Fake (30 page)
Authors: Beck Nicholas
Some songs remind me of specific scenes:
I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas would have been blasting out of Chay's stereo the night of the dance.
Apologize by Timbaland featuring OneRepublic would be playing in the terrible moment when all the lies catch up with Kath and she loses everything.
Feel So Close by Calvin Harris and Love is Easy by McFly could soundtrack the end when they meet on the stands.
Tell us a little about yourself and how you became a writer.
I can't remember a time where I didn't write. I've studied a few different things and worked at different jobs but I have always written in my spare time or while I should have been doing something else. It was a bet with a friend that led me to finish my first novel and once I knew I could write a whole book, it made sense for me to write the kind of story I love to read.
Tell us about your experience writing this book. For instance, how long did it take? What was the inspiration behind it?
Fake didn't take me long to write, maybe three months. I was inspired by a simple warning on a writing loop I'm on where someone wasn't who they appeared to be online. It made me wonder how easily I could create someone and why I would do such a thing. That's where poor, dumped Kath came in â she wanted revenge.
Kath has one of the most humiliating boy-related experiences ever at the beginning of Fake â have you ever had anything like this happen to you?
While nothing quite like what happens to Kath happened to me I do remember the time Mum called my second-ever boyfriend by my ex's name. She followed up with âIf you didn't change boyfriends all the time it wouldn't be a problem.' I was so embarrassed.
Have you had any negative experiences on social media yourself?
So far, I have been pretty lucky with my social media experiences. I met someone who is now one of my closest friends online. We didn't meet in person for years thanks to living several hours plane ride apart.
However, people close to me have had some terrible experiences and in one case it involved a picture posted by someone she thought she could trust. An innocent pose with a hidden message can be twisted terribly. Once that is out there it can be very damaging, and there are fears it could follow her forever.
But then, crossing the road can be dangerous too if we don't look and think and be safe. Social media can open up the world and I've been able to connect with wonderful people online. However I try to be careful at the same time because not everyone is always who they seem.
Are there any parts of the story you feel particularly close to?
My mum was a hairdresser who worked in a small salon off the side of the house. I would come home from school to Mum discussing me or one of my sisters with various old ladies who were her regular clients. They were lovely but the things Mum and I thought should have stayed private weren't always the same. I remember checking Mum's appointment book rather than asking her when she'd be free.
Like Kath, decision making is something I struggle with. I can always see good and bad to every path and agonise over which to take. It leads to some sleepless nights.
What made you decide to write for young adults? Why Fake?
I didn't decide to write Fake, rather Kath appeared and she wanted to tell me her story. While her story fit in with the contemporary YA romances I love to read, it was different because of Kath. The idea of a lie taking on a life of its own isn't so unusual but this lie became a person and the consequences put everything Kath cared for at risk.
How would you introduce Kath to readers?
Kath is both ordinary and special, like all of us, I think. She's indecisive and loyal and loves to find the story in everything from an antique rug to a pair of secondhand boots. She's not perfect and might be about to make the biggest mistake of her life.
What do you hope readers take away with them after reading Fake?
I hope they sigh for the romance. I hope they think about their online life and how easily it can be manipulated. Also, I hope they remember that even the best of us make mistakes but we can learn from them.
Were there any parts of Fake that were particularly hard to write?
Fake has painfully embarrassing moments, sad moments, angry moments, sighromance and happy laughter and it stretched me emotionally to live it with Kath. The villain â Lana â gave me some trouble. She deserved her comeuppance but as Kath and I got to know her more we discovered even the meanest of mean girls can have their problems.
In my experience there is no such thing as someone who is nothing else but mean. I wanted Lana to have her reasons for her actions. She sees Kath as having this perfect existence in every way that matters to her. I hoped the reader (and Kath) would grow to have some sympathy for this girl who seems so shallow at the beginning but really her hopes and wants and insecurities aren't so different from Kath's. Sebastian loves her so she must have something going for her.
Can you tell us a bit about you and your writing? Do you have any writing quirks or rituals?
When I write I see the scenes playing out like a movie in my head. They usually come to me in order but I can often âsee' the end before I start. I like to plan a little but leave my characters free to take action and the deal with the consequences. I like to write in sprints, interspersed with thinking time (and hopefully not too much internet procrastination).
You've mentioned you often write while seeing the book as scenes from a movie â who would you pick to star in the movie of Fake?
This is a question that lost me many hours in the rabbit-hole of Pinterest playing with different possible casts. I find it's not so much the people (Victoria Justice and Ian Somerhalder) to be Kath and Sebastian but particular pictures. They needed to be fairly casual shots, no heavy poses or make-up. It was a particular expression in the pictures I chose which said Kath and Sebastian to me.
Kath loves Choose-Days with her mother. What's your best-ever op shop or second-hand purchase?
I would have loved Choose-Days too. Op shops were a life-saver when I was at uni. It's hard to choose my best ever purchase but it would probably be from a wonderfully eclectic store I visited in Manchester when I was travelling. I treasure the old-fashioned black woollen coat that kept me warm in an English winter.
What did you enjoy most about writing Fake?
I loved everything about it, but mostly spending time with the characters. By the end I felt like Kath was a friend and I had more than a bit of a crush on Sebastian.
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ISBN: 9781488742712
TITLE: Fake
First Australian Publication 2014
Copyright © 2014 by Beck Nicholas
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilisation of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the permission of the publisher, Harlequin Mills & Boon
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