Interview with Hannah Currie and a Giveaway!

Welcome to Readers Write to Know! I asked you, my readers, what questions they would ask their favorite authors if given the chance, and the authors visiting my blog answered them! This week, I’m so excited to have Hannah Currie as my guest. I LOVE the ideas of YA Princess books. Some of my favorite movies as my daughter was growing up involved teen girls, princes, and princesses (and not the Disney kind). Plus, she likes chai lattes, which I love only second to coffee. I hope you enjoy her interview as much as I did! Read on to see how you can enter to win a copy of her latest release!

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Hi everyone! I’m Hannah Currie and I write Young Adult Contemporary Christian Romance books with royal characters—aka YA Princess books, which is way easier to say. My dream as a writer is to make people laugh, cry, and maybe even swoon a little, but mostly to remind them that no matter how dark life may get, there is always hope.

I live with my husband and three young kids in beautiful Queensland, Australia, where I spend most of my days trying to keep up with (and clean up after) said husband and kids. I love reading, time with family, chai lattes, rainy days, lanterns, music and pretending I have some control over my life. I hate coffee. Please don’t hate me for it.

Tell us about your current release. Heart of the Crown is the third and final book in my Daughters of Peverell series. It tells the story of Lady Wenderley who, after swearing off princes forever, finds herself living in a palace with two of them. Temporarily. Against her better judgement. But, she’s never been one to hide her heart, nor hold back help from anyone who needs it. And these two really need help.

Two weeks stretch to more as Wenderley throws all she has into showing the princes and their family how to smile again, and finds herself becoming quite attached to them all. Which is a problem, because—as the man she’d rather forget keeps reminding her—the one thing she can’t do is stay.

You can read the first two chapters at

whitefire-publishing.com/read/heart-of-the-crown/

What is your preferred method of writing? (computer, pen & paper, etc.) I swap back and forth between writing by hand in notebooks and typing on my laptop. I’m a LOT faster typing than I am writing by hand so end up doing most of it on my laptop, but I’ve always loved the feel of pen and paper (yes, I’m one of those stationary-nerds who has more notebooks than I could ever use, and somehow still keeps buying more), and the change from a cursor blinking at me to a smooth lined notebook and pretty-colored pen can be really inspiring. It feels more like journaling and less like work.

How do you push past the fear of your writing being average and be bold enough to sell it to a publisher (or agent or audience if you self publish)? “Say yes now, freak out later.”

It’s become my catchphrase as an author.  I made a decision as a young teen, long before I even considered publishing a book, that I wasn’t going to let fear be the reason I didn’t try things. So, despite being utterly terrified of what publishers would think of me and my writing, I got my manuscript to the best I could possibly make it and started sending out proposals. (And then sat there after sending each one, too terrified to open my email in case they’d replied. Ha!)

I kept track of each proposal I sent and each rejection I received and was actually really encouraged by them, rather than discouraged, because every one of them was proof I’d been brave enough to try. They’re my badges of honor. So really, just do it. Even if you’re terrified.

What is your personal, most effective way to get past writer’s block? Write what you know.

I know that phrase usually relates to what you write, rather than how, but it’s always helped me with writer’s block. When I get stuck on a scene or just totally blocked (and have to keep writing because of a deadline or something), I’ll skip to ‘what I know’ – ie what else do I know about this story? What scenes haven’t I written yet where I know what’s going to happen?

The other thing that works for me is to just write dialogue for a bit, and leave all the descriptions/tags/everything else for later. Once I’ve got the dialogue on the page, it’s a lot easier to fill in the gaps with everything else.

Alternately, if I don’t have a deadline and can afford to stop writing, I’ll go read a book. I’m amazed at the amount of times reading has inspired my own writing. Even if it’s a completely different genre.

Do you have your plotline and character development already laid out before you begin writing a book, or do they develop as you write? Both, actually!

Before I start writing a book, I have a basic outline of all the main points/scenes, a pretty clear picture in my head of who the main character and their love interest are, and what kind of transformation the main character will go through. So really, about as much detail as you’d get in a long blurb, plus the ending. Enough to get me headed in the right direction and hit all the highlights (or lowlights, as they may be) but not much more than that. The rest of the details—scenes, most of the side characters, backstory, dialogue, etc—come while I’m actually writing.

Which of your characters most reflects your personality? All three of my main characters – Kenna, Alina and Wenderley – reflect my personality in some way. Kenna got my doubts, Alina got my anxiety and feeling like a fraud (and the way she talks to herself), but Wenderley is most like me as a person. She got my love of jeans and Converse shoes, dislike of heels, my creativity, heart for teens and the broken, and my struggle to accept grace. She’s not all me, but she’s definitely the most like me.

Where’s the strangest place you’ve ever had a great writing idea? Many of my best writing ideas (and/or plot breakthroughs) come while brushing my teeth! I know, weird. I think it’s because it’s such a mindless activity.  

Here is where you can find Hannah online:

Website – https://hannahcurrie.com

Blog – https://hannahcurrie.com/blog/

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/hannah_currie_author/

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/author.hannah.currie

Hannah is giving away an ebook copy of her book Heart of the Crown to a reader! See below how to enter to win:

a Rafflecopter giveaway


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8 comments

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  1. I love this cover. So cute. Royalty princess stories sound fun! Thanks for sharing!

    1. Thanks Sara! I totally agree with you about the cover. Roseanna White designed it and did the most incredible job. I love it! Thanks for stopping by 🙂

    • bn100 on July 15, 2021 at 20:26
    • Reply

    nice cover

    • Jacqui E on July 16, 2021 at 05:50
    • Reply

    Great interview. Very you. I loved all three of your books and can’t wait for your next series.

    1. Thanks Jacqui! I’m so glad you enjoyed the books. Looking forward to sharing more with you 😀
      Hannah Currie recently posted…Confessions of a BookaholicMy Profile

  2. I love how each of your characters reflect you Hannah! So cool.

    Do your characters reflect you Hallee?

    1. Only intentionally twice — the character in Chasing Pearl, Violet Pearl. I had to write that book fast so I made her me.
      And, Blizzard in the Bluegrass. I wrote about parenting a child on the autism spectrum and modeled the mom after me.

    2. Thanks Kimberly! 🙂 It’s always fun making up characters.
      Hannah Currie recently posted…In Humble Defense of the Christian Romance NovelMy Profile

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