ADDICTED Interview With the Ritchie Sisters

I like my heroes and heroines a little damaged. I love happily ever after, but I want the characters to have to fight for it.

HARD. And probably suffer. Lots of suffering.

I stumbled across a story last year that fit my slightly twisted bill perfectly. Addicted to You follows the convoluted path Lily Calloway and Loren Hale take to their HEA. She’s a sex addict and he’s an alcoholic…and they’re completely wrong and completely perfect for each other. Trust me on this! The story dragged me to rock bottom with these two hurting people, believing all along they’d find a way to heal. I had to trust the author…or rather authors…twins Krista and Becca Ritchie, to make this right. In addition to Lily and Lo, four other characters snare your attention and your heart in this book. And yay!!! They get their own stories.

The next installment in the series, Kiss the Sky, releases FRIDAY, January 24. While I wait…impatiently, I might add…, I thought I’d crawl inside the heads of my favorite TwinPens Krista & Becca to see what they were thinking when they created this beautifully dark world.

 

 

Kennedy:  I’m fascinated by co-authors. It’s hard enough to find your voice as a writer. Then to make sure each character has his/her distinct voice. To accomplish that writing with another person seems like it’d be fun, but challenging, especially with a cast of six characters. What does that process look like? And does your twin superpower help?

 

BECCA: We’ve both been writing for a long time (even though we’re only 22), and we’ve each developed a unique style. As we continue to write together, we sort of melded our writing into one cohesive voice that sounds much better than our individual voices. So I’d say—we’re better as a team than separate. But being a twin definitely helps! (And if that’s my only superpower, I’ll take it!) It’s easy to talk to Krista about what works and what doesn’t work. We’ll discuss our characters in detail, their motivations in certain scenes, how they would react to some conflicts, and then we’re really able to trust each other with a character throughout the story. I think what it boils down to with the cast of six is that we have to know everything about them, or else Krista and I may diverge and they’ll seem like they have dual personalities…and that would be scary.

 

KRISTA: Becca really explained it well! When we wrote Addicted to You, it helped that we had a two-hour commute from college back to our parents’ house for (some) weekends. During that time, we had long conversations about our characters, and we were able to flesh out their motivations/psyches, and make sure we both had complete understanding of each one.

 

Kennedy: I love how unflinchingly honest you were revealing Lily and Lo’s weaknesses; their addictions. The other characters’ vices seem a little more socially-acceptable, but greatly affect their decisions and relationships. Rose & Connor (Kiss the Sky) could on the surface, seem hard characters to love. What do they see in one another that others would overlook? What makes them love each other in spite of the flaws?

 

KRISTA: At their core, Connor and Rose are ambitious intellectuals, and they’re really just insanely, undeniably attracted to intelligence. I think others overlook Connor and Rose’s ability to be emotional, to be soft and vulnerable, to be a little more human since they’re the ones holding everything together. The other characters think Connor’s asexual and always-composed, and that Rose is a high-strung bitch. But the secret to Connor and Rose is that they like being guarded. They like having that one person know the real them. And the challenge is to get close enough to be that person.

 

BECCA: Like Krista said, they’re both really private and keep their vulnerabilities to themselves in order to appear stronger for everyone else. And I think they’re just insanely attracted to each other, despite their flaws. Actually, their flaws may be part of the reason why they like each other. Connor is attracted to Rose’s fiery nature, her bitchiness. Which could be considered a character flaw to most.

 

Kennedy:  In the first part of the series, there was so much secrecy shrouding the characters protecting Lily’s secret sex addiction. When it came out, it almost destroyed her. Cool choice to go in a completely different direction with a reality show for Kiss the Sky. What took you down the path of exposing in this book everything they tried to hide before?

 

BECCA: We were ready for something different. And we didn’t want to just add a new male character from Rose’s past to cause drama for them. We needed something new, and we both sat down and thought, realistically, what a celebrity family would do to repair their reputations. And the reality show seemed like a good choice. If you think about it—most famous people who do reality shows are trying to promote some product that they just made (skin care, makeup, Skinny Girl margaritas) or they’re trying to say, “this is the real me.” And both fit perfectly for what the Calloways are trying to achieve.

 

KRISTA: We love challenging ourselves as writers, and I think we can safely say we will never write a reality show again. It’s the biggest challenge we’ve ever undertaken, but it really was the direction that the story needed to take. Like Becca mentioned, if you look at how other celebrities actually progress in the media, a reality show was realistically the next step for the Calloway sisters.

 

BECCA: Yes, we will never be doing this again… except in Thrive (Addicted #2.5), when parts of Kiss the Sky will be in Lil and Lo’s POV. But after that… never.

 

Kennedy:  Another contrast is going from Lily, a heroine who is a sex addict, to her sister Rose in Kiss the Sky, who’s still clutching her V card. Can you give us a little insight into Rose’s sexuality and how…and IF…she’ll explore it in this next installment of series?

 

BECCA: Rose’s sexuality is a HUGE part of the book. I mean…we put “Virgin” on her forehead on the cover. She’s never been in a serious relationship before Connor. And now she’s been with him for a whole year and they’ve never had sex. I love her journey because she takes on a lot of stigmas for being a virgin for that amount of time (while being in a committed relationship).

 

KRISTA: And you really get to understand why she’s been a virgin for so long and what’s been holding her back.

 

Kennedy:  The three Calloway sisters are different from one another and complex. If you had to boil each of them down to ONE word, what would it be? And why?

 

BECCA: Daisy (from the soon-to-released Hothouse Flower) would be…curious. I think she’s propelled by curiosity, and she’s fearless enough to explore each one, whether that be skydiving, swimming with sharks or…crushing on a guy much older than her.

 

KRISTA: Rose would be loyal. The girl is smart, sassy, and brazen but I think above all else, she’s incredibly loyal to her family. She loves hard. And Lily would be lost. She doesn’t know who she is or what she wants to be. Sex is all that’s ever made her feel good and all she really knows. Throughout the series, the word will probably change to something with a stronger sense of identity, but for now she’s just trying to find herself.

 

Kennedy:  In Lo, Connor & Ryke, you have created these beautifully flawed heroes who steal our hearts in different ways. I love how uniquely strong they all are. What would their bathroom stall tag line be? You know For a good time call…What would we call each of them for?

 

KRISTA: This is a hard one! Umm…maybe “love us or hate us…you’ll still want to f*ck us.” Just kidding…I think 😉

 

BECCA: I can’t beat that! LOL.

 

KRISTA: You’d call Connor to help you with a crisis or with your test the next day. He makes the best tutor. You wouldn’t call Loren unless you’re Lily. He’s just unreliable.

 

BECCA: You’d want to call Ryke if you were in a dangerous situation. He’d come save you, even if it was at the risk of his life. He’s crazy (but I love him).

 

Kennedy:  This was a little bit of a crash course on the Addicted series. Get all the details at kbritchie.com/books.

Don’t forget! Kiss the Sky comes out FRIDAY, January 24! And to whet your appetite…here’s a glimpse into what Rose really thinks about Connor.

 

 

 

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