About Krysten Lindsay Hager
Krysten Lindsay Hager is a young adult author who writes about friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, frenemies, crushes, celebs, and values. She writes the Landry’s True Colors Series and the new Star Series. Best Friends…Forever? was ranked at #1 on Amazon’s Hot New Releases in Teen & Young Adult Values & Virtues Fiction. Her work has been featured in USA Today, The Flint Journal, the Grand Haven Tribune, the Bellbrook Times, and on Living Dayton. Krysten’s latest novel, Next Door to a Star, is out now. Coming soon in early 2016: Landry in Like (Landry’s True Colors Book 3) will be available on January 12th, and Competing with the Star (The Star Series: Book 2) will be available on March 22.
Interview
What's your best Christmas memory?
Santa always came to my grandparents’ house, but one year my parents told me to go downstairs because something had been delivered to our house instead. It was a Barbie Dream House and my dad spent the whole day putting it together. I remember I was still in my pajamas and my mom said we were going to get pizza for dinner and Dad and I were looking at her like, “Why is she bringing up dinner?” when we realized we had spent the whole day getting the Barbie house ready and it was dinner time! It was a lot of fun to spend all the time together as a family and well, you can’t beat a Dream House.
What are your 3 favourite Christmas reads?
I always liked the Truth About Stacey (Babysitters Club, Book 3) because it dealt with New York City at Christmastime. I remember getting it in my stocking when I was in the fourth grade and I spent the day trying to sneak away to read a little bit more.
When I was a kid, I also read I'll Take Manhattan (Mirrors #1) by Danielle Barlette, which also deals with New York City at Christmas time. It’s about a teen who visits her fashion boutique owning aunt and saves the day with her brilliant idea.
Are you sensing a theme with the New York at Christmas books? Imagine my surprise when I got to see Rockefeller Center in person and the ice skating rink is actually way smaller than it looks on TV and in pictures. The tree is large though, but I expected the whole area to be enormous. I did see some guy propose to his girlfriend on the ice though. That was very sweet.
My third pic for a Christmas time read is Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. I love the story and I also love all the different versions shown in movies. My favorite adaption has to be the Muppet Christmas Carol though. But nothing beats sitting down and reading it.
If you could choose one person, dead or alive, to celebrate a one time special Christmas with, who would you choose and why?
I would love to have one more Christmas with my dad and I’d really love to celebrate with all my grandparents again, too. This will be my first Christmas without him and I’m a little anxious about it.
What are your thoughts about Santa?
Why? What have you heard? He’s totally real. I don’t know what you’re implying…have you heard something? When I was a little girl, I was in line to see Santa and I told my mom I wanted to ask if Santa could arrange for me to meet my actor crush. My mom said, “Not really sure Santa has those kind of connections.” I thought he did, but I chickened out when it was my turn and just asked for toys. I still regret that I didn’t “go big” on my request.
What are your best and worst Christmas gifts and why?
You know how people used to joke about getting slipper socks for Christmas? I actually got them and the worst thing was I was a preteen at the time, so they were the LAST things I would have ever wanted. However, the second time I wore them, I happened to have the flu and I threw up on them. Lovely story, eh?
My best Christmas gift (other than the Dream House) was a few years ago when my Dad surprised us with tickets to see a figure skating competition in Detroit. My sister and I are really into watching ice skating and my dad watched as well, so he got tickets to an event for us and also bought us ice skates. We got to see people like Michelle Kwan, Evgeni Plushenko, etc. skate. We had so much fun. As for the ice skates? Well, my sister and I had dreams of going onto the ice and at least being able to do a spiral (who am I kidding? I thought I’d be able to at least do a triple axel).However, I put my skates on, stood up, and found I was almost six feet tall in them and that I had a long way down if I fell. I skated that day while clinging to my dad’s arm, while some little girl came up next to me and did little spins. I actually put that whole embarrassing scenario into my book, True Colors. To make things worse, as I was trying to learn to ice skate, the high school hockey team came out to play on the other side of the ice. I was in college, but not much older than them and I looked like Bambi on the ice when he falls. Not hot. But still a funny memory to look back on.
Your favourite Christmas song?
I have a couple. Everyone knows I love George Michael, so “Last Christmas” is one of my faves, but my all time favorite Christmas song is, “Every Year, Every Christmas” by Luther Vandross. I love how sad and soulful it is. I actually did a post of my top ten favorite Christmas songs that you can read here:
http://www.krystenlindsay.com/blog/top-10-favorite-christmas-songs
Your favourite Christmas movie?
“A Muppet Christmas Carol” is my must see movie every Christmas and I love the “All I Want for Christmas” movie with Lauren Bacall and the kid who wants to reunite his divorced parents for Christmas. If you haven’t seen them, you really must check them out.
Top 3 books that you're giving as Christmas presents?
I’m giving my mom a copy of Life by the Cup, which is an inspiring book about tea and a woman’s journey of following her passion to create her tea company based on her grandmother’s tea blends. My mom is a big tea drinker and also loves to read inspiring books like that.
I’m giving my aunt a copy of an anthology I was in called, Dear Nana. I wrote an essay about my grandmother for it and I think she’d like reading it.
I’m giving my friend a copy of Miracles Now by Gabrielle Bernstein because I just got a copy and the book reminds me of something she’d be into…but I can’t say which friend in case she reads this!
Most favourite and least favourite part of Christmas?
My favorite part is driving around and looking at the decorations. I love sparkly lights. I also love getting unexpected cards in the mail. Least favorite part is missing people who have passed away. This year will be hard since it’s the first Christmas without my dad.
I must ask, sorry - the best Christmas food is...?
Growing up, we always had ham and Polish sausage on Christmas Day. I can’t imagine Christmas without ham. When I was a kid, my grandpa used to buy this huge bag of sprinkle sugar cookies—they were super inexpensive (hence the giant bag) and had a buttery taste and one year he couldn’t find them anywhere. My mom and I were going nuts trying to find them in the stores last minute. She actually went up to a store manager and we had no idea of the brand or anything, so she referred to them as, “These really cheap Christmas cookies in a bag.” And he knew what she meant and was able to get her some—haha! So from that moment on we called them the “Cheap Christmas cookies.”
Social media links
Giveaway
One very lucky reader of our blogs will receive a wonderful surprise from Krysten (From personal experience I can tell you her surprises are always really great). Good luck!
