First Author Interview is...

Kellie McAllen

Author of Soulmate, a YA paranormal romance. It is Book 1 in The Soulmate Series.

I decided to ask Kellie for an interview because Soulmate was a book which really took me by surprise. The plot was completely unique, and the writing was impeccable. Kellie took a very difficult concept to write (to me at least), and effortlessly presented it in an enjoyable read. See my review of Soulmate on Goodreads.

Interview:

Please Introduce Yourself.

• Hi, I’m Kellie and I write YA paranormal romance novels.  I’m also a wife, a mother, and I work full-time as an optician.  I love reading, watching dancing shows, baking cupcakes, and obsessively decorating and redecorating my home in North Carolina.

When did you decide to become a writer?

• I have always enjoyed writing.  Back in school I had several teachers encourage me and I wrote my first novel at age 17.  I got busy with life after that and didn’t write much until I started a food blog a few years ago.  In 2014 I got an idea for a book that I just couldn’t stop thinking about, so I decided I had to write it.  That book was SOULMATE, the first novel I released to the big wide world.

What inspired you to write Soulmate?

• The plot for SOULMATE came to me in a dream one night.  I’m not one of those people who normally look for deep meanings in my dreams (way too much weird stuff going on in them!) but this story was just there one night, begging for my attention.  I got up the next day and started writing.
  

What do you think is the best and most distinguishing aspect of your novel? (If more than one, please specify which you are discussing.)

• The most distinguishing part of my novel is the unique story idea.  In SOULMATE, a teen girl is born sharing her body with another soul.  I had never heard any story like that before. Most paranormal romance is all vampire or werewolves - none of that here.  Another unique feature is that the supernatural element is not fully explained until book 3 in the series, so there’s a mystery the reader is trying to figure out as well.

Who is the character you most relate to in your novel? How so?

• I really love the character Rider, who is the soul that shares Rachel’s body.  He’s snarky and goofy but he’s got a great heart.  I see a lot of myself in him.
  

Is there a well-known novel you would compare yours to?

• When I was querying publishers I likened my novel to Stephenie Meyer’s The Host because of the body-sharing element, but the two stories are not really that similar.  Soulmate is really very different than anything else I’ve ever read.
  

Feedback from readers is what we all strive to obtain. Will you share one of your best pieces of feedback from a reader? It can be negative or positive.

• My favorite feedback was the response from my first beta reader who read the whole book in a couple hours and emailed me immediately with effusive praise.  That validated everything I had hoped my book could be.  Of course, I’ve also gotten some terrible reviews since then, too, so those help keep my ego in check! 
  

How do you market/promote your novel? Have you found one technique which seems to be most successful?

• Ack, marketing!  Here I thought I could write a great book and people would just buy it!  How naive of me.  I do all kinds of things to try to get more exposure.  I have author accounts on Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, Goodreads and Facebook and I try to post interesting content and interact with fans there.  I have given away hundreds of copies of my first book during promos to try to build a fan base.  I have run a few mildly successful ad campaigns on Twitter and Facebook, and I am thinking of making a few tweaks to those and trying them again.  I am also trying to build a mailing list of readers that I can market future books to.  I haven’t found the magic trick that rakes in the sales, but I’m certainly trying everything I can think of!
  

Have you ever received a negative review or comment from a reader? If so, what was your reaction?

• One reviewer got very offended by some ethic vernacular one of my characters used.  It surprised me and kind of upset me because I certainly didn’t mean any offense.  I didn't think what I had written was inappropriate, but I had to take the reader’s opinion into consideration.  I learned that it doesn’t really matter what I think, it’s what the reader thinks that’s important.
  

What’s next for you? Do you have a project in the works?

• I just recently released SOULSEARCH, the second book in The Soulmate Series, and I am about 20% of the way through LOST SOUL, which is the third book in the trilogy.  I say trilogy now, but I have a feeling I might expand this world a little more, maybe in a spin-off series.  I love these characters too much to let them go yet.
  

Just a fun and optional question:
Think of an epic scene in your novel. It can be an action sequence, romantic scene, sad moment, whatever! When you think about this particular scene, can you think of a song that would be amazing as background music? For example, Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On in the ending scene of Titanic.

• I LOVE music, and I play it 24/7 - EXCEPT when I’m writing - too distracting!  Surprisingly, I don’t normally associate songs with each scene, but there are several scenes where I actually mention the song the characters are listening to.  I’m a big Taylor Swift fan, so I had to have her song “Shake It Off” playing at Rachel’s birthday party during a goofy dance-off.  During another party scene, the cool kids are dancing to Maroon 5’s “Animals” because that’s the song that was constantly on the radio when I was writing that part of the book.  My husband loves ’80’s music, so when Rachel goes to a concert in the park, the band plays all his favorite hair band songs and Rachel’s boyfriend croons the lyrics in her ear.

Thanks for taking the time for this interview, Kellie! It was great! - Sam


Check out Kellie McAllen on any of her sites below!

www.kelliemcallen.com

www.facebook.com/kelliemcallen

amazon.com/author/kelliemcallen

www.goodreads.com/KellieMcAllen

www.reddit.com/user/KellieMcAllen

instagram.com/kellie_mcallen

www.tumblr.com/blog/kelliemcallen

twitter.com/KellieMcAllen

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCQwMLOSVM649xuwUUJmvoA

Most people search for decades to find their soulmate; Rachel Masterson was born with hers.

Sharing her body with another soul has had its ups and downs for 15 year old Rachel, but there’s no one she’d rather share her life with than her soulmate, Rider. Fiercely devoted to him, Rachel has ostracized herself from most of her peers and gained a reputation as someone just a little too far gone on the wrong side of crazy. Her family’s sudden move, however, gives her a chance at a fresh new life, without the stigma of her “imaginary friend.” Hit with the triple-whammy stress of trying to make new friends (and her first boyfriend) in a new school, in a new town, far away from the only other person who has ever understood her, Rachel’s relationship with Rider is strained by the choices that she makes, choices that ultimately lead to their separation. When a tragic accident tears them apart, can Rachel learn to live and love again?