Michelle and I had the pleasure of meeting our next guest author Ellen Meister in Atlanta last year at the annual RWA conference. Ellen is every bit as funny and sassy as you would expect from the author of " Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA", a novel about three friends juggling life in suburbia, man trouble and the prospect of George Clooney in their town.

Check out our interview with Ms. Meister:

1) What was the inspiration for your book?

The idea for the book came to me at a PTA meeting. I had only recently decided to stop procrastinating and pursue my dream of writing a novel, and as I smiled at all the other moms, it occurred to me that no one had any idea I had this great dream. In fact, no one in the room knew I had an inner life at all. Then it occurred to me that everyone there could be feeling something pretty similar. As soon as I had that thought, I knew I wanted to write about these types of women--to explore the pain, passion, heartache and joy hidden beneath facade of the perfect suburban housewife--and do it with humor and compassion.

From there I set out to construct a plot around an event that could affect the community as  a whole and the women as individuals. Eventually, I got the idea to bring a Hollywood movie studio to their town, and select their schoolyard as a possible location for the filming of a George Clooney movie.

2) Are you working on something right now?

Yes, I'm working on my second novel, THE SMART ONE. It's the story of a divorced former artist named Bev Bloomrosen who's about to turn her failed career around and become a school teacher. But when she and her two sisters discover a dead body under the house next door, they come head on with the old childhood roles holding them back. It will be published by Morrow/Avon in 2008.

3) What is something about you that would surprise your readers?

I've never cheated on my husband, don't own a single pair of Manolo Blahnik's, and my mother is a teetotaler. In other words, if I wrote about my own life, I'd bore readers to death!

 

What did you think of this article?

Liked
Disliked
No Opinion