Happy Tuesday everyone! I'm here to share a post about the first book published by Wattpad Books: The QB Bad Boy and me. TODAY is its first day out in the world as a book, and I have a great interview with Tay Marley, the author, to share in celebration of that. The Book and its AuthorEverything changed the day Drayton Lahey crashed into Dallas’s life… Dallas Bryan is a no-nonsense cheerleader who has her sights set on a dance scholarship to CalArts. Drayton Lahey is the bad-boy quarterback from football royalty who’s completely wrong for her—at least, that's what she tells herself. The longer Dallas tells herself she doesn't need Dray, the quicker she realizes it might be time to forget what she needs and go after what she wants. Tay Marley wears many hats: bibliophile, entrepreneur, wife, mother, and featured Wattpad author. Her whirlwind journey on Wattpad began in 2017 and led to one hundred thousand dedicated followers, a five-part series, and three stand-alone books, including her breakout story, The QB Bad Boy and Me, which have amassed over forty-one million reads. She resides in New Zealand with her husband. When she isn’t writing about confident women and their love interests, she’s teaching her three small children how to be the leads in their own epic tales. Question: What inspired you to write The QB Bad Boy & Me?
Tay Marley: The book is about a quarterback, and I've always found American football culture fascinating. Being from New Zealand, it's an entirely different world. We have nothing like that here. So I wanted to write about it and learn more and put my own spin on what that excitement is like to experience. Writing about it was so much fun and I hope that one day I can see it in real life. It would be an amazing experience. Q: The QB Bad Boy & Me has such a passionate fan following on Wattpad. In the early days of writing the story, did you ever imagine it would make such an impression? Marley: No. I never could have imagined that it would generate such an amazing response. And what’s more is that people are so genuinely passionate about that characters and their lives. People send me these really beautiful long messages, describing what Dallas and Drayton mean to them and it’s so heartwarming. Obviously as a writer, the dream is to create characters that the audience love and can relate to but everything felt so surreal. Each milestone was mind blowing. The first 50,000 reads was something I could barely wrap my head around and even now, being close to 30 million. That’s just insane. I really just wrote something that I wanted to read and it was received with love which I am so grateful for. Q: Dray is definitely a bad boy and Dallas is a driven and responsible girl—they don’t exactly seem like a good match on paper. Do opposites really attract? Marley: I think for sure that opposites can attract. Not always. But I think that there can be a special sort of bond when there are opposites in the relationship. A balance almost. You might have someone that’s really reserved with someone that’s more outgoing. So the outgoing person might bring the reserved person out of their shell and encourage new experiences. Situations like that. My husband and I are very opposite. But we have a lot in common too. I think that it’s all dependant on the individuals. Sometimes it can work. Sometimes it doesn’t. Q: If you weren’t a writer, what would you do instead? Marley: I’m a qualified beauty therapist. That was what I had been studying before I got heavily into my writing. And when I chose not to go ahead and work in that field, I was asked why I would choose to write over a more promising job. People would tell me, oh you know, you could get a job in a salon which is more likely than becoming an author. But I chose to follow the passion that I had and give it my all. It’s an absolute blessing that it paid off. But I think it’s a testament to how powerful believing in yourself can be. And how things don’t happen overnight, but they can happen if you apply yourself and work hard. I can’t imagine doing anything else! Q: As a YA author and a parent, what advice would you give Dallas if she were your daughter? ALTERNATE: What advice would you give teenagers in 2019? Marley: My daughter is gorgeous. She’s a beautiful, strong willed, rough and tumble kind of girl. She loves to get outside and ride her bike and roller skate and be active. But she also loves getting her hair done and playing with her Barbies. I’ve never put a limit on what she can do. My actual advice that I tell her all the time is just to be confident in who she is as a person. To not focus on what others think but to love herself first. And I like to remind her that being humble is a beautiful quality. That yes she’s beautiful on the outside, but she needs to be beautiful on the inside too. It’s a discussion that we have often. You know, how she treats her peers and her siblings and her teachers. Having a good heart is so so important. It’s something that I’ll always do my best to demonstrate for her. And that’s advice that I’d tell all teenagers.
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The BaronessHey, I'm Shreya! I love to read, write, travel, and drink tea. Disclosure: I am an affiliate of bookshop.org and I will earn a small commission if you click the above link and make a purchase.
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