Jennifer Vido: What inspired your new release, GOOD FOR YOU? Camille Pagan: I can’t remember how this story came to me, which is unusual; I just remember that I was supposed to be writing another book I was under contract for, and I couldn’t stop thinking about this idea. I started writing and a few days later I had several chapters on my hands—which was when I knew Good for You was my next novel. I wrote the entire thing in about two months (which is really fast for me!) then sent it to my agent. We weren’t sure what my publisher would think, but to our relief, they loved it as much as we did.   Jen: What’s happening in Aly Jackson’s professional life? Camille:Aly’s just landed the top job at All Good magazine, a Real Simple-esque publication. She’s been training her entire adult life for the gig, but six months into it, she has a meltdown after hearing her coworkers’ trash-talking her. What they don’t know is that Aly’s recently lost her brother, who was her lifeline. She thinks she’s coping okay—but of course, she isn’t at all. The magazine’s publisher insists she take a month-long leave of…

Jennifer Vido: What inspired you to write EVERYTHING MUST GO? Camille Pagan: I’m the eldest of three sisters, so I’ve always wanted to write a novel about that complicated but often-wonderful dynamic. As Laine observes, “Being raised by the same parents at the same time was like being the last few to speak a dying language.” That’s how I’ve always felt when my sisters and I have had to deal with stressful family situations. The novel is also about the choices we make at midlife (I’m there now!) and the difficulty of dealing with dementia, especially in its early stages when it’s not always apparent there’s a “real” problem. Not all of my novels are inspired by my life, but this one definitely was.   Jen: What’s happening in Laine’s marriage that causes her to question the future? Camille: Laine and her husband Josh have been together for years, and they have a comfortable if staid relationship. But when Laine’s beloved dog, Belle, dies, she realizes that she actually isn’t happy with Josh—who is absentminded about everything, including their marriage—and is tired of being the one to keep the status quo for everyone in her life … including Josh. The…

Jen: What inspired you to write DON’T MAKE ME TURN THIS LIFE AROUND, the follow-up to Life and Other Near-Death Experiences? Camille: Of all the characters I’ve ever created, Libby, the protagonist of Life and Other Near-Death Experiences, has always been my favorite—her wry but optimistic outlook is arguably the closest to my own—and I knew even before finishing the first novel that I’d write about her again one day. Even so, the ending of Life and Other Near-Death Experiences was deliberately ambiguous, so I didn’t want to pick right back up where she left off, which was finding the courage to begin cancer treatment and start a new family. I wanted to wait a while and find her at a different stage of life. Jen: What is happening in Libby’s world at the beginning of the novel? Camille: Thirteen years have passed since Libby’s cancer diagnosis; she’s now 46 and by all accounts, her life is going swimmingly. Though she suspected her cancer had returned, she’s just received a clean bill of health. Her marriage is happy, if a bit routine, and one of her 12-year-old twins, Charlotte, has been successfully managing her own health crisis. Yet if Libby’s…

Jen: What inspired your latest release, This Won’t End Well? Camille: For my fortieth birthday, my husband, two children, and I went to Paris. It was an amazing trip. We stayed in a magical apartment in Montmartre that had sweeping views of Paris and the Eiffel Tower. We couldn’t have found a bad meal if we tried, and we managed to do just enough sightseeing to make the most of the vacation without burning ourselves out. But eight days is a lot of family time–especially for a writer used to spending long stints alone in front of her computer. By the day after my birthday, I’d had so much togetherness that I felt like I couldn’t hear myself think. My husband, bless him, quickly realized this and volunteered to take our kids to a park on the Seine so I could go for a walk by myself. I was strolling along the river, thinking about what a feat it is to successfully manage relationships–even, or maybe especially, when they’re with the people you love most–when a single sentence popped into my head: Hello seems like such an innocuous word, but it’s really a portal to loss.  Which is, of course,…