SCOTT BLAGDEN and his Teen Best Friend

Hurray! Today we get to peer into the secret life of teen boy friends! And who better to do it with than Scott Blagden. Now I've never met Scott, but as SOON as I saw his website I wanted to be his friend. Seriously... Read This I DARE you not to like him!

His book has been on my to-read and I moved it to the top!! It just recently came out and the cover caught my eye immediately!

I think Scott needs to meet my YA writer friend, Geoff Herbach. I am guessing they would get along. And that is a compliment to Scott. Geoff is weird and cool.

Anyhow!!! This is about SCOTT!

SCOTT BLAGDEN grew up in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and now makes his home on the coast near Cape Cod, where he enjoys being a dad to his teenage twins. In addition to writing, he has been self-employed in real estate for thirty years. Dear Life, You Suck is his first novel.

Okay. Let's get to the friends stuff. 

Scott and Tim 1986

Did you have a best friend in high school? If you did, are you still in touch?

SB: Yes, my best friend was Tim Curren and in fact we became best friends in 2^nd grade and are still best friends, which is kind of bizarre considering we’ll both turn 50 this year. He lives in Texas now and I live in Massachusetts so we don’t get to see each other as often as we’d like.

Um. Cool. I never imagine boys staying friends that long, but perhaps that's because I was never a boy! Did you ever have a big fight? What was it about? How did you resolve it?

SB: I remember one major fight and I’m sure there were other minor ones. The major one was kinda sorta my fault. We were driving in his car in high school and we had some fire crackers and I thought it would be funny to light one and throw it out the window (which of course was stupid – kids, don’t try this at home) so I did, but I threw it toward the front of the car and it rolled across the hood and then rolled down behind the hood and into the engine. Tim jammed the brakes on and shut the car off because he was afraid the engine might catch on fire which I suppose was a legitimate concern that I hadn’t considered. Anyway, the car didn’t catch on fire but Tim was really mad and I don’t think we spoke for a couple days but we finally just spoke about it and everything was fine.

Um. This is why I'm nervous about my son turning 16 and getting his driver's license. Pretty funny in retrospect though. Did you have a favorite place where you hung out?

SB: We used to hang out at these sand pits in our town where lots of high school kids hung out on weekends and we’d have bonfires and drink beer and generally act stupid.

Yes. That sounds about right. So, what did you and your best friend most love to do?

SB: Just hang out. No matter where we were or what we were doing, it was always fun because we cracked each other up.

That's awesome. I am definitely getting a sense of your teen self.  So what did you love most about you teenage best friend?

 SB: We had similar senses of humor and that’s what I liked most about our friendship because we were always laughing. Except when the stuff we did in elementary school (like spit Jello out of our mouths at lunchtime or punt footballs through fluorescent lights in classrooms during detention, probably in detention because of the Jello incidents) got us sent to the principal’s office, which was often, or when the teachers would make us move our desks right next to theirs for the whole class, which was humiliating, especially if our desks were still there during parent/teacher conferences, which sometimes happened.

I can't decide if you are more like my husband as a boy or my son. Which kind of scares me. Ha ha. So what did you learn from your best teen friend?

SB: The meaning of loyalty and trust in friendship. We could tell each other anything without the fear of it being used against us even when we weren’t getting along.

That is awesome!!! Again it's so nice to hear about boys/men having that kind of friendship. No wonder you stayed friends! So. Are is your relationship different at this stage in your life? How?

 

SB: Things are extremely different now. We both have families and responsibilities, so we’re “responsible adults” when we’re together, as opposed to “irresponsible idiots” like we were in our younger years. We talk on the phone more than hanging out. And the conversations generally involve adult stuff as opposed to figuring out how to get past the police with our ladder so we can sleep on the high school roof on graduation night.

Probably a good thing for all of us! But the great thing as a YA author is you get to re-visit that part of your life again and again.  YA Authors. We never really grow up!!

Thanks so much Scott, I can't wait to read your book!!!



DEAR LIFE YOU SUCK
by Scott Bagden


Irreverent, foulmouthed seventeen-year-old Cricket is the oldest ward in a Catholic boys’ home in Maine—and his life sucks. With prospects for the future that range from professional fighter to professional drug dealer, he seems doomed to a life of “criminal rapscallinity.” In fact, things look so bleak that Cricket can’t help but wonder if his best option is one final cliff dive into the great unknown. But then Wynona Bidaban steps into his world, and Cricket slowly realizes that maybe, just maybe, life doesn’t totally suck.