Heather McBreen Interview - Wedding Dashers ~ JeanBookNerd

Photo Content from Heather McBreen

Heather McBreen currently lives in Seattle, WA, but spent the best year of her life living in London where she completed an MA degree in arts and cultural management. When she’s not writing or reading books about kissing, she can be found surfing the web for travel deals and plotting her next adventure. Wedding Dashers is her debut novel.

Greatest thing you learned at school.

How to write! I still remember my very intimidating 10th grade English teacher staring down the class and telling us that this was the year we would either figure out how to write, or we wouldn’t.

When/how did you realize you had a creative dream or calling to fulfill?

Is it dorky if I say I think I always knew? I’ve been making up stories basically my whole life, and I think there was a part of me that always knew I would write a book. It was just a matter of building up the stamina and determination to do it.

Beyond your own work (of course), what is your all-time favorite book and why? And what is your favorite book outside of your genre?

My favorite book of all-time, any genre, is Beach read by Emily Henry. Nothing has ever made me feel the way that books has. It’s a masterclass in tension and fraught encounters (my favorite kind!) and I often return to it hoping to feel a fraction of the magic I felt the first time I read it. It’s truly a perfect book.

What advice would you give to someone who wanted to have a life in writing?

I think there’s a lot of advice out there about growing a thick skin and learning to let things roll off your back, and while I totally understand the advice and why it’s important, I would also say that softness is what allows you to write with empathy and compassion. It’s a feature, not a bug, and something you should try to preserve and protect as much as you can.

Why is storytelling so important for all of us?
Can you tell us when you started WEDDING DASHERS , how that came about? Yes! I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when the idea came to me. I’d had two separate ideas pinging around in my head for a while: one about two strangers who meet on a layover and find out they are both headed to the same destination wedding, and another about a pair of enemies-to-lovers who find themselves in a situation where they must pretend they are married in order to secure lodging for the night. I had the realization that I could combine these two into one story, and thus the idea for WEDDING DASHERS was born. I think I waited about ten minutes before I dove in and started writing.

TEN RANDOM FACTS ABOUT WEDDING DASHERS

The designer of Allison’s veil, Demi Karina Custom Bridal, is my real life best friend who does in fact own her own custom bridal business. She made my veil when I got married, and as my Maid of Honor, was in charge of transporting it to Mexico for the wedding.
I have the same tattoo––a compass on my wrist––that Ada designs for Jack
I also had a destination wedding, though with far less drama and antics.
I got the idea for Jack’s zebra print eye mask when I came to bed and found my husband wearing one and couldn’t stop laughing.
Jack and Ada’s experience driving on the left hand side of the road was inspired by the time my dad and I rented a car in Edinburgh and drove to St. Andrews. We had dozens of people give us the “peace sign” before realizing we were being flipped off.
When writing the scene where Jack changes a tire, I had to watch a YouTube video on how to change a tire since I myself don’t know
The scene where Jack and Ada watch the naked dating TV show is inspired by the time my British friend showed me this exact show while I was living in England. Like Ada, I couldn’t believe full frontal nudity was allowed on cable TV in the UK.
The setting for this story was very much influenced by my time living in England during grad school, and all the traveling I did while I was there
Unlike my characters, I actually don’t like pizza that much, and when I do eat it, I’m definitely with Jack. Pizza and pineapple don’t mix.
Just like Ada’s sister, Allison, The Parent Trap is also my favorite comfort movie.

What was your favorite subject when you were in school and why?

Surprise, surprise, it was language arts!

What is your greatest adventure? Writing and publishing books!

It’s a wild ride!

What is your most memorable travel experience?

My most formative travel experience was definitely the first time I went abroad. I was 16 and it was on a WWII tour of Europe with my high school class. We spent a whirlwind nine days traveling between Berlin, Amsterdam, Normandy and Paris and I’m pretty sure to this day nothing has ever felt as seismic as that trip did to my 16-year-old self

What do you usually think about right before falling asleep?

It’s always an idea for a story that I think is AMAZING in the moment, but not-so-great when I wake up the next morning. Or, conversely, it actually is great, but I don’t remember it because I didn’t write it down!

After a case of mistaken identity and an almost one-night stand, two stranded wedding guests have to find their way to their final destination together, in this riotously fun debut romance.

Ada’s little sister is getting married. Which should be a happy thought, right? But the once close sisters have been in a year long fight, the wedding is all the way in Ireland, and Ada is so broke that she just barely managed to get a ticket on a budget airline. And as if things couldn’t get worse, said airline just cancelled her connection. Which means Ada is stuck in London with no way to make it to the wedding.

Surely she’s hit rock bottom?

So, there’s no reason for her not to spill her heart out about the over-the-top wedding, her sister’s worryingly quick engagement, and the womanizing best man she’s dreading meeting to a handsome also-stranded stranger at the bar. Until she realizes the stranger is headed to the same wedding. Oh, and he’s the infamous best man.

Now, Jack and Ada must put their simmering attraction behind them to make it to Belfast before they miss the nuptials. But between flat tires, missed trains, and suspect hostels, Jack and Ada start to question whether their feelings are worth going the distance, or just a distracting detour along the way.

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