Bestselling author Cathy Kelly: ‘You have to keep writing words you don’t like until you finally arrive at ones you do’
Here, we catch up with Cathy Kelly in the days following the release of her latest novel, Sisterhood, to chat about
Earlier this month, we shared an extract from the emotional, warm and gripping new title Sisterhood, a book which reveals an explosive secret that causes two sisters to question everything – and takes them from Ireland’s west coast to sun-baked Sicily.
Released on Thursday 15 February, Sisterhood is an uplifting, intriguing and empowering tale, one which sees Cathy go to the heart of modern women’s lives with her trademark brand of relatable and emotional storytelling.
Read on for our interview with Cathy Kelly…
Did you always want to be an author?
I loved storytelling from a very young age but the idea that I could become a writer was a subliminal notion that simmered for a long time. I wrote dreadful poetry, painted endlessly as a teenager and thought about art college but somehow, ended up in journalism college in Rathmines and that set me on the path to professional writing.
What inspired you to start writing?
I decided to write a novel when I was in my late twenties just to have done it. Being published was a lovely notion but I knew I wanted to write irrespective of getting published. I’d been talking about it for several years by this time and started to write what I’d like to read.
Where did the idea for this book come from?
Sisterhood is about boundaries and how women are not always good with them. Lou, one of the main characters, is funny, kind and gets walked on by everyone because she is so endlessly lovely and hasn’t a clue about boundaries.
The novel starts just before her fiftieth birthday when we see her rather narcissistic mother forget the birthday, and her husband forget to buy her a gift on the basis that lovely Lou won’t mind. Her younger sister, Toni, is a far steelier woman who knows what she wants and understands boundaries.
However, at Lou’s fiftieth birthday party, a family secret explodes from Mommy Dearest, who has been drinking neat gin, and the sisters end up on a road trip to track down the one person who can tell them the truth. The trip takes in the West coast, credit cards inexplicably being refused and a trip to the ancient island of Ortigia in Sicily…
Tell us about your writing process.
I spend a lot of time in my head, thinking about the characters and the story, filtering ideas in and out, so that by the time I sit at the computer to write, I have this vast canvas in my mind and I know what’s painted in the corners but not precisely how the corners are reached. That’s the tricky bit!
What comes first, the plot or the characters?
I can’t honestly say because the two grow together in my mind and as a character develops, the plot shifts seamlessly to accommodate them. It’s a delicious alchemy when it’s working.
What did you learn when writing this book?
This is my twenty-third book over a period of twenty-seven years of being published, so I re-learned that glorious lesson that I can still finish a novel. So many of us writers discuss this when we are together – the fear of sitting down and forgetting how to do it. I honestly can’t remember any writers’ gathering in my years of writing, when we haven’t laughed and lamented over this.
Do you have any quirky habits when writing?
Not really – circumstances dictate habits. When I was heavily pregnant over twenty years ago, I could only write lying down in bed. With the novel I have begun to write after Sisterhood, I defiantly began it at my first chemotherapy session but then the reality of chemo hit and I stopped during the process. Post chemo, my quirkiest habit has to be needing to lie down on the couch for a bit.
The first book you remember reading is…
I started reading when I was three and honestly can’t remember apart from the brightly-coloured ABC books but a huge part of my early reading were the Laura Ingalls Wilder novels. The Little House in the Big Woods was the first of the series and I can still see that dark blue cover with the illustrated cover…it was a glorious book.
Your favourite Irish author is…
I simply cannot pick. We have so many brilliant authors, which is both wonderful and astonishing given the fact that we are a small island on the edge of Europe. But then, islands are marvellous for writing – the Blasket Islands boast twenty published authors.
The book you gift everyone is…
I never give everyone the same book as I love giving people the perfect book for them at that moment in time. I gave one person Dr Edith Eger’s The Choice not that long ago and then, gave another Joan Didion’s Play It As It Lays.
Three books everyone should read…
I always come over a bit Oscar Wilde when asked this in that people’s tastes differ so much, I would not presume to offer advice. That said, I’d advise anyone to read Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and The Idiot by Elif Batuman. But then, that’s today! Next week, it might be a different trio.
You overcome writer’s block by…
Sitting down at my desk every work day and writing. You have to keep writing words you don’t like until you finally arrive at ones you do.
Do you listen to music when you write?
Sometimes. A combination of anything by Ella Fitzgerald or Nina Simone.
The best money you ever spent as a writer was on…
A fabulous new chair. I’m petite and have always tried to work with normal desks and chairs, and then wondered why my neck ached. It transpires that an expensive ergonomic office chair fitted by a physiotherapist is the answer.
The three books you’d bring with you to a desert island are…
Lofty Wiseman’s SAS Survival Guide, which I was given by his editor. It would make both surviving and getting off the island possibilities.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams because, even though it is very short, it makes me laugh.
And Neil MacGregor’s History of the World in 100 Objects because it would provide light in the shade.
A quote you love is…
Madeleine Albright’s quote: ‘There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.’
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