A little while ago, I reviewed a recently released book called 'Here Lies Bridget' which you can find here. And now I am happy to post an interview and giveaway with the author!

1) For all those who don't know what Here Lies Bridget is about, can you introduce it to them?

3) Can you tell us a little about how you became published? What was your story?

Oh, there’s not much. I was on an unbearable train trip from Florida to DC, and needed a distraction from my soon-to-be ex-boyfriend. I started writing, and kept going for the rest of the summer. In October I got a call from my agent telling me Harlequin wanted me. I got unbelievably lucky.

4) Did having a bestselling author as a mother help to develop your passion for reading and writing?

Growing up, reading was the one thing I was allowed to do whenever I wanted. Whether I was grounded or eating dinner or procrastinating, I was always allowed to read. I think that stemmed more from my mother’s own passion for reading as a past time than even her career.

As for writing, it definitely made it all seem more possible. Before I started writing Bridget, I never thought it was something I wanted to do. It was kind of just this thing my mom did, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do now. Now that I’m doing it, it feels like I’ve been looking for my sunglasses for an hour and then found that they were on top of my head the whole time.

5) How did you get the idea for Here Lies Bridget? What made you decide to write about a mean girl who dies but is given the chance to go back and make amends?

I’m not sure. I never dealt with much bullying personally—giving or receiving. But I definitely saw it. I went to two elementary schools, two middle schools, four high schools, and three colleges (wow, I sound indecisive...) and I found that there are just horrible bitches everywhere. And where there are horrible girls, there are girls that feel like crap. I did not write the book to be instructive or moralizing. I mostly wrote it because I wanted to write something that is relatable. There’s always a Bridget, the insecure girl who thinks her actions don’t matter and so she does whatever she wants. There’s always a Michelle, the friend who feels awful about herself because she thinks the confident girl is perfect through and through. There’s a Liam, the person who believes in someone they care about and gets disappointed time and time again.

The rule is to ‘write what you know.’ I know all about each character, because they are everywhere from in the chair I sit in now to a school in Timbuktu. So I wrote about them, and I gave them a semi-imaginary to stage upon which to perform.

6) Here Lies Bridget follows a slightly unlikeable character throughout the story. Was it your intention to make her as unlikeable as she was in order for the lesson she learns to be bigger? Or did her behaviour just come with the character as you were writing?

‘Slightly?’ She’s very unlikeable! Haha, no need to be cagey! She had to be that dreadful, or what’s the point? There are girls far worse than her, and there are girls who’d never dream of the things Bridget does. But she’s a character. She’s a caricature of real people. She has to be bad enough for fate to step in and slap her in the face. I wanted her to be mean. And I think that we have all done things we are ashamed of or try to forget about. No one is a saint. Bridget just does everything we have ever thought about doing (or maybe even done), and without hesitation.

7) Liam was a definite swoon-worthy character. Is he based off someone? Was the relationship between he and Bridget an intended plot line in the story, or did their chemistry just happen?

Ah, Liam. He’s based on someone and he’s not. In a way he’s based off of my first real boyfriend—or at least in how I remember our time together. I still know the real-life guy, and we’re good friends. But in my case, he’s the one who changed. So Bridget’s lust for him, and need for his acceptance is based on the fourteen-year-old feelings I had for my guy. But the sadness in watching someone carry on as an empty shell of their real self is based on the way I felt watching someone change before my eyes. Their relationship was intended to be what it was. He’s the past love, which I always find more endearing than a new one. In new love, you don’ t know if what you’re feeling is real. But what Liam and Bridget had was deeper than that—they had an understanding of one another. He could look at her and understand why she was acting how she was and see that the real her was in there somewhere. And that almost makes it worse.

8) What was your favourite and least favourite scenes to write in Here Lies Bridget?

I really enjoyed watching the scenes that were in other people’s heads, and that came from other times. I’m sure some people found it repetitive to read the same scene in another person’s perspective, but that’s something I love to read and watch. My favorite, for example, was the party scene. Particularly at the end with Liam. Bridget is feeling a little foolish and a little too drunk. She finds herself alone with Liam, and all the feelings she has ever felt for him—embarrassment, lust, love, want, guilt—all come rushing back. It’s in that moment that we see her wanting to be the person she used to be—and without the help of a jury, so we know she has it in her. Then to write the scene later from Liam’s perspective, and have him thinking some of the same things was fun for me. I liked having him look at her and miss her, and to want to stay with her when he puts her into bed—as she had privately wanted too—but to know he has to leave her there and walk out of the room.

My least favorite were the scenes with Meredith, the step-mother. Any of them. We see it all the time, in movies, books, TV shows (especially sitcoms), where the young girls are just horrible to their parents and they think they know everything. I hate that treatment. So it was very sad to me to write about Meredith, the maternal character with an internal struggle, who just has to accept this behavior because there is nothing more she can do. I think we all snap at people, give someone a dirty look, or even just have a nasty thought that we do not express, and it’s all done without thinking about what might be going on in their life. Bridget does that to Meredith, like so many people do to so many others.

9) When you're not writing, what kinds of books are you reading? What are your favourites right now?

I read lots of different things. I read non-fiction like David Sedaris and Bill Bryson, contemporary fiction like Emily Giffin, classics that I really should have read by now…I read most things! Right now I am in the middle of City of Bones by Cassandra Clare—it’s awesome!

10) Are you allowed to tell us what you're working on next?

I am all about my second book. It’s called The New Girl. It’s kind of a new take on the old Gothic classic Rebecca, with some Sixteen Candles thrown in. A girl goes to Manderley Academy, an austere old boarding school for her senior year. As soon as she arrives, she finds that the empty slot she filled at the school was vacated by Rebecca Normandy. Becca has been missing for months, and everyone was obsessed with her—she was charming, beautiful, and a little crazy. Without wanting to, she finds herself in Becca’s old room, with her old roommate, with her best friends living across the hall—and that she is falling in love with Becca’s old boyfriend.

Quickfire Questions

Favourite soda? Izze Clementine

Ice cream or cakes? Neither. Sour Candy.

Mean girl or ice princess? Mean girl.

Beach or Swimming Pool? Swimming pool on the beach.

Cats or dogs? Always dogs.

Thanks for answering these questions, Paige!

Thank you for the interview!

Annnnd, Harlequin Teen have been so kind to offer one lucky commenter the chance to win a copy of Here Lies Bridget. All you have to do is comment below and be a follower of the blog. It's international too!
Deadline: 30th March.