Featured Interview With Alysha Kaye
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born in San Marcos, TX, where I also received my BA in Creative Writing from Texas State University. I worked in marketing for a brief and terrible cubicle-soul-sucking time until I was accepted into Teach for America and promptly moved to Oahu. I taught 7th grade English in Aiea for two years and also received my Masters in Education from University of Hawaii. I now teach in Austin, TX and try to squeeze in as much writing as possible between lesson planning. I dreamt about The Waiting Room once, and offhandedly wrote my boyfriend a love poem about waiting for him after death. Somehow, that became a novel.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I was an only child and writing was always my creative outlet! I’d fill notebooks upon notebooks with stories and poems.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Salinger, always. But more recently, Mark Zusak and Audrey Niffenegger. I’m a huge fan of realistic fiction, but I also enjoy fantasy and sci-fi from time to time.
Everything inspires me- everyone I meet! My students are especially inspiring though:)
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Jude and Nina are the epitome of that whole raw, unflinching love thing that most people are jealous of. That is, until Jude dies and wakes up in The Waiting Room, surrounded by other souls who are all waiting to pass over into their next life. But unlike those souls, Jude’s name is never called by the mysterious “receptionist”. He waits, watching Nina out of giant windows. He’s waiting for her. What is this place? How long will he wait? And what will happen when and if Nina does join him? The Waiting Room is a story of not just love, but of faith, predestination, and philosophy, friendship and self-actualization, of waiting.
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