Best Friends with Melissa Walker

Today we're talking to Melissa Walker about best friends! Here's what Melissa had to say when I asked her to share about her teen best friend!

MW: I'm so excited that you're writing a book that deals with this. My latest, Unbreak My Heart, is also focused on a friend breakup and I think it's so valuable for YA  novels to deal with this. YAY!

Here's the blurb for UNBREAK MY HEART!

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.(less)

I am ashamed I haven't read this one yet, but it has ZIPPED TO THE TOP of my TBR book! So yummy! 

I also had such a painful friendship break up, which kind of inspired HOW I LOST YOU! Now let's talk about Melissa!!  Did you have a best friend in high school? If you did, are you still in touch in any way? How involved are you in each other’s lives now?

MW: Yes! I’m still in touch with all of my best friends from high school, and a few of us take an annual trip together to stay close.

Girl trips. OMG! So jealous! If applicable tell us about a time when a best friend betrayed you.  How old were you? Did you ever make up?  How did you handle it?

MW: I was often in the betrayer role, to be honest. I think I was insecure, wanting to prove my worth socially. I was a big gossip in high school, which was obnoxious of me. It led to fights. One is chronicled here:

http://www.melissacwalker.com/i_was_a_real_life_gossip_girl/

That is so delightfully honest and poignant, thank you for sharing! We all do things that are less than perfect, and admitting it is so admirable! So, looking at things another way, what did you love most about you teenage best friend?

MW: I don’t think I’ll ever feel known by anyone as well as I’m known by the people who knew me in high school. In some ways I think they get the core of who I am, even though I’ve changed a lot. That’s what I love most about best friends from back then.

Yes. Those relationships and times were so powerful and potent and so BIG. Things do change when we make room for husbands and children and well, life! So what drove you most crazy about your teenage best friend?

The way they know me—too well.

Ah ha ha. I TOTALLY get that. My high school friends know things about me that my friends today would be SHOCKED by. SHOCKED. I find it kind of hilarious. I've grown a lot. (I hope)

Thanks so much, Melissa for your honest and wonderful posts!!! I look forward to UNBREAK MY HEART!!

Melissa Walker is a writer who has worked as ELLEgirl Features Editor and Seventeen Prom Editor. All in the name of journalism, she has spent 24 hours with male models and attended an elite finishing school for girls in New Zealand, among other hardships.

She co-founded I Heart Daily with fellow ex-ELLEgirl Anne Ichikawa in 2009. It’s a daily newsletter about likable stuff.

Melissa lives in Brooklyn and has a BA in English from Vassar College. She would tell you her SAT scores too, but, you know, the math part was hard.

 She loves meeting teenagers, and is game to speak at your library or school about writing, books, fashion, magazines or pop culture (but, you know, in a smart way).