Author Interview: Kristel S.Villar (Blast from Two Pasts)

Kristel Villar

                       

                          

                                                                                                               


We are lucky to have interviewed Ms. Kristel S. Villar, the newest #romanceclass author who has published her romance novella, Blast From Two Pasts.

Tell us about your younger self. When did you find out that you wanted to be a writer?

       As early as nine years old (or is it late?). I couldn't remember when exactly, but I remembered my first attempt at writing fiction when I was
 nine years old. I wrote a short story about a female gymnast whose arrogance got in the way of her sporting dreams. I got loose clean pages
 of a spiral notebook and wrote the story, accompanied it with drawings, then made a book cover with a short folder and stapled the pages to make it look like a book. It's one of my proudest moments.

 Do you remember some Eureka moments when you wanted to leave everything undone, go to your laptop and write something?

       Yes! While on my day job, most of the time. Haha! Ideas normally pop out unexpectedly, and whenever it does, all I wanted was to write it while it was still "fresh". I try to sneak up a few minutes so that I won't lose the idea, then go back to work.

 In what genre do you want to write more?

      Contemporary romance. Young adult. New Adult. I quickly grabbed the opportunity when Mina Esguerra hosted the #romanceclass. I wasn't writing anything fiction for years until I joined that class. It rekindled my passion for writing fiction. I've always been a fan of young adult. I grew up reading and writing love stories about high school. There's something about young love that gives me all the 'feels'. I'm trying to concentrate on writing love stories about characters my age (late 20s, early 30s). It's easier to weave situations or mold characters.

 Who are the writers who inspire you the most? What are your favorite books?

     Elizabeth Chandler was my idol way back in high school. I'd buy all her Love Stories books. I love how her female characters are created strong and independent, and not clingy and overly mushy. I vowed to dedicate a novella to her. I also love Meg Cabot. Like Chandler, her characters are also independent, witty and bubbly. I love her The Mediator series. I had a story plot similar to that series when I was in high school, but I didn't pursue writing it. Mitch Albom is also an idol. I'm inspired by the books he wrote. (Him being a sportswriter is a plus). Stephen King is a god. My husband is a big fan and he influenced me to read his works. I just love his story-telling. It's so polished. He's so good, I wanted to be like him. My favorite books are mostly about romance. Outside romance, it has to be Yangze Choo's The Ghost Bride, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert... I couldn't remember all of them, they're too many! Growing up, I love Sweet Valley, Love Stories, Encyclopedia Brown, Goosebumps, and anything written by Christopher Pike.

What and where is your dream place where you would sit and write to your heart’s content?

     The coffee shop! If I can just live in Starbucks and Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. I'm not picky. All I want is unlimited coffee and a nicely-lit corner (cushioned seat optional).

Tell us about your books and how you came about writing them.

      Blast From Two Pasts is my first contemporary romance novella. I wrote it for my #romanceclass. I was supposed to write about an arranged marriage trope, but Mina said tropes like arranged marriage are tough to write and make it realistic in the Philippine setting (because one, we don't have divorce, and two, there are tons of legal/paper requirements before a couple can get married). It took me a long time before I could come up with this new plot. Then it landed right on my lap. Everybody has puppy loves, has crushes when they were kids. What happens to those feelings after we grow up? And then, most people have exes. What happens when we look back? How do we handle it? Nothing was personal in this book except for the wedding preparations. I learned that from #romanceclass. It was totally Cara, Oliver and Lucas' stories. But I wanted to write about wedding preparations (having been recently married at that time), so I still injected it as a sub-plot (Ayen and Chad's story) My short story, The Rumor About Me, is part of Kids These Days: Stories About Luna East Arts Academy Vol. 1. Like every other plot I have, it just came out of nowhere. It's a young adult romance, set in high school, but it also tackled about social issues like bullying. My free published works on my Wattpad account are Carly's Dare and One-on-One, also a young adult romance connected to The Rumor About Me.

Do you have anything new in the drawer?

      Yes. A lot! Hahaha! But lately, I'm focused on finishing A Serendipitous Kiss. I plan on making it a short story, but with the way things are going with the outline, it could be a novelette or a novella.

What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

      Keep on writing and reading! And, taking it from a tweet that I read a long time ago: "It takes one negative comment to kill a dream. Remember that all the time."

     

How can readers discover more about you and you work?

Facebook: facebook.com/KristelSVillar

Twitter: @tellytabachoy Amazon: http://amzn.to/1gPyM8N

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/KristelSVillar

Wattpad: http://www.wattpad.com/user/KristelSVillar