Interview with Krysten Lindsay Hager

About the Author

Krysten Lindsay Hager writes about friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, frenemies, crushes, fame, first loves, and values. She is the author of True Colors, Best Friends...Forever?, Next Door to a Star, Landry in Like, and Competing with the Star (The Star Series: Book 2). Her work has been featured in USA Today, The Flint Journal, the Grand Haven Tribune, the Bellbrook Times, and on Living Dayton.

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The Interview

1. How did you get started as an author?  What or whom inspired you?
I’ve been writing stories when I was a kid and began attending writing conferences in college. I was particularly inspired by some of my favorite young adult and middle grade writers like: Judy Blume and Ann M. Martin.
 
2. How many novels have you written and in what genres?
I have published five so far: True Colors, Best Friends…Forever?, Landry in Like, Next Door to a Star, and Competing with the Star. I write for several genres: young adult, middle grade, new adult, and women’s fiction.
 
3. How do you choose the names for the characters in your stories?
Landry was the name of one of my mom’s students and she thought it was cute. What’s funny was she told me Landry’s best friend was named Krysten. The last name, Albright, was because of Madeline Albright and the middle name, Lilyanne, is a combo of my grandma’s name (Lillian) and my mother’s middle name (Anne). Some of the names came from looking at the baby announcements in the Flint Journal newspaper like India, Ashanti, Devon and I picked the name Peyton because it is a friend’s daughter’s name. I also hold contests where I use names of winners or their kids in the stories. You can find me putting in family names and friend names as brands, stores, or restaurants.
 
4. What is your current WIP (Work in Progress)?
I’m working on the 4th book in the Landry’s True Colors Series as well as a YA novel called, Dating the It Boy about a girl dating a senator’s very popular son.
 
5. If you could choose someone famous to star in one of your books made to a movie, who would you choose and for which character? (Possibly share a link to an image of this famous star).
If any of the Landry’s True Colors Series books was made into a movie then I would want Ross Lynch to play Vladi Yagudin. China Anne McClain could play Ashanti, I picture Victoria Justice as Yasmin McCarty, Ciara Bravo as Thalia, and I go back and forth on who I’d have play Landry.
 
6. What inspired the idea for True Colors?
The idea came back when I was in the 6th grade and wanted to write a book about a group of best friends. However, when I got older I realized the story would be more interesting if one of the friends (Landry) also felt like she was on the outside looking in and questioning if she had to conform to be in the group versus being herself. I think a lot of us go through that in our teen years.
 
7. What other hobbies do you enjoy when you are not writing?
I love to read, explore new areas, watch movies and documentaries, and go shopping! I can spend hours wandering in a bookstore, too.