BY MINDI SCOTT

Michelle and I thought it would be fun to include interviews here at our blog. So we’ll be doing that sometimes!

As it happens, author Melissa Walker recently answered a few Very Important Questions for me about herself and her newest book, Unbreak My Heart, so she gets to be the first here. Hooray! 🙂

First, I want to tell you, there’s a fun contest going on where you can make a breakup playlist on Spotify for a chance to win an iPod loaded with the soundtrack to Unbreak My Heart (and the book!). You can find out more about that here: https://www.facebook.com/notes/bloomsbury-teens/announcing-the-unbreak-your-heart-playlist-contest-on-spotify/391423114232968

And now for the Very Important Questions!

1. At age eight, what did you want to be when you grew up? And at age eighteen? And while you’re at it, what about at age twenty-eight?

Melissa Walker: I think I wanted to be a vet until I saw some blood. Then at 18, I wanted to be a magazine editor. I did that. And at 28, actually, I got my first book contract, so I changed tracks again–YA writer! Yay!

2. Which Breakfast-Club-style label would have best fit your teenage self?

MW: Of the original Breakfast Club labels, I suppose “princess” would fit best, or maybe “brain.” Princess brain? I remember once my dad told me his college girlfriend was a “Party Girl Genius.” I LOVED that description. I wanted to be THAT. I still try to be, sometimes.

3. Without giving away too much from your newest book, which character or scene from it are you the most pleased to have created, and why?

MW: I love the little sister, Olive. She ran away with her scenes and I had so much fun hearing what came out of her mouth!

4. Which are your favorite movies to watch again and again?

MW: Gone With the Wind, Point Break, Top Gun, Boogie Nights, Goonies… if these are on TV, I’m not going anywhere.

5. And, now, the most important question of all: Beatles or Elvis? Please support your answer. 😉

MW: Ack! As a kid I loved Elvis SO MUCH. I even went to Graceland when I was 18! But now I adore The Beatles. I listened to them while in the hospital giving birth to my daughter, so they win.

Thank you for stopping by, Melissa, and best of luck with your newest book! 

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About Unbreak My Heart:

The year that broke her heart. The summer that healed it. A dual love story.

Sophomore year broke Clementine Williams’ heart. She fell for her best friend’s boyfriend and long story short: he’s excused, but Clem is vilified and she heads into summer with zero social life. Enter her parents’ plan to spend the summer on their sailboat. Normally the idea of being stuck on a tiny boat with her parents and little sister would make Clem break out in hives, but floating away sounds pretty good right now. Then she meets James at one of their first stops along the river. He and his dad are sailing for the summer and he’s just the distraction Clem needs. Can he break down Clem’s walls and heal her broken heart? Told in alternating chapters that chronicle the year that broke Clem’s heart and the summer that healed it, Unbreak My Heart is a wonderful dual love story that fans of Sarah Dessen, Deb Caletti, and Susane Colasanti will flock to.

About the author: MELISSA WALKER is the author of Small Town Sinners, the Violet on the Runway series and Lovestruck Summer. She has worked as ELLEgirl Features Editor and Seventeen Prom Editor. Melissa manages I Heart Daily, an e-newsletter and blogs for ReaderGirlz, an online community for teens. A Chapel Hill, NC native, Melissa now lives in Brooklyn, NY. http://www.melissacwalker.com