Interview with Nyrae Dawn

I'm thrilled to have the wonderfully talented Nyrae Dawn on my blog today!  This woman is prolific!  This book, Freeing Carter, is the third she's published this year!  And what a great book it is too.  Get yourself a copy as soon as you can.

Hi Nyrae, and welcome to Fiction and Film.

Thank you so much for having me!

Let's talk about Freeing Carter. It's the third book I've read of yours where you've written from a male POV (and very well, I might add). As a girl, what's the appeal of writing boys?

I think we all want to try to figure out what's going on in a guy's head. It's fun. Plus, I think it's a little different. It's fun to experience things from the other side of the tracks. 

Were you a tomboy at school? Did you hang out more with boys than girls?

I wouldn't say I was a real tomboy, but I definitely had more guy friends than girls. I was that girl who was the "friend" so I heard and saw a lot where my guy friends were concerned. LOL.

Kira is a really interesting character, the way she changes her look on an almost daily basis. Is she experimenting with personas? Trying to find the one that feels right? I think most teenagers could identify with that.

I think so. Like Carter, she's trying to figure out who she is and that's part of it. It also fits her though. She's that wild, carefree kind of girl.

Carter's problems in this book are much bigger than a lot of the problems facing teens in YA novels. What drew you to write about these things?

That is a hard question for me. I think a lot more teens are dealing with this kind of situation than we realize. I also feel like most books dealing with alcoholism, the alcoholic is always the "villain". They're abusive, physically or verbally. Don't hold down jobs or are mean. I wanted to show that it can be anyone. There are functioning alcoholics out there who by be good parents who love their kids, but they still have a problem. That you never know what is going on someone's life.

Friendship seems to be an ongoing theme in your books and all your characters have amazing friends supporting them. Is friendship something very important to you?

YES! I feel like in SO many YA books there are not strong friendships. The characters are loners, picked on, or spend time with people who aren't true friends. I want to show the other side of that. I had some amazing friendships in high school. I don't know what I would have done without them. Now, I know it's not always like that and my upcoming book the main character doesn't have good friends, but I like to show both. I really love writing strong friendships. 

And finally, I couldn't let you visit my blog without asking what your favorite film of all time is.

I don't know if I can say for sure. I'm an romance addict and do love movies like Titanic. LOL. But I also really enjoy old gangster movies like Goodfellas and Casino.

Thanks so much for taking the time to visit!

Thank you so much for having me! It was fun.

If you haven't already, check out Nyrae's other books, What a Boy Wants and What a Boy Needs.  I promise you won't regret it!