Younger, Thinner, Blonder
Younger, Thinner, Blonder is the story of a woman who, on the surface appears to have everything, fame, glamour, wealth and a perfect lover, who she dreams of walking down the aisle with one day soon. Tanya Travis is a celebrity, host of her own daytime talk show, and thanks to Dr Botox looks ten years younger than her showbiz age. However, all is not what it seems. Tanya’s lover won’t commit, her career’s on the wane and her cellulite’s on overdrive. But Tanya has to keep smiling and pretending everything is ok because the press are on her heels and despite her ratings being high the bosses in TV may be looking for someone to replace her. And there’s nowhere to hide, as everyone seems to have a camera on their phone these days, a sad glance, a wrinkled brow and her face goes global within seconds. Tanya’s becoming scared, paranoid and just a little crazy, and her money grabbing agent suggests ‘time out’ and promises career viagra on a celebrity reality show in the Himalayas. Tanya is horrified... no showers, no Parisian face cream and no A listers? No thank you. But does this fading star have a choice...?
Please tell us a bit about the character of Tanya.
Tanya is a flawed heroine, and like many successful TV personalities off camera seems rather prickly and full of her own importance. As a former TV Producer I worked with lots of celebrities getting to know them very well and I often saw both sides of fame. Tanya is based on a female presenter I worked with who, despite an apparently caring, gentle on screen persona was quite different when the cameras were off. The media creates these people and builds them up so they can’t see themselves any more – and Tanya needs to see what she’s become before she makes any attempt to change. The problem is, no-one says ‘no’ to you when you’re riding the celebrity train, and the parties, the premieres and the champagne-fuelled awards ceremonies are endless. But as with most things in life, there’s a price to pay and you can’t pop out for a carton of milk in your jogging bottoms and no make up - particularly if you’re a woman over forty in the spotlight. The combination of a stroppy self-important diva being brought down to size by the tabloids was a gift to me. And if that wasn’t enough, I had to put her in a reality show in the mountains with no hot running water – just to see what she’d do. She didn’t disappoint me, and I think the result is at times poignant, but overall very funny - I hope readers feel the same.
This is your second solo book, so what can you tell us about your first Fat Girls and Fairy Cakes?
Fat Girls and Fairy Cakes, is about a woman struggling with weight, marriage, motherhood and career. Stella Weston is over forty and on the wrong side of twelve stone with a mean boss, an annoying husband a wayward mother and a daughter who refuses to wear pink. The only way Stella can get through each day is by baking and when her life suddenly takes an unexpected turn, she finds salvation in fairy cakes. This was my first book, it was also a best seller and I’m so grateful to everyone who bought it and also wrote such lovely reviews about it. Fat Girls and Fairy Cakes is like a first born child and will always have a special place in my heart.
You left your career as a TV producer for writing so what was the light bulb moment when you realised that you wanted to change your life?
It was less light-bulb, more slow burn. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to write about, I just always knew I would write a novel. I often found myself writing the opening paragraph in my head and I would loiter around desks at the BBC where I worked, making notes from people’s conversations. One day I was sitting in an edit suite making a TV programme and writing the voice over. I wished I could write it a different way with a different ending and it occurred to me that I could do that if I wrote fiction. I didn’t have to edit or write the script for someone else’s story, I could write my own. It had been the same for me as a journalist – the facts had always got in the way of a good story. That got me thinking...
How much of yourself is in the character of Stella Watson in your first book?
The advice to new writers is often to write what you know and when I wrote Fat Girls and Fairy Cakes there was much of me and my life in it. It kind of ‘spilled out’ and I found it very therapeutic to write about things that had happened to me and my own feelings of sadness or frustration. There are lots of parallels with mine and Stella’s lives. Like everyone at some time in their working lives, I suffered under a rather mean boss, and in the middle of the most horrific encounters with her I just thought ‘one day I’ll write this,’ which helped me get through it. I also juggled my home and work life and like Stella, often feel guilty that I’m not good enough, clever enough, thin enough. I also struggle with a passion for cake and a need to diet, but just like Stella - the cake always wins!
Why was it important to you to include recipes in your book?
Baking and eating is at the very heart of Fat Girls and Fairy Cakes. Without giving too much away, baking offers emotional happiness and economic freedom to Stella and is a vital element in her life. I wrote the novel on the kitchen table and as the book developed, so did the recipes. In order to write about baking the cakes, their feel and taste, I just had to lose myself in that billowy flour and rich, sweet buttercream. So purely for my readers’ enjoyment I baked them... and selflessly tasted them all. Some may call it greedy procrastination – I call it research.
Each recipe was woven into Stella’s story and I wanted the readers to live a little in her world by sharing the baking experience... and the eating too.
Who are your favourite authors in the genre?
I enjoy chick lit and there are some wonderful writers out there but I try not to read too much of it because I’m worried I may be influenced too much. I also find that reading books in my own genre just makes me think ‘I wish I’d written that’ or ‘I wish I’d thought of such a brilliant character.’ I read a great deal, but enjoy slightly darker writing because it’s so different to my own. I love Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl, Sharp Objects) and have recently discovered Tamar Cohen who writes psychological thrillers with a raspberry ripple of dark humour running through (The Mistress’s Revenge, War of the Wives). I also recently read and adored ‘The Age of Miracles,’ a coming of age /sci-fi /love story all rolled into one by Karen Thompson Walker. The story and the characters have has stayed with me and probably always will – that’s brilliant writing. And that’s the one I wish I’d written.
What is your writing process and how do you juggle your family life with your writing?
Oh, yes... juggling my writing life with family. How I wish I could tell you that I sit at my desk from 9am every morning and write until they return home from school and work to a home cooked dinner. But it’s not quite like that. I always mean to write all day in between peeling vegetables and preparing something fresh and fabulous for dinner but it never pans out. I do sit at my desk at 9am, start with a few tweets, do a little FB time, which leads to some online shopping I can’t afford. Then when I’ve done my online ‘marketing’ I fill the dishwasher, make another coffee gaze out of the window, pester the cat and text a friend to tell them how busy I am. Later someone might call to see if I’m busy and would I like lunch/coffee/cake/chat and I say yes I’m sooo busy but I’ll be there in five. Then, when my family comes home from school and work I microwave several meals and say ‘gosh I’ve been writing all day and I’m so exhausted I didn’t get chance to cook!’ So most of my writing is done at the eleventh hour, when the deadline’s looming ... and after Midnight, when I can’t be distracted.
What is next for you?
I am currently having lots of thoughts about Book 3. One day I may return to Stella and her cakes, or even Tanya and her OCD, but before then there are other voices clamouring for my attention. I feel like a medium, and I don’t know who will ‘come through,’ but the loudest voice recently has been Holly, a psychic hairdresser in an unhappy marriage ...she’s having thoughts about a gorgeous younger man who bakes the best lemon cake she’s ever tasted... we’ll see.