Cathy Kelly

Cathy Kelly is published around the world, with millions of copies of her books in print. Cathy juggled her job with writing in her spare time, and her first novel, ‘Woman to Woman’, was published in 1997. It went straight to number 1 on the Irish Times and Sunday Times bestseller lists. She lives with her husband, John, their young twin sons, Dylan and Murray, and their three dogs in County Wicklow, Ireland. She is also an Ambassador for Unicef Ireland, raising funds and awareness for children orphaned by or living with HIV/AIDS.

1. To the readers of the blog, that may not be familiar with you or your writing, can tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into writing?
   I wanted to write even as a kid and used to tell stories to my little sister. I was the annoying kid whose essays were read out in class! started off as a journalist but I found I wasn’t tough enough for it, although it’s a fabulous learning experience for writing. My first novel, Woman to Woman, was published in 1997. I continued to work as a journalist until three books were published at which point I decided to make the plunge to be a full time novelist. Now, I’ve written sixteen novels, with It Started in Paris being the most recent. I’m currently writing my seventeenth.
2. Before you became an author time writer, you were an agony aunt, do you have any interesting stories to tell from this previous role?
   I feel that it’s important to protect the anonymity of the people who wrote to me – their stories were so personal, so sad and it would be wrong to talk about them. A few, like one horrific one from a paedophile seeking absolution, do stand out. I like to say that doing this was like getting a PhD in human beings.
3. What authors do you admire?
   I love writers within my own genre, like my wonderful Irish friends, Marian Keyes, Emma Hannigan, Patricia Scanlan and Ella Griffin, and I also adore
   Maeve Binchy, Colette and Molly Keane.
4. What is your favourite part of the writing process?
   There is huge relief to be had in pressing send when it’s finished. The relief! However, I don’t think you can write if you don’t love it, so I love coming up with the characters and getting involved with creating this whole world of people with their lives and traumas and, finally, their triumphs! I do like happy endings but my endings are not always – I hope – obvious.
5. How would you describe your writing?
   I think this is an impossible question! I write what I would like to read: words that consume me, comfort me, challenge me. I like to write about real people in real worlds where we are not rescued by a knight on a white horse but have to rescue ourselves!
6. What has been the highlight of your career so far?
   Probably getting my first book published because without that, there would be no career!
7. The cover for ‘Between Sisters’ is particularly beautiful. Do you have much input into the design for the cover? And do you, yourself judge books by their cover?
   Thank you, I love it. The cover design process is great fun.All authors have cover approval but really, the hard work is in the cover department who come up with visuals which the publishers, myself and my agent discuss. I have never judged books by their covers – I am a child of the library where covers years ago were often very bland and I found such glorious writers there.
8. Tell me about your role as an Ambassador for Unicef Ireland.
   I became involved with UNICEF nine years ago and it has been a huge joy. It means I get to travel to places and see how people with nothing live, and I can then come home and tell the world about it. I like to see it as using my voice to help people with no voice.

   Over the years working for UNICEF, I’ve been to Rwanda and Mozambique where I’ve seen mothers with HIV/AIDs holding onto their children and staring blindly ahead while they talk about who will mind their baby when they’re gone. There are no words to comfort and you instantly put yourself in their place, imagining if you were dying and there was nobody to protect your child from a future which, without UNICEF’s help, can include starvation, abuse and abject poverty. In Mozambique, a child dies of malaria every fifteen minutes when a simple mosquito net costing about six dollars can save the same child’s life. But these people can’t afford six dollars.

9. If you were stranded on a desert island, which three books would you bring with you to pass the time?
   A. Probably the complete works of Trollope – Anthony.
   B. ‘The SAS Survival Guide’ (which I actually own) because then I would survive.
   C. the works of Wodehouse so I could giggle.
10. What area do you suggest a budding writer should concentrate on to further their abilities?
    Write often, every day if you can. Edit, edit and edit. Many writers write books but never go over them again. The first pages need to leap out at the reader. There’s no point saying your novel gets interesting in chapter four. The agent and publisher will have stopped reading by then. I have a section on advice on my website http://cathykelly.com/advice. I would highly recommend Stephen King’s On Writing. Also, naturally, read all you can. Reading helps you to learn the craft of writing and while enjoying a truly enriching hobby at the same time.
11. When sitting down to write, what is the one item you need beside you?
    Strong coffee!
12. And finally Cathy, do you have any projects or releases on the horizon which you would like to share with the readers of the website?
    Thank you for asking. I am writing my next novel due to my published in 2016. I love hearing from readers either through my website or Facebook and Twitter.

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