I've got one or two author interviews up my sleeve and I'm delighted to say that Rowan Coleman is the subject of today's. Rowan is an author I have admired for some time. Not only does she write successful books such as The Baby Group and The Accidental Wife, but she also writes the Ruby Parker series of books for girls.
Hi Rowan, welcome back to Trashionista! Tell us about your latest book, The Accidental Family.
The Accidental Family is a follow up novel to The Accidental Mother. It picks up the story of Sophie, Louis, Bella and Izzy about six months after Sophie gives up her whole life to go and join Louis and his daughters in Cornwall. It explores their developing romance and what happens when reality comes crashing in to complicate things.
Had you always planned to write a sequel to The Accidental Mother?
I never planned to write a sequel to any of my novels! It's not something that would normally appeal to me. I have a head so full of ideas that it seems a bit mad to go back to an old one. But readers from all over the world kept asking me what happened next to Sophie and Louis and after a while I started to think about it and I found that the characters kept telling me their story and they wouldn't shut up! So in the end I relented and gave into them. I think it works as a stand alone book too, but I'm glad to be able to give the readers what they've been asking for.
Did you find it easier writing a sequel?
It was fun to be back with characters that I am so fond of again, but if anything writing a sequel is harder - you have to keep the same narrative pitch and make sure that the characters ring true and keep faith with the original. I wrote The Accidental Mother about four years ago now, so that was tricky!
What is coming next from Rowan Coleman (if you can tell us)?
I can't tell you the title because it's so brilliant I don't want anyone to steal it - it hasn't got 'accidental' in it though!! And I find it really hard to talk about a book while I'm writing it, suffice to say I am really enjoying working on it, possibly more than I've enjoyed any of my other books and I hope it will be a fun, romantic, compelling read!
Thanks, Rowan!
