Blog Tour: Frayed by Kara Terzis – Q&A and Giveaway!

frayed Frayed

Author: Kara Terzis

Publication Date: June 7th, 2016

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Synopsis: Dear Kesley,

My therapist tells me I should write you a letter. Like flushing all my thoughts and feelings out of my system and onto paper. I tell her it’s a stupid idea.

But here I am, writing a letter to a dead girl. Where do I start? Where did our story begin? From the moment you were born…or died?

I’ll start with the moment I found out the truth about you. Your lies and my pain. Because it always begins and ends with you.
And that end began when Rafe Lawrence came back to town…

Ava Hale will do anything to find her sister’s killer…although she’ll wish she hadn’t. Because the harder Ava looks, the more secrets she uncovers about Kesley, and the more she begins to think that the girl she called sister was a liar. A sneak. A stranger.

And Kesley’s murderer could be much closer than she thought…

A debut novel from Wattpad award-winner Kara Terzis, Frayed is a psychological whodunit that will keep you guessing!

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About the Author

Kara Terzis was twelve when she wrote her first novel, and hasn’t stopped writing since. Later she started publishing her work on Wattpad, where in 2013 she won the Sourcebooks Story Development Prize, leading to the publication of her debut novel,Frayed. She adores fairy tales, photography, rainy days, and film soundtracks. When she’s not writing, you can find her buried in a good book and daydreaming. She lives with her family in Sydney, Australia.

Her debut novel–FRAYED–will be out from Sourcebooks Fire on June 7th, 2016.

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Q&A with Kara Terzis

1. Can you tell us a little about yourself? Where did you grow up? What did you like to do when you were a child?
I’ve lived in Australia all my life, grew up in the same house, and for as long as I can remember, have loved books. My constant love of books, of course, made me want to become a writer—and then a published author—and I know both will probably be a passion I’ll hold for the rest of my life.

2. What helps you write?
Music! Definitely, definitely music. Most of the time I can’t write without it. What I listen to depends on what I’m writing (for example, when I wrote FRAYED I listened to artists like Agnes Obel and Sóley) and inspires so much of what I write. I love to put on my headphones and block out the world for a bit as I work. I find it helps me to become more involved in what I’m writing—and get into my character’s heads better. Music aside, I also find that being surrounded by books encourages me to write (which probably sounds weird, I know!)

3. How do you avoid distractions while writing?
Again, music! If I’m completely immersed in my writing, I don’t get distracted. When it comes to writing, distractions aren’t that much of an issue. (I DO get distracted, mainly by the internet…or other books.) For me, the hardest part is getting started. Once I’ve started, once I’m engrossed in my story completely, I’m fine, so as music is such an inspiration, it plays a big role in getting me motivated/inspired.

4. What is your favorite part of the writing process? The least favorite?
My favorite part of the writing process is the initial stage—there’s here’s something so exciting about an idea emerging into a whole novel. The least favorite is, without question, the self-doubt. It’s always part of the process, and you’ve got to believe in your novel wholeheartedly to get past it.

5. What inspired you to write “Frayed?”
I’ve always loved thrillers and murder mysteries. I never thought of writing one, though, until I started watching the show (and reading the books by Sara Shepard) Pretty Little Liars. I absolutely loved how twisty it was and how each character had their own secrets (no character was initially what they seemed), their own motivations, and how everything had gotten so messed up. So that definitely inspired a lot of how Frayed is today.

6. Did you have the book carefully outlined and stick to that while writing, or did you find yourself creating plot twists as you went?
I wrote Frayed during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month—where you write 50k in 30 days, if you’re not familiar with it) and at the time, I hadn’t done much planning. So I definitely created twists as I went along. Before I wrote the story, though, I had the bare bones of it: of a girl searching for her sister’s killer, and finding out she wasn’t the perfect sister she thought she was. The novel changed a lot from that first draft to the published version, but even as the book it is now, that still remains the core of the story.

7. What do you like to do when you aren’t writing?
I’m going to be completely cliché here and say read. The more I read, the happier I am. Right now I have two bookshelves (with a third on its way) that are filled with books. Some read, some read and reread over and over again, and others I’ve yet to crack open. (A lot. So many books, so little time…) Other than books, I love photography, video games, watching TV/film, and listening to music—especially film scores and quite a lot of classical (Stravinsky’s Firebird, Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, Korsakov’s Scheherazade to name a few.)

8. What are some of your favorite books?
For me, I can’t answer this question without mentioning JK Rowling’s Harry Potter. I quite literally grew up with those books, so they’ll always hold a special place in my heart. I absolutely adore J. R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings series (including The Silmarillion) as for me, they are the pinnacle of epic fantasy. It might be hard for some to get past Tolkien’s intricately descriptive writing style, but the lovely worldbuilding and heroic characters underneath are worth it. While I’m talking about fantasy, I have to mention George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones series—the closest series I’ve come to of Tolkien’s standard in fantasy.