I have the pleasure of blogging about Melissa Senate's current release, The Breakup Club (Red Dress Ink) .



(Doesn't it look like a great book? More about the book later in this post)

Here's what I asked her:

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR TYPICAL “WRITING DAY”?

DO YOU RECALL THE KERNEL OF INSPIRATION FOR THIS BOOK?

PICK A CHARACTER IN THE BOOK AND TELL US WHAT TRAIT YOU SHARE (OR COME CLOSEST TO SHARING) WITH THAT CHARACTER.

IF YOU WERE STUCK ON A DESERT ISLAND, WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE A MAGICAL TRUNK THAT GAVE YOU LIMITLESS BOOKS TO READ, OR A LIMITLESS SUPPLY OF PAPER ON WHICH TO WRITE?

BEER OR WINE?

CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA?

WHAT’S YOUR ALL-TIME FAVORITE BOOK?

And here are Melissa's fabulous answers!

Typical writing day: My typical writing day is all wrong for me. (I have to do something about that.) I have a good chunk of hours for writing every day, but theyre at the wrong time--between 10am and 2pm, when my son is in preschool. In a dream world, I would wake up at 6 a.m. every day and write for four hours, then do promotion/emails/stories/essays for a couple of hours in the evening. But alas, my son wakes up at 5:30 a.m. and wants to play "Mommy, be a scary monster and chase me" for those four hours until school starts. So I'm trying to learn how to force myself to work when it's not the most comfortable time to do so. After playing Monster for four hours, I usually just want to take a nap!

The inspiration for The Breakup Club: A friend who'd had the courage to leave a bad marriage said to me one day, "Thank God I have my breakup club meeting tonight" (or something to that effect). She and a group of coworkers (male and female) met for lunch/drinks/dinner to commiserate and cry and share and cheer each other on, and I was so inspired that my four main characters immediately came to life. I was so interested in exploring how coworkers who have nothing in common but work, or resent/hate each other's guts can become like family. I was also a bit inspired by having worked at Harlequin Books for ten years when I was single and going through some big breakups--reading about happily ever after is very comforting but also hard to do when you're heartbroken. So I have my four breakup club members, who work at a publishing house, forced to work on a high-profile celebrity biography about perfect love.

Character whose trait I share: This is very strange, especially because there are four main characters in The Breakup Club, but I'm nothing like any of them! I usually put a lot of my own life/experiences in my novels, but except for the publishing house setting, there's so little of "me" in these book, in these characters. These four characters almost wrote themselves--their personalities were so strong but so wildly different from mine.

Magical trunk: Limitless books to read. I can always make up my own stories in my head or telll them to a fish or a coconut, but I can't make up other people's. I need other authors' books.

Wine, red and in a great glass

Chocolate!

All-time favorite book is Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. For a period of time when I was around eleven, I walked around saying, "My name is Anne with an E." I love, love, love that book.

Great answers, Melissa!

Here's a bit more about the book:

"In The BREAKUP CLUB, Melissa Senate tackles the issue of breakups through the alternating viewpoints of four very different characters in this hilarious and moving tale. Refreshingly, Senate's book isn't about landing a new partner; it's about four people who learn that being alone isn't so bad, as long as you have friends. Some of the characters have new romantic prospects by the end of the book, but the main point Senate delivers is that a breakup isn't the worst thing in the world. HE BREAKUP CLUB was a thoroughly enjoyable, absorbing, quick read. And because it's about new resolutions and starting fresh, it's the perfect Lit Chick pick to kick off 2006! Happy reading!"
--Kristin Harmel, aka The Daily Buzz's Lit Chick
and author of How To Sleep With a Movie Star

You can learn more at http://www.melissasenate.com