Authors Karina Halle and Courtney Cole have a chat

Karina Halle, whose Shooting Scars (book two of her The Artists Trilogy) is out today (Aug. 20), and Courtney Cole, whose If You Leave (book two in the Beautifully Broken series) is out now, chat each other up about their series, genres and tattoos.

KH: I've been buying your books since The Bloodstone Saga — what made you take the leap from YA fantasy/paranormal to New Adult?

CC: You have?? That's awesome — and I didn't know that! Thank you! Well, I pretty much write what I want to write, wherever my muse takes me. That might not be the smartest thing marketing-wise, but it sure makes my muse happy. Lol. Seriously, though, I used to really be into YA paranormal ... it seemed like it really suited my voice at the time. But then I think I evolved somehow — my voice changed. I love New Adult — I can still have that YA voice, but with a twist. I don't have to toe that YA line of propriety anymore.

Karina, your book Sins and Needles is hard-edged and gritty and Ellie's lifestyle is something that few people have firsthand knowledge of. What made you write this type of contemporary novel and how did you do the research for the book?

KH: I wanted to write a bad girl, knowing very well it could be career suicide. I mean, bad boys are all the rage and more easily forgivable, but I just wanted to do something different. I wanted to give her a past that was tough and tragic and easy to justify all her current actions on. I was bullied in high school like Ellie was and for a similar reason and I can see how easy it is to take that anger and use it against people, to make the world pay for what had happened to you. I thought a con artist would be a great vehicle for that, someone who is a loner, on the road and never getting attached to anyone and saw there was a void for that on the market. I did a lot of research for this, specifically certain cons and the crazy process of money laundering. Read lots and lots of books, watched a few movies. Hoped I got things right! I actually heard from a few people who had been conned and they said I nailed Ellie's character to a tee — so well, in fact, that they had a hard time reading the book because it was a trigger for them.

I love your character in If You Stay, Pax. But then again, I have a weakness for a******* with a heart of gold. Tell me what you love most about Pax and how the reception to him has been.

CC: That's actually what I love the most about Pax. He's an a******, but deep down, he's got a good heart, even if he doesn't even realize it. He thinks he's not redeemable, that he has no good traits. But truthfully, he's got a ton of them. He just needed to see that for himself. I think he's been fairly well-received. Women seem to like a good, broken a******. Haha.

Do you have a favorite writer in your genre? If so, how has their writing inspired your own?

KH: When I write in the horror genre, my favorite writer by far is Stephen King. I'm also fond of Carlos Ruis Zafon. For romance and romantic suspense, I love, love, love the push and pull of Jane and Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, or Mac and Barrons in Karen Marie Monning's Fever series. In the suspense side of things I'm crushing hard on Don Winslow.

What's the most challenging thing about writing New Adult contemporary romance?

CC: Tapping into that mind-set of being a new adult ... you're older than a teen, but you still have those growing-up pains ... you still have issues to work through. So you're more mature, but still immature. It's a delicate balance.

I think that your book Sins and Needles and my book If You Stay both have raw and gritty elements to them that make them very "real." In that way, our two books are similar, even though they are from different genres. What do you think is the biggest difference between the genres?

KH: The biggest difference is the plotting. Romance is more internally complicated than it is externally complicated. In romantic suspense, you have to have a fast-paced plotline, usually more than one, along with the internal workings of romance. In some ways I think writing romantic suspense is harder in the way that your story and plot must be airtight and you have to wrap up all your loose ends, but at the same time I would struggle with creating interest in just the romance without the external storyline!

Your characters are flawed and fighting their personal demons, whether it be in If You Stay or If You Leave — hence, the whole "Beautifully Broken." Like you, I write damaged characters — how important is it to you for your characters to be broken and realistic and do you ever worry that they might not be likable? Do you find it easier for the male character to take on the more controversial traits (abuse, drug use) than your female characters?

CC: It's a fine line — to make them damaged and very "bad boyish" but to still have them likable. I think that the human spirit always shines through, though. We all know that no one is perfect and some are worse off than others. People who are very broken are usually that way for a reason and as readers, we know that and we empathize with them. More importantly than anything else, I want my characters to be REAL. I won't water down my storyline just to make them less hardened or less gritty. I think readers respond to that.

As far as writing about controversial females ... I think that as a female author, for some reason, I'm just drawn to want to write about a tortured male lead. I don't know why — it's just something that fascinates me. Although, I have to admit, I've had a storyline about a troubled girl floating around in my head for a while now. One of these days, I'll write her story.

One of my favorite things about New Adult is that it centers around angsty, growing-up issues that twentysomethings are still struggling to overcome. What is your favorite thing about writing adult contemporary?

KH: Well, with The Artists Trilogy, it's a bit iffy because Ellie, Camden and Javier are in their mid-20s and what they're going through I'm not sure too many people can relate to. On the other hand, just because their careers and the adventure they go on are high concept, they still deal with issues that face many adults in their 20s: the question of letting go of the past — high school in particular, or the role of their parents — in order to move on with their lives, figuring out their place in the world and searching for the stability when it feels like the ground beneath you won't stop shaking.

Both books in Beautifully Broken start off with a BANG! Now that's how to get an audience's attention. How important is it when you're writing to make sure you grab the reader's attention right away?

CC: Ha! To me, it's very important. As a reader myself, I get bored when the intro takes too long. I want to jump into the story and go. I think one of the most valuable pieces of writing advice I ever got was to start your story where the story starts. Don't get bogged down with too much backstory in the beginning, or you will lose your reader. It's something I try to live by.

I love that Camden is a tattoo artist. Do you have any tattoos?

KH: I do! I have three. My first tattoo I got in Finland in 2010. I was working as a music journalist at the time and I was about to cover a music festival where my favorite band Faith No More was playing. I got their star symbol on the back of my neck — and it brought me good luck since singer Mike Patton ended up licking it a few days later (all in good fun!). I also have a 13 behind my ear to symbolize the first book I self-published, Darkhouse, which was released on Friday the 13th, and I recently got an anchor on my wrist. The anchor is for my character in the Experiment in Terror series. She eventually gets one to symbolize her love for Dex and so I thought I should do the same for my boyfriend. I guess it brought me luck, too, because not only did my boyfriend get a matching anchor tattoo, but later that day he proposed. Now boyfriend has turned into fiancé.

To find out more, visit khalle.wordpress.com and courtneycolewrites.com.