author snapshot: claire peate
1. What inspired you to write chick lit?
Answer: I wanted to write something that I wanted to read. I was 25 when I started The Floristry Commission, and it very much reflected what I was into at the time. I recall reading one chick lit novel and thinking "This is just pants! The characters are just a collection of cliches, the plots predictable and the dialogue is something out of a Janet and John book. I could do better than this". So I gave it a go.
2. What do you enjoy doing when you’re not writing?
Answer: I enjoy spending time with my two children aged 3 and 1 and my husband (aged 30).
3. Out of all of the books you have written, which was the most fun to write and why?
Answer: I absolutely loved writing Big Cats and Kitten Heels. I dashed it off in about 7 months (that doesn't sound very fast does it?) and it was completed when I was just about to give birth. Talk about working to a deadline. I'd had the idea for a few months and having honed my writing skills with my first novel it was just a case of getting stuck in to writing without going through all that angst of learning to write like I did with the first one.
4. Are there any naughty episodes in your novels that mirror real life?
Answer: No - my naughty episodes are my naughty episodes!
5. What is your favorite time of the day: morning, afternoon, or night?
Answer: Definitely the evening. After the children are down I boot up the laptop, settle into the sofa, move to the study when my husband demands to watch TV, and then write from about 8 - 10pm most nights. Now that I've had two novels published, I can afford to put my children into nursery one day a week so that I have the luxury of a whole day to work on novel number three. I'm finding it difficult coping with that amount of time though - I tend to faff about a lot before knuckling down to work.
6. If you could cast yourself as a character in one of your novels, who would it be?
Answer: I suppose it would be Rosamund from The Floristry Commission. She's got a good sense of humor, doesn't necessarily know where she fits in the world and is very tall with size 9 feet. OK so she IS me!
7. What did you do to celebrate the publishing of your first novel?
Answer: I remember phoning up the publishers and asking if they had received my manuscript and thinking it had been lost/ binned/ turned in to scrap paper and the editor said "We're publishing it! Didn't anyone tell you?" I cried quite a bit. And then I pulled myself together and phoned everyone I'd ever met to tell them.
8. Is there anything you’d like to share with your readers?
Answer: The handsome Welsh farmer from Big Cats was inspired on a Snowdonia National Park ranger. He was based in a stone cabin at the base of the Devil's Kitchen mountain (near Snowdon) and he was the most devilishly handsome, twinkly eyed man I've ever seen. The trouble is, when you've just scaled various mountains and scarpered down scree slopes you don't look your best. So if you're ever in trouble on a mountain in Snowdonia fear not - help would most definitely be at hand!
Claire's Novels:
Big Cats and Kitten Heels