Hi Younglings, 

For the last edition of 2022 Book of The Month, we got the chance to talk with katfeatherly about her Wattys Winner 2022! If you like enemies-to-lovers trope, be sure not to miss out!

About the author - katfeatherly

Kat Featherly writes YA & NA feel-good romance books that bring a smile to your face when the outside world isn't. She works as a technical writer and spends every free moment on her laptop, crafting quirky protagonists and dreamy love interests. You can find her reading romance-heavy books, or listening to true crime and murder-mystery podcasts, which might make her quite the paradox but it also helps her write in various genres. She adopted a dog that is now a professional sock thief, which is why you'll never catch her wearing the same pair. People assume it's a fashion choice. She rarely corrects them.

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About the Book of The Month - "Two Weeks to Fall in Love"

Her Watty-winning YA book called Two Weeks to Fall in Love follows Skyler Fox, a girl that sees the world as black&white. After one of her best friends moves across the country, she transfers her anger and sadness into hating Noah Archer, the guy that dates a different girl every two weeks without having any bad rumors following him. He's also the guy that dated her best friend right before she told her she was moving. Skyler misplaced anger leads her to devise a plan: she will uncover Noah's secrets and show his true nature to the rest of the school - because there's no way he's as perfect as everyone paints him to be. Only one problem - getting all the dirt on him will require Skyler to actually date him as well. But the two weeks they spend together don't exactly go as planned. Especially when real feelings start getting involved.

Other YARomance work(s): She also wrote a YA zombie rom-com called Love Bitez, because she wanted to create something fluffy and funny in a genre that is known as gory and scary. It's up to you to judge if she succeeded in that.

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1. What do you love the most about writing on Wattpad? And do you have any young adult romance related stories on Wattpad that you would recommend?

This might be a very 'basic' answer but I love the community. I love being able to interact with readers and seeing their comments. They help me realize what they like - so I can give them more of that in future books! - and the things that might confuse them. For example, as a 30-year-old writing YA I forgot that Facebook messenger doesn't actually exist for teens these days. It's all about Snapchat and Instagram for messaging. And that only really hit home after all the comments I received from readers. So basically, readers are a LOT of help to me, and their comments just make me really happy.

In terms of books to recommend, please check out Ticktock Love by AndreaBrightAuthor! She's someone I personally know, and so I can guarantee she's a wonderful writer (and person!). And her book is definitely underrated. A few more that I think are great: Sincerely, Mysterious by SlimmWrites and Sweetly & Scientifically by EternalZephyr

2. "There is a boy at Evergreen High that has a different girlfriend every two weeks, and yet, none of them speak badly of him." - was a very intriguing hook. What was your inspiration for this "dating trial time" plot? And why "two weeks" time, is there any special meaning?

Haha, thank you! Honestly, I had a dream about it. My dream was set in college though and it gave me just the basic idea of the story - the dating around with no bad rumors following. When I woke up, I was like 'Okay this would make for a fun book!' especially with the fake dating trope being so popular - this was kind of my take on 'fake' dating. It was real dating but with no feelings. When I decided to write the book (after waking up haha) I realized it would better suit a high school environment, and I knew I needed a concrete time limit so two girlfriends a month seemed like a good enough number. One week seemed way too short and one month seemed a bit long to just date someone and dump them. Two weeks was the perfect middle ground. There's a lot of things in the book that just formed after I got the basic idea - like all of Noah's secrets and the 36 questions to fall in love. It all just kind of... it all just fell into place.

3. Do you face any problems in building the two main protagonists, Skyler and Noah? What did you do to make them unique and intriguing to the readers?

That's a great question! When I started writing (like 17 years ago, haha) I started in roleplay - which if you aren't familiar with it, it's basically coming up with a character and their backstory and then writing with another person and their character. It was really fun, but it wasn't until I was older that I realized how much that has actually helped me in crafting books and characters. So I didn't really struggle as much with that because it's what I started with - creating characters. I knew I wanted Skyler to be likeable but no one likes a flawless character. So I made her a type of overly righteous person that wants to do good but sees everything in black and white. She might have good intentions but doesn't really see the nuances of life. Noah on the other hand is the opposite. He sees life as complex but beautiful, is impulsive and confident in who he is. He's has some really unique points of view that make him interesting. BUT he also loves teasing Skyler. So their dynamic is really fun, especially as they get to know each other.

4. If you were the character in "Two Weeks to Fall in Love", would you date Noah for two weeks? Why and why not?

Of course! Why not? It's two weeks of fun dating a handsome guy! I mean I would probably just do it for the fun of it, or the curiosity what the two weeks would look like. And I think that's also what Skyler is missing at the start of the story, that not all the girls dated him cause they liked him. In my mind, there would be girls that dated him cause they liked him but there would also be a large amount of girls that asked him our as a dare, or just for curiosity or just to be able to say they dated Noah Archer. At the point the book starts, Noah's dating thing has kind of become the talk of the school. Like a challenge or something fun to gossip about. Skyler doesn't see it that way though, obviously. (which made writing a Noah POV extra chapter really fun because you see how different that was for him!)

5. Do you have any hobbies besides writing?

Ahh, I used to. Before being an adult happened and I started working full-time jobs. Now I only really have time for one hobby which is writing. I still want to have time to spend with family and friends and reading and watching Netflix... so yeah, writing is kind of my only hobby right now. I used to dance (hip-hop style dance) but I messed up my ankle and had to stop.

6. As a Wattpad Creator, Wattys 2022 winner, and Wattpad Books YA Award winner, what is your advice to young writers who want to write the story in YARomance genre?

Hmm, well I think the best advice to give is something I struggle with myself - don't compare yourself to others and let that discourage you. We all see someone else doing really well and (if we're not doing as well) feel like giving up. You have questions come up like 'maybe I'm just not good enough' or 'I'll never be as successful as this person'. And even though I struggled with this when I joined Wattpad (and still do!), I just kept writing and ignoring the imposter syndrome, and eventually, my reads climbed and I got some loyal readers... and now I won a Watty and the Wattpad Books YA Award which felt surreal as I've only ever dreamed of seeing my book on shelves. So honestly, this is the most important piece of advice - BELIEVE IN YOURSELF. Even when a part of your brain tries to bring you down, fight against it. You need to firmly, blindly believe that you will succeed. Envision seeing your book on shelves, every day. Watching a movie based on your book. Imagine and believe it will happen - it's just a matter of time. You need to truly believe it. It sounds a lot like that whole The Secret thing but there's something to it.

In terms of writing YA romance books... your best bet is to stand out. For example... fake dating with two people disliking each other has been seen a lot and might not be as appealing to audiences. However, if you throw something different into the mix, for example, my two-week dating thing, it might appeal to people more because they'll read the summary and think 'Huh, I haven't read something like this before!'. So basically, think of what is a popular trope, or a cliche people love... and then figure out a way to make it unique. Think of what hasn't been seen and use that as a hook. I'd love to give more examples, but a lot of what comes to mind are things I plan on writing eventually, haha. 

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Thank you for chatting with us, Kat! Do check out this amazing author at katfeatherly!

That is all for this year. Hope to see you soon for more awesomeness!