Becky has also written three
funny travel books about her time in Dubai, Bali and South America (HarperCollins).
Her first book, Burqalicious - The Dubai Diaries, her second book, Balilicious
- The Bali Diaries and her third, Latinalicious -The South America Diaries are
out now as ebooks.
Becky has also written a
comedy romance with author Sarah Alderson under the name Lola Salt, called The
Extraordinary Life of Lara Craft (not Croft) which should raise a giggle or
two... think Bridget Jones if Jackie Collins had written it!
AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR
Before
He Was Famous author Becky Wicks discusses the music industry, and what
influenced the writing of this new adult romance!
What
inspired this book?
Well, I’ve always been a not-so-secret fan of shows like The X
Factor and The Voice – shows that give people the opportunity to prove their talents
and shoot into the big time like rockets! It’s exciting to see people living
out their dreams. But I always wonder what might go on behind the scenes for
the people who win and make it big. Every brush with fame has its consequences
these days and I thought, what would a relationship be like under those
circumstances? How amazing/scary/weird would that be? I wanted to explore it.
How
did you research for this book?
Aside from watching hours of reality TV and talent show clips?
Haha! I watched the documentaries Katy Perry and One Direction made about their
tours and their lives, and noted how hard it often was for them to juggle fame
with normality. We only see one side of their lives, usually, but they’re real
people too, which I think others forget! I read a lot about what goes into a
record deal too… like how the money earned from a record is divided so much
that hardly anyone makes anything! It’s all pretty complicated and tough in the
music industry. There’s a lot of backstabbing, deceit and broken hearts.
How
do characters like Denzel (Noah’s manager) and Aunt Madeline affect the story?
Denzel is Noah’s manager at HotFlush – the label who sign him when
he wins the show. I made him English and I made him speak in Cockney slang a
lot because in doing so he kind of emphasizes that everything about that line
of work is hard to follow and understand. He’s the embodiment of the industry
to many people, Noah and Chloe included; fast-paced, narcissistic, selfish and
complicated. Madeline (Noah’s aunt) represents another side to the whole
business. She was a Rockette in the fifties when fame was handled very
differently, but she too was changed by it irrevocably. She’s the voice of
reason, when everything around Noah and Chloe is crazy.
What
do you think people can take away from Chloe and Noah’s story?
Hopefully the message that true love prevails, or can if you give
it a fighting chance… but also that we can’t judge a book by its cover, or a
human by a photo we see of them on a website. Fame is fleeting and it can be
cruel, but if it’s handled correctly, it can of course be amazing!
ABOUT THE BOOK
The music industry is a machine, spinning hype and rumors as much
as his records. It’s not just Noah’s girlfriends who’ve got it in for Chloe
(there’s no stopping the Twitter-obsessed, cat-loving pop-star Courtney Lentini
for starters). Pretty soon, the jealousy and media frenzy surrounding these
so-called-friends takes a life-changing turn and it seems making love means
making enemies at every turn. When tragedy threatens to pull the final curtain
on their relationship, both Chloe and Noah must make a choice. As much as this
world leaves them starstruck, is living their dream really worth living without
each other?
A story of lifelong friendships, love and hope, set in a world of
celebrity, fame and social media gone very, very wrong.
AN EXCERPT
I get another flashback, from out of
nowhere, of when we were kids at Aunt Madeline's house in The Bronx. A huge
thunderstorm kept us up in the middle of the night and I crept into her room to
find her lying there, eyes wide open, raindrops thrashing at the huge
brown-house windows. I knew she was waiting for me to arrive because without me
she was too scared to get out of that bed. That house is so old and creaky. We
switched places without speaking and she started trying to capture the
lightning with her camera.
She spent more than an hour in the
window, working silently, determined, clicking the camera over and over.
Something about her was mesmerizing. I watched her from the bed and wrote a
song in my head about how she lit up every time the lightning struck, and when
she climbed in beside me she was wriggling under my skin as much as the covers.
Chloe became the lightning then, for me at least, lighting up every room. And
so began the storm in my head.
SPECIAL LINKS
Facebook author page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Becky-Wicks-Author/242645109127479?ref=hl
Twitter: bex_wicks
Blog: www.beckywicks.com
Becky will be
awarding an eCopy of Before He Was Famous to a randomly drawn commenter at each
stop during the tour, and a Grand Prize of an eCopy of Before He Was Famous , as
well as a print copy of Latinalicious, Becky's last travel memoir
(HarperCollins) to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. (International
winner)
Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:
