Making friends with Melissa A.

We don't just ask authors questions...we answer them too. Here are Melissa A's answers. Hope you'll enjoy getting to know her better.

Favorite TV show about friendship:
Hands down, How I Met Your Mother. I know I talk about this show a lot, but I love the friendship between all the characters.

Favorite movie about friendship:
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I never read the books, but the first movie is fabulous.

Favorite book about friendship:
"Firefly Lane" by Kristin Hannah. Like "Beaches" for the 21st century.

How did you meet your best friend?
Summer camp in 1987. We were going into 6th grade at different schools, but we hung out a lot anyway. She inquired about my braces and that was all it took to get the friendship going. 25 years later...still going strong.

Strangest way you've ever met a friend:
Freecycle. I was giving away a baby item and she picked it up from my house. Then we'd e-mail on occasion. Oddly enough, we didn't hang out until right before I moved away from NJ. (I ended up getting moving boxes she was freecycling.) We went to see Jane Green together and refer to that night as our "hot date." (It's hard for moms to get out of the house!)

Friend you've known the longest:
My friend Robin, whom I've known since birth. Our parents met in lamaze class. We'd all go on vacations to Florida together when we were kids. We don't catch up as much as we should, but we know we can if we want to. We got married pretty close in time (6 months apart) and our sons are very close in age.

Chick lit author you'd want to be best friends with:
Sophie Kinsella. I could totally see us talking non-stop and shopping together. :) I know she's actually Madeleine Wickham, but I'd want her to be Sophie when we hung out.

Favorite inside joke with a friend:
I have lots of inside jokes with various friends. Some of my favorite ones involve a friend from college. We thought this one guy was hot and we changed the first letter of his name in order to talk about him a lot. We even imitated him. We talked about making T-shirts saying we were his girlfriend. One time, I wrote "Call me" on the dry erase board on his door and then she and I went running like mad to get out of the dorm suite. Another time, we were sitting outside and saw him waiting in line at the Subway in my residence hall. We were rolling on the ground in hysterics. His brother went to the same school and was also cute. We didn't give him a name. We just referred to him as the hot guy's brother. A guy friend of ours caught on and one day called him our special nickname to his face.

The nicest thing your best friend has ever done for you:
She made these beautiful blankets when my younger son and daughter were born. I could just tell all the love she put into them. She had actually made them both at the same time and saved the pink one because she just knew I'd have a girl someday. :) She also got "Heart of the Matter" personalized for me by Emily Giffin, as she knew I wasn't able to go to a signing at the time. Oh yeah, and she's one of the catalysts (really, the first) in a chain of Jewish geography that led me to my husband.

What do you enjoy doing with friends the most?
Seeing chick flicks and playing board games that allow for a lot of humor.