Getting to Know the Authors: Featuring Kelly Oram!

                                   Bio
Kelly Oram wrote her first novel at age fifteen—a fan fiction about her favorite music group, The Backstreet Boys, for which her family and friends still tease her. She's obsessed with reading, talks way too much, and likes to eat frosting by the spoonful. She lives outside of Phoenix, Arizona with her husband, four children, and her cat named Mr. Darcy.

                        What has she written?
Kelly Oram has written: The Avery Shaw Experiment, V is for Virgin, A is for Abstinence, Serial Hottie, Being Jamie Baker, More Than Jamie Baker, Kissing Jamie Baker, Remember Jamie Baker, Chameleon, Ungifted, and Cinder & Ella.

I am hosting a giveaway of Serial Hottie, The Avery Shaw Experiment, V is for Virgin, A is for Abstinence, and her newest release of Cinder and Ella. Go here to join, for a chance to win it for yourself: http://thenotsopubliclibrary.blogspot.ca/2014/10/kelly-oram-giveaway.html
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Now Onto the Interview!

 1) How old were you when you started writing, in your opinion? 

I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. I have stories that my parents kept as early back as first grade, and I completed my first novel when I was age 15.

2) What do you want a reader to gain from reading your works? 

I mostly just want them to have a good time. I want them to be entertained. I want them to meet some new people, have an adventure, and hopefully fall in love.

3) What are your three top suggestions on becoming an author, or being a pleasure writer?

 Read a ton. Write a ton. And repeat the process. Over and over again.

4) What is your favourite novel, why? 

LOL as if I could narrow it down to one??? Ugh. How about narrowing it down to top 3? Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson, Broken Aro(series) by Jen Wylie, and Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles. I love them all for different reasons, but they are all my favorites mainly because of the characters and relationships.

5) Who is your favourite author, why? 

Again, making me choose just one is cruel! I suppose if I had to pick one I’d say Meg Cabot. I love just about every book she’s ever written. She’s an author I try to aspire to be like, in tone, voice, and writing style. And she was one of the first YA authors I discovered and really helped me develop a love for reading.

6) What are your favorite pass times besides writing? 

Reading! (I read 2-3 books a week on average.)Watching baseball (Go Dbacks!), playing golf, hanging with my family.

7) Who in your life do you credit your imagination to the most? 

My parents I guess, because I feel like I was born with my creativity. It’s always been there, and it just cones naturally.

8) What are the top five things on your bucket list? 

Travel the world. Skydive. Be a grandma. Have one of my books made into a movie. Learn several foreign languages.

9) What is your funniest childhood memory? 

Probably perfecting the “elephant” dance. It’s my signature move. And don’t ask to see it, because that will never happen. :P 

10) To the youth of today, if you could tell them one thing, what would it be? 

Figure out who you are and then be true to yourself. 

11) What inspired you to write your newest novel, Cinder & Ella? 

I’ve always wanted to do a Cinderella adaptation. It’s my all-time favorite fairy tale. 

12) What part/scene of the book are you most proud of? 

That is so hard! I’m proud of the entire book, and different scenes for different reasons. 

13) How long on average did it take you to write Cinder & Ella?

The first draft took me five weeks. That’s crazy fast for a 98k word novel—though the first draft was a little shorter. Most of the time I average between 3-6 months. Some novels take me a lot longer. *cough* Jamie 3 *cough*

14) You have written a great deal of books. Of all of these works, which is your personal favourite? Why is it? 
 I don’t know how to answer that one either. I love them all differently for different reasons. If I had to narrow it down though, probably Cinder & Ella (because of my love for Cinderella) or Serial Hottie, because that one is a little off-the-wall quirky—just like me. It shows my warped sense of humor, and Ellie Westley is definitely the most like me of all my characters.