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Name of Author: Kellyn Roth
Titles of Published Books: The Lady of the Vineyard
Genre: historical fiction

1. Tell a little bit about yourself.

I’m a young author from Eastern Oregon who spends her non-writing, non-schooling time blogging, practicing the clarinet (because, let me tell you, I need the practice!), playing soccer and basketball, hanging out with my amazing friends and family, and roaming over our 100 acres of rocks, weeds, and scrub oaks with my beautiful border collies and annoying cat. Whoa, major run-on sentence!

2. When did you know that you wanted to be an author?

I think I knew for sure when I was about twelve. I’d been writing little stories and poems since I was about seven, and I started writing longer works at ten. However, at twelve, I came up with the idea for a book ‘so good’ that I was sure the world would actually want to read it. Since then, I’ve realized that it really wasn’t such a good idea, but it got me started, and I’ve never really imagined a different career/major hobby for myself since.

3. Tell us a little bit about your books.

At the moment, I only have one published work, The Lady of the Vineyard. Originally, I had another, The Dressmaker’s Secret, but I decided to remove it and do a little editing before publishing it again this summer.

The Lady of the Vineyard is the story of Adele Collier, her ex-husband, Troy Kee, and their daughter, Judy. Adele is a selfish woman who routinely neglects her daughter. When Troy reappears in Adele and Judy’s lives after having never attempted to contact them save through the occasional Christmas card, Adele isn’t sure how to react. Judy, however, is immediately attracted to her charming, fun father. When Troy insists that Adele allow Judy to spend the summer with him in France, Adele must analyse her life and decide what’s really important to her – having a good time or taking care of her child.

4. We all need a hero! Tell us about your protagonist(s)? Was there a real-life inspiration behind him or her?

Adele is a happy-go-lucky, glamorous woman who loves having a good time on the town. She is selfish and egotistical, and often makes stupid decisions on the spur of the moment. She doesn’t sound exactly likable, I know, but, after all, this is the story of how she changes … or doesn’t … and how that affects those around her.

As far as real-life inspiration, I don’t think there really is one for her. She’s her own character. As such, it was hard to really empathize with her for the longest time, but after lots of character development, I finally got her down.

5. A good villain is hard to write. How did you get in touch with your inner villain(s) to write this book? Was there a real-life inspiration for him/her/it?

Hmm … that’s a hard question to answer as Adele is really the villain as well as the protagonist! As I said before, she’s not really inspired by anyone.

6. What was the hardest part of writing this book?

Understanding Adele. When I began the book, I hadn’t intended to write Adele as the protagonist. I’d intended to write her as the antagonist. However, she just became the good guy in my brain. After all, we live in a world where even the bad guys are humans (unless, you know, you live in a Marvel movie and they’re aliens or super intelligent computers), and I wanted to explore that. So I did.

7. What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

There’s a certain scene in the book where Adele discovers a letter from her ex-husband while rooting through some old stuff of hers. That was my favorite, first because it shows Adele’s erratic, emotional, messy personality so well, and second because I love writing dramatic letters. 😉

8. What real-life inspirations did you draw from for the worldbuilding within your book?

I used Pinterest a lot during the writing process, truth be told. I’ve never visited England or France. Everything I know about them comes through research … and reading books and watching movies with a similar setting. I’m a big fan of vintage movies, so those were, of course, a huge inspiration for the setting.

9. Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it?

I learned that even a “bad” person is human and therefore redeemable. I’d known this in my head before, but I think seeing that unfold through Adele (yes, I do realize I created her …) really helped cement it in my heart. Then it was wonderful to finally get around to writing about an era I adore. It was interesting to explore it through my own writing.

10. What are your future projects?

At the moment I’m working on a historical novel, The Dressmaker’s Secret, and its sequel, Ivy Introspective. Both TDS and IvIn (#acronymsareawesome) are scheduled to publish this summer, June 24th. You can find out more about them and my other works on my blog, https://kellynroth.wordpress.com/

11. What is your preferred method to have readers get in touch with or follow you (i.e., website, personal blog, Facebook page, here on Goodreads, etc.) and link(s)?

Website: http://kellynroth.weebly.com/
Blog: https://kellynroth.wordpress.com/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Kellyn-Roth/e/B01B0W0O7U…
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/krauthor/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14874133.Kellyn_Roth

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