1--What is the title of your latest release?
A THOUSAND MILES
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Dee and Ben, estranged best friends who haven’t spoken in a decade, reunite for the ten-year reunion road trip they promised each other back in high school that they’d take.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
The story opens in Chicago. I’m from Oak Forest, which is a southwest suburb of Chicago, and I went to college in the city. This is my fourth novel. Up until now I’ve never officially set a book in Chicago. So it felt like time! As for the road trip element, the particular journey Dee and Ben take—Illinois to Colorado—is one I have driven dozens of times in my life. That certainly helped when it came to the research aspect of this book.
4--Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?
Absolutely. She is bold and entertaining, and I know she’d be a blast. But I wouldn’t go on her podcast. My secrets are for me and me alone! Sorry Dee!
5--What are three words that describe your hero?
Charming, sensitive, sweet
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I learned that while I love writing big ensemble stories, I also really adore doing a super close study of two people. For most of the book, it is only Dee and Ben, so I felt like I really got to know them while writing. I genuinely didn’t know I could do that!
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I absolutely edit as I draft. It can be one of my worst habits, because instead of writing new parts of my book, I will revisit what I have already worked on, like I’m just polishing up my own little trophy museum. And the poor rest of my book is waiting to be written. I now make myself draft at least ten thousand words at a time before I allow myself go back and revisit.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
I feel terribly boring because I just don’t know a lot about food! I’ve been a vegetarian since age seven, which really limited the choices available to me in suburban Chicago in the late nineties and beyond. As a result, I have a very simple palate. As long as it involves cheese, bread, or eggs, I’m gonna enjoy it! And being a Chicago girl, I will always love a square cut thin crust cheese pizza. Give me the tiny edge pieces all day every day.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
My writing space is a desk in my bedroom. It’s not the dreamiest of locations, but I live in a two-bedroom apartment with a friend, so I have to make do. My room is all corals and oranges. Like being inside a peach sorbet. That part is very nice!
10--Who is an author you admire?
I really love Jenny Han. Her books are so tender and impactful, and I love the care she’s put into sharing them with us and into the way they’ve been packaged for tv and film. Her presence in all angles is really obvious and felt, and it’s so satisfying to be a longtime fan and see her continue to get her very deserved flowers.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
Answer: I really mean it when I say The Hunger Games. When I first finished reading that series, I immediately started writing my first book. As in I read the last line of Mockingjay at like 2:07am and decided to write a novel at 8:07am the same day. Before that moment, I did not have so much as a passing thought about writing a book. I was an actor! But suddenly I was cranking out an entire manuscript like my life had been building to it, which in retrospect it totally had, but I did not see it until reading The Hunger Games. At the end of 2021, I reread the series, and they are all truly magnificent books. Master classes in pacing, plotting, characterization, worldbuilding, romance. All of it! I owe my career to you, Suzanne Collins!
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)
This book was the second in a two-book deal, so it doesn’t have a fun story attached to it. BUT! I can tell you how I found out the first book in that deal, Love Scenes, was going to be published. I was sitting outside a Pepboys, on the phone with a different auto shop, getting a quote for how much it would cost to replace the alternator in my junky old car. I missed the initial call from my agent because I was pricing car parts. So I wrapped up my car part quoting, spoke with my agent, got very excited, drove my halfway-dying car to a cheaper auto shop, then called my loved ones and told them the news.
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
Definitely romance. It’s so comforting to always know that happily ever after awaits me at the end of the book. And I love all the creative ways authors find to get readers to that finish line. There is so much creativity within the conventions. I could never get tired of it.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
This is an impossible question for me, because there are certain movies for certain moods. Like when fall hits, I have to watch Practical Magic. December rolls around and I’m firing up While You Were Sleeping like it’s my seasonal job. Been a bad day? I’m putting on You’ve Got Mail. Needing a boost of purehearted nostalgia? Rookie of the Year it is. This is by no means exhaustive, by the way. Just a sample platter of the way movies play into my life.
15--What is your favorite season?
I live in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, where the seasons are like summer, summer but hotter, summer but it’s sweltering, rain week, and oh wow it’s a little chilly! So my favorite season is probably the beautiful and surprising transition from summer but sweltering into oh wow, it’s a little chilly! Any chance to bust out a coat is meaningful.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
It really depends on the year. I am the head coach of a competitive gymnastics team, and my birthday often lands smack dab in the middle of my competitive gymnastics season. So sometimes I am at a gymnastics meet on my birthday, which is a very full circle thing for me since I grew up doing the sport. But if I am lucky enough to have the day off, I like to spend it with friends. For my thirtieth birthday, I threw my own gymnastics competition for adults, and I competed in it! It was February 2020, right before the whole world changed. I am so glad I did it because nothing will ever top that for me.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Heartstopper is SO sweet and precious.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Pizza. The cuisine of pizza.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
I really enjoy taking a walk around my neighborhood. Or any neighborhood, really. Getting outside and experiencing the way a certain area feels.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
Next spring, I will be releasing a queer romance called THAT SUMMER FEELING, about a recently divorced woman who signs up for an adults-only sleepaway summer camp, where she thinks she’s been reunited with the man of her dreams, only to realize she’s falling for his sister instead.
Dee Matthews is the cohost of the smash-hit podcast Did I Forget To Tell You?, where she interviews family, friends, and past lovers. Nothing is off limits, except for one man (known on the show only as Name Redacted) who happens to be her high school best friend Ben. During their senior year spring break, Dee and Ben took a road trip to visit Ben’s grandma. They buried a time capsule in her backyard, pledging to return in ten years to open it. Then their friendship fell apart in spectacular fashion. They haven’t spoken to each other since.
Ben Porter’s life since that moment has been unexciting but comfortable, until his grandma reveals a family secret that flips his whole world upside down. Her dying wish is for him to stop doing what is safest and go after what he really wants. He starts by showing up on Dee’s doorstep with every intention of fulfilling their long-ago promise. Despite her reservations, Dee can’t say no. This trip could be her chance to give her listeners the Name Redacted interview they’ve been begging for—and finally put her unresolved feelings for Ben to rest.
As the miles fly by, Dee and Ben's friendship reignites. But the closer they get to reaching their destination, the more apparent it becomes that their attraction to each other cannot be ignored. Their last adventure ended in disaster, and they’re about to find out if any hope of a future together is in the rear view mirror.
Romance Contemporary | Romance Comedy | Women's Fiction Contemporary [Berkley, On Sale: June 21, 2022, Trade Size / e-Book, ISBN: 9780593201176 / eISBN: 9780593201183]
Bridget Morrissey lives in Los Angeles, California, but hails from Oak Forest, Illinois. When she’s not writing, she can be found coaching gymnastics or headlining concerts in her living room.
Her adult debut, LOVE SCENES, releases in the summer of 2021. Her first two YA novels, WHAT YOU LEFT ME and WHEN THE LIGHT WENT OUT are both out now.
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