Interview with Sagan Morrow, Author of Her Bad Idea

What can you tell us about your new release, Her Bad Idea?

Her Bad Idea is an enemies to lovers, fake relationship, slow burn, forced proximity romcom. It follows the story of Scarlett Mitchell, a burlesque dancer who’s struggling to make ends meet. Her only chance to save her failing business is to become dance partners with her enemy, Pete Fraser… who just happens to be outrageously sexy. Things get complicated when Scarlett unexpectedly finds herself in an accidental fake relationship with Pete, as a way to garner media ratings (and, she hopes, to make her unrequited crush Westley Prince jealous…). There’s a thin line between love and hate in this dance competition romance!

Her Bad Idea is Book 7 in the Polyamorous Passions series, but it can be read as a complete standalone. Readers are calling it a “laugh out loud, witty romantic comedy, and the perfect escape from all that’s going on in the world right now.”

What books are currently on your nightstand?

A few books I’m looking forward to reading include Kevin Kwan’s Sex and Vanity, Alisha Rai’s Girl Gone Viral, Lauren Layne’s The Prenup, and Katrina Jackson’s The Spies Who Loved Her series. I also recently signed up for Kobo Plus, so my TBR is a mile long!

What advice would you give your teenage self?

Stay true to yourself, and don’t be afraid to embrace who you are—you don’t need to force yourself to fit into a particular box that society has created, if it doesn’t feel right for you.

The tagline for my Polyamorous Passions series is “Make your own rules,” and the theme of living life the way *you* want—regardless of what other people think—is a really important message across all of my books. Too often, we make ourselves unhappy by trying to please other people. But in doing so, we dim our own sparkle… and we start to resent the people around us… and we aren’t given the space we need to achieve our full potential.

Every person in the world has something different to offer, and my advice to my younger self would be to identify what it is that feels *right* for you… and follow through on where your heart guides you! I hope readers can take courage from this message in my romantic comedies, too.

If you had an extra hour each day, how would you spend it?

When I’m not writing romance novels, I’m a productivity strategist: I teach about time and energy management to other solopreneurs and multi-passionate creatives, through programs like my Productivity Powerhouse e-course. So I have a pretty good handle on my own time management! I have the privilege of being able to spend a lot of downtime on hobbies (burlesque dancing, kayaking, reading, watching TONS of Netflix…).

That being said, I’d probably spend an extra hour each day writing. There are so many other tasks and activities that authors need to do—especially indie authors, like me—besides writing (learn more about that in my Indie Author Weekly podcast). And I have so many story ideas that I want to write and share with the world! An extra hour of writing every day would be pretty fantastic. I’d like to release new books more quickly.

What makes your world go round? Why does it bring you joy?

There are so many things that bring me so much joy. I love living. There’s so much beauty in the everyday little things that make up our lives… I think the important thing is to really connect with ourselves and ask ourselves, every day, “Am I happy? What would make me happier? How can I make that my reality?” and then taking action on it. (Just like my characters figure out for themselves, in my Polyamorous Passions series!)

…So as a result, there really isn’t any one thing that makes my world go round. It’s all about making small tweaks in many different aspects of life so that it all adds up into our own version of something extremely joyful. The people I love (my spouse, best friends, and family), writing books and sharing stories, teaching others about productivity and time management, enjoying a really great story (books, TV/movies, theatre, ballet, opera), dancing, going on long walks, listening to great music and singing along… all of these things add up to make my world go round and give me joy.

What scene in Her Bad Idea was your favorite to write?

I love writing high-tension scenes and sparring dialogue. The sassy conversations between Scarlett and Pete—especially when we get glimpses that they’re lusting after each other, even though they’re so suspicious of one another—were some of my favourites. Also, the previous 6 books in the Polyamorous Passions series teased at the storyline between Scarlett and her long-standing unrequited crush, Westley, and this story was the first time we get to see a lot more of them together (and all of the tension that’s between them!). So it was fun to finally start to really flesh that storyline out, and prepare to continue developing it in the next couple books in the series.

The scenes featuring Scarlett with her two best friends, Emma and Helen, are some of the funniest—those three characters are all so different and extremely opinionated, while being very supportive of each other. It makes for some entertaining scenes, which are just as enjoyable to write as they are to read!

Sagan Morrow is the author of the new book Her Bad Idea.

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