Blog Tour: The Best Thing That Never Happened to Me by Laura Tait & Jimmy Rice - Interview + Giveaway

Hello, readers! Welcome to my stop of the awesome The Best Thing That Never Happened to me blog tour! I got the chance to interview the dynamic duo and here's what we chatted about! Click here to check out my review of this fantastic debut novel! :)

1. What is the best thing about writing with someone you know so well?

JR: It’s great to have that instant feedback, which you wouldn’t normally get as a writer. It’s also nice to have someone to share some of the surreal experiences – like meeting publishers who want to buy your book, and interviews. I remember the first time we went into the Transworld offices to meet everyone and we had to give a little speech. I definitely didn’t hide behind Laura and make her do it.

LT: And it's important that we do know each other well, because we don't have to sugar-coat constructive criticism. Plus we really rate each other's writing, which makes us constantly try to up our game.

2. How do you make sure that you cover up all the plot holes and link everything together?

JR: This question has made me panic that we haven’t! I guess we’ve put a lot of time into it. We did a detailed plan and read one another’s chapters as we went along, and we must have read the manuscript about 10 times each, so any holes get picked up. Though there was a huge mistake with timings until the very last read through.

LT: It's even more important to be meticulous with the planning when you're writing together because if you go rogue it can have all kinds of knock on effects on the other person's chapters. And when you read something so many times, you stop taking it in after a while.

3. Describe The Best Thing That Never Happened to Me in 5 words.

LT: Boy Meets Girl. Aaaaaand again.

JR: My. Chapters. Better. Than. Laura’s.

LT: Example. Of. Jimmy's. Wild. Imagination.

4. What inspired the both of you to write The Best Thing That Never Happened to Me? Was there a specific film/book that sparked the idea?

LT: I was writing a relationship column in thelondonpaper and Jimmy was writing a dating blog, and we had the idea that it would be great to work on something together that looks at a relationship from both perspectives. I also remember reading Come Together by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees when I was a teenager and loving the dual narrative.

JR: We just wanted to write something we both found funny. The idea never was to write a rom com as such – that’s just how it turned out. I’ve only ever read a couple of books in this genre. Is that bad? I absolutely loved One Day. I grew up loving books like High Fidelity. Nick Hornby is a bit of an idol for me.

5. Last question: would the two of you date the main characters in the novel, Alex and Holly?

LT: I'd probably turn Alex down and end up dating someone who turns out to be some kind of douche bag, and then Alex would get a girlfriend and I'd be all WHAT HAVE I DONE?!

JR: I think I’d like to go for a drink with them both and bang their heads together. I know a lot of men like Kev – Alex’s mate. He is closer to the reality of a man’s mind that lots of women would care to think.

Three limited edition proof copies up for grabs! All you have to do is.. RT this tweet by 25th April 2014.

Open to UK only.