Interview with Candace Ganger author of The Inevitable Collision of Birdie & Bash

So pleased to share a short interview with author The Inevitable Collision of Birdie & Bash, a book you definitely want to have on your TBR this summer.

What's the appeal in writing stories about first love?


I still remember my first love like it happened yesterday. The feelings are so vivid and raw, it’s a difficult thing to replicate as an adult. I miss the intensity of it all and how, despite the repercussions or consequences, I threw myself into loving that person wholly, without hesitation. With first loves, there’s no other heartbreak to compare. I think that’s the most beautifully painful part. In a sense, it molded my heart for future relationships.

How did you come up with the idea to insert little science lessons at the ends of the chapters?

When I thought of the title, I vaguely remembered a lesson from high school about The Collision Theory and after researching, knew I had to implement it. It was more than a plot device—it’s like a celestial map of Birdie & Bash’s fate.

I found Kyle and Bash's relationship to be achingly realistic. Where did you draw from to write these two characters and how the relate to each other?

I think we’ve all had a Kyle in our lives, haven’t we? However subtle they may be, those toxic people feed off others to get what they want from life draining us of our own energy. They’re true parasites and may not always realize it. Hence, Wild Kyle. I’ve certainly had people like this in my life. No matter how much you want to do the right thing, these personalities use whatever they can to hold you back. Kyle is also, in a form, the darker side of us; an inner antagonist that can’t help but make the wrong decisions—even when we know what’s right.

About the Book: Birdie never meant to be at the party. Bash should have been long gone. But when they meet, a collision course is set off they may never recover from.

Sebastian Alvaréz is just trying to hold the pieces together: to not flunk out, to keep his sort-of-best friend Wild Kyle from doing something really bad, and to see his beloved Ma through chemo. But when he meets Birdie Paxton, a near-Valedictorian who doesn’t realize she’s smoking hot in her science pun T-shirt, at a party, an undeniable attraction sparks. And suddenly he’s not worried about anything. But before they are able to exchange numbers, they are pulled apart. A horrifying tragedy soon links Birdie and Bash together—but neither knows it. When they finally reconnect, and are starting to fall—hard—the events of the tragedy unfold, changing both their lives in ways they can never undo. Told in alternating perspectives, The Inevitable Collision of Birdie & Bash by Candace Ganger is a beautiful, complex, and ultimately hopeful teen novel that will move you to the very last page.