I recently got the chance to read Irish author Claudia Carroll’s latest book Personally, I Blame My Fairy Godmother (which I’ll be reviewing tomorrow) and we were also offered the chance to interview Claudia. Here it is in all of its glory and I hope you enjoy reading it (I know I did - the answer about her book titles is hilarious!).

1. Tell us about your latest book ‘Personally I Blame My Fairy Godmother’ in your own words.

The inspiration for PERSONALLY, I BLAME MY FAIRY GODMOTHER came from of all things, the global recession and economic downturn. I read about people my age losing their homes and suddenly being forced to move back in with family. The Boomerang Generation, as they’re known. Then I thought of that quote from Harold Pinter; ‘Home is the one place, when you go there, they have to take you in.’

So I thought; imagine a modern day fairy tale gone wrong; Cinderella backwards. Where you have a heroine who starts out with her heart’s desire, a fabulous career, a palatial home to live in and a guy she supposes to be Prince Charming. Then in one fell swoop, she loses her job and the whole house of cards fast collapses on top of her, leaving her homeless, jobless and dumped. So she has no choice but to move back in with her Stepmother and two Stepsisters, who hate the very sight of her…………

2. Are you currently working on your next novel? Can you tell us anything about it?

My new novel is called WILL YOU STILL LOVE ME TOMORROW? And here’s a sneak preview;

Imagine only ever having dated one person your entire life. Hard to do, isn’t it? Yet that’s what happened Annie and Dan; they’re true soul-mates who’ve been blissfully happy together, ever since they were fifteen years old. But flash forward twenty years and it’s a very different story. Now they’re both mid-thirties, sitting across the kitchen table from each other and…well……. wondering where the spark went. So when Annie is offered her dream job which means her moving away for a full year, what do they do? Torture themselves with the long-distance relationship thing which everyone knows never works or…… maybe give themselves a year off? A marriage sabbatical. One full year of not being married. Free to date anyone they want, with no recriminations, no guilt, and no hard feelings. Cue a love within marriage story about two people who don’t know how good they really have it, until they decide to take a year off.

For bad behaviour, that is.

3. Before becoming a writer, you were a well-known actress in Ireland, starring in Fair City, how did you make the transition from acting to writing?

Writing was something I’d always done, but never ever with any thought towards publication. I was forever scribbling away, then shoving ideas into drawers and locking them away. Anyway, one of the directors on Fair City had her first book published in 2003 and I was telling her how much I envied her and she said, the secret is that there is no secret. If you want to do it she said, just write a a few chapters of your book, with a synopsis and

I’ll pass it onto my agent, Marianne Gunn O’Connor. So I did, then had the longest and most agonising wait of my life, but as good luck had it, Marianne came back to me and said yes, she’s represent me. We had a book deal with weeks and it’s been amazing ever since. I am VERY lucky!

4. Why did you decide to base Personally I Blame My Fairy Godmother on the Cinderella fairytale?

I thought it was a good basis for a subverted fairytale; after all, everyone knows the story of Cinderella and the rags to riches story is one of the world’s seven basic plots. But I though, let’s test the heroine and have her starting out with everything, then losing it all and having to go back to her hated old life…..throw in two stepsisters who are a bit like Patti and Selma from The Simpsons and the comedy was ready made.

5. Some of your books have a bit of a magical element to them; in If This Is Paradise I Want My Money Back, Charlotte is hovering between life and death, in I Never Fancied Him Anyway, Cassandra is a psychic, what was your basis for inserting these elements into your books?

Magical books are something that always appeal to me; I’m a big fan of Cecelia Ahern’s! But the book I’m working on right now is far more romantic rather than magical and that’s a challenge too; I’ve never written a pure romance before. Mainly because the comedy comes from relationships going skew-ways…mind you there’s plenty of that in the new book too, hee hee

6. The only book you’ve written a sequel to is He Loves Me Not… He Loves Me with The Last of the Great Romantics, would you ever write sequels to any of your other books?

Not as of yet; all my books since then are stand alone novels and the new on will be too.

7. All of your titles are pretty big mouthfuls (although I think they’re inspired and ‘Personally..’ is by far my favourite), wouldn’t you say? Has it been purposeful as the years have gone on to make your titles longer or is it just plain coincidence? Do you come up with the titles yourself?

Don’t talk to me; I feel really sorry for my poor publishers because we usually have several tussles over titles before hitting on ‘the one!’ I once had a book that I wanted to call ‘God Created Man, But I’d Have Done a Better Job Myself,’ and there was nearly murder. I generally come up with them myself, then we argue for about six months or so, before hitting on something we can all agree on.

8. According to your website, Remind Me Again Why I Need A Man has been optioned for a TV series and movie rights to I Never Fancied Him Anyway have been optioned, do you have any further news about both projects, are they still ongoing?

I Never Fancied Him Anyway is being adapted for a movie, produced by Wendy Finerman, (who made PS, I LOVE YOU as well as THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA,) and the adaptation is by Robin Swicord, who also adapted THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB. All very exciting! Remind me Again Why I Need A Man was optioned by Fox TV, but is still ‘in development, ‘ as they say in L.A. and more recently, If This Is Paradise, I Want My Money Back has been optioned by Canyon Creek films, with Simon Brooks producing. Mind you, until I’m sitting down in the cinema with a bucket of popcorn on my knee watching one of these movies, I won’t believe it……

9. You recently moved from Transworld Publisher to the AVON division of HarperCollins, what has it been like to move from a publisher you’ve spent 6 years with to move to a brand new publisher? How did your original Transworld deal come around?

My original deal with Transworld came about through the wonderful Francesca Liversidge, who bought the rights to my first six books and who I had the pleasure of working with while we edited them. But sadly, she left Transworld last year so both my agent Marianne and I felt the time was ripe for a move. Harper Collins have been nothing but warm and welcoming from day one and I’m especially lucky to have Kate Bradley editing, who is a dream to work with, as well as being one of the funniest people I’ve ever met.

10. If you were sent to a desert island and could choose only three books to take with you, what would they be and why?

Pride and Prejudice, because it’s the probably the most sublime book ever put to paper. Gone with the Wind, because it’s about a deeply flawed heroine who you still root for, and the love story between the hero and heroine is still as potent today as it ever was. And Love in a Cold Climate because it’s just so funny and sharp and captures the inter-war period so beautifully. I’m a big Mitford family fan.

11. What is the best thing about being a published author?

Without a doubt, being able to stay in bed all day, wearing pyjamas and calling it work. Writing is without doubt, the single best job in the whole entire world. Even on the days when nothing’s coming and I’m half ready to fling my computer up against a wall, I wouldn’t change it for anything. In my last TV job, on the soap opera, we worked crazy hours, often shooting from six am till well after midnight. I love the creative process and the idea of being my own boss, it’s the best!

12. Do you have a day-to-day plan that you stick to when it comes to writing your books, or do you play it by ear and write as much as you can per day?

I write a book a year, but a lot of that is working out a watertight synopsis which for me is like the skeleton of the story. Plus it takes me a long time to get to know my characters. But once all’s that’s in place, and I’ve done the groundwork, it takes roughly seven months to write a first draft. Then about a further two months to edit it.

My writing schedule is to keep it as close to a nine to five job as possible. I’m at my desk early, as I find the best time to write is before the phone starts hopping! I’ll work right thought till maybe early afternoon, then take a break. In the afternoon, I’ll go back over the morning’s work and clean it up a bit. After seven books, I’ve got very disciplined about not answering the phone or door unless it’s work-related. Just as though I worked in an office!

13. If you could lay claim to any book in the world and say to people “I wrote that”, what book would that be?

Anything by Jane Austen. She was the mother of women’s commercial fiction, if you ask me.

14. Finally, what advice would you give to aspiring authors?

It’s highly unlikely a publisher will randomly knock on your front door and ask you if you happen to have an unpublished manuscript lying around the place that they can buy. Be brave and don’t be afraid to get your work out there! And remember, the secret is…..there is no secret.

Thanks so much Claudia!

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