Blog Tour: Best Friends and Bullies by Shelley Corriell

Today it is Fluttering Butterflies' stop on the awesome Welcome Caller This is Chloe blog tour and today, Shelley Corriell is here talking about the inspiration behind her debut book, which I hope you'll enjoy as much as I did.  My review should have been published earlier today, I really liked this one!

To find out more about Welcome Caller, or about Shelley, please do visit the following websites:

Shelley Corriell ... Shelley on Twitter ... Shelley on Facebook 

  Best Friends and Bullies: The Inspiration Behind Welcome, Caller, This is Chloeby Shelley Corriell

The summer before my senior year of high school, I received a phone call from a good friend who went to the high school across town. “I’m switching schools this year,” she said, “and I’ll be spending my senior year at your school.”

While I adored my friend who I’d met through a church youth group in junior high, I knew something was wrong. Why would anyone leave her high school her final year? Especially a good student and well-liked person such as my friend? Especially to go to the cross-town rival school?

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

She paused and took a deep breath. “Problems with my best friends.”

I won’t go into the grisly details, but her two best friends started spreading rumors and eventually most of the school ostracized her. Unlike Chloe, my friend couldn’t escape to a run-down radio station where a quirky bunch of misfits would eventually take her into their radio home and hearts.

The entire drama, including my friend’s eventual reconciliation with her best friends (she returned to her old school mid-year and graduated there), was fascinating…in a train wreck kind of way. What conflict. What pain. What a great idea for a book.

At the time, I didn’t realize my friend was being bullied, but that’s exactly what we’d call it today, and this is exactly what happens to Chloe in WELCOME, CALLER, THIS IS CHLOE. One of her best friends, Brie, turns on Chloe, and her other best friend, Mercedes, does nothing to stop the hurtful words and actions. Brie spreads lies about Chloe, hacks into her social media account, and gets most of the school to shun her.

   “Words hurt. Whether whispered in hallways, written in frosty pink lipstick on your locker, or         keyed in over pictures on OurWorld pages. They knocked you over, pummeled you, and left you with a bleeding heart. Thanks to Brie, I knew all about hurt.” – Chloe Camden

Most readers hate Brie, but some, like me, feel sorry for her. I won’t give away any spoilers, but Brie has MAJOR issues going on with her parents, the kind that rock your world. Angry at her parents, Brie lashes out at the one person who has the perfect family complete with loving parents, doting brothers, and the world’s most supportive grandmother – Chloe. Brie’s jealous of Chloe, but at a deeper level, she’s deathly afraid that her world is coming apart, and when it eventually comes back together, she’ll have no place in it.

I don’t condone Brie’s actions, and it breaks my heart that Mercedes – who does better with things of the head, not of the heart – couldn’t find the strength to support Chloe early in the story. But in the end, these two powerful presences in Chloe’s life needed to do abandon her so she could go on this life-changing story journey with Duncan, Clementine, and the rest of the KDRS radio staff.

Shelley’s question: Have you ever been bullied or seen a bully harm others?

To learn more about young adult author Shelley Coriell and Chloe’s high school radio world, visit www.shelleycoriell.com.