Let’s Welcome Jenna Bayley-Burke Author of: JUST MARRIED

Let’s Welcome

Jenna Bayley-Burke

Author of:

Rad-Reader:  Where did the idea for this book come from?

Jenna:  Sometimes stories come from the ether, and sometimes you hear them at the coffee shop. Don't talk so loud if you don't want me telling your story. Or combining your story with four others. It's what I do.

Rad-Reader:  Callum seemed to have wanted to make a game of everything.  Why?

Jenna:  I think in my generation there are a lot of guys who don't want to grow up emotionally. They don't want to be responsible for all that comes with taking a relationship to the next level. Peter Pan syndrome at its finest.

Rad-Reader:  Miranda loved Callum since the day she saw him at orientation.  Why didn’t she ever tell him?

Jenna:  After her parents died, Miranda had to stay with her aunt. She learned how to stay under the radar, fade into the walls. It takes a while to build confidence from that place. By the time she did, she and Cal were already settled into their rhythm. He's always been honest about not wanting the kind of future she wants. So, she sees no point in it. 

Rad-Reader:  Did Miranda feel less than everyone else in general or did Callum and the others make her feel that way by accident?

Jenna:  I think life made her feel that way. She wants to have a family, but biology conspired against her. She loves being around people, but spent half her childhood on a tiny island with an aunt who only encouraged reading. Her friends are living the life she'd dreamed of, but she's in love with a guy across the country who has no interest in that kind of life. 

Rad-Reader:  Callum always felt he had to buy his friends and yet he never did anything to really change that by spending more time with them and giving of himself like Mira did.  Or did he try?

Jenna:  I don't think he knew how to try. Throwing money at a problem is what his parents did, so it's natural to him to try it now. Plus, he feels awkward around kids because he was never allowed to be one.

Rad-Reader:  Was it Mira who all through the years that had really kept them all friends?  By keeping him included on gifts as giving a gift when it was Miranda and including him for invites?

Jenna:  Exactly. Her friends are her family, so she keeps the circle as tight as possible. 

Rad-Reader:  Callum’s mother was a meddler but was it really to be mean and snobby?  Or was it because she was lonely and wanted someone to love and a grandchild was a way to make up for how she raised Callum?

Jenna:  Bridie is interesting. She's mostly seen through Miranda's lens, and Mira's utterly confused by her. There are hints at her story, but it's never told. She's an elitist, but her dismissive attitude toward Mira before the wedding was out of frustration. She was Wendy to his Peter Pan, and Peter never did grow up.

Rad-Reader:  Was his mother ever in love with his father or was there never love and just an arrangement like Callum was trying to arrange minus the children?  Is that what Callum kept reacting to?

Jenna:  Oh there was a big love there. And a big betrayal. A couple of them. Cal thinks it was the exchange of an heir for money to save her company, but it wasn't. She stayed because she loved him, even though he'd taken away what she needed most.

Rad-Reader:  His godfather Mickey was a good influence on him.  Why was he messing with Mira when they were first married and signing all the paperwork?  Did he not like her?

Jenna:  Mickey liked her, he liked anyone who was good for Cal. There is a lot of paperwork when you get married - now multiply that by an international textile firm and a holding company overseeing twenty or so businesses. Mira didn't want to be the beneficiary for the estate, so she didn't want to sign them and wanted to explain why. 

Rad-Reader:  When Mira finds out she is pregnant Callum wants her to make changes in her life and do all these things that should not have mattered.  He thinks when moving to New York.  Why did he get so crazy?

Jenna:  His thoughts are jumbled. This had never even ran through his mind before. That's why his stance shifts from a bicoastal quasi-marriage to a traditional one. Slowly. Takes him a while to get there.

Rad-Reader:  Do you think Callum just wanted Mira to say she wanted and needed him?  Because no one ever really did.  At least not in a true and loving way.

Jenna: Miranda didn't need him. She was in a place where being a single parent wouldn't be a problem financially, and she had the support network of her friends. She wanted him to love those boys as much as she did. Seeing him be as indifferent to her children as her aunt was to her would be more than she could handle.  
Rad-Reader:  Not for or about anything else but for her heart that she needed and loved him.  He was just as afraid as she was for he had no experience also. So it appeared they were talking asking for the same thing but had no words to talk the same language to get it.  It took time and love.

***

Rad-Reader:  Being connected to his homeland of Scotland meant a lot to Callum even though he and his dad weren’t close.  How and why?

Jenna:  He's disconnected from his parents, but not from his history. He was sent there for boarding school when he was six, so he grew up there. And Peter Pan needs a Neverland.

Rad-Reader:  When did you know that you wanted to be a writer?

Jenna:  I don't remember ever not wanting to be a writer. I didn't see it as a viable career until I sold my first book.

Rad-Reader:  What did you do for yourself when you sold your first book?

Jenna:  So anti-climactic. My first sale was to Mills & Boon, the London side of Harlequin. My 'call' came before the sun was up. Too early to call and tell anyone, and my husband was like 'good job, I have to get to work.' So, my toddlers and I had a dance party in the living room. It wore them out enough for a long nap so I could get to working on the next book!

Rad-Reader:  If your book was made into a movie who would you have play…

Miranda:  Kristen Kreuk

http://fabzz.com/wp-content/uploads/celebrities/kristin-kreuk/portrait-photoshoot/Kristin%20Kreuk%20Photoshoot-10.jpg 

Callum:  Richard Madden

http://i.dlisted.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/wenn22183271.jpg

Bridie:  Don't have a name a Pinterest find.

http://www.short-haircut.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Best-Short-Haircut-For-Women-Over-50.jpg

Jenna:

Miranda:  Shailene Woodley

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/375065475190791593/

Callum:  Theo James

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/79798224622449513/

Bridie:  Joan Allen
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/559642691171740837/

Rad-Reader:  What song new or old reminds you or your storyline or characters?

 Tangled Up In You - Aaron Lewis

Jenna:  I heard Kelsea Ballerini - Peter Pan and thought - that idea was floating all around the universe. I'm glad it visited me too so I could give it a HEA.

                                                           

Rad-Reader:  OMG!  It was a toss up between this song and the one I picked.  Hahaha!  So, this worked out great.  I got both of the songs that spoke to me about the characters.  

***

Rad-Reader:  What is your next project?  When will it be out?

Jenna:  Snowed In comes out this November. A friends to lovers fling that has them stranded by a freak snowstorm. They have all this time to be together and talk through their issues, build back trust, and have hilarious adventures as our city girl tries to keep up with her outdoorsy guy. The snowshoeing scene is my favorite. 

Rad-Reader:  Where can our readers find your books?

Jenna:  Kindle | Nook | Kobo | iTunes      

Rad-Reader:  Where can our readers find you on the Web?

Jenna:  Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Goodreads | 

Jenna Bayley-Burke

www.jennabayleyburke.com

Best-selling author Jenna Bayley-Burke

Jenna,

Thank you so much for agreeing to be with us.  You are by far the fastest of all the authors we have had return all or the questions and all the things needed for the promos within a couple of hours.  Do you hear bagpipes that Callum is playing in your honor? J Hahaha!  You are such a good sport.  This was such a great book to read so funny and so alive with all the thinks Callum had going on.  It was emotional too.  But it had it’s HEA so it made so worth the read.  You are now one of 1 Rad-Reader Misfits believe me you might be smiling now but when you know how truly crazy we are maybe not. :0)~

Come by and visit anytime & thanks again,

Char