Fiction Scribe

Dear readers, this week we have the author of a very powerful book joining us. Judy Gregerson’s Bad Girls Club is a story of strength and secrets, trials and family loyalty.

Please join me in welcoming Judy to Fiction Scribe.

Hello and thank you for stopping at Fiction Scribe, Ms. Gregerson. Tell the readers a bit about yourself.

Well, I’m the mother of two college-age daughter. I have a great husband who’s very supportive of everything I do. My background is in advertising and publishing and I’ve worked for a couple of big daily newspapers. I live in the Pacific Northwest but grew up on the eastern end of Long Island which is very much like Cape Cod. I’m a hermit who loves people, so I can be happy if I’m out with people or if I’m home alone.

What brought you into the world of writing? When did you start?

I was always interested in writing. But in my twenties I started working on my first book, Save Me! A Young Woman’s Journey Through Schizophrenia to Health. I had a writer friend who encouraged me and I was very, very fortunate in that the first editor I sent my book to bought it. After that book, I took a long break, left NYC, moved to Seattle, started a family and then came back to writing.

You’re currently on virtual tour for your novel Bad Girls Club. Could you tell us a bit about the book?

Bad Girls Club is a story told by Destiny, a seventeen-year-old who desperately wants to save her mentally ill mother and make her well and also rescue her little sister from her mom’s outbursts. Her dad is clueless about how bad things are. He just won’t face it. And one summer, the whole family spirals out of control and Destiny has to make life and death decisions for herself and her sister.

What inspired you to write Bad Girls Club? Where did the idea begin?

That’s a long story, but I was inspired by a man who was locked in the house by his mom who then set it on fire before she walked away. I think my own childhood of living with two alcoholic parents and a family that literally crumbled one summer really helped me get into the character’s head.

What character do you relate to the most and why?

Well, aside from loving them all, I do like Chloe, the main character’s best friend. I modelled her on my best friend in high school. She’s the kind of character who is strong and loyal and will stand by you no matter what. Friends like that are hard to find in high school and I felt that my main character needed someone like that in her life—even if she doesn’t listen to her.

What is your favourite part of the book?

My favourite part of the book is what I call the emotional core which starts on about page 110 and grabs you by the neck, throws you in a roller coaster seat, and demands that you take the ride. That section of the book was written in an 18 hour session and little of it has been changed since I first wrote it.

What draws you about writing about young adults?

I don’t consider myself an exclusively young adult writer. I write for people of all ages and I write about what interests me and what I feel I have to say to a reader. My book could have been published as young adult or adult, and it has successfully crossed over from one genre to the other, so I don’t want to slot myself in any particular genre. I love coming of age stories of all kinds, but particularly of people fighting great odds or trying to survive something terrible. Weird, I know. But that’s what I like and it’s also what I like to write.

Bad Girls Club deals with abuse and mental illness. What kind of research did you do for the book?

Bad Girls Club deals with abuse and mental illness but it also deals with another issue that a lot of people miss because they don’t know much about it. While abuse and mental illness get a lot of press, parentification doesn’t. Parentification is when a child becomes the parent and the parent becomes the child. It’s a role reversal that happens every day all over the world as the child takes responsibility for the family because the parent is mentally ill, an alcoholic, a drug abuser, disabled, etc.

Usually the child is a strong personality. They become the “helper� and then eventually they start taking care of everyone because someone has to. They feel responsible for the problems in the family. And they are robbed of their childhood because they’re acting like little adults.

As to research – I read and read and read. I read books by mental patients, by psychiatrists, by therapists, by family members with mentally illness in their family, etc. And I used my own experience as a parentified child when I wrote the book.

Are there any authors who have inspired you in your writing?

You know, I am inspired by Linda Joy Singleton. She’s published 20 some books and has been at this a long time. She’s had dry spells where nothing would sell and yet she keeps trying.

Recently she sold a series after years of trying to sell one and she also got an agent after years of querying agents. She has a commitment to writing that I admire.

What are you working on now?

Aside from marketing Bad Girls Club, I’m trying to sell a humor book and I’m working on another story about a girl whose mother deserts her in a grocery store parking lot and leaves her with her eccentric extended family.

What are your dreams for your writing?

Well, once I had a one year plan. That quickly became the five year plan. Now it’s the 10 year plan. Well, I’ve hit ten years now. So, I’m moving that to the fifteen year plan. But my dream is to find my readers. There are people out there would will totally relate to my book, people of all ages, and those are the people I want to find. And of course, I want to get rich.

When you’re not writing novels, what do you do? How do you find time to write?

I do some freelance PR work and I go to college part time now. I travel in the summer sometimes. Last summer I travelled around Washington State and stopped in to meet lots of librarians on my way. And when I really want to spend time on writing, I just suspend all other activities and do it.

Do you have any advice for writers?

Find your voice. Believe in yourself. Don’t listen to the negatives. There are many negatives in this business and if you allow them to drown you, you’re going to have a hard time getting out of that pit. I know–I’ve been there. Keep your head clear, write about what you want, find a few people who write better than you and get them to critique your work.

Never change anything unless you hear from 3 or more people that you must and make sure that you know why you’re changing something and why it will make your story better. Don’t sell yourself short and don’t give yourself away too cheaply.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you!

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If you liked this interview, check out my interview with Darrell Bain