YA AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Kristy Fairlamb, Australian Young Adult Author.

Welcome to another YA Author Interview for 2019!


I am so pleased to be hosting the absolutely lovely Kristy Fairlamb today on my blog for an interview.

Kristy is a friend of mine and her debut young adult novel, Lucid, a supernatural thriller / romance, is out in April 2019!

​If you like impossible choices, supernatural dreams and terrifying curses, definitely check out this wonderful book!

​READ ON for the interview:

KRISTY FAIRLAMB Interview:
Questions asked by Poppy Nwosu.


Kristy Fairlamb is a #LoveOzYA debut author, and her supernatural romance / thriller novel, Lucid, is out in April 2019. I thought this was such a wonderful story about a girl with a curse (or is it a gift?) set in the Australian mountains. I loved the conflicts, as well as the themes of sacrifice running throughout the narrative, as Luce slowly realises she may be able to battle the nightmares in her head in an unexpected way. Also, there is loads of romance! Yay!

• I’d love to know a little more about your writing journey up until this point, and what drew you particularly to the story of Lucid?

I know it sounds crazy, but I pretty much sat down one day and began writing a novel. I’d always said I wanted to write a book, so when some things changed in my life and I found myself with the opportunity to try something new, I just did it. I had no idea what I was doing, but there’s only one way to learn how to write a novel – write a novel.


My daughter and I used to spend the morning talking about the weird, fun and scary dreams we’d had…still do actually. I wondered what it would be like if those dreams were more than just dreams, and what it might be like for someone living with horrendous nightmares night after night.
I’ve had a few close brushes with death in my life; a car accident that could’ve been way more serious had I been one metre further along the road, and an evening walk on a near deserted bridge when a car crashed into the railing inches from me and would’ve pushed me onto the train tracks below if it ploughed into me. Each of these moments left me imagining all sorts of things as I asked myself ‘what if…’
When I sat down to plan out my novel, it was these questions that spiralled together, and one thing led to another until eventually LUCID was born.

• I really loved the supernatural elements that surround Lucy’s dreams, but my absolute favourite part of your novel was the final conflict. I definitely don’t want to give any spoilers away, but I just loved the way you have set up the sequel to Lucid. Did you have everything planned out before you started writing and know where you wanted to finish this book, or did you work it out as you went along?

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I’m so glad you liked the ending. It’s one of my favourite parts too.
The ending was actually one of the first parts of the plot I knew before I started. It did change a little bit from what I originally had in my head, but that’s the fun of writing. Things evolve and characters change during the writing process, but the general idea remained the same. It was always going to end like that, it couldn’t have worked any other way.

• I was also a fan of your choice of setting for this novel! I read a lot of Australian books, but really none (that I can think of) set in the snow fields in Australia. Why did you choose this small town setting for Lucid?

When my husband and I were younger we lived in the New South Wales snow fields. I absolutely loved the little tourist town at the bottom of the mountains that we lived in for two seasons. Antil Springs is a made-up town, but it’s set in the same part of Australia and based on what I remember of our time there.
We used to snowboard when we weren’t working. I remember one day while we were out on the snow, watching a group of teenagers laughing and mucking about as if they knew the place well. They looked more like locals than tourists. And how cool, to get to go out snowboarding with your mates on the weekend. I thought about those kids in the years to come, I always wanted to write about them. So naturally when I sat down to write Lucid,
those kids finally got their debut. If you were a teenager snowboarding at Perisher in the early 2000s, thanks for being the inspiration for Lucy, Cal, Amber, Max & Sean!
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• What does author success look like for you? (I like this question because I think it can be really different from person to person!)

When I first started writing it was just for my daughter. She was only twelve at the time and I thought it’d be a great idea to write a novel for her. Then I realised how much I wanted it to be good, until I got to the point where I looked at publishing it. I went on to write the sequel and I pitched to publishers, and my driving force changed from wanting something to give to my daughter, to something I wanted for myself. Every time I doubt myself or begin to compare myself to others, I remind myself what I first set out to do. To write a book. I’ve already achieved more than that, so everything else is a bonus. I’d say that’s a success.

• What is the most recent book that made you cry?

Oooh, good question. I love books that make you cry! I’ve only had a few in my life that left me sobbing and shaking the bed. And now that you ask me that question, I realise it’s been a while. I had to go and look at my Goodreads ‘read’ list to figure this one out. It was October last year and I was reading in the car on a road trip. So not really the ideal location to have a big sob, but I do remember the tears. It was Moonrise by Sarah Crossan. It’s a novel by verse and was probably one of the most beautiful, although heart wrenching, novels I’ve read. It was about a boy whose older brother was on his last days of death row. There’s something about novels written in verse, a whole story written so beautifully in poetry form, that leaves me in awe. I know I couldn’t do it. And this one had me shedding a few tears too.

• If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

It gets easier. It also gets harder, but everything you’re struggling with right now; the lack of confidence, the doubt, even knowing how to write, will get easier.

• What is next for you and what can we look forward to? Lucid is the first in a duology, is that right?

​Yeah, that’s right. The sequel, Luminous, will be out early next year (I think). The date is still undecided, it’s possible that it could be later this year, but we’ll see. I’m currently working on edits, trying to make it the best it can be.
In Lucid, Lucy has to make some big choices, and with choices come consequences. So in Luminous we see Lucy coming to terms with the small, and the life altering, impact her decisions have had on her and the people around her.
I can’t wait to share the rest of the story with you.
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Thanks so much for your time and answers Kristy! :)

Kristy Fairlamb is an Australian author of young adult novels.

She spends her days drinking coffee and torturing her characters with loads of tension – both love related and the nail biting kind.

Long before her days of writing began she spent half her childhood in a make believe world; daydreaming about growing up, falling in love, and travelling the world.

She’s worked as a nanny in country England, a junior matron in a boy’s boarding school south of London, a governess in East Timor, and made coffees and cleared tables in the New South Wales snow fields.
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She lives with her husband, teenage daughter, and two sons in the beautiful Adelaide Hills where they’re lucky enough to get occasional visits from the local koalas.
When she’s not writing or daydreaming about her stories you’ll find her reading, cooking for her family, or doing anything to avoid the housework.

CONNECT WITH KRISTY:

• Goodreads
• Amazon
• Instagram
• Website

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