What can you tell our readers about your new novel 'The Heart Whisperer'?
It's about family and relationships and the long shadow that the past casts over our lives. And the fact that, until we turn around and face the truth, we can't really move on.
The Heart Whisperer
Claire is a failing actress who feels she can never measure up to the beautiful, successful mother she lost when she was six. On her thirty-third birthday she gives herself a present. One year to change her future.
Ray, her best friend is a gorgeous ex rock star who is struggling to get his career back on track before it's too late.
Nick, her straight-laced brother is a successful relationship coach who has spent his life running from the truth of his childhood. And Kelly, his perfect American wife, has secrets of her own.
The book packs a punch in its premise, so how did the idea come about?
I started with some questions that intrigued me.
Can you ever really move on in life unless you deal with the past?
Do platonic relationships really exist?
Why do we keep secrets from the people we love?
Is it ok to hide the truth from someone if your intentions are good?
Why set the novel in Dublin?
Ah! That's an easy one! I grew up here, I live here and I really enjoy writing about it. It was really interesting this time because two of my characters have very different feelings about the city. Nick left to go to America when he was eighteen and he has just moved back. Dublin reminds him of the childhood he'd like to forget. But his wife Kelly has fallen in love with it.
Your dream of writing turned into an advertising career, so how did this come about?
I wrote my first story when I was five. It was about the dog down the road. His name was Barry and there was a bit on an unrequited love thing going on there between us! My first poem was about another dog called Bimbo! I also have dozens of notebooks of scribblings from my teens and twenties.
But I didn't have the confidence to try being a writer back then so I went into advertising instead because I knew someone who worked in the industry.
I had so much fun writing ads. (Some of it went into my first book, Postcards from the Heart')
In my thirties, I started doing some travel writing and scripted a short film. Then I took the leap and enrolled in a writing class. In fact, I met my husband on a two week writing course in Greece. Neil changed everything. He gave me the confidence to start a novel!
How much has your career in advertising aided your promotion of your books?
Not at all! It's easy to come up with ideas for almost anything - energy companies, banks, new drinks brands, the post office - but not my books. I don't know why!
You have travelled the world to write features, so how has this affected your writing?
I'm not sure that it has yet but I think it will in the future. I'm dying to put some of the places I've been in a novel. I'll probably start with Greece which is (after my husband!) the second love of my life. But Mexico, Mauritias, Indonesia and America can't be far behind.
You have written for magazines such as Image and Irish Tatler, so how does this compare to novel writing for you?
Writing a thousand word article is fast and fun. It's all over in a day or two. But a novel is a long, slow burn. The characters come to stay in my head while I'm writing. I'll often find myself lying awake at three in the morning, chatting away with them, trying to sort their lives out.
Please tell us about your first novel Postcards from the heart?
It's a romantic comedy about four friends trying to pick their way across the minefield of thirty-something life. Like all of us, they're trying to find love and figuring out how to hold onto it!
Saffy and Greg are living the dream. She's has a high flying career in advertising and he's a successful soap star who has just been voted the 9 th most eligible in Ireland.
Saffy's father abandoned her when she was two so she doesn't want children but she craves security. She thinks it's time to settle down but Greg is hungry for Hollywood fame.
Conor and Jess are the permanently broke but blissfully happy parents of young twins until Conor gets the opportunity he's always dreamed of.
How do you move so successfully between comedy and heartbreak in your writing?
Some of my favourite writers walk that tightrope between laughter and sadness. David Nicholls, Nick Hornby, Marian Keyes, Lorrie Moore. They make it look easy but I have to work very hard at it. My editor actually advised me to take quite a bit of humour out of the first draft of 'The Heart Whisperer' because it was fighting with poignancies of Claire's childhood memories and I think it's a much deeper book because of it. But there are still plenty of laughs in there I hope.
What are you currently reading?
I listen to a lot of audio books. I've just finished Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. (Amazing!) And started Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult. I'm also listening to my husband reading out Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. He started reading it to me last April and he still has about a quarter of it to go!
When I'm in the middle of a draft I can be too tired of looking at words to pick up a book myself but I'm just at the planning stages of my next book right now so I've been reading a lot over the last few months. Mercy Close by Marian Keyes, The Honey Queen by Cathy Kelly, In A Strange Room by Damon Galgut and Sisters by Rosamund Lupton. All brilliant in their own ways!
What is your favourite novel?
I'm sorry, that is just too hard to answer!!!!
What is a typical day like in your world?
Can I pick my dream weekend day? It starts with coffee and breakfast in bed. Then a walk in the wilds of Wicklow with my husband Neil and our deerhound Haggis. (The inspiration for Dog in The Heart Whisperer - I'll attach a picture!) Then an afternoon by the fire reading. Followed by a trip to the gym (I'm learning to swim at the moment) and a movie. But I'd be blissfully happy with just one or two of the above!
What is next for you?
The hardback of The Heart Whisperer is coming out in the UK tomorrow which is incredibly exciting. I've just finished three short stories which I hope will be published this year. And I'm still planning my third book. Right now I am torn between two ideas but I'm going to have to make my mind up because I want to get start writing it in February.
If this book was turned into a movie, who would play the leads?
I'd love Emily Blunt to play Claire. She does great awkward and I think she'd be perfect with a head of wild red curls. Claire's best friend Ray is a gorgeous ex rock star. An Irish actor called Robert Sheehan would be perfect. (Google him if you don't know him!)
Nick, Claire's brother is pretty serious and straight laced. Rafe Spall is a few years too young but I'm sure Make Up would sort that. And the Natalie Portman for Nick's perfect wife Kelly. Claire's Dad would be played by Hugh Laurie (with a bit more ageing help from the Make Up Department!) I think Jake Gyllenhaal would be great as Shane the vet.
And Dog? That would have to be Haggis, my Scottish deerhound!