I absolutely loved Gemma Burgess's debut novel, The Dating Detox (review coming soon!) and was excited to interview Gemma herself! Here she talks about the Detox, upcoming projects, and naming bastards. (You'll see...)Please describe your latest book in 15 words or fewer.
If you can't date anyone nice, don't date anyone at all.
What inspired you to write The Dating Detox?
Erm, I wanted to write something reassuring and warm and funny and a bit silly. Like a stiff drink and a hug with a best friend. And I just liked the idea of a heroine who was confident and funny and silly but clueless... I also wanted to write a romantic comedy that wasn't fluffy and soppy, but kind of sharp and funny, as that's what I like to read.
Where do you write your books?
In bed in the morning, then at the dining table in the afternoon and on the couch at night. (I have a very tiny laptop.) I'm best in the mornings and at 3pm my brain goes kaput so that's when I tend to do something else like go to the gym or go and say hello to the clothes in Zara and H&M.
What is your favourite chick-lit book?
Oh God that's hard. Bridget Jones I think, it's the only one I've read tens of times. Or Polo by Jilly Cooper, of course, though I suppose that's a bonkbuster more than chicklit. I've read a lot of Adele Parks, Jane Costello, Alison Scotch Winn and Emily Giffin lately, they're wonderful.
Who is your favourite heroine, and why?
Perdita in Polo by Jilly Cooper is extremely cool. I have always had a girlcrush on her - she's sarcastic, talented, ambitious, witty, arrogant, etc. And underneath it all she has the proverbial heart of gold.
Right now I'm reading your blog, Name That Bastard. What made you decide to set this up?
Thanks! Naming, for me, is one of the most irritatingly difficult parts of writing. When naming the character who is now Rick in The Dating Detox, I sent an email titled 'Name That Bastard' to all my friends asking them for help. I got hilarious emails back from them and their sisters and friends and coworkers saying why I should pick a certain name. So I thought, for the second book, that I'd do it again - just on a bigger scale - so I started a blog on www.namethatbastard.com - I'm getting hilarious entries from all over the world and it's only been up a few weeks! And the strapline, 'Revenge is print', makes me laugh.
Do you have any tips for readers who would like to become published authors?
Hmmm - well I'm really no expert, but this advice would have helped me: Keep writing till you find a voice that you're comfortable with; one that feels real and is easy and just flows out of your fingers. Write a good cover letter when you send out your manuscript, saying what you want the book to be and why - the concept of the book. Ooh, and get on Twitter. There's a very supportive publishing community - I only started using it properly about a month ago and I wish I'd started earlier. I don't tweet much yet, I'm the girl in the corner of the Twitter party sipping her drink thoughtfully and watching everyone else have a good time, but I'm slowly getting more involved. You can find me on @gkateb.
What are you currently reading?
I'm the kind of person who will read a toothpaste tube if there's nothing else to read, so I tend to have a few books on the go at once as I'm constantly misplacing them. Right now my main book is The Group by Mary McCarthy. It's brilliant. I'm also dipping in and out of Rivals by Jilly Cooper because I wanted to look at that longing-love feeling between Rupert and Taggie. I started Super Freakonomics a few weeks ago and pick it up whenever I'm in the kitchen waiting for my coffee and porridge. It's easy to dive into and skim for a few minutes.
Are you working on anything else at the moment, and if so, can you tell us?
Yes! It's called The Late Starter (or The Dating Virgin - what do you think?). It's about a girl who, at 27, ends a seven year-relationship and has to learn the rules of singledom from scratch. She suffers stomach-churningly bad dating experiences until her new flatmate, a notorious lothario, teaches her how to date like a man, or more specifically, how to be a bastard. And then, well, you'll have to wait and see.... I'm having a lot of fun with it.
