Alice Feeney
Appearances
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Now, I told you I've only listened to one podcast. That was the one that is the one.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
The butt eye. I mean, I had to pause it and think, did I misunderstand?
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I mean, I just thought that was the best writer story I've ever heard ever. I loved that. I love that. You know, all respect to her. That's fantastic. I didn't have a butt eye in my first book. I sort of wish I did because it's a brilliant story, isn't it? It's good. Yes. No, it was a bit too happy, if I'm honest. I think I prefer writing and reading and watching quite dark and twisty stories.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I think I was scared of doing that. And I think I was scared that perhaps I wasn't clever enough to do that. In what way? Well, I think when you're growing up, for me, I imagined authors as these supreme magical beings.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
You know, there are these magicians of words. And so although it was something I would have loved to have become... I couldn't imagine how someone like me could be. And even, you know, people would say, even when I wanted to work for the BBC, people would say, you'll never work at the BBC. How would someone like you work at the BBC? So it was...
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
There were these dreams of mine that seemed so difficult to achieve, and yet, I don't know, I think there's something about me. When someone tells me I can't do something, it makes me really, really want to do it even more. And I felt like that about journalism, and I felt like that about becoming an author, but I was just always scared that I wasn't good enough.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
And even just now, you know, very recently I submitted book eight. You would think that I might have more confidence now, but I don't. When I send that novel in for the first time, it's pure terror that I experience, that I'm scared that it isn't good enough or that I might let people down. Because let's face it, there are lots of brilliant books in the world.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
They've done such a terrific job. I love it. And I love that this is the first time I have the same cover everywhere. So the same cover in America will be in England. It's in Australia. It's in India, everywhere. It's the same cover coming out.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Yeah, it is incredible. It blows my mind to know that there are so many people around the world reading books that I've written in my shed.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I guess I spend so much time on my own that I don't always understand what is going on in the outside world to do with the books. I really do only come out for two or three weeks to do tour once a year and then I go back to the shed again. I'm a bit of a hermit. I suppose I am a bit like Grady Green in that way too. Yeah.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
But it's always a surprise, you know, when we go to events and there are so many people. I remember we went to an event in St. Louis a couple of years ago and we arrived and my lovely publicist, Claire, who is here today, said to the lady when we arrived, is anyone here yet? And she said, yes, don't worry, we've already got 20 people. And I thought, oh, thank goodness.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
You know, everyone, as authors, you're always scared of turning up to an event and either nobody's there or one man and his dog are there or... or someone turns up and it turns out really they wanted to meet Ruth Ware and they thought I was her and they're disappointed. That does not happen. It's never happened yet, but it might. You never know, do you? Did she comment on the book?
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
No, I don't think she did, but we got lots of other lovely comments. But this event where they said there's 20 people, I was so relieved. And it turned out I hadn't heard her. She said there's already 220 people. And so when we walked in, I was so confused. I thought maybe they turned up for another author and that they'd be disappointed it was me.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
But then they all held up my books and they really were there to see me. And this year we've got events where there are over 400 people coming along. And I just I think it's amazing.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I always remember with Sometimes I Lie, my first book that was published. Yeah. The first ever newspaper review of the book got the names in a muddle. So the book was about a character called Amber Reynolds who is in a coma and But the newspaper review, the first one I'd ever seen of my writing, didn't say Amber Reynolds. It said this book is by Amber Reynolds.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
And it's about Alice Feeney, who is in a coma. And I think since then, I've wondered, am I? Am I lying in a hospital room somewhere with machines keeping me? Because how else did I get an agent and publishers and all these wonderful things?
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I asked for it to be the same cover everywhere this time because I just fell in love with it. It was designed for the American cover and I thought it was so perfect for the book. So beautiful. So not ugly at all, actually, for a book called Beautiful Ugly, just beautiful. And I thought it'd be fun to have the same cover everywhere this time around.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
That's good. I'm still jealous of the butt eye, but you know.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
All publicity is good publicity, according to my publicist. So here we are.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
well now you know how we've been talking about uber yes podcasts tiktok is a bit of a mystery to me as well oh it is i understand what it is it's videos on the phone yeah i did look at it once it made my brain melt a little bit i thought yeah it'll definitely change uh the way that you think about like shorten your attention span yes but i only bring it up because i think that book talk
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I love that on Instagram is the one I do do a little bit. I like Instagram, pretty pictures. I'm there for it all day long. But sometimes people will tag things on Instagram and they'll say that it's on BookTok as well. And I know that Rock Paper Scissors was a book of BookTok, which sounds very fun.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
That's, that's incredible, isn't it? Again, amazing things happen.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Yeah, absolutely. Sometimes I think there can be some snobbery in this business. And I think if people are reading, to me, that's fantastic. And however they can hear about books and however we can spread the word about books is also fantastic. And I love that I have a lot of young readers who are much cleverer at all this technical stuff than I am, but sometimes very young.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I had an event in Macedonia last year and there was a 12-year-old in the audience with all of my books and came up to sign them at the end of the event. And I did wonder if 12 was a little bit, a smidgen, a smidgen too young perhaps to be reading my books.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
um but then it reminded me that I used to read Stephen King at that age and yeah I think I sort of turned out okay I think you turned out okay but yes it was interesting meeting that 12 year old actually changed the ending of this book um really yes in what way um I really loved her I loved her energy I loved how enthusiastic she was about all reading it makes me really happy when children are reading I get
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
And I love actually seeing all the different covers in different countries. We're in 40 countries now and it's so fun. You know, a box arrives at the house and I open it like a kid at Christmas going, oh my goodness,
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
so scared that everyone is living inside screens these days including me I spend too long looking at screens for everything um so to see this kid who is so into her books and so eloquent about stories and what they meant to her and how they had helped her and changed her life just made me so happy and I was worried she might misinterpret how I wanted the ending to be
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
read how I wanted people to feel about the women um on the island did you see me pause there to try and avoid spoilers no spoilers here it's so tricksy because I know what happens um but yeah so I did I tweaked the ending a little bit because of meeting a reader who I'm mentioning because she was talking about TikTok so clearly it's a it's a it's a big thing for young readers especially out there and I think anything that spreads the word about good books is a great thing
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I just I find it so fascinating meeting people. We had our first event last night and one of the readers who came along made me a hat to match the book. She knitted an actual beautiful, ugly hat in the same colors and things like that just blow my mind. Or sometimes people turn up with lucky Kit Kats.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
which one is this but it's also really fun I think because so many readers now are on social media and they'll all say oh no I wish I could get this cover I wish I could get the other other cover or if only I could have the British version and this time everyone can enjoy the same one and we can all share and talk about the same book
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Movie show this summer. The filming's all done and it'll be on our screens this summer, which is just incredibly exciting. I still can't quite believe that's true either.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I feel like I can't get enough. And I think there are lots of other people out there who feel the same. You know, we've got this desire for some reason. We're all obsessed with these dark, twisty stories and we love playing the game of who did it and trying to solve the mystery. So, no, it's been a fantastic experience. A few of my books have been optioned.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
that's the first one this is the first one that's actually been filmed and i got to visit the set and my characters who've lived inside my head for years came to life and i'm walking and talking his and hers is the first one that you published it wasn't book number three number three number three it was the well-behaved one that was three months in the making and you were like that's why
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Yes, because it was such a well-behaved book child. No, it's fantastic. And the TV show is actually very true to the book. They've done the most incredible job. I think the scripts are fantastic. There's a twist or two in there that I wish I'd written. I sort of want to go back and do another version because it's so clever what they've done. And the whole cast were just fantastic.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
And John Bernthal, who was in The Walking Dead and more recently The Bear, he's Jack Harper. And I confess my eyes leaked a little bit the first time he was walking towards me because for me now he is forever Jack.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
And so to see Jack come to life and to see all these scenes where he's saying things that I wrote and. Oh, it was just, there's nothing like it. They were so sweet to me. It was my birthday while we were there.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
They made a birthday cake. They all sang happy birthday. I really loved the school uniforms in the show for the school that's called St. Hillary's. And I told the costume designer, the uniform is so similar to how it was in my head. So they made me a uniform to fit me. I've got my own St. Hillary's school uniform to take home. That's amazing. No, I loved it.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
And they gave me a friendship bracelet when I first arrived, which for anyone who's read the book is actually a bad sign. But I'm still here. I'm still here.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
It's just a nice little touch. So no, I've had such a fantastic experience and I can't wait for people to see it.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
for a tv show you have a little bit more time yes it's almost the other way around you're almost trying to expand the story in certain ways but also find neat little ways to break it into say six or eight episodes okay um and i think my books lend themselves quite well to that because i like having lots of twists yeah so there are twists to choose from in terms of you know having a nice cliffhanger to end an episode on hopefully so the people want to watch the next one straight away but
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I think people just do it. I think they fall in love with a story and they want every different edition of the same story. And why not? It is fun seeing them all on the shelf together.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
How it's always worked for me is that the new book will go out to the industry before it gets published. And then I've been very lucky, touch wood. We always seem to have quite a few people interested. So I'll meet with different people and sometimes they might want to make a movie or they might want to make a TV show. But I'll always base it more on the people, the producer themselves.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
or the sometimes it'd been an actor who has come forward with the offer and for me i just want them to love the book and look after it the same way that i would you know the books are my children i always want them to be in safe hands So I've only ever said yes to people who I think are going to do a good job of it.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
And they all have, you know, everyone I've worked with has just been so fantastic. And we've got his and hers coming out this summer. But we've also got Sometimes I Lie in the pipeline.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I always worry about what's secret and there's so many secrets.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
No, it's okay. So I think we've had a press release about the early stages of that. So it's a producer called Tommy Harper who did Top Gun Maverick. Oh, I think I did hear this. And Wednesday and he just did Beetlejuice and he's working with a couple of people in the UK as well. And so that's going out soon. So there are things I can't say about it.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Again, amazing scripts and all of these people have been honestly such fun to work with. It's been a really pleasant experience for me. So I'm all for adaptations. So you said that the manuscript goes out to these, the people. Goes out to lots of different people. And if producers or actors.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
yeah oh wow I always wondered that part because I don't know you know if sometimes the book will come out and then a show or movie won't come out for years and years so I didn't know if it would you know they pick it up after all the buzz that it gets there are so many secrets nobody told me before I became an author that you had to keep so many secrets so there is lovely beautiful ugly screen shaped news as well that I'm not allowed to share yet for example um but yes I'm sure one day we're going to see Grady Green on the screen too and I can't wait
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I don't think so. I've always said no. Okay. I don't really know why. I just never particularly wanted to see that story on screen. Okay. And the only other book that I've always said no to in terms of screen adaptations so far is Daisy Darker. I think because I love her too much.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Daisy... honestly felt like family to me and I remember when we went to the printers I cried partly because it's such a beautiful book and I was so happy to see it finally published but also because it if you're at the printers you can't do any more edits you know it's too late yeah so I was really saying goodbye to Daisy after five years of writing her finally and um I felt really sad about it.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I said I wanted the same thing this time. And I said, please, could we have foil? I think I'm secretly a magpie. I like shiny things. And not only did they give me foil, they gave me holographic foil.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
So I think one day I hope Daisy Darker would be made into a TV show or a movie, but it would have to be set in the UK. It would have to be true, very true-ish, I think, to the story. Whereas for some of my books, I think it's more about the characters and the story, and you could almost set it anywhere if you wanted to. With Beautiful Ugly, for me, Scotland almost played a character in itself.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Why Scotland? I think the honest truth is because I go there every year, I'm just obsessed with the place. I think if there's a more beautiful place in the world, I've yet to find it. It's so unspoilt. It's so rugged and beautiful and perfect. And you can walk for miles and miles for hours with your dog on it. I am so much like Grady.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Every time I say something to you about the book, I think, oh gosh, yes, we have that in common too. But yeah, I think it's just this magical, magical place for me. And I've had so many happy things happen to me in Scotland that I now feel like it's just linked to my writing. You know, I finished writing Sometimes I Lie in Scotland and then I finally got an agent.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I remember being up in Scotland in a terrible snowstorm. We really shouldn't have travelled. It was so unsafe. Nobody else was on the roads. We drove for eight hours from London up to Scotland. We... I ended up arriving at this very rural house that we'd rented that was honestly so creepy and in the middle of nowhere. We went inside the house. There was no water.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
The pipes were frozen because of the storm. There was no power. There was nothing. We thought maybe we should get back in the car. The car by then was totally snowed in, couldn't leave. So we thought we'll make the most of it. You know, we'll light a fire. We'll open some wine.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Yes. And then just before bedtime, there was a face in the window. And I've never screamed so loud. We were nowhere near anyone. We were in the middle of a valley. And in real life, it was just a caretaker screaming.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I think it's the best thing ever I love my publishers um so it's so pretty and there are other pretty things inside as well um I drew a map when I handed the book in um every year I like to surprise them with something sometimes I have little illustrations this year I had a map and um even my editor was you know very nice on the phone but she said just to clarify you want a map at the start of a thriller um because normally you might find them in fantasy books I thought yeah
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
who came to check that we were okay because everyone thought we were crazy still going to this house when there was a terrible storm but why did they go to the window why exactly because apparently apparently he said apparently he said oh I knocked on the door and you didn't hear me but I felt like I was in a horror film um But, you know, then my imagination turned it into rock, paper, scissors.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
So again, Scotland delivered this amazing story for me. And I've had so many happy experiences like that. I feel like it inspires stories in my head. I feel like I get so much writing done when I'm there. It's like the speed increases by double. So now I'm just in love with the place. So if I sit for a year writing about it, it means I get to be there even when I'm not.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
One day, I hope. Yeah. It's very slow. I feel like... What is? The book? No. Oh, I was going to say. The book's super fast. I enjoyed that one. I feel like because I worked in journalism for so long, working for the BBC in the newsroom, everything is fast. A story breaks in the morning, I've got it on air by lunchtime.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Publishing... I write the book. Sometimes it isn't out for a year or a year and a half later. And you've already finished the next book. I've already finished the next one. I'm on to the two books ahead. And television, in my experience so far, takes even longer. But I've made peace with that now because now I've seen them actually film my TV show. I'm like... It is worth the wait, guys.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Is there a publishing date? I think it will probably end up being this time next year. Okay. So not too long to wait. No, it's not too long.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
They do, don't they? I mean, everything I think just keeps coming around so quickly. Suddenly it's birthdays and Christmases and Halloween. It's like we just did this five minutes ago.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Like have a main character that worked for... No, I'm just not that interesting in real life. Sometimes people say, why don't you narrate your own audiobooks? I'm like, oh gosh, I don't like the sound of my own voice.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I think I'm a bit of a control freak in some ways. Because they are my children. Yeah. You know, I really care about them all deeply. And I get so scared, you know, when it's publication day, for example, because it's like I'm sending my children out into the world for the first time by themselves. And I just hope everyone's going to be kind to them and take care of them.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
And if anyone isn't kind to them, I hope they're strong enough to take care of themselves. Well, those strange sort of feelings, you know, that you might have about sending a child out to school for the first time or something.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
you know feel about them you don't go on goodreads though right no you shouldn't no I try to um the only I read I read reviews when they're good and people send them to me so my team my family my friends will send me the good ones yeah um and I think you've got to be quite um you've got to just kind of roll with the punches a little bit with that it's not possible to write a book that everyone is going to love it's simply not possible and I remember even in year one I learned very early on don't read reviews
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
but also I learned not to pay too much attention to reviews. I remember my favorite Amazon review is a five-star review on Amazon. And then the description just says, great. And below that it says, this is the best dog brush I've ever used on my Husky. It gets rid of all the dead fur. And I just thought, Well, I'll take it. That's still a five star review.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I still worry that somewhere there is a really brilliant dog brush out there with a one star review that says this book sucks. You know, because clearly they got them in a muddle. So no, the reviews I mostly care about, honestly, cross my heart are reader reviews. When people post a review on Instagram or something like that and they tag me in it. I read all of those.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I look at the beautiful pictures they take of my books all around the world. And it brings me so much joy when a reader has genuinely loved reading one of my books. When they get it, you know, it's the best feeling in the world.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Yes, why not? I want everyone to picture the Isle of Amberley. So they said yes, but then they called me back and said, we'll do it, but we'll get a professional artist to do it.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
It's always very noisy up here. There's all these voices all the time. I wish they'd shush. And unfortunately, a lot of one of my good ideas tend to happen at 3 a.m. in the morning. And we've established I'm not great at technology. So I sometimes forget how to make the phone go into silent. So my poor husband at 3 a.m. will just hear tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Because sometimes, you know, you think you might forget the idea if you don't write it down. So I tend to put it all together in pieces like that. Then I have a giant board, giant board.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
white board i i think because i'm so old-fashioned and not down with the kids at all for years i did everything on an actual giant cardboard board which would have tiny little bits of different colored card stuck to it with blue tack do you have blue tack in america it's like it's like chewing gum oh but it's but it's for sticking things i don't know that we call it that i'm not sure but i remember i used to um
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
So I did it like a child, basically, putting together a sticky board. And then one year my husband said, this is ridiculous. You're actually like a professional author now. I think we need to up your game. So I have the same thing, but it's a whiteboard with magnets and still the same different coloured cards, but it looks slightly better, I suppose.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
It's not my version. But that's okay. My version is not nearly as good as the beautiful version inside the book. So I think it was a good call.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
It doesn't look like my nine-year-old niece's artwork project.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Exactly. I think I need to see the whole book in one place. So I need to see all the chapters, all the characters, and just see it all together. And then once I've got the board, I even call it board day. It's like a special day because it's like me committing to writing the book. I've never done the board and then not written the book. So that's when I'm sure... It's a book.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
It's something I want to write, something I want to commit at least a year of my life to. And then I have all these strange little traditions. So after board day, I'm telling you, Fatima, it's because it feels like we're just having a nice, fun chat. I forget that anyone else is going to hear all my madness later on.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
You need to have a board day. And then I normally treat myself to a very nice bottle of champagne and I write the book number and the date and I put it in the fridge straight after board day. And then I'm not allowed to drink the champagne until my agent has read the book once I finished it and says it's good.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
So for the following year, I will open the fridge several times a day and see the champagne and think, not yet, not yet. So it's so special when I get the phone call from my agent to say, I've read it. It's good. You've done it. Well done. And you can drink it. Then I drink the champagne and then we start all over again. I love that. And sooner or later, there's another board day. I love that.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
isn't my life fun no i actually love it because i'm like this is and you have like the writing shed i love that yeah i think everyone has their little quirks and i have the um the jar of lucky kit kats on my desk as well so if if it's a slow writing day if it's taking me a
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
And I always, I always, whenever I come to America, I remember that here you have six finger Kit Kats because at home there's only two finger Kit Kats.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
You know, the ones here would not fit in my special lucky Kit Kat jar. But I always wonder if I lived in America with the giant Kit Kats, I could probably write two books a year. Yeah. I'd probably speed up.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I'm sure there is a jar out there that we could use to accommodate this.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
here it always amazes me and on the on the film set for his and hers they had this this area every every day wherever we were whether we were on set or it has called crafty with all these different amazing snacks just everything everything you could so jessica chastain is producing the show and she was rather partial to something i'd never heard of before which was a lollipop with bubble gum in the middle you don't have that no i've never heard of such a thing and
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
That's what she called it. That's what it was. Because when she first said it, it sounded a little bit rude, if I'm honest. I didn't know what was going on. You know, if someone says they want one of those, I just think, crikey, I thought we were here to film a show. But no, so she was explaining to me that that's what they are and it's a thing. She loved these things.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
No, no, I don't. They're all quite dark and twisty. I think I write, sometimes the books are quite different from each other. Daisy Darker, for example, felt very different to this book. I think if people enjoyed Rock, Paper, Scissors. I was just about to say that. I hope they'll like this one.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
And I don't know what my face did. I think my face sometimes does things I don't know it's doing. And she understood that I wasn't that impressed with this particular lollipop with bubble gum in the middle. And she said, what's wrong with that? And I said, well, it should either be a lollipop or it should be bubble gum.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
And I told her the story of the time I nearly divorced my husband, who I've been with for 20 years because of a Yorkie bar. Do you have Yorkie bars here? Yeah. No, no, see, this is the problem. You have all these different things and we have different things at home, but at home we have this thing called a Yorkie bar.
Barely Famous
Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
And when I was a child, the advert, the TV advert for it said, these are not for girls, which again, when someone says, I can't do something, I can't have it, I wanted it. So I always wanted the Yorkie bar. But then they messed it up by having a special version which had raisins inside it. You know, and I think chocolate should be chocolate.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Raisins, I've got no problem with them, but they should just be raisins. And I felt really sad that first day I met Jessica Chastain that instead of having a deep and meaningful conversation with her, I spent most of it talking about raisins and chocolate and lollipops and bubblegum bits in the middle. But we got to know each other the next day on set a bit better.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Oh my goodness. Again, I'm worried it sounds so rude. Doesn't it? I mean, what on earth could that be?
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Okay. Well, I'm going to make it my mission to find one while I'm here in America.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Oh, well, it's always different. Sometimes I just know their names. So with Sometimes I Lie, I remember waking up again between three and four, which I think is my magical witching hour. And I just knew three things. I had this story in my head that I woke up with and I thought I've got to write it down straight away. I'm going to forget. And so I had this...
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
very cheap strange little board from a shop called Woolworths that we used to have in the UK which mostly sold sweets I'm obsessed with talking about sweets today but I remember writing on it in my sort of half asleep dazed state that the main character's name was Amber Reynolds I just knew it from my dream and there were three things I had to remember about her that number one she was in a coma number two her husband didn't love her anymore and
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
And that became the book. I mean, that became the opening and it was the crux of the story. So I literally woke up with that name in my head. For Grady Green, I think I just really like names with a smidgen of alliteration. So I've had a Priya Patel in his and hers or Yeah, Grady Green in this particular book.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
And I have a future book, so a book that won't be out next year, a book that will be out the year after. Two of the main characters in that are actually names of people who came to a book signing at a tiny little bookshop in Cornwall in England. Because I see all these names when I'm signing books for people in the queue after events.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
And sometimes people have these amazing, beautiful names that I've never heard of before. And I remember meeting this very sweet girl at this bookshop a few years ago when we were promoting Daisy Darker. And I just stopped what I was doing. And that's not a good idea when you've got a long queue of people waiting for signatures.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I said, oh, my goodness, that's just the most amazing name I've ever heard. Would you mind if I used that in a book? Because she was a fan. She had all the books. I knew she would read it one day.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
And it's an unusual name. So it would be a huge coincidence if I'd chosen it any other way. And she said, I'd be so thrilled if you did that. And she left the queue and then she ran back. She said, by the way, just in case. My sister's called, and I won't say what it is, this other name. And my goodness, their parents were really on it. They were two fantastic names.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
And I said, I'm going to use them both one day. I don't know when, but I will. And I have. So in a couple of years time, that very sweet girl I met in a queue a few years ago, in line in a bookshop in Cornwall, we'll see her name in one of the books.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
So yes, people should come to the events because you might end up in a book.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I mean, I'm not always nice about it. We renovated a very old batch cottage a few years ago and we had an awful plumber. I really, really did not like this man. He, you know, we turned on the new system for the first time and the walls actually were crying. You know, there was water running out everywhere, floods everywhere. And he was such a, he was such a, he was not a good person.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
He was, he was not a goodie. So I murdered him in a book and I felt so much better. That's the best thing I ever heard. I felt,
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I felt so much better afterwards suddenly I you know he was all forgiven and I felt I felt better again and he'll say karma he'll never read it so it's fine so I get the names from he might after hearing this podcast he might he might I get the names from all over the place um yes I mean I think that's funny do you get any inspiration from any other authors
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Oh, yes. I mean, too many to mention, probably. But as a child, I was a bit obsessed with Stephen King books. I was good at school academically, really bad at sport, could not catch a ball, still can't. You know, we do netball and someone throw a ball, just hit me. I couldn't catch a ball. What is netball? Oh, my goodness. All these things are different.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
No, you throw the ball and if you're not me, you catch it. And then you, it's a bit like basketball as in there's a net and you throw it. Yeah, there you go. Netball. Is that only in the UK? I don't think so. I didn't used to think so. But when you catch the ball, you have to stand still. But even that wasn't a problem for me because I could never catch it. So no good at sports.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Really slow at running. And I'm quite short. I find it really comical that my feet actually don't touch the ground here. Oh.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
yeah no they really don't i'm very i'm really short so i'm sitting i feel like a child or like an oompa loompa i'm from from willie wonka land um uh no but so you know they'd they'll shoot things like the hurdles at school i can't jump over things for goodness sakes got little stumpy legs here um so uh no no good at sport but good academically so we'd have these prize givings at the end of the school year okay nothing for the sports side but i i could
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
They've definitely got a few things in common. We've got Scotland again. We've got, it's about a writer again who disappears to Scotland again.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I could write, I could do English, and I could add things up in math. So I'd win at that and I'd get like a, the prize you would get would be book tokens. And then you could choose your book and then you'd go up on stage, meet a local celebrity, shake their hands. You know, the headmaster would read something out about you, get your book.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
All the other kids would go up on stage, collect a giant atlas or a special encyclopedia. I spend my vouchers on as many Stephen King paperbacks as I could. Have you ever met him? No, I was so loved to meet him. I think he's like, I have so many heroes, but he's my number one hero. And I think I'm a writer because of him.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I think me disappearing inside of his stories when I was a little girl is what made me fall in love with stories so much. So, no, I think I owe him so many things, but also his book on writing. That's my go to.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
You know, if I'm having a badly behaved book, I have no idea how many times I have read the book, as in read the physical book, but also listen to the audio book because he narrates it himself. So I feel like sometimes Stephen King is in my shed with me.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
guiding me if i get stuck reminding me that i have written a few books before and of course we can write another one and this is how we do it so um no there've been lots of authors and there are authors around you know who every year i'm so excited to read their books yeah um lisa jewel is a big favorite of mine we share an agent so one of the best perks of my job now is that i get sent her books
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
and of course there's there's a dog um and I always feel very sorry for my mother-in-law who is one of my number one fans because I keep writing about unhappy marriages and I'm actually very happily married but when when I write about authors who have a black Labrador and I have a black Labrador who go to Scotland to write and I go to Scotland to write right I know that as soon as it's UK publication day she'll be on the phone saying is my son okay um so um
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
early every year I'm like so excited for that I mean that's enough for me to want to carry on being an author forever so I get to read her books early every year that's awesome so no I'm a huge fan of lots of authors and I read a lot still Frida also told me that she like she was listening at the time of the interview she was listening to a Stephen King book
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Yes, yeah, which was fantastic. I think audiobooks these days have come on in such an incredible way. The Beautiful Ugly audiobook has all these amazing sound effects in it.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
That really bring the story to life. So there's a crackle of a walkie-talkie or there are the sounds of the waves.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
the sound effects and everything it is either exactly what you thought it what you pictured for the physical book when you're reading it um or it'll change it a little bit and so then you have like an even better idea because of the sound effects that are in an audiobook it's really fun isn't it and i just think again anything that's getting people into reading and stories in whatever format is yeah it's fantastic and richard armitage narrates this one you know i i would forget listening to it that it was it was just him doing about 20 different voices
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
So we've got Richard Armitage and we've got Tuppence Middleton. But Richard in all of his chapters, you'll hear about 10 different versions. Richard can be a 40 year old man. He can be an elderly woman from Scotland. He can be the East End pub landlord. And I was like, how is he doing? He sounds like he's having such fun in it. So it was a real joy to listen to.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
And I think readers are going to enjoy that version, too.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
good i did try to get it before oh i didn't try to get it i went to go download it um but it wasn't out yet because i forgot that today's publication day yeah so it's like okay but reading it just reading it i think is also i i mean that's my favorite way of reading that because then you get your own version don't you yeah you picture it all in in your own head yes how it's going to look and who they are and what they sound like and
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Yeah, I think it probably was. I mean, when people ask me, you know, what should I do if I want to become a writer? I always say read a lot, write a lot and never give up because if you don't give up, you can't fail. And I think that's probably, you know, what I was telling myself at the time during those almost 10 years of keep writing books and keep collecting the rejection letters.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
So yeah, I think the best piece of advice I did get was you can do better.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
There's iced coffee and iced tea. Ooh. Neither? Okay. No. I don't know why. I think I'm a bit of a child in that way too.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
So yes, it's always fun when people think, is she the character in this book? But no, I'm not. I'm not Grady Green. But maybe some parts of you are in the characters? Oh, yes. There are definitely a few bits of me sprinkled between the pages in this one in a way that I almost didn't realize when I was writing it.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Yes. And then they go a bit soggy, don't they? Yeah. Because you've got to drink it quickly. You've got to just get on with that.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
No, I don't think I was doing the dog thing at that stage. There's always a dog now because I spend all day with my dog. And so he's sitting on my feet. And I really wanted to call out, our dog now is two years old. So he's still a bit of a big puppy. And he's called Boots. Not Columbo. No. But it's funny because in my next book, I called the dog in my next book what I really wanted to call Boots.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
So in the next book, there you go, there's a bit of a hint of the book that's to come. There's a dog in the next book called Sunday. And I really wanted to call my dog Sunday, but my husband pointed out that we might be up in the woods or up a mountain one day going, Sunday, Sunday. And someone would think,
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
what weirdos it's Friday um so uh I wasn't allowed to call boots Sunday so I called a dog in a book Sunday instead I actually know some someone who named their child Sunday I think it's a lovely name I think Sunday's my favorite day of the week I think Sunday's a great day so um and dogs are great so chill day okay um and where is your favorite place to write Scotland.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Yes, I think I definitely, whenever I write about writers, I guess they do tend to have more in common with me in that way. I know that some writers like to write in cafes and I think they are an alien species to me. I need quiet and yeah, the shed somewhere remote, somewhere in the corner of Scotland with no phone signal. Perfect. My idea of heaven.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
my worst nightmare yeah yeah we we'd have to meet somewhere in the middle wouldn't we yes um and so where can people get beautiful ugly or any of your books i think beautiful ugly is everywhere today it seems to be everywhere i keep you know i keep opening up instagram i see more and more beautiful pictures taken by readers which makes me honestly so giddy with joy actually to see people reading it and enjoying it so
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I think it's out everywhere that you can buy books today. Sold out temporarily, I think, because so many people have ordered it from Amazon. But it'll be back in stock soon, I'm sure. So, no, I'm just so grateful to everyone who's been talking about the book, spreading the news about the book. And it's finally out. Hooray.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Thank you so much. And where can people find you on social media? Oh, Instagram is the best one for me. That's my happy place. I always try and see all the pictures that I'm tagged in. And I really love seeing them. And people go to such incredible lengths to take beautiful pictures of the book.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
And it was actually only when we were doing the audio book, which came so much later after the edits, a few months had gone by. I was working on another book by then. And I was listening to Richard Armitage narrate the audiobook. And he did a terrific job, by the way. Sure. There are parts where I feel like we've got a cast of 20 people because Richard can be an elderly Scottish woman.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Yes, I just, I really love seeing them. So if I see ones that I love, I save them onto my phone and I thought, I want to celebrate this. And I want my readers to know that I am looking at this stuff and I really appreciate it. So no, I think, you know, writers are nothing without readers and I have the best ones. So I'm so grateful.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Thank you so much for talking to me and I can't wait to see you again later. It's been so much fun. Yes, thank you.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Richard can be a 40-year-old man. Richard can be an East End pub landlord. And you think you're listening to – he's terrific. And it sounds like he's having fun when he's doing it. But there are a few bits when I was listening to the audiobook where I thought – Crikey. Yeah, that's very similar to things that have happened to me as an author. I wonder where I got that idea from.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
No, I think Amberley sounds like a perfect place. And unfortunately, it's just in my head, but it's this place where you're a little bit cut off, but in a nice way, I think. Not everybody in the book would agree with me.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
it's not too far off right like it doesn't sound so outlandish that it couldn't be true which is what I like about it and there are tiny islands in the Scottish Hebrides that are a little bit like Amberley where some of the ideas came from where there really is just a ferry twice a week and if you miss it or if there's a storm you're not getting on and off the island and the same with the doctor I remember reading about this tiny island where
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
The doctor only visits on Tuesdays. Imagine that you can only get ill on a Tuesday or you're going to be in big trouble. But I love these tiny places where there's this real sense of community.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I just think it's a great podcast. I listened. It's the first podcast I've listened to all the way through. I was hooked. I thought I have been missing out. I'm basically an old lady trapped in a slightly younger woman's body. And what have I been doing all this time? This is the place to be. It's better late than never, right?
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
But if it's not something you're used to or if you're someone who's quite private, it could be your worst nightmare because rural community based places that are in the middle of nowhere are sometimes not the isolated havens that you think they are.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
It was really interesting and very different. So I went from working in the middle of the world's busiest newsroom at the BBC in London to working all day in my shed with my dog. So I had so many people that I was working with, hundreds of people within the newsroom to just me and my dog. It was very different. But I dreamed of being an author for so long. It took me a really long time.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I spent almost 10 years writing books, sending them off, collecting multiple rejection letters. I just could not get an agent. And sometimes the rejection letters would be really lovely, very polite news.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
They would say that they liked the book, but it wasn't quite right for them. Or they enjoyed it, but it wasn't the right book to try and launch a new author. And could I maybe send them my next book? And my favorite ever rejection came from a really lovely agent who I did not know, who I had submitted one book to, who wrote me this, I think, lovely rejection letter.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
But at the end, she said, I think you can do better. And I remember feeling a little bit beaten up because, you know, rejection is hard. But also I thought, well, how do you know? You don't know me. You don't know me. Maybe this is as good as I've got. I've been trying for years to do this. But something about that particular letter made me think,
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
yeah I can and I will and then I'll send another book to you um and by the time I actually managed to get published she had retired that's how long it took me but she was so kind and she remembered me and she actually got in touch when I did my first deal to say I thought you'd do this one day so so it's funny how rejection sometimes can be a good thing you know it just it makes you want to try even harder to get that thing that you've always dreamed of and
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
eventually I wrote a book called Sometimes I Lie and then everything changed.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I think I've just always had this slight obsession with stories. Okay. Even as a child. Sure. You know, if the real world felt too loud or too dark, I would hide inside a book and I would read a book. And I think for me, even though now I'm a lot older, I'm the same in that way. I still hide inside a story if I think the world is too loud.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
And for me, the world is always a little bit too loud, especially now. So I've gone from hiding inside books by reading them to reading them and writing them. But it's the same with all forms of escapism in terms of stories. I love watching TV shows. I love watching movies. And I think we all need that sometimes just to disappear down the rabbit hole to get away from reality.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Yes, obsessed with his books. And I've definitely gone through phases in my career. This is book seven for me, and I've just handed in book eight, which was really scary. It's always so scary handing in a new book. But I remember with His and Hers in particular, I spent nearly a year writing a book, and I loved the book, and then I decided that I couldn't let anybody read it.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Yes, sold out already. I can't believe it. It's launch day. Yes. One day in. What an amazing problem to have. What a lovely problem to have. How do you feel? I'm so excited. This book was so long in the making and I loved writing this one. You know, I've written seven. I've had seven books published now. I've written a few more that have not been published.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
There was something wrong with it, and I didn't know what was wrong with it. But I'm very secretive as an author. I don't tell anyone, even my agents, my publishers. Nobody knows what I'm writing until I finish the book. So I sent an email to my agent. I remember I was in Wales. I was in a horrible Airbnb. It stank of damp. There was a terrible storm. There were dead seals on the beach.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
It was a really horrible trip. And then I sat in the window of this horrible Airbnb writing an email to my agent saying, I'm so sorry, I feel like I've let you and everyone down. I can't send the book in. And he said, just send it. I'm sure it's not as bad as you think. And I said, no, there's something wrong. But don't worry, I'm going to write another one.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
And he said, let me talk to your publishers. We can push back the deadline. It's going to be fine. I said, no, no, no. The whole book is in my head. I just need to write it. I can do it in three months. And, um, I always do three drafts before anyone reads it. So I did three drafts in three months and I hit send, which is as terrifying now as it was then. And everyone loved the book.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
And that book was his and hers, which is my best behaved book. What is best behaved? It just wrote itself.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
I just sat in the shed with my dog I had no social life whatsoever for three months but I got the book done and I think those are my Grady Green moments when everything else just stops life stops the house turns into a giant mess my hair I've got naturally very curly hair in situations like that it grows sideways there'll be robins nesting in in the background um so I understand Grady's obsession with when you get a story in your head and you have to write it
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
So that was definitely his and hers for me. And the badly behaved book, the one I couldn't figure out how to fix, I came back to it maybe a year later and I could see what was wrong finally, but I didn't know how to fix it. So I wrote a book called Rock, Paper, Scissors. Then I came back to the naughty one again and I read it again and now I knew how to fix it.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
And the solution was really actually very simple. I just needed to delete 80,000 words. Wow.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
Yeah, I mean, my books tend to be about 85, so I had 5,000 left, so that felt quite positive.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
At least something, just the starting point was there. And I wrote the book again, same book, same story, same characters. This time it worked, and that was Daisy Darker. So all of the books have behaved differently, but sometimes... You do, I think, as an author, get a little bit obsessed with the story, the characters. I mean, I hear them in my head.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
They're talking to me now without wishing to sound too crazy. Do you remember them?
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
They feel like family because... In some ways, I spend more time with the characters than I do with anyone real in my life. Sure. They're there all the time. They wake me up at 3 a.m.
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
But for it to finally be out in the world just feels like magic. And I love that readers can finally...
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Alice Feeney Is Barely Famous
a magic eight ball because that was in the book too I feel like I must add you know if there's something I want as a present I need to put it in the next book so that the lovely team will get it for you will make up something for a press kit and send me one yes that's so funny so for when you're describing the first book that you wrote did you ever come back to it and publish it the first book that you wrote did it ever get published or would you ever go back to it to try to publish no it's terrible is it I mean thank goodness it didn't get published um