Author Interview: Cyn Balog

Cyn Balog is a normal, everyday Jersey Girl who always believed magical things can happen to us when we least expect them. She’s also the Race & Event Manager for several national fitness magazines. She lives outside Allentown, Pennsylvania with her husband and young daughter. Both are 100% human, or so she thinks. FAIRY TALE is her first novel.

Fairy Tale is in stores today!

What inspired you to write your first book?

I wrote my first book when I was very young; probably in 1st grade or so. I just remember my sister sitting down and scribbling, and wanting to be like her, I asked what she was doing. She said she was writing a book. I thought that was the coolest thing, so I decided to do the same. I sat next to her and got out my paper and crayons. At one point I looked over and saw her book was titled, "THE BALL", and I thought, "that's a fine title," so I also called mine "THE BALL." A few hours later, I had this goofy little book about a beach ball that gets loose from its owners and has all these wild adventures. My sister still hadn't finished her cover... all I remember is it had a picture of a man and woman in formal attire dancing, and an amorphous hand throwing a knife at them. I think it was supposed to be a mystery, but she never finished it.

Where do you get your information or ideas for your books?
From lots of places, mostly online. I like scouring wikipedia, going from topic to topic until I find some really obscure or cool fact and seeing if I can fit it somewhere in my book. I got the idea for Fairy Tale because I wanted to write the story of how a perfect love can fall apart, but I wanted it to have a paranormal aspect. And even though this was before the "fairy boom" of YA, I still thought the idea of having the girl learn she was a fairy was pretty overdone, and dull. So I decided to make the guy the fairy, which is way more fun.

Can you explain how you came up with the original title Fairy Lust and why it was changed to Fairy Tale?
I actually had the title of Fairy Lust before I even wrote the book, it just fit so well. Before I wrote anything, I knew I wanted to make it about a person pining for a fairy, wanting something so badly that could never be. But as I wrote, I decided to keep it more PG, so there really was very little lust involved. Still, I loved that title, and so did many people, so I thought it would stay. And then, just a couple months before release, we received word that some people were nervous about bookstores refusing to carry the book in the YA section if "Lust" was on the cover. So we quickly made the change. But because it was Fairy Lust for so long to me, I can't seem to stop calling it that!

What makes Fairy Tale so different from other fairy books?
Aside from the fairy being a guy, I like to think that Fairy Tale is "fantasy-lite", for people who don't necessary like fantasy. It's set completely in this world, and the fairy aspect of it takes a sideline to the main theme, which is that even "perfect" love might not work out. Personally, a lot of talk about the different courts, and worlds, and characters with weird names... makes my head spin. I'm not a big fantasy lover. But I've always appreciated the more "human" side to these stories, which is something I tried to pull out more in Fairy Tale.

What are your current projects and can you share a little of your current work with us?
I am currently working on a novel called Sleepless, about a sandman who falls in love with a mortal girl whose sleep he controls. Here's the first paragraph:

If Mama, God rest her soul, could see me now, crouching outside the window of a young girl’s house, in this tree, she would surely rise from her grave and swat the life clean out of me. And I agree with her; this is no place for a man. But that is one thing I am not.

If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?
Oh, yes, everything! I just got the finished copies in and whenever I crack it open, I cringe. Even though it is in such a beautiful packaging, I keep thinking it reads like a draft, like I should be able to take out that red pen and get to work on it.

Is there any additional information that you would like to share with the readers?
Nobody bakes a cake as tasty as a Tastycake. Really, I love them.

Thanks Cyn!

For more information about Cyn Balog and Fairy Tale, please check out her website here.