Welcome to a special feature for the time-travel fans! 🙂 Today I am chatting with author Paige Harbison, about her latest book, The Other Side of Now. This is a hilarious and heartfelt novel about how loves and lives are never truly lost. Enjoy the interview and let me know in the comments if you will be reading the book!
The Other Side of Now
With a leading role on a hit TV show and a relationship with Hollywood’s latest heartthrob, Meg Bryan appears to have everything she ever wanted. But underneath the layers of makeup and hairspray, her happiness is as fake as her stage name, Lana Lord. Following a small breakdown at her thirtieth birthday party, she books an impromptu trip where she knows the grass is greener: Ireland. Specifically, the quaint little village where she and her best friend Aimee always dreamt of moving—a dream that fell apart when an accident claimed Aimee’s life a decade ago.
When Meg arrives, the people in town are so nice, treating her not as a stranger, but a friend. Except for the (extremely hot) bartender giving her the cold shoulder. Meg writes it all off as jetlag until she looks in the mirror. Her hair is no longer bleached within an inch of its life, her skin has a few natural fine lines, and her nose looks like… well, her old nose. Her real nose.
Her phone reveals hundreds of pictures of her life in this little town: with an adorable dog she doesn’t know; with the bartender who might be her (ex?) boyfriend; and at a retail job unrelated to acting. Eventually, she comes to accept that she somehow made a quantum slide into an alternate version of her life. But the most shocking realization of all? In this life, her best friend Aimee is alive and well…but wants nothing to do with Meg.
Despite her bewilderment, Meg is clear-eyed about one thing: this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to reconnect with her friend and repair what she broke. She finagles an opportunity to act in the play Aimee is writing and directing and as the project unfolds, Meg realizes that events as she remembers them may not be the only truth, and that an impossible choice looms before her.
Get to know the author: Paige Harbison
Hi Paige! It is a pleasure to have you on Armed with A Book. To start us off, can you tell my readers a little about yourself?
Big question! I grew up in the DC area, I’ve always had labrador retrievers, I started working at Starbucks when I was thirteen, got published when I was nineteen, I have a degree in Fine Arts (oil painting, useless, but fun), bartended for over a decade, love inside jokes but hate that they exclude people so I always try to explain them which might be even worse. At the beginning of the pandemic, my family and I decided that whatever this whole COVID thing was, we would not be doing it in DC, so we up and moved to Palm Springs! I met the love of my life around the holidays that year, and we’ve been together ever since, living happily ever after in LA.
I do comedy videos on TikTok and Instagram (Hallmark Movies in One Minute being my primary theme), paint pet portraits, sing in my brother’s band THALO, have recently gotten some opportunities for acting, and of course, write books!
Your first three novels were YA. What inspired your move into adult fiction with this story centered around friendship, identity, and second chances?
As silly as it is, when I was 22 and my third YA book came out, I thought, well, I can’t do YA anymore, I’m too old to write it believably, so it was always my intention to move into something else. At the time, there was this enormous chasm between YA and everything else. I felt like you were either reading about teenage werewolves at pep rallies or about divorcees with exhausting children. I didn’t see myself in what was out there.
I experimented with a few different genres, nothing really feeling quite right, and then after taking a break from anguishing about my literary voice in 2020 (and turned to anguishing about the world instead), I came out on the other side with this idea and followed it through.
I don’t think of myself as writing adult fiction versus writing YA. I think I’m writing what I know, when I know it, and telling stories from the heart. I also think people have gotten and stayed younger in a lot of ways over the last generations—one needs only look at that frightening meme of the cast of Seinfeld where George Castanza was only 32 to know that. I think Millennial and Gen Z voices are more closely aligned with how we used to hear YA—we still don’t know what we’re doing, many of us are dating, our friends are hurting our feelings, and we’re broke! Some readers may see writing that reflects that and think it leans YA, but I think we’re all younger than we used to be. For better or worse!
The Other Side of Now explores a “what if” version of life. How did the first draft compare to the final version?
For this book I wrote an extremely, extremely detailed outline. Having written many books that ended up in the drawer, I wanted to make sure I had it figured out from the outset. And I hate doing outlines. Maybe it’s because I’m a Sagittarius, but I’ve never been the measure once cut twice type, even though I know it’s objectively smarter.
The final version varied from the initial outline because I write very organically, the conversations flow and create the plot as I go. I also cut a romantic storyline for Kiera and eliminated a branch of Grayson’s plot. But all in all, this one was a pretty tight plot from the beginning.
Did you bring any of your experiences into this book?
Of course. All of my characters are me, in a way. And I mean all of them. Which makes it particularly flattering when reviewers find a character unlikeable. So the feelings and the references and the flaws, many of those start with me and with the people I’m closest to.
When I was deciding on which colleges to apply to, I had the option to stay in-state (or a school of equal cost) and my parents would pay my tuition, or I could go wherever I want but be responsible for the finances. I looked at a tiny theatre school in England and have always wondered what might have been if I’d taken such a giant step in another direction.
Then there’s the heavier aspect of the story: the grief. Two of my very best friends lost their other best friends when we were teenagers. I think because I’m outside of that specific pain, I was able to write it. I lost my father a little over ten years ago and I think it might be too difficult to write an objectively good story if I stared right at the star and wrote about losing a father. But I think we’ve all experienced grief and we’ve all wondered what might have been, if….
The alternate life Meg finds herself in is full of unexpected joys and challenges. Which part of her “new” life would you be most excited to experience yourself?
Oh, god, I mean the whole thing is wish fulfilment for me. The little winding streets, the pub where everyone knows your name, the hot-n-stable boyfriend who puts up with your nonsense and has a cute dog, the funny, forgiving best friend, the jaunts around Europe, the little wine shop full of things you get to buy with someone else’s credit card? Sorry, I’m cheating, it’s all of it.
Was there a secondary character who surprised you during the writing process or became more important than expected?
I think I was just surprised how incredibly alive Kiera and Cillian became for me. I feel like I know them, I hung out with them, and I miss them.
Do you have a favourite quote or scene in The Other Side of Now that is especially meaningful to you?
The epilogue. Tears when I wrote, edited, and narrated it.
What is one thing you hope readers will discover as they follow Meg’s adventures?
It’s not nihilistic but optimistic to realize that the grass isn’t greener on the other side.
Is there a particular song you would encourage readers to listen to while/after reading your story?
There’s a whole playlist on Spotify! It’s in the back of the book. Music is a huge part of writing to me. My working title for the book was The Great Pretender. (Any version, Queen or The Platters). The lyrics really align with Meg’s story. But so many of the songs on the playlist feel that way for me!
For readers who connected with Meg’s journey, what books would you recommend they pick up next?
My next book! Haha. Just kiddinggggg. One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle. I was already writing this and a book set in Positano when I saw that at Barnes and Noble and I actually screamed a little.
I looked at your website and loved the numerous creative pursuits you have showcased there – podcasting, writing, ghostwriting and painting! How do you balance your time and energy between so many creative pursuits?
For better or worse I’m fast in my pursuits. I tend to lock into one thing and do nothing but that, then move onto the next thing. It’s also a learning curve! The podcast, Nameless Best Friends, started as a holiday/Hallmark/seasonal podcast and then we got a little overzealous and did way too much. We had to recognize that it’s okay to scale back a little. Ghostwriting, too, it’s hard to say no to work (because money) but sometimes one must so that the rest is really good!
The real problem with balancing time and energy is when I run around doing a million chores and thinking, once I do all the laundry and dishes and the floors and tidy up everywhere then I can start working. And that’s what medication is for!
What kind of activities do you turn to when you need to recharge between creative projects?
On a daily level, I love to cook and so does my partner, so we almost always have a delicious meal for dinner. (And I love ordering and going out to eat.) We usually watch some shows until bedtime. Our favorite being Taskmaster UK. Trust me.
More largely, I love to travel, even if it’s a hotel in town (LA is huge, after all). There is nothing on this earth I love more than checking into a hotel, getting a cocktail from the bar, taking it to the room, and then showering and primping before a long, leisurely meal out.
I guess basically I eat and drink and be merry?!
Is there anything else you would like to add?
That about covers it! Thank you so much for having me!! Can’t wait to start dropping clues about the next book!
Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me and share with my readers.
Thanks for joining us! Connect with Paige on her website. Add this book on Goodreads. It was released earlier this month and you may have spotted it on our new releases post.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press for connecting me with the author and giving me a chance to highlight this book on my blog in exchange for an honest review. 🙂
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