect on the characters.  So I try to make sure there's a balance between the reader understanding the full extent of the setting along with the focus on the characters so the reader can get a good sense of how the setting as formed who the characters are.


How do you construct your characters?

The characters are usually the first to form in my stories.  As I think about them, they come more to life.  Then the story forms around them based on how I think they'd react to specific situations.


How is your main character completely different than you?

One of the main factors that drive Delaney, my heroine, is her relationship with her mother.  So much of her life is consumed with doing everything she can to not be like her mother.  Me, on the other hand, my mom is awesome so I wouldn't mind being like her.  But I just worry about being me. :)


Tell us something about yourself we might not expect!

I've fallen in love with country life!!! J  I'm originally from San Diego, CA, and have always considered myself a big city girl.  My dad is from New York City so I was raised with that kind of mentality.  But having recently moved to southern Oregon, and the small town where my husband was born and raised, I've discovered a whole other side of myself that really loves the slower pace.

Give us a brief summary of Behaving Badly :
          Delaney Pierce is desperate, no, determined, to rebuild the family business, Manners Matter, after the disaster her own mother brought down on it, and her, a year ago.  With two crazy aunts living life moving from one misadventure to the next and her younger sister waitressing to help make ends meet because Manners isn't bringing in enough money to sustain them, she pins her hopes on her commission to curb the undesirable habits of Cyrus Chapman, one of New York's premier businessmen and one of the city's most eligible bachelors.
          Cyrus Chapman is less than thrilled to find out his father hired a life coach (whatever the hell a life coach does) of all things to help him cease the behaviors his father finds unfavorable rather than just discussing the manner with him.  He’s not really surprised by his father’s heavy handedness, however he isn’t about to comply that easily.  But when his father threatens him with his future position as CEO of Chapman Industries, Cyrus has little choice but to agree to the farce.  At least, until he can come up with an alternative.
          Delaney’s resolve to succeed with Cyrus is immediately put to the test during her very first meeting with him and she realizes that no matter how much she prepared for all that was Cyrus, it all paled in comparison to the real man.  She believes they come to an understanding, even going so far as to agree to act like his girlfriend to hide their arrangement from the press.  But when her reputation, along her mother’s antics, get rehashed and dragged through the mud by the press less than twenty-four hours after being hired because of Cyrus’s actions, she’s rethinking her ability to handle the situation.
          When his new life coach aptly puts him in his place, Cyrus finds himself in the unfamiliar position of feeling guilty.  And intrigued.  Before long, he also finds himself in the unaccustomed position of fighting for more than just a professional relationship with Delaney while she tries to keep him at arm’s length.
          But Delaney can’t entertain the idea of having more than a professional relationship with Cyrus.  After all, that’s something her mother would do and she’s not about to start emulating that woman now.  However, fighting her attraction to Cyrus becomes harder and harder the more she’s around him and she finds herself wondering if she’s become so wrapped up in trying not to be her mother that she’s forgotten to just to be herself. 

Buy Links:
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Bio:
In between her to-be-read pile and trying to bring the characters in her head alive, Kristen spends as much time as she can with family and friends.  Much to her husband’s dismay, she enjoys collecting purses, shoes, and jewelry.  During those rare times she’s not working at her day job, rushing her daughters somewhere, watching movies with her husband, and trying to meet a deadline, she can usually be found energetically cheering for one of her favorite New York sports teams.

As with just about every other writer on the planet, Kristen grew up an avid reader.  She started with young adult before she technically hit the age range and moved on to sci-fi classics by Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury.  At fifteen, her best friend gave her a book she just had to read!  The book was Honest Illusions by Nora Roberts.  Always a sucker for a happy ending, she was a goner and fell in love with the romance genre.  Having started writing novel length stories at the age of eleven, Kristen’s stories all took a romantic turn from that point on.

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