Mhairi McFarlane
Author Interview - Mhairi McFarlane
Author of Just Last Night and If I Never Met You
Eve, Justin, Susie, and Ed have been friends since they were teenagers. Now in their thirties, the four are as close as ever, Thursday night bar trivia is sacred, and Eve is still secretly in love with Ed. Maybe she should have moved on by now, but she can’t stop thinking about what could have been. And she knows Ed still thinks about it, too.
But then, in an instant, their lives are changed forever.
Author Interview - Mhairi McFarlane
Author I draw inspiration from: Well, Kate Atkinson is absolutely at the top of her game and I love how she moved between literary novels and genre with her detective series. Also I believe she says she writes between 3pm and 5pm because if she gives it the whole day, she doesn't find she gets any more done than in two concentrated hours. What a queen! *Mhairi's editor eyes her sternly*
Author Interview - Mhairi McFarlane
Favorite place to read a book: Has to be in the bath. I am very much a bath person. Hot bath, cold wine.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: it's not a book character, I am going to cheat here - David Simon, creator of The Wire, author of Homicide. Endlessly interesting, full of stories, hugely opinionated but always entertaining. The hours would FLY by (for me.)
Author Interview - Mhairi McFarlane
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: oh God that is a question. I mean, when I was a kid I was sure I wanted to be a writer and used to make up stories I'd write in huge handwriting in coloured felt tip pens in exercise books. I'm never sure whether authors overcook that kind of thing as important foreshadowing though, I mean loads of children write stories? In my older years, it was when I was working at the local paper and the deputy editor asked me to write a spoof of Bridget Jones for an advertising feature. I was terrified by it and then I absolutely loved it, and there was this peculiar click - so quiet that at first I don't think I noticed it. I'd been spinning my wheels a bit with feature writing, and I remember the giddy shock and thrill of girls in the sales department calling me up and asking "What happens to her next?" I couldn't believe I had this power, that I'd created a world which people had invested in enough to ask that. From then on it was a slow dawning realisation that fiction was the challenge that really fired me up, after spending my twenties in journalism.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: HARDBACK. Barely a question. Don't get me wrong, I love a paperback and the convenience of ebook, but as 'things' they don't get the blood pumping in quite the same way as a big brick of a hardback.
The last book I read: Ooh er....it might have been Sally Rooney's Normal People? So I am all set to argue about the casting of the screen version on Twitter now.
Author Interview - Mhairi McFarlane
Pen & paper or computer: I'd love to say pen like a romantic but do you know what - any author telling you they write longhand is either lying or on a contract like Donna Tartt's, a book every decade. It's just too inconvenient. I do however stay on brand as a romance author and general gadabout by writing on a rose gold MacBook Air.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: Elizabeth Bennett from Pride & Prejudice. Obvious answer, I know, but she'd be such a solid, honest friend without ever being worthy or boring. I honestly tried to be more like her after I first read the book, she was a template for being a spirited, thoughtful, intelligent person. If occasionally, a little too in love with her own snap judgments which is nothing like me at all, hell no
Author Interview - Mhairi McFarlane
If I wasn’t an author, I’d be a: HAH. I am imagining all the authors who'd say 'marine biologist,' or similar and there is literally zero I am good at if I'm not writing words down. I am quite impressively rubbish at most things, in fact. I do love cats however, true to the whole romance author stereotype, so let's pretend I'd run a cattery. I bet it'd be all urine-soaked litter and being scratched and owners not paying their bills and saddling you with Big Geoff The Violent Tabby for life.
Favorite decade in fashion history: ooh easy, the 1950s bleeding into the early 1960s. The whole Mad Men aesthetic. I know mid century modern furniture is all the rage among hipsters but actually I can take or leave the sideboards or sofas of the era (I'm very much more a shabby chic / faded glitz kind of gal when it comes to interiors.) But the dresses! The femininity of the full skirts, and all that drama. I mean, we can't really pretend now is better, can we? More comfortable certainly, but no one looks like Marilyn Monroe just to catch a taxi.
Place I’d most like to travel: I've promised a trip to one of my best friends to explore Seattle and the surrounding areas, so I best say that in case she reads this.
My signature drink: Oh god I am such a cliche - Prosecco. Fizzy booze is the best.
Favorite artist: musically? I've not really thought in terms of favourites since primary school, heh heh, but put Nick Cave.
Number one on my bucket list: hang the hell on, I'm 43 not 83! What are you implying? Lolz. Erm...I've never been one for travelling and big Grand Canyon experiences and ticking them off a list - trundling around my hometown and going for the odd jaunt to fancy London is plenty to keep me happy. I know, put the Magic Mike XXL Live show. HAHAHHAHHA. I've probably only amused myself there, apologies.
Find more from Mhairi McFarlane:
Twitter: @MhairiMcF
Author Interview - Mhairi McFarlane
