Cathy Kelly

9 Books

Cathy Kelly is published around the world, with millions of books in print. Cathy is the bestselling author of The Honey Queen, Once in a Lifetime and Between Sisters, and is a No.1 bestseller in the UK, Ireland and Australia.

Her trademark is warm and witty Irish storytelling about modern life, always with an uplifting message, a sense of community and strong female characters at the heart.

She lives with her family and their three dogs in County Wicklow, Ireland. She is also an Ambassador for UNICEF Ireland, raising funds and awareness for children orphaned by or living with HIV/AIDS.

Interviews

Author interview: Cathy Kelly

I’m very excited to welcome Cathy Kelly to One More Page today to talk about her beautiful new novel, It Started With Paris. Cathy is published around the world, with millions of books in print. A No.1 bestseller in the UK, Ireland and Australia, her trademark is warm Irish storytelling about modern life, always with an uplifting message, sense of community and strong female characters at the heart.

 She lives with her family and their three dogs in County Wick low, Ireland. She is also an Ambassador for UNICEF Ireland, raising funds and awareness for children orphaned by or living with HIV/AIDS. Find out more at www.cathykelly.com

Your new novel, It Started With Paris has just been released, please could you tell us a little about it and your inspiration for it?

I love writing about the contrast between real life and the imaginary life we all imagine other people live – you know, you imagine the girl next door with the high heels and the nice handbag has a fascinating life full of excitement and low on things like sweeping up in the kitchen.

The reality might be different…. So It Started With Paris begins with a gloriously romantic marriage proposal on the Eiffel Tower and then moves into real life: people who split up, people who got divorced and people whose husbands left them for someone with legs up to her armpits. On the outside, they look as if they have one sort of life but we soon find out what their inner lives are really like.

Grace is a classy and kind school principal who has the sort of civilized divorce with her ex-husband which means they talk happily, never used their children as ammunition and are both thrilled when their son becomes engaged.

But fifteen years after her divorce, she looks at her ex husband and his partner, and feels lonely… Then there’s feisty Leila with the fabulous job in the movie industry and she’s desperately hiding her misery after her music-industry husband came home one night, got calmly into bed with her and packed his bags the next day.

Finally, there’s Vennie, who was tragically widowed and left with a young son. Somehow, she’s managed to build a new life for them both and then she falls in love – except one person will do anything to ruin this chance of happiness.  I wanted to look at how glorious early romance (the Eiffel Tower) is and how much harder real life is.

The novel begins in Paris and I love the beautiful cover of the Eiffel Tower; what would your ideal day in the City be like?

Thank you for saying lovely things about the cover!! Pooh, my ideal day in Paris would start with having breakfast on the terrace of the small apart/hotel we stayed in last time, where you can see over the rooftops to all of Paris from Montmartre on one side, to Notre Dame.

Then, with enough Parisian coffee inside me, myself, my husband and my sons would hit the Louvre for a couple of hours, perhaps meander through the Jardin de Tuileries and admire the exquisite flowers, and head for lunch somewhere nearby – with  a trip on the famous Ferris wheel.

 I am terribly scared of heights and the wheel works on a desensitization system for people like me because you are ready to get off after the first go and then it goes around twice more! You are not so scared by the third time and you see so much of Paris.

If we’re  not too tired, we might whizz around on the Metro, buy some macaroons in LA durée on the Champs Elyse and hit the Muse d’Orsay  or just walk along the Seine, admire the paintings and buy mad keyrings of the Eiffel Tower, which light up like my book, with its glorious sparkles, seems to light up. I love looking at the people too. People-watching is one of my favorite things in the world.

Perhaps I might escape off to a department store like Pinetops  (Boulevard Hausman) for some retail therapy – two stores, at least seven floors and glorious stuff. Then home, relax and off to dinner. There’s a fabulous restaurant on every street corner.

We meet Leila, Vennie and Grace in this story, three fab strong ladies! Please could you sum each of them up in three words?

Leila is funny, wry and hiding her hurt. Vennie is grace under pressure. And Grace is kind, wise and witty.

Did you have a favorite character to write?

I loved them all, to be honest. When I write in a particular voice, I almost become that person and sometimes speak their dialogue out loud. Mad, I know!

It Started With Paris is your 15th novel (congratulations!); what are your top tips for new writers who are just  starting their careers?

Have faith in yourself. When I started, I so wanted to write but had no confidence and I think that stops many wonderful writers. Just have faith and try to write a little every day. Writing fiction is a particular muscle and you need to flex it.

Don’t delete everything on the grounds that you think it’s hopeless because a week later, you might like it after all. Read blogs from published writers and I do recommend On Writing by Stephen King, which is a wonderful guide to how Stephen does it.

What do you like to read you’re not writing?

I read commercial women’s fiction, thrillers, biographies, you name it. I’ve literally just finished Ian McEwan’s The Children Act ( marvelous), read an unputdownable Daniel Silva thriller (had never read him before) and reread EM Delafield’s Diary of a Provincial Lady, which is marvelous and never gets old, even though it was written in the 1930s.

And finally … what can we expect next from Cathy Kelly?

I am working on a new book and plan to TIDY MY DESK. Well, one day, perhaps! Thank you Cathy! It Started With Paris is out now in hardback, audio and eBook formats.

Please do check out the other stops on Cathy’s It Started With Paris blog tour and pop back again later today when there will be a chance to win a copy of this fab novel!

 

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