I’m delighted to welcome best seller author Miranda Dickinson to the blog today mostly chatting about her new novel out later this year, I’ll Take New York.
Welcome Miranda…
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I write romantic comedy and have written five novels, all of which have been Sunday Times Bestsellers. To date, I’ve sold over half a million books around the world (which is a dream come true!) and my first novel, Fairytale of New York was discovered by Avon on HarperCollins’ site for unpublished authors, Authonomy.com, in 2008. I live in The Black Country (in the West Midlands), am married to my gorgeous husband Bob and I’m about to welcome our first child into the world (any day now!).
Generally, which comes first? The character’s story or the idea for the novel?
Good question! It varies with each new book I write, but generally my stories begin with a question, usually ‘what would happen if…?’ The characters then appear and I love working out how they pursue possibility in their lives.
Can you tell us a bit about your upcoming novel I’ll Take New York?
I’ll Take New York goes back to the setting of my first novel, Fairytale of New York. It’s a stand-alone story that will also answer the ‘what happened next?’ questions my lovely readers have asked me about their much loved characters from Fairytale over the last six years. It’s the story of Bea and Jake, who have both been hurt by love and have had enough of relationships. They meet by chance at an engagement party for Jake’s brother Ed (who readers will know from Fairytale of New York) and end up making a drunken pact to swear off relationships for life. They strike up a friendship, bound by The Pact and their shared love of New York, and their friendship grows as they spend weekends exploring their favourite places in the Big Apple. But then unexpected events bring The Pact into question for both of them…
What was your favourite chapter (or part) to write and why?
I loved all of it! I especially loved writing about the places Bea and Jake visit as they explore New York together (because I’m obsessed with the city) and a very special wedding scene that had me in tears when I wrote it. But I think my absolute favourite scene is one where Ed Steinmann gets very drunk – it was huge fun to write and makes him even more endearing!
I know for Take a Look at Me Now you visited San Francisco, so is there anything in I’ll Take New York that’s based on any real life experiences or is it all imagination?
The plan was for Bob and me to visit New York last autumn to research locations for I’ll Take New York, but in the summer we discovered we were expecting our first baby, so that scuppered my plans to fly! Instead, I embarked on hours and hours of research to make sure that the New York in the novel feels as authentic as possible. We plan to visit next year, so I’ll find out if I was successful!
I’ll Take New York is a sort of sequel to Fairytale of New York (which I loved), do you have a favourite sequel – be it a book or movie?
I loved Toy Story 2 and Moon Over Soho, the sequel to Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch.
And…just for fun if you could have dinner with one author, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
I’d love to have dinner with Sir Terry Pratchett – he’s my writing hero!
Thanks to Miranda for stopping by – best of luck with the arrival of ‘bump’ and I’ll look forward to the publication of I’ll Take New York later this year!
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