"How I Changed From Commissioning TV to Writing Books"

When I was 17, I asked my mum, with no hint of irony, whether she thought I should use my real name for the books I was going to write or whether I should come up with a pen-name.

My mum, who is nothing if not forthright, looked at me askance and said in her strong Northern Irish accent “I don’t think it’ll ever be an issue so I wouldn’t waste time worrying about it!”

But fast-forward 25 years and I DID finally achieve my ambition to become an author, when my first novel, RSVP, was published. 

So what took me so long?  Well, I suppose what got in the way was the other ambition I had nursed since I was very young, to work in TV.  From the age of about 7, I would send off endless letters to the BBC, suggesting ideas for programmes that invariably involved me presenting them.  This was despite being rather chubby, with short, greasy hair and thick glasses.  At such a tender age, I hadn’t yet realised how lookist TV is.

At university, I got a less than impressive degree, thanks to my devotion to Richard & Judy on This Morning.  Mornings that should have been spent at lectures were spent much more pleasurably, lolling on my bed learning the vitally important life skills of using hair conditioner when shaving my legs and how to apply fake tan without staining my palms.

I had no idea at the time but all of this was to come in very handy when a few years later, I landed my dream job as a day producer on… This Morning!  It was stressful, terrifying and utterly, utterly brilliant. 

From there, I gradually climbed the greasy TV pole until I found myself in one of the best jobs in the world, as Head of Daytime for Channel 4.  I was actually PAID to be in charge of shows like Come Dine With Me, Deal or No Deal and Coach Trip!  I’d have done it for free but luckily Channel 4 didn’t know that…

But as with everything, there was a price to pay for such a fantastic job.  Every day, I had to travel for 5 hours to get to and from work.  In order to cope with the commute, I started to write and that is how I came to write RSVP and IOU.  Every day, I would get on the train, open my laptop and start to write.  When I arrived at Liverpool Street, I would close the laptop, go to work and repeat the whole exercise again in the evening. It was great but it was exhausting.

So when, in October 2011, I got a call to say that I had been offered a new 3 book deal, it was as if all the pieces suddenly slotted into place and I decided to leave Channel 4 to write full-time.

At the beginning of 2012, I found myself sitting at my desk at home, overlooking the beautiful, wild sea and wondering why I didn’t do this years ago. 

But the truth is, I couldn’t have done it years ago because it wasn’t the right time. Now is the right time and I feel blessed.

p.s. I did use my real name – and my mum couldn’t be prouder.

'How I came to write BAD SISTERS'

Author Rebecca Chance

Rivalry, catfights, jealousy, stealing each other’s clothes, an unspoken competition that lasts your whole life… how could I not want to write about sisters for one of my bonkbusters? My subject, what I’m really fascinated by, is women – what we do to each other, good and bad, how we relate to each other, and there’s no richer place to find women loving and hating and scheming than in a family, the closest bond of all. I have two sisters myself – good ones, who I love very much – but there’s no way you can be a sibling and not be aware that for the whole of your life, you’re comparing yourself to the other girls in your family. Who has the best legs? Who makes the most money? Who’s Mummy or Daddy’s favourite? Maybe it’s because I’m one of three sisters myself, but that immediately seemed the perfect number – three means that two can gang up on the other one, it means you never have just two girls going head-to-head without a third perspective coming in as well. Because sisters always get in each other’s business.

I used to write crime novels under my real name, Lauren Henderson, and I always try to have a crime or mystery element to the Rebecca Chance novels. So as soon I’d decided that I really wanted to write about three sisters, I thought: family secret. I would give them something that tied them together even tighter than the blood bond that family members share, an awful, hidden secret that they would all have to keep buried for the rest of their lives. And there would have to be a twist to it, of course, some revelation that would come out in the last few chapters. I’d play fair all the way along, describing scenes as they had happened, but at least one of the sisters would have an extra, concealed motivation for everything she did and said. A betrayal that would be even more powerful, because she wasn’t playing fair with her own family.

And it would also be about each sister trying to break free from the family ties and find out who she was – because that’s something that we’ve all experienced. Deeley, the sweet, ditzy youngest sister, who’d been happily ensconced as a trophy girlfriend in LA, would be unceremoniously kicked out of her cosy nest and have to find her own feet for the first time. Devon, the gorgeous celebrity cook, would realise that though her marriage seemed perfect to outsiders, the reason she was comfort-eating was that she wasn’t really satisfied or happy. Deeley would be jealous of Devon’s success, Devon of Deeley’s freewheeling style and natural slimness. And Maxie, the oldest sister, the most successful and ambitious, would be jealous of the other two, because they had it easier than her; she’d done all the hard work to pull them out of the gutter and into a dazzling A-list life, and they’d just followed along in her wake.

I hadn’t even plotted the book out in detail, and already I had more than enough material. Over drinks with my editors at a club on Shaftesbury Avenue, we talked about the idea. Thankfully, they loved it and were brimming with great ideas and suggestions; we jabbered away for a few hours, I went home and the next day I wrote an eleven-page outline and sent it off to them. They approved it with hardly any changes, and I promptly started writing. It was barely even like work – when you have an idea that really flows, it comes very easily, and Bad Sisters certainly did. Ironically, the title came last, suggested by my editor! Well, someone else had already taken Three Sisters…

'Why I've decided to leave London'

Baby Be Mine author Paige Toon

I love living in London. Today I went with my family to Westminster Abbey, the place where thirty-eight monarchs have been crowned king or queen in the last thousand years. The history is breathtaking, and this incredible city is surrounded by it. 

Recently we took the kids to see the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum, and in a couple of weeks I want to visit the Tower of London because I haven’t been since I was little. There are so many things that I still want to do here.

I’ve lived in London for years – ever since I went to the University of Greenwich where I met my husband. We got married at St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden and I used to work up the road at Heat magazine before I had children. I’d spend my lunchtimes wandering the streets, past Pineapple Studios where the dancers can be seen through the windows, through the packed market with its many buskers, down to the river and across Waterloo Bridge with its spectacular views. Other days I’d walk through Trafalgar Square, past the majestic lions and Nelson’s Column, down to the gates of Buckingham Palace, returning to work via St James’s Palace and the back streets. I felt like I knew it like the back of my hand, and I’m rubbish with directions, so that’s saying something. I still get a little thrill when I’m driving in town and know which way to go at Seven Dials.

Yes, I love London. I got married here, I’ve had two children here, and in the next few weeks I’m utterly determined to make the most of living here. Why? Because I’m leaving.

We’re moving to Cambridge. I love “the city”, but I grew up in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia, and I’m a country girl at heart. Cambridge is one of those places that has the best of both worlds. We went there last year for only the second time and I was struck with the sudden realisation that this was a place where we could live. We were punting on the River Cam and I remember seeing some random guy sitting on the grassy banks with his trousers rolled up, reading a book and drinking a takeaway coffee. I thought: that’s what I want to do, dammit! Maybe not with my trousers rolled up because I hate my legs, and the reality of it is that I rarely go anywhere without at least one child attached, but even if a relaxing solo afternoon by the river was just a dream, living in this amazing city wasn’t.

Cambridge is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever been to. The architecture is stunning, the shops are all lovely and it’s still a city so you have everything you need. But then there are the surrounding sleepy villages, the river, parks and greenery.

It’s going to be hard leaving all of our friends – I know I’ll miss them desperately – and of course we’ll be saying goodbye to the city that has been our home for the past seventeen years. But until moving day comes, I plan to live London life to the full. I’ve too often taken it for granted. Isn’t that always the way with the place where you live? I know I haven’t made the most of living here and that’s something I’ll probably regret. I’ll just have to try not to make the same mistake with Cambridge.

'What it's really like to be a published author'

Tara Hyland

As a little girl, I would furtively read Enid Blyton well past my bedtime, hidden under the duvet with a torch, listening out for my parents’ footsteps on the stairs. I loved the magical world that authors created, how it allowed me to escape from my ordinary life, and longed to be able to do the same.

So seeing my first novel, Daughters of Fortune, being published is a dream come true for me. Yes, it’s a horrible cliché, and as a writer I should be able to come up with something better. But while it may be unoriginal, it’s also true.

The road to publication hasn’t been without its heartaches, though. It’s been three years since I finished the manuscript for Daughters of Fortune, so I’ve certainly had a long buildup to seeing it in print. And inevitably with all that anticipation, the actual event threatened to be an anticlimax.

With so much time on my hands, I made the classic mistake: I turned stalker. In an age when there’s so much information available on the Internet, it was hard not to sneak a look at how other authors were doing. From the news sections on their website, to twitter and facebook, I would read all about their fabulous reviews, tremendous sales, brilliant new book deals… 

Sitting alone at my computer, it made for depressing reading. How was I ever going to compete against all these amazingly successful authors? Nothing that great was happening to me! It took my husband to point out that people only ever publicize their good news, so I was inevitably getting a skewed idea of how well my peers were doing.

That made me feel better for a while at least. But there were also other unavoidable setbacks, which inevitably got blown out of proportion in this overly sensitive – i.e. totally neurotic – writer’s mind.

A few days before publication, I was invited to take part in a feature on debut novelists. There was going to be a photo shoot and an interview, so I excitedly booked my hairdressing appointment, arranged to go shopping with my mum for a new outfit, began to drink lots of water so I wouldn’t get that inevitable zit…

And then an email arrived telling me that my services were no longer required. Along with disappointment came those nagging concerns: why didn’t they want me? Was it because the editor didn’t like my book? Did she decide I wasn’t interesting enough? Or, worse still, that I was too ugly!

But as the publication date got nearer, things began to improve. I started to get excited texts and emails from friends who’d spotted posters of Daughters of Fortune at train and tube stations. It was named book of the month on CBS. There was a fantastic full-page advert in Company magazine.

And then there it was – Daughters of Fortune was finally in the shops! I confess that even now – three weeks later – I can’t walk past a bookstore without going in to check out if they stock my book! It’s pretty much everywhere, prominently displayed at the front of stores and in the book charts.

As my publishers have started passing on sales news, things got even better. People were actually going to buy the book! Lots of them, too. But most importantly of all, I started receiving emails from readers – telling me how much they loved my book.

My best moment so far? Being in a bookstore in Waterloo Station, and seeing someone actually going up to the counter to buy Daughters of Fortune. It didn’t even cross my mind to go up and say that I was the author! I wouldn’t have wanted to put someone on the spot like that. But I can’t help wondering what she would have said if I had…