Interview With Monica McInerney About The Alphabet Sisters

I actually wrote my first book at the age of eight, 32 years ago now. It was called The Smith Family Go to Perth on the Train, and the librarian at my school (very kindly) took it seriously, covering it, cataloguing it and putting it on the shelves of my school library. I was probably the only one that ever borrowed it, but I can still remember the thrill of seeing it on the bookshelf. I'm quite sure thats what planted the seed in me of wanting to be a writer. I've loved writing and books all my life, reading two or three books a week since I was a child. Thats why I enjoyed worked in publishing so much, it was so terrific to learn all that goes on behind the scenes and seeing firsthand how books are made.

 

What made you decide to switch from looking after authors to being one yourself?

My husband and I moved to Tasmania in 1996 and for the first time in ten years I wasn't able to find work in publishing. I missed being around books and talking about stories every day so much. One night I sat down to write a short story, trying to recapture that feeling, and it was like a dam burst, the ideas started pouring from me. I wrote almost fifty stories over the next two months, and sent them out to magazines hoping to get published. I got dozens of rejections, but then three of my stories were accepted and published and that gave me the confidence to start writing my first novel. Two years later, it became A Taste for It, which was published in Ireland in 2000 and Australia and New Zealand in 2001. Since then I?ve written a book a year, Upside Down Inside Out, Spin the Bottle, The Alphabet Sisters, my new book Family Baggage and I'm now working on my sixth.

 

What are your interests when you are not writing?

Reading, I still read two or three books a week, as well as lots of newspapers and magazines. I also love cooking, going out to dinner, travelling with my husband, going hillwalking in the Wicklow Mountains, talking to my mum and sisters in Australia on the phone.

 

Is becoming a writer what you have always planned to do or did you intend to be in childrens TV, publicity etc for the rest of your career?

I've always had a fascination with books, but over the years I've worked in many different jobs, including grapepicking, waitressing, public relations, arts marketing, music promotion, event management and book publishing. It's all been great experience and given me plenty of research to draw upon in my writing now.

 

Is there another author who mentored you?

The wonderful thing about working as a publicist for ten years was I got to meet and hear many authors talk about their writing. It was like doing a writing course by osmosis, and I still draw upon the tips and advice I heard from all those authors.

 

How much of your books are autobiographical?

All of my books spring from the fact that I am from a big family, I am fascinated by family life, all the different personalities rubbing up against each other, all the light and dark moments that happen, the fun you have, but also the sad times. I draw on my own experiences in an emotional way, but my characters and plots are always fiction.

 

I feel I relate to Bett the most, which Alphabet Sister do you relate to the most?

Bett, definitely. I know very well that feeling of feeling clumsy, out of your depth, wondering if you are headed in the right direction in your life. I also like eating chips as much as she does.

 

With that in mind was your relationship with your family ever like in The Alphabet Sisters?

No, I'm very glad to say there has never been a three year feud in the McInerney family. I'm very close to my three sisters, and my three brothers, and we talk and email each other all the time. What sparked The Alphabet Sisters was actually moving from Australia to Ireland to live in 1992, and being separated from my sisters. I missed them very much and it got me wondering how life would be if it had been an argument that separated us, rather than geography.

 

What was it like growing up in such a large family?

I loved it as a child and I still love it now as an adult. It's action-packed, full of laughs, drama, fun,  theres never a dull moment.

 

Do you believe that the sun should never set on an argument, as this was one of the most prominent messages coming from Lola?

I do, though I also know that it isn't always easy to manage. Thats why I have my characters failing sometimes, nobody is perfect and just because we know the right thing to do, it doesn't always mean we can do it, not straightaway, in any case.

 

Lola was a treasure, always having the best intentions at heart and always knew what to say, she was an inspiring person. Is she based on a real person?

I loved writing Lola. I loved how fearless she was, so goodhumoured, so bold and cheeky. She isn't based on any real person, but there are definitely elements of my own mother in her, particularly Lola's relationship with her three granddaughters, and her great-granddaughter. My mum has a similar down-to-earth, fun, outspoken relationship with her twelve grandchildren. As a child I didn't know my own grandmothers, but I heard lots of stories about my mothers mother, Maude Canny, as I was growing up. She was a very entertaining, feisty woman by all accounts, so in some ways I think Lola came from how I imagined or how I would love my grandmother to have been.

 

A recurring theme throughout the book was that you should always confront your fears, is that a message you were specifically trying to give to your readers, and/or is this how you live your own life?

Again, it's a hard thing to do, but I know from my own life that often the things I'm most scared of are the things that move my life on, and make other good things happen. I do believe that if you take a risk, step out into the great unknown now and again, you often get rewarded. Not always immediately, but in some way, even if by just showing yourself that you can try or do something new.

 

Articles have called The Alphabet Sisters a life-affirming story as it shows that quarrels can be solved with love and loyalty. Was this your aim?

I love that people have found it life-affirming. I wanted to write a big, layered, involving story, to really get to the heart of the Quinlan family and show that they were all flawed in some way, all guilty of bad decisions and mistakes in some way, but that what really matters in the end is love, friendship and family.

 

Was the musical based on factual events?

Lola's musical Many Happy Returns is very loosely based on the real-life visit during World War II by General Douglas MacArthur to the tiny South Australian town of Terowie, where he said his famous line 'I have come from Bataan and I shall return'.  As children, my brothers and sisters and I used to write and perform our own plays (for an audience of two, our poor, long-suffering parents). We also took part in annual musicals in the Clare Valley, so I had some experience of the world of amateur dramatics and was able to draw on that when I was writing The Alphabet Sisters.

 

For those who haven't read any of your books before would you recommend they start with The Alphabet Sisters or would you recommend another book to begin with?

I'd be delighted if people read any of my books and in any order they liked. My first three are romantic comedies, and there is some linkage between them, with locations reappearing and some characters popping up from book to book. The Alphabet Sisters and Family Baggage also have plenty of romantic comedy in them, but those books delve deeper into the heart of family life, exploring many of the darker and sadder sides of life, as well as the fun moments.

 

How is Family Baggage going to move on from the success of The Alphabet Sisters, do you believe it will be as successful?

I hope that everyone who enjoyed The Alphabet Sisters enjoys Family Baggage too. I hope that people really enjoy going on a journey with Harriet, the lead character, as much as they did with Bett and her sisters in The Alphabet Sisters.

 

And finally family is a recurring theme, is the importance of family why you have written these two books?

Yes, definitely. I know from my own life how much family means, not just brothers and sisters, but all the generations. Family also isn't just your blood relatives, it's the people you have around you as you go through life, the ones that support you, encourage you, help you when the going is tough, the ones you help when they are in trouble, all the important relationships of life.

Interviewed By:
Amy Gault
Betterliving.co.nz Editor