Author Interview - Colleen Young

Colleen is an author of contemporary new adult and women’s romance. She writes stories with strong characters who are doing their best and finding love along the way. When she’s not writing, you’ll find her hiking a mountain or enjoying a Manhattan while getting overly competitive in any board game. In a previous life, she was a pilot and pledged a fraternity, giving her upfront access to write the Taking Flight Trilogy. She lives in Florida with her three children & husband.

Genre: Contemporary New Adult & Women’s Fiction

Q&A

Q1: What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?

Our Heart, it’s actually a novelette but it’s my latest release. I was inspired by a prompt with my critique partners. It grew from there.

Q2: When you’re writing an emotional or difficult scene, how do you set the mood?

It doesn’t take much to get into the mood. My emotional scenes usually end up with me in tears.

Q3: What authors, or books have influenced you?

I’m obsessed with Penny Reid’s Winston Brothers series, I have no idea how she can create such complex characters and story arcs. Growing up I enjoyed R.L. Stein and then Tess Garrison.

Q4: When did you first realise you wanted to be a writer?

I’ve always had a passion for it but didn’t realize it was something I could do anything with, so I went a totally different route and became a pilot. I had my eureka moment in 2014 and started writing like a crazy woman.

Q5: What advice would you give to a writer working on their first book?

Finish it. Find a community of writers and see if a few of them can look it over and tell them to be brutally honest (because if they aren’t then the random troll on the internet is going to break your fragile heart into pieces). Then look at your work from a new lens and rewrite it again until even if it gets trolled you can still say to yourself, “Yep, but I still love it even if they didn’t”. At that time start to ask non-writers to read it, if they love it, you’re golden. But most importantly love it. Love every stinking moment of creating something from nothing.

Q6: What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

That the characters take on a personality of their own.

Q7: What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?

When my two-year-old dropped a cup of milk and said “oh sh*t!” Wait, is that not what you meant? Just kidding, when I was in elementary school and watched peers do things because someone talked them into it.

Q8: What was the first book that made you cry?

The Notebook or A Walk to Remember, I can’t remember but those were some of my first romantic reads and I bawled my eyes out.

Q9: What are you working on now?

BeMy Last, which is a stand-alone/follow-up to my 2018 book All’s Wright in Love & Lies and will be my 7th full-length novel.

Q10: What are you currently reading?

I just finished The Paper Palace and have mixed feelings about it… 

Connect with Colleen Young by following the social media links below, and keep reading to find out more about Our Heart.

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Our Heart: A Workplace Romance Novelette

Three years ago, Shelly met Grant.
Three years ago, Shelly fell in love with Grant.
But how does Grant feel about Shelly?
And if Grant finds out the truth about Shelly’s feelings, how will it affect their working relationship?

Three years ago, Grant met Shelly.
Three years ago, Grant fell in love with Shelly.
Will Grant finally get the courage to tell her how he feels?

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