Meet the Authors December 2011

Bridget Asher is the author of The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted, a perfect holiday read we're delighted to bring you in Select Editions over the festive season. In her story, Heidi, a young widow, goes to sunny Provence in France to revisit an old farmhouse where her family used to holiday over the summer—until closeness and happiness seemed to vanish from their lives. This time Heidi arrives with her eight-year-old grieving son, Abbott, and her discontented teenage niece, Charlotte—not a great combination for a fun time. But somehow, with the help of the neighbours, the house works its magic again and emotional healing takes place.

 

To read an excerpt, click here.

 

 

RD: Where did you grow up and what is your educational background?

 

BA: I grew up in a sweet little college town in Delaware. The youngest of four, I was raised loudly. We were boisterous. I studied Creative Writing and French, which my father referred to as ‘Starvation and Poverty’, at Loyola University of Maryland. I went to grad school at UNC-Greensboro to study fiction writing.

 

RD: What jobs have you had?
 

BA: I’ve taught English as a second language to Spanish pilots, to ballroom dancers, and at a Catholic middle school, and I ran a boarding house for foreign students for five years. I now teach at Florida State University’s Creative Writing Program.
 

RD: Can you tell us a little about your family?
 

BA: I met my husband in grad school. He was a poet. My mother dropped me off on my first day and said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t fall in love with a poet.’ So I had to! David G.W. Scott is his name. He’s a stay-at-home dad and soccer coach. We have four kids—fifteen, thirteen, ten and three—two dogs and a cat. We’ve been married seventeen years and I now refer to myself as having been a child bride!
 

RD: Thinking about The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted made us wonder: do you have any personal connections to Provence?

BA: I speak French—that old college degree—and studied at the Sorbonne when I was twenty or so. We took five kids—our four and a niece—to France while I was researching the book. We lived in the tiny village of Puyloubier for a month and the novel was inspired by real-life events. For instance, my son accidentally ran into the Plexiglas in the crypt of Mary Magdalene, whacking his head. This got into the novel. There were also small white snails, wart-hogs, and paper globes were lit on Bastille Day, bobbing on sticks as the children paraded through Puyloubier. We were also robbed, followed by a torrential downpour and, yes, there was an injured swallow, who came to play a part in my story.
 

RD: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
 

BA: This isn’t my best advice but it’s the one that comes to mind today. We have four kids. At one point, we’d fashioned a kind of swing made of PVC pipe and attached it to a tree in the front yard. The kids started jumping off of it so we put a mattress down to soften the landings. When my mother came over, I apologised for the mattress in the front yard. I told her I couldn’t imagine what the neighbours were thinking. She said, aristocratically, ‘Oh, honey, it’s so middle class to worry what the neighbours might think!’ It was funny because she’d raised me in the middle-class way and we were firmly rooted in a middle-class neighbourhood. But it’s always stuck with me. The neighbours can be anyone—critics, trendsetters, my colleagues, other writers. So I write what I want and need to write, and I don’t worry about the neighbours. 
 

RD: What are your favourite ways to relax?
 

BA: I play rabbit burrow with my youngest, the three-year-old, or I do a workout video with the ten-year-old, or I talk about scripts with the thirteen-year-old, who wants to direct, or I read science textbooks to the fifteen-year-old, who needs help studying. I don’t really relax much.
 

RD: Which time of your life have you enjoyed most, and why?
 

BA: I think now is the best so far. The kids are at an age where they’re getting really interesting and articulate about the world. And I love my husband, but moreover I really like him. My parents are still alive and vibrant in my life, and I’m very thankful for that. All in all, yes, now.