Featured Interview With Ari Reavis
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I’m a wife and mom of six. I was born in New York, and moved to New Jersey when I was young, which is where I still live, hating the winters and all. I do not have any pets, and probably won’t, no matter how much my kids beg.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
In the seventh grade, we were given The House on Mango Street to read. It’s the first time I can remember really connecting with a book, seeing a character who had a family like mine, a childhood like mine. It sparked me wanting to read more books, consume more stories, to escape through my connections with these amazing fictional characters.
I started writing almost three years ago, with the thought of there was a book I wanted to read but couldn’t find, so why not write it myself. That transformed into me feeling I wasn’t yet writing the story I truly needed to. So I put those stories aside and began writing my first book, Be My Light, a story straight from my heart. Much like The House on Mango Street (which I’m just now realizing how much that book influenced my writing) I wrote about a childhood, and stepping into adulthood, that I felt many could and were looking to relate to. But me being me, I also made it a romance because that was the light at the end of the tunnel for my main character.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My absolute favorite author is Bethany-Kris. I would read her grocery list. I love that her stories always take me through so many emotions and the couples in them build such realistic and strong bonds.
My favorite genre is fantasy, getting to escape to another world, another time.
For my contemporary romances, Bethany-Kris inspires my writing. To write about heros and heroines who overcome, who love even when it’s hard, and will take on the world for that love.
I wrote a fantasy romance that I plan to publish soon, and that was inspired by Hafsah Faizal’s We Hunt the Flame. She wrote a world so different from anything else I’ve read, that was true to her, and I did the same with mine.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest book is It Was Always You. It’s a enemy to lover romance. It deals with the heroine not wanting love in any way, shape, or form because of her upbringing. And a hero who’s always secretly wanted more with the heroine than their banter and sarcastic comments.
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