Bella Ellwood-Clayton on Weekend Friends

Dr. Bella Ellwood-Clayton’s debut novel is set in a cliquey suburb where belonging to the in-group is everything. It features intense female friendships and explores parenting in our perilous times when social media can build someone up as quickly as it can tear them down.

With a Ph.D. in sexual anthropology and a nonfiction book, Sex Drive: In Pursuit of Female Desire, under her belt, Bella is no stranger to exploring relationships, and the romance thread in Weekend Friends is a delight. She has published short stories, poetry, articles for the Huffington Post and Daily Life, and frequently appears on TV and gives talks, including a TEDx talk.

Join us as we talk about motherhood, friendship and how to write a good plot twist.

Can you please share the blurb for Weekend Friends?

For girls, middle school is practically The Hunger Games—for their mothers, it’s worse.

Food photographer, Rebecca, and her tween daughter, Willow, move from Alaska to Boca Raton, leaving behind their terrible secret about the death of Rebecca’s husband. They’re ready to start anew in the warmth of the sunshine state, hoping it will help vanquish Willow’s night terrors.

As her daughter becomes controlled and bullied by the popular group, Rebecca is drawn closer to the charismatic head of school, Mr. Brady. A hot and steamy – though uncertain – relationship begins. Soon, lies, deception, and secrets cause everything to spiral out of control and both mother and daughter find themselves on the wrong side of their gated community with devastating repercussions.

Full of dark twists and turns, Weekend Friends makes you grateful you’re no longer a tween … or the parent of one.

Nicola Moriarty, international bestselling author, called Bella’s debut novel “Unputdownable”.

Why did you choose Alaska and Boca Raton as your locations?

Symbolically, I wanted the mother and daughter to leave the cold tundra of Alaska and move across the country to the Sunshine State for a fresh start. From grief to the salty ocean and warmth.

I have been to neither Alaska nor Florida, although after the research I’ve done for this novel, I feel a deep connection with both places. These days, with YouTube, you can watch peoples’ walking tours … I have literally spent hours watching people walk the streets of the locations in the various novels I’m writing to get a feel for the setting. A few readers who live in Boca Raton have reached out to me and said I captured it perfectly – so that’s a great compliment.

Did you have the main characters in mind before you began writing?

The main players were always a family of three in Alaska torn apart by the mysterious death of the father.

As the title suggests, the theme of friendship is central to Weekend Friends. What types of friendships are explored in the novel?

When the mother and daughter start a new life in Florida, Rebecca (the mother) bumps into an old friend and Willow (the daughter) interreacts with a group of mean girls at school. It is important to point out that the mean girls are not always mean and, in fact, are often very close, best friends even.

I wanted to explore girl dynamics, the in and the out, inclusion and exclusion, intimacy and then being dropped … that’s what makes it all so complicated and hurt so much.

I also wanted to create a love interest for the mother character who makes her feel alive again. Someone who excels “in the moment” and helps our protagonist get in touch with pleasure.

The mother-daughter relationship felt authentic, is this something you’ve had experience with?

While I was plotting and writing this novel, my daughter was around the same age as the tween protagonist. It was fun tapping into dialogue details like, “It’s so aesthetic.”

In terms of issues to explore in the novel, I drew on the current social milieu – inclusion/exclusion due to social media and rising cyberbullying.

Weekend Friends is a complex novel with several timelines and different points of view. Did you plan out the novel first or did you make it up as you went along?’

I feel very comfortable writing “in scene” when I can allow my imagination and ability to see through the lens of the protagonist to lead me along. Learning the art of intricate plotting is an ongoing endeavour. I’m obsessed with craft writing books, and YouTube tutorials, and have two whiteboards in my small office which I use to outline the concurrent acts I’m working on.

I love red herrings, foreshadowing, planting clues, and then serving readers massive twists, which takes a great deal of time to plot out, but I’m also open for the muse to step in and take over whenever she wants.

You were a sexual anthropologist in another life, how does this filter into your writing?

Love has always interested me. (I was born on Valentine’s Day, so maybe that makes sense.) I use what I’ve learned academically about love – desire, falling in love, infatuation – to infuse my fiction. Most of my stories have a romantic subplot. And all of my work is about relationships: friendships, family dynamics, and romantic or sexual relationships.

You are now an editor running your own business. How does this help develop your novels?

As an editor, I get to do what I love best – work with words, symbolism, and themes, to tell stories in the most vivid way possible.

Let’s tackle the hardest topic in the book: child/teen suicide. What drove you to address this?

According to the American Justice Department, one out of every four children is a victim of bullying and at least two children are bullied every seven minutes. In the US, there has been a sudden number of child suicides attributed to bullying, including that of a six-year-old in Oregon.

With one hand on their iPhone, the door is open to 24-hour harassment – and constant awareness of one’s inclusion/exclusion.

A Canadian study shows an unprecedented spike in suicide deaths among young girls. The research, published in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, reveals the rates of suicides among girls ages 10-14 surging for nine straight years, peaking in 2018 at about twice the death rate for boys. Throughout those same years, the male death rate slowly declined.

What two factors are contributing to this? Girls hitting puberty at younger ages and … no surprise … the influence of social media.

FOMO. Beauty filters. Everyone has a better life.

What’s next for you?

The current novel I’m writing is set in Cape Cod. A woman is missing. There are sharks in the water. Lots of relationship drama. It’s fun – a thriller lite.

You can follow Bella on:
Website: www.drbella.com.au
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoctorBella/
Instagram: @BellaEllwoodClayton
Twitter: @BEllwoodClayton
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Weekend-Friends-Bella-Ellwood-Clayton-ebook/dp/B0CLKZ4465?ref_=ast_author_mpb
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62926183-weekend-friends
Newsletter: https://subscribepage.io/PT7d3c

Next time: I introduce the protagonist of my mystery novel The Godfather of Dance. Writing a Mystery: Introducing Jade Riley
Find Bella’s next interview: Bella Ellwood-Clayton on The Swimming Group, her latest fun twisty psychological thriller.