A new YA release and a few questions with the author... This is Not a Love Scene by S.C. Megale (Interview)


Welcome! Check out a short Q&A with the author of this new YA release below...

This is Not a Love Scene
By S.C. Megale
YA Contemporary
Paperback & ebook, 320 Pages
May 7th 2019 by Wednesday Books

Summary

"This Is Not A Love Scene rings brilliantly true from the first page to the last." —David Baldacci, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Funny, emotional, and refreshingly honest, S.C. Megale’s This is Not a Love Scene is for anyone who can relate to feeling different while navigating the terrifying and thrilling waters of first love.

Lights, camera—all Maeve needs is action. But at eighteen, a rare form of muscular dystrophy usually stands in the way of romance. She's got her friends, her humor, and a passion for filmmaking to keep her focus off consistent rejection...and the hot older guy starring in her senior film project.

Tall, bearded, and always swaying, Cole Stone is everything Maeve can't be. And she likes it. Between takes, their chemistry is shockingly electric.

Suddenly, Maeve gets a taste of typical teenage dating life, but girls in wheelchairs don’t get the hot guy—right? Cole’s attention challenges everything she once believed about her self-image and hopes for love. But figuring this out, both emotionally and physically, won't be easy for either of them. Maeve must choose between what she needs and what she wants, while Cole has a tendency to avoid decisions altogether. And the future might not wait for either.

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Author Q&A

What inspired you to write a story with a protagonist who has a rare form of muscular dystrophy, and can you tell us more about her disease?

I wasn't inspired to write a protagonist with a disability. I was inspired to write a protagonist in love. That being said, I'm always down to raise a glass to muscular dystrophy and taunt it like I'm not afraid of it. It's an umbrella term, first of all, for a bunch of degenerative muscular diseases. I have a form of it. It's progressive as shit and it's a disease where centimeters count in matters of what you can and can't reach, do, or lift. One cool thing is that, since typing for long stretches of time makes my right hand get all floppy and weak (once I grasped it with my stronger, left hand and literally shook it and said, "Type! TYPE!" and threw it back onto the keyboard), I adapted to using my smartphone. Takes much less energy. I wrote almost all of This is Not a Love Scene on my smartphone.

What did you love most about writing Maeve’s character and her story?

I love how much she loved men because I admit that's 100% me. But I also loved how real things were. Nothing is perfect about Cole (and no, not even in a tried-and-true He has such a troubled past, but he's so deep type way). He's as aloof as she is "dude, ---." He works at Verizon. Maeve finds his rain jacket over the red uniform shirt hot. You see the same thing with KC--shots misfired, texts that are just, "I mean yeah?" and day to day tensions that seems so simple but means so much when it's happening to you.

They try to figure each other out, and there are uncertain and raw physical/emotional longings in each of them that is dealt with in their own ways. It's not everyone's experience, I know, but I think almost all of us have had a Cole or a KC.

What are you hoping readers will come away with after they’ve finished NOT A LOVE SCENE?

I hope they'll be entertained, primarily. Then I hope they found something that connected with private thoughts they've had, or feelings, that closes the gap a little more between me and them. Side note, I'm also looking forward to fan fiction (hopefully not just from, like, my mom. lol.).

About the Author

S. C. MEGALE is an author and filmmaker. She's been profiled in USA Today, The Washington Post, and New York Newsday, and has appeared on NBC’s “Today Show” and the CBS Evening News for her philanthropic and literary work. As a humanitarian, she's spoken on the USS Intrepid, at the NASDAQ opening bell, and to universities and doctors nationwide. She enjoys making connections all over the world.

Megale was raised in the long grass of the Civil War, hunting for relics and catching fireflies along the banks of Bull Run. A shark tooth, flutes, and a flask are some of the items that hang from her wheelchair, and she had a fear of elevators until realizing this was extremely inconvenient. She lives with her family which includes her parents, sister and brother, service dog, and definitely-not-service dog.

This is Not a Love Scene is her first published novel.



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