Won’t You Be My Neighbor—Kyra Lennon

How is everybody this morning? Great I hope. I have a real treat for you. The lovely and talented Kyra Lennon is right in the thick of the blog tour for her book Game On and she consented to let me interview her. Yay for me!

 

Angie: Kyra, I'm so excited to have you. Are you ready for all my weird questions?

Kyra: It is quite an honor to be interviewed by you, you were one of my first blog idols, LOL! I'm ready for the questions! :D

Angie: Thanks Kyra. I'm totally flattered :)

I think that most people know this, but just in case they don't, you live "across the pond" in Great Britain (which I'm super jealous about by the way :). That leads into my first question...What is one thing that Americans believe about England or the English people that isn't true?

Kyra: Well, you have to come and visit so I can show you the best of the English countryside! :D 

This is a great question! There are many myths about English people, but one of my favourites is that all English people speak with a very crisp accent. There are many accents all over the country. Where I live, people talk like Hagrid from Harry Potter! ;)

Angie: That sounds like tons of fun. I love Hagrid's accent :) When my boys were little I would read Harry Potter to them and I would try to do the accents. I thought I was pretty good until my son said, "Why does Hagrid sound like a cowboy?" Yep I suck at the English accent :) Can you pull off an American one?

Kyra: LOL! The accents are pretty hard to master for English people, it must be even harder with an American accent! And no, I'm not so good with accents. I feel like I can pull off an American one, but when it comes out of my mouth it sounds ... weird. Definitely more practice needed in that area!

Angie: In one of my favorite books there is a character that tries to do an English accent, by adding "cherrio" and "pip pop" after everything she says. I think I'll try that :)

How about a fun personal question. What's something people don't know about you that they should? Pip-pop :)

Kyra: Pip-pop? Really? LOL! Cheerio is a good one, though. A couple of years ago I had a friend from Romania staying with me and he found it hilarious when I said, "Jolly good." :D 

Hmm ...I think people should know that I have quite an addictive personality - in a good way, I think! It started when I was a kid. One of my best friends and I went through phases of movies, games etc. We watched Grease, Grease 2 and Chorusline pretty much on repeat and I still know them word for word! Even now, if I like something, I will immerse myself in it. I don't have time to watch movies over and over now. My obsessions come in the form of foods, music and TV shows these days.

Angie: Grease 2? Really? I'd say "jolly good" but you know...it's Grease 2. I'm just teasing. I know how you feel. I have a bit of an obsessive personality too. But let’s call is passion instead of obsession :) Jolly good!

Kyra: Grease 2 isn't as bad as people say! I actually prefer many of the songs. "I need a cool rider, if he's cool enough, he can burn me through and through!"  Hee hee! But yes, passion is definitely a less scary word than obsession. *nods*

Angie: I'll concede some of music is good :)

I want to ask you about your book Game On. This story is a really fun read. I would laugh as I read it and my kids would ask what the story was about I said, "soccer and kissing". So my question...Are you a "football" fan? How did you know enough about it to write your story?

Kyra: It's so nice to hear that you found it funny! 

Yeah, I do like football a lot. I used to be more of a fan than I am now (it was another of my "passions" :p ), so I used what I already knew, then did some additional research about how things work behind the scenes. I had a blast learning about some of the lavish things some teams have at their training grounds! The things I didn't know were really interesting to me and while I couldn't apply everything I learned to the story, a lot of it will be useful for future books in the series.

Angie: I admire authors that do lots of research for their books. I've yet to do that, but I'm toying with the idea. Cherrio :)

I'll try not to spoil anything, but I have a question about Radleigh :) The bad boy character has been done in so many books. I loved the twist you gave the relationship between Leah and Radleigh. How did you make Radleigh not the typical bad boy?

Kyra: That is the best compliment ever! I'm pleased Radleigh isn't the typical bad boy, because as you said, it has been done many times. I guess I tried to make him real by knowing why he behaves the way he does. Although the reader doesn't know - and won't for a while - for me to have it in my mind while I wrote him made it easier to correctly form his personality. He's pretty complicated, in some ways even more so than Leah, but that just made him all the more interesting to write!

Angie: Again I don't want to give things away, but I loved how this wasn't a Beauty and The Beast story. He wasn't magically changed by love. As a reader I really appreciated his complications. How long did it take you to flush out his character?

Kyra: his might sound weird, but I didn't feel like there was much work to do on him. I was very aware that the "changing for love" concept might sneak in but that's not the story I wanted to tell. I just felt like I knew Radleigh McCoy so forming his personality was quite simple. I had to make small tweaks here and there, but for the most part, he just flowed out of my brain and onto the page the way I intended.

Angie: I have a few characters that have written themselves. I love when that happens :)

Alright its time for the pageant question (do they even have beauty pageants in England?). I've got a good hard one for you but I'm pretty sure you can handle it. Jolly good :) If you could go back in time what is one decision you would change and why?

Kyra: I'm pretty sure there are beauty pageants here but they aren't as big as they are in the U.S! 

I tend not to dwell on decisions I made in the past because they brought me to where I am, and made me who I am, but I guess one thing I wish I hadn't done was choose to quit college. I studied Performing Arts for a year which I absolutely loved, but I was painfully self-conscious. So much so that I convinced myself that I just wasn't good enough. But aside from that, no regrets!

Angie:  I try and learn from my mistakes too, so I can turn regrets into lessons. Performing Arts! That is pretty cool. Now you just get to tell stories through a different medium. Do you find that PA and writing are at all alike?

Kyra: Yes, they are quite similar. I think writing can make you feel quite exposed sometimes, because even though you aren't writing about yourself and your own life, parts of you will always show through. With Performing Arts, singing and dancing can make you feel very exposed because you are really putting yourself out there for other people's judgment. And acting and writing are very similar. In both cases you sort of become someone else for a while.

Angie: Very true :)

I think we have time for one last question. I know this is like picking between children, but...What is your favorite part of Game On?

Kyra: Hee hee, my favorite parts are the ones which are most spoilery! But I do love every interaction Leah has with Jesse Shaw. Their friendship was very natural, and by the end of the story it's really strong. There is a particular scene between Leah and Jesse after a huge reveal that I am very fond of, though. But that's all I can say without giving things away!

Angie: That will have to do then :) Thanks so much for stopping by. I'm so excited for people to read your book. Can you leave us with something awesomely English?

Kyra: Something awesomely English? I was very tempted to link to a photo of David Beckham, but instead, I will leave you with a phrase to translate! 

Cheers for this blinding interview, Angie! If you fancy having a butchers at my new book, it only costs a couple of quid on Amazon! 

How was that? LOL!

Angie: That was brilliant!!! I think I got everything but "butchers" :)

Kyra: LOL, to "have a butchers" means "to have a look". It comes from the Cockney rhyming slang, "butcher's hook." - Cockney rhyming slang is very odd! 

Thank you very much, this was a really fun afternoon! <3

Angie: I love it :) And it was a pleasure.

Game On is such a fun read here is a little more info on Kyra and her new book.

Game On Synopsis

After swapping her small town life to work for one of the top soccer teams in the U.S, Leah Walker thought she could finally leave the ghosts of her past behind. However, when she meets serial womanizer, Radleigh McCoy, the memories of her old life come swarming back, and she is forced to ask herself whether she has really changed at all. 

Buying links:

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