Bridget Morrissey Interview - Love Scenes

Photo Credit: Provvidenza Catalano

Bridget Morrissey lives in Los Angeles, California, where the novel is set. A former actor who has appeared in a number of commercials, Morrissey offers readers a vivid and realistic behind-the-scenes look at the makings of a film―and all the backstage happenings that take place when the camera’s not around. With careful research and insight from other actors, Morrissey delivers readers a meticulous look at the set of a Hollywood production.

        

  

Why is storytelling so important for all of us?

Storytelling helps us make sense of the world. It’s how we shape not only the narrative of our own life, but the narrative of our collective existence. The stories we tell inform the actions we take, and the stories we read help to broaden our perspective. It’s truly so amazing, when I really sit and think about it. Of course, not all stories are good. Even then, we learn what we don’t like, or what we don’t believe.

Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.

Definitely receiving reader emails from people who have loved my work. It’s so emotional and beautiful to share that level of connection with a complete stranger. I will never get over that part.

Tell us your latest news.

In the back of the LOVE SCENES paperback, there’s a sneak peek at my next adult romance, coming summer 2022! I am really excited for readers to see what’s next from me.

Tell us about LOVE SCENES! What inspired you to write this story?

LOVE SCENES poured out of me at a time when I wanted to create something really fun. My YA books are a lot more intense. They explore death and dying, focusing really heavily on what grief does to us. So in an attempt to go somewhere lighter, I started working on a book based on a dream I’d had. The dream was about two actors with a weighty past shooting a movie together. I woke up and immediately started fleshing the idea out as much as I could, and soon enough, LOVE SCENES was born!

What do you hope for readers to be thinking when they read your novel?

I hope they’re thinking about family and forgiveness, because those two things are very intertwined throughout the book. But mostly, I hope they’re entertained! Real life is so hard, and romance in particular provides such a beautiful escape. There is a lot of room to reflect on difficult topics within my book, but there is also a lot of good old fashioned entertainment. That balance was really important to me.

What part of Sloane did you enjoy writing the most?

She was a really fun character all around. I enjoyed examining her relationship to herself and her family most of all. She’s the oldest of four. I am the youngest of five. Getting to write from the opposite end of a sibling spectrum was really challenging and engaging for me. What would it be like to be at the front of the pack?

If you could introduce one of your characters to any character from another book, who would it be and why?

To be honest, I’d probably like for all of my YA characters and adult characters to meet, just because those are the fictional characters I know best, but I genuinely have no idea what it would look like to have all of them interact. In my mind palace, they are all on some sort of vacation together. Obviously everyone in Love Scenes is famous, so it might complicate the dynamics even further.

What was the single worst distraction that kept you from writing this book?

I wrote this book in 2019, aka Before The Pandemic, so I can’t even remember anymore! Probably my phone? Almost definitely. Doing my scrollies, sucked into the social media world.

TEN QUOTES FROM LOVE SCENES

• 1. It’s a good old-fashioned nepotistic family circus over here.
• 2. I am thirty years old, my career hanging on by a fraying thread, only here because of a very embarrassing opening in my schedule that’s allowed me to be completely free for the next five weeks.
• 3. I’d figured if my family was going to write a role for me opposite the guy who almost made me quit the business, someone might have mentioned it in the group chat once or twice.
• 4. I know better than to be duped by a man this charming. This is exactly how I got an entire album written about my shortcomings.
• 5. Does everyone assume I’m going to end up sleeping with Joseph Donovan, including Joseph Donovan?
• 6. How did I end up nothing more than an ungrateful product of nepotism, biting every hand that ever fed me?
• 7. For a person who chose a life in the spotlight, there has yet to be a glare quite as harsh as my entire family casting judgment upon me all at once.
• 8. We can break it down into scheduling and costumes and location shoots and hair colors and script changes, but at the end of the day, this is a movie about Joseph Donovan and me as lovers.
• 9. “You really haven’t lived until you’ve seen your mom make out with your old stepmom.”
• 10. There are so many things happening in my life that I don’t understand, but this simple truth will always exist: I will always need one of my sisters beside me under my covers, whispering into the darkness with me.

Writing Behind the Scenes

My writing process looks a little different now than it did pre-Covid, but the bones are the same. In the before times, I loved to go to a coffee shop to work. There is something really appealing about writing in public. The energy reminds me of what I am trying to capture. But once I started working exclusively at home, I became even more reliant on my foundational habits.

I start with music. The playlist has to evoke the mood of the book. For LOVE SCENES, that meant a lot of classic rock. With my upcoming 2022 release, I have been leaning heavily into the indie rock of the early aughts. Once the music is going, I need my coffee. Now that I make all of my own, I either do a cold brew with oat milk, cinnamon and a drizzle of honey, or I brew pourover and top it off with some frothed up oat milk. So long as I have these two things (and my laptop), I am pretty much set. Sunlight helps, so I’ve moved my desk to face my window. And then the rest sort of feels like magic. (Very time consuming magic that involves a lot of sighing.) 

Acting like she's in love with her handsome nightmare of a co-star--in a movie directed and produced by her complicated Hollywood royalty family--is Sloane's job. But what happens when the lines between script and reality get blurred?

Out-of-work actress Sloane Ford is in desperate need of something to do after losing her steady TV gig. When her famous family ropes her into working as a producer on their World War II-era romance, they neglect to mention that the film will be headlined by Joseph Donovan, her least favorite former co-star of all time. The roguish actor made her life a living hell the last time they worked together, using his movie star good looks and Irish charm to cover for his erratic professional behavior. On their new film set, he promises he's different now, but Sloane is far from convinced.

As filming gets underway, it becomes clear that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. When the lead actress is abruptly fired, Sloane agrees to step in and take over the role, and she starts to remember why she fell in love with acting in the first place. On camera, she and Joseph share an electric chemistry. Off camera, they've been honing their characters and, much to Sloane's surprise, growing closer. But playing the role of a woman in love with Joseph Donovan is a dangerous business, and the more time they spend together, the less Sloane can tell what's real between them, and what's just for show.

You can purchase Love Scenes at the following Retailers:

        

1 Winner will receive a $10 Amazon Gift Card.

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