Brown-eyed, brunette, 25.
Enjoys walking barefoot across shards of broken home. Likes loaded silences, resentment and insomnia. Dislikes romantic weekends, lie-ins and any chance of future happiness.
Former GSOH. Developing PTSD.
Ella Shawe was undomesticated, unattached and uninhibited.
Until she met Dan. Sexy, charming and funny, Dan ticked all the right boxes and Ella threw herself head-first into the whirlwind romance.
But now she’s moved into his family home, complete with two demanding children and a hyperactive dog.
Throw in Dan’s impossibly perfect ex-wife, Ella’s interfering sex therapist mother and the snooty and dismissive mother-in-law from Hell, and Ella is almost ready to throw in the towel.
But, ready or not, Ella is part of the family now, and getting it right for Dan’s kids means getting it right for everyone. She just needs to figure out how to include herself in the mix…
Girlfriend, Interrupted will have you laughing-out-loud, gasping in embarrassment and rooting for Ella all the way.
MY INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR
When did you know that you wanted to be an author?
I wrote stories from a very young age, and continued as I got older, but it was something I felt embarrassed about sharing. I’ve been lucky enough to write my whole career. I started out as a Music and Film Journalist. Then into Copy Writing, before editing magazines, and most recently, writing for Radio. Writing becomes a life-long love affair. You’re never as good as you hope you could be, unless you keep on writing. I think playing with words on a daily basis, gave me the confidence and appetite to commit to writing a novel.
What inspired you to write this book?
Girlfriend, Interrupted is the first of my stories inspired by personal experience. When I was 25, focused on my career and happily single, I met a man with an eight-year-old daughter. I knew nobody in a similar situation, and began doing my best rendition of family life, while still acclimatizing to being in love. Life changed overnight. This is the book I wish I could’ve read back then. Increasingly, Step and Blended-families form our domestic and romantic landscapes. When it comes to Love, what you’re looking for, isn’t necessarily who you’re looking at. I like writing less conventional romantic situations, because there’s far more scope for comedy. I feel much more comfortable thinking of my stories as Com-Roms, rather than Rom-Coms.
If you could sell this book in one sentence what would it be?
When the love of Ella’s life turns out to be somebody else’s dad, their love affair becomes a family affair.
What are you up to next?
My next book is set in the fictitious suburbs of Fernleigh, and tells the stories of a group of women in the midst of marriage. Katherine Wagner is suddenly widowed, and becomes a reluctantly single, single-parent. Next door, Erika Ford suspects her husband isn’t the man she should have married, and her former incarnation of the young, Erika Carter, takes control of her life. Janice Morelli is ravenously in love with her husband, Gino, but questions her own happiness, as she discovers her daughter’s take on relationships and sexuality. They’re such a great bunch of women. I hope you’re going to love them.
Who is your biggest inspiration?
When it comes to my work, I’m hugely inspired by film. Nobody rustles up a unique situation, memorable characters, and inspiring locations, quite like Nancy Meyers. Watching Private Benjamin again recently, throwing a runaway bride into the US Army, where she eventually learns to stand on her own two feet, without a man to carry her off into the distance, was just hugely enjoyable. And you’ve got Goldie Hawn. Utterly gorgeous, comedy genius. I think Something’s Got to Give is my favourite. Watching Jack Nicholson, a record producing playboy, reluctantly fall in love with his 20-something girlfriend’s mother, played by Diane Keaton. Sprinkle that with dashing doctor, Keanu Reeves, vying for her affection, and that’s a tick, tick, tick, for me.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Following a childhood spent writing her first books, most notably, Our Book about Jesus – a self-help guide for fellow young Catholics, and, The Sleepover – a compelling tale of a midnight feast, shockingly intercepted by fictitious parents with badly drawn hands, Patricia Caliskan always liked to play with words.
Patricia first saw her name misspelt in print aged 17, interviewing hungover rock stars and illegible actors for an Arts and Entertainment magazine. After graduating from the University of Liverpool, Patricia joined Trinity Mirror Newsgroup, working as editor across a portfolio of lifestyle magazine titles.
Patricia likes a good pair of boots, wearing perfume with her pyjamas, and laughter. Lots of laughter. Because without it life feels far too grown up for her liking. Told with mischievous humour, Patricia’s stories explore family dynamics, office politics, and the divergent roles of women throughout their lives.
Girlfriend, Interrupted is Patricia’s second novel: her first, Awful by Comparison, will be reissued by Sapere Books this summer.
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