I’ve read and enjoyed both of Amanda Hearty’s two novels Are You Ready? and Positively Yours so I was pleased when Amanda agreed to do an author interview with us. Enjoy!

1. Could you please tell us about your latest novel Positively Yours.

Positively Yours is a book about three very different girls who all have one thing in common – they are pregnant. From high-flying stockbroker Beth, to child-obsessed Erin, and a very un-maternal Grace – these girls are all experiencing the biggest change in their lives. But life is not always what you expect – and pregnancy doesn’t just affect your appetite and clothes size! The girls begin to realize that relationships can become strained, work difficult and the pressure can take its toll. From the first pregnancy test, to the ante-natal classes, from the cravings to the labour ward, we learn how Beth, Grace and Erin all cope with and learn to enjoy their pregnancy.

This book is about relationships – with the three women’s partners or lack of them, and with the people who know them best, their parents. The three characters are very different and they have completely different stories, yet their experiences connect them – from coping with pregnancy cravings and increasing bumps, to surviving work and antenatal classes, to picking cots and baby names.

Pregnancy is a universal theme and all women at some stage think about pregnancy - whether it’s because they want to get pregnant, or don’t, or they just find out they are and have to deal with it. And there is nothing like being pregnant and having kids to completely change your life!

I began writing the book when I was seven months pregnant, so naturally it has a lot of me in it – from my pain au chocolat cravings, to my quest to find maternity clothes for someone as tall as me! I really enjoyed writing the book and from that first pregnancy test, to the birth of their new children – this book follows the characters’ journey and relationships as their whole lives change.

2. Are you working on book number three? Can you tell us anything about it?

I am working on a new book….but it secret! It’s secret by name and secret by nature!!!

3. Erin is very baby obsessed in Positively Yours and, at times, she doesn’t come across as very nice (although it is understandable), why did you decide to make Erin so focused on having a baby as if it’s the be all and end all?

Erin feels she has achieved many of her goals in life…she found a very caring and kind husband, she has a successful career, a beautiful home, she has a good group of friends and is surrounded by a lovely family, but the one thing she hasn’t been able to do is have a child. So naturally her focus does become solely on the quest to get pregnant and become a Mum. Like many people she focuses on the one thing she doesn’t have, as opposed to all the wonderful things she does have – which in the end almost causes her downfall. She loses sight of what is important in life. But like the other characters, as the story progresses she learns a lot about herself and what really makes you happy in life.

4. Your debut novel, Are You Ready? is all about change, did you have to go through anything like that yourself?

Are You Ready? is about my generation – a generation who seem to have it all and yet need to make changes in their lives. The characters, Ali, Molly, Ben and Sarah, realise that to make themselves happy they might need to change their jobs, their love lives, where they live and how they live. It is a light-hearted, funny look at what is happening in the lives of the characters and their families.

In this book I wrote about what I know and set it where I know, in Dublin. When my friends and I all finished college and finally got our first “real jobs” and “proper boyfriends” we thought we had made all the big life changes and were now settled! But then as we hit our late twenties and approached the dreaded 30 (!) I noticed how the changes started all over again. People suddenly realise they hate their careers and need to move job, or they haven’t enough money to buy somewhere, yet need to move out of their family home. Some discover that they are no longer in love with their partners and need to find someone who is marriage material….life never stops, change is inevitable. Are You Ready? is about that.

This book is about my generation. A generation that might own their own mobile phone at 15, yet by 35 have high incomes and still can’t afford to own a house. A generation that might have travelled the world from South America to Sydney, yet still not been on a proper date. A generation that might think they are grown up enough to get their first car at 17, yet don’t think they could settle down and marry until their mid thirties. This book is about the change these people must make to grow up, be happy and move on in life.

It took me about four months to write Are You Ready? I just fell in love with the characters, and it is a light-hearted look at the craziness of falling in and out of love, changing careers and partners, getting married and trying to get on the property ladder.

There are parts of me in every character in the book – like Ali, I too got engaged in Capetown when my partner Mick totally surprised me! And like many of the characters I needed change and so I began writing. And Are You Ready? was published when I was 29.

5. Your mum, Marita Conlon-McKenna is also a writer, is that what spurred you on to write a book yourself or is it always something you’ve wanted to do?

Growing up with my Mum being a very famous writer in Ireland definitely influenced my childhood. All my friends read her children’s books, we even studied the books in school! She would have fan mail from all around the world arriving each day and we got used to seeing her face on TV or in the papers. Mum being a writer also encouraged us all creatively and now I have one sister who works in the film industry, and a brother who has his own rock band and not only writes all the music and lyrics, but also writes books and plays in his spare time! The fact that my Mum is an author and that I grew up in a creative house definitely influenced my own decision to begin writing. I saw how happy writing made my Mum and how important is it to work at something you love. I’ve always loved reading and writing and getting lost in a different world of imagination, stories and characters.

6. In what ways did your mum help you when it came to writing Are You Ready?? What was the best piece of advice she gave you?

My Mum has always encouraged me and my siblings to find something we like doing, something that makes us happy, so of course she was delighted that I decided to write my first book. She instilled in me the importance of picking interesting characters and showed me that writing should be fun - and that advice stuck with me. Also, she always says that there is no story without change, so change is important to me too. And like my Mum, I wanted to write books that people enjoy and that they look forward to reading.

I did write a good few chapters of my first book before I showed it to my Mum. And I was delighted that she liked it! She was very encouraging and always there if I needed her, but she also knew I needed to write as much as possible without getting too caught up with other people’s opinion of the story – she knew I needed to find my own voice with which to tell my story.

Now, I generally write the whole book first before editing. I write fast - and my hands try to type quickly enough to keep up with all the stories flowing out of my head! After I have finished the first draft I will then try to edit as much as I can before sending it off to my publishers. My editor always gives me great advice and can spot things I never would have noticed.

7. You’re published by Transworld Ireland, how did your publishing deal come around?

I have always loved writing and once I got the idea for my first novel I began to write chapter after chapter and within a few months I had a whole book written. There was such a sense of achievement finishing that last page - even if I had never managed to get published, I was delighted with myself! But with my Mum’s encouragement, I did send it to her publisher’s, Transworld, and I was over the moon when they said they really liked it and would be happy to publish it!

8. What is your normal writing day like? Are you a full-time writer, or do you have to fit it in between other things?

I don’t have a normal writing day! I have a two year old child and I work three days a week, so I write whenever I have any spare time. Mainly I write late at night when my husband and our daughter Holly are asleep. I have always been a late owl and often find I am most productive at midnight, when there is no distraction from family, friends, the phone or TV.

But I just wish there was more time in the day, as my head is filled with ideas for books and films all bursting to be written!

9. What was it like the first time you saw Are You Ready? as an actual book?

To see the book for the first time was very surreal. After years of buying other author’s books, it’s just so exciting to see your own book sitting on a shelf in a bookshop. I felt so lucky, and I still do.

10. Finally, what advice would you give to aspiring writers?

People always say write about what you know and in these books, I certainly do! From getting engaged and organising a wedding, to finding Mr. Right and becoming pregnant, I’ve experienced it all and loved using all that to help me write! My family and friends also inspire me – with their funny stories and ideas. So I would advise people to look around them for inspiration!

The interest in my characters and my quest to find out where their story will lead them also keeps me at my desk all night, writing into the early hours of the morning! If the book can’t keep the author motivated, it certainly won’t keep a reader interested.

I also find that if you can take a small break away from the book, you will come back to it with fresh eyes and then can see where things need to be changed or tightened up.

So write about what you know, set it where you know, pick interesting characters and enjoy it. Writing must be fun!

Thanks so much Amanda!

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