Interview with CG Drews; Author of BOY WHO STEALS HOUSES

Welcome to Keturah's Korner, Cait! I'm so excited to be talking with you today. Could you start out by telling us some things about yourself? 
Thanks so much for having me on your blog! And hi to everyone! My name is CG Drews (also known as Cait from Paper Fury) and I'm an author and cake enthusiast from Australia. When I'm not writing, I'm trying to convince my small dog that the bed is not his (I have zero luck here) and making my own ice cream from scratch (writing fuel!).

How long have you been writing and how many stories have you written?
I started writing seriously when I was fifteen ... so ten years now (yiiiikes I feel old) and I've accumulated over thirty drafts. I promise they're not all very intelligible though!

Can you tell us the story behind finding your agent/ publisher?
I started querying for an agent when I was nineteen. I'd researched the process (ah, Google, my old friend) until I was overflowing with advice and had a query letter crafted as captivatingly as I could. (I didn't know about pitch wars and contests back then!) I queried in both the UK and the USA and ended up getting a full manuscript request from Greenhouse in the UK! I was so stoked. It was actually my only request and my only response that wasn't a form rejection! Which goes to show: you only need one yes.

After revising, my agent and I went on submission to publishers. That book ultimately ended up getting rejected, so that's when I wrote A Thousand Perfect Notes! A year after I wrote it, we sold it to Hachette UK and then it came out in 2018.

Please share about your two books!
My first novel is A Thousand Perfect Notes and it's about a pianist who's forced into greatness by an abusive mother...and how he makes friends with a girl who is the definition of rainbows and puppies and starts to believe he's worth something.

My second novel is The Boy Who Steals Houses and it's about a homeless boy and his autistic brother who steal houses when the occupants are away on holidays ... until the boy breaks into a house that isn't empty and ends up tangled in the lives of a big, messy family and falling for a bitter girl. What he wants most is a family and to belong, but if they find out his secrets (like why he ran away from home), he's going to lose everything.

Why do you write and where does your inspiration come from?
I write because I have an incredibly overactive imagination, and also because it's a way to speak up and be heard. Inspiration comes from everywhere for me. Music! Films! Daydreaming! Pinterest! (Shh, I can call scrolling Pinterest work now, right?!)

If you decided you no longer liked books, what would you choose as your second career? (please don't actually stop writing!)
I actually have nothing else I love except writing! I've been working solely towards this forever. Although maybe I would be a librarian and secretly read all the books instead of stacking shelves.

How can people follow you?
You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, and my blog paperfury.com!

Do you have a piece of advice and/ or joke to impart?
I think the key to writing is truly to never give up and also to eat quite a lot of cake.

Thanks so much for joining us, Cait! I'm so excited to read The Boy Who Steals Houses!!
Thank you so much for having me!

C.G. Drews lives in Australia with her piano and the goal of reading every book in existence. Consequently, her brain has overflowed with words and she spends her days writing novels to make you laugh or cry (or both). She never sleeps and believes in cake for breakfast.





Oh, and make sure to check out Cait's new book on Book Depository and Goodreads

Have you read "A Thousand Perfect Notes"? And do you plan on reading "The Boy Who Steals Houses"? Also, don't you feel like you learned some fun stuff about Cait? I know I did! 

So excited to read "THE BOY WHO STEALS HOUSES"!!!!