Best of Family & Relationships
Best of Family & Relationships
"So Many Books, So Little Time!"
Exclusive Interview with
Alice McVeigh
When did you start writing?
I started telling my sister stories as a child (I was 15 months older). We were both bookworms, and for a very good reason. Our father was a diplomat and we grew up in Asia (I was born in South Korea, after that it was Bangkok, Singapore and Myanmar). There was no English-language TV in any of these countries in the sixties and seventies! We just read books.
What makes writing your passion?
I have two passions, that have fought over me all my life. I am a professional London cellist and a novelist. As a child - a book-mad child - I was also frustrated that I couldn't learn to play the cello. When we returned to Washington, I begged my parents for cello lessons and spent my teenage years practising. After a degree in cello performance at Jacobs school of music I came to London to study for a year with the famous Jacqueline du Pre. Instead, I fell in love, got married and stayed... After working with some major orchestras (BBC Symphony, Royal Philharmonic) I decided to write a novel about the backstage life of a London Orchestra. The first two were bought by Orion/Hachette! BUT... I couldn't finish the third. Was too depressed by infertility. My agent dumped me, and so did Orion... then... we became pregnant. I wanted to be with baby Rachel so I used my agent's connections to get into ghostwriting for her first ten years, then went back to cello playing. In 2019 I was diagnosed ADHD, and my RSD was banished with medication. I thought: I'm going back to writing novels. Have won over 90 awards since, including being twice in the last six novels for the UK Selfies Book Awards at the London Book Fair. I still love cello, but now... I'm a novelist again.
How long have you been writing?
Since I could. I finished my first novel aged thirteen, and it was awful. I still have it. Think Enid Blyton mixed up with Josephine Tey plus GONE WITH THE WIND. Unspeakably bad.
What was the feeling when you published your first book?
Ecstasy. It's supposed to be so hard, but the third agent I applied to took me on, and sold my first novel to a big-five publisher within a couple of months. This was crazy-lucky. I even sold the film rights to the first book, to the UK's Channel 4. Fairytale stuff!
What’s the story behind your choice of characters?
The books I write now are NOT inspired by my cello-playing life, as the first two were. Instead, thanks to my ghostwriting years, I'm expert at writing like Jane Austen. In this book, I imagine the sardonic, worldly Lady Susan of Austen's only novella (aged 35) as a not-yet-spoiled sixteen-year-old.
What annoys you the most in pursuing a writing career?
Marketing.
How do you get over the “writer’s block”?
What's writer's block?
We all know the writer’s path is never easy, what makes you keep going? What advice would you give to new authors?
Read. It's very depressing how many books are clearly written by people who don't read - or who don't read much. It's not enough to have something to say... everyone alive has something to say! Learning how to communicate it is the art. Just read.
If you could go back in time and talk to your younger self, what would you say?
You're better at writing than playing cello. Don't let your parents sway you. My father adored the cello and supported me 100% in my music, but as he was a biographer published by W.W.Norton, he didn't care for fiction. In fact, both of my parents discouraged my fiction but supported my music... But, as I say, music and writing have always fought over me.
Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with the bad ones?
No. I have all of Austen's books by HEART. How many of my reviewers could say the same?
What is the feeling when you get a good review?
I get excited when I win awards. Thank you!!!!
Have you ever incorporated something that happened to you in real life into your novels?
Not exactly.
Which of your characters you can compare yourself with? Did you base that character on you?
I did find my recent Marianne: A Sense and Sensibility Sequel ridiculously easy to write. ADHD was not a thing in the Regency period but... Marianne had it, no question. And I have it, big-time. Writing as Marianne was crazy-easy!
What do you think, the book cover is as important as the story?
To some people, it is. It's a branding thing. What I try to convey with my Austen series is that these are NOT modern takes but CLASSIC and written in a style Austen would have loved.
Do you connect with your readers? Do you mind having a chat with them or you prefer to express yourself through your writing?
I have a monthly newsletter. I love getting personal emails from readers.
How do you feel when people appreciate your work or recognize you in public?
Once, on the London Underground, I saw a woman reading one of my Orion-published paperbacks. I was DESPERATE to interrupt her and introduce myself, but I didn't. I didn't want to look arrogant or to be annoying. But she looked so immersed she might've liked it. I'll never know!
Who is your favorite author? Why?
I'm an Austenite. But I also love modern literature. Ann Patchette. Elizabeth Strout. Alice Munro. So many. And then the great Russians. And P.G. Wodehouse. I love Wodehouse!
What’s the dream? Whom would you like to be as big as?
I don't know. Have been so lucky. I already have a husband, a daughter, two dachshunds and a second home by the sea in Crete. I'm fine as I am.
Would you rewrite any of your books? Why?
I have. When my Orion books went out of print I got the copyrights back, rewrote them and improved them tremendously. They're now available. Wow, I learned a lot about writing having a baby and ghostwriting!
If you could switch places with any author – who would that be?
It certainly wouldn't be Austen. What amuses me about some Janeites is that they almost all dream of being mistress of Pemberley, when what we'd (almost) all have been is exploited governesses, living on the street, dying in childbirth (one in 12), without much options in life, no travel etc. Austen had a tough life herself, though her brothers were kind.
What would you say to the “trolls” on the internet? We all know them – people who like to write awful reviews to books they’ve never read or didn’t like that much, just to annoy the author.
Actually, I'm sorry for them, because they don't have a life.
What would you say to your readers?
Thank you!!!!
Share a bit about yourself – where do you live, are you married, do you have kids?
London. Married since forever! One kid, PhD-ing at Harvard. She's crazy brilliant. Am in awe of her. Imagine, no Asian blood and she's doing Chinese Literature. I mean, wow. But my husband was like that. He got a First-class degree at Oxford aged just 19. And they're also both amazing linguists. I can only speak two languages, British English and American, Alice
What is your day job if you have one?
Was playing cello. However, I did get depressed because I wanted to be a cello principal, and I mostly wasn't. Which means I was mostly one of the cello section, when my dream was to be the FIRST cellist. That's what got me back to writing novels. Not being the principal one. I guess it was a kind of arrogance, expecting to be.
What are your hobbies? What do you do in your free time?
TENNIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I also waste a lot of time watching tennis on TV.
Sadly, I'm not very good at it. Not gifted at all. A very mediocre tennis player.
Did you have a happy childhood?
No. Was too bookish to fit in. I'm not saying it was all awful, but coming back to the US after loving living in Asia WAS awful. If it wasn't for the cello I wouldn't be here now. The cello SAVED me.
Is there a particular experience that made you start writing?
Living. I was putting stories into words as soon as knew I was alive.
Do you have unpublished books? What are they about?
The one I'm writing. It's a take on PERSUASION.
What do you think should be improved in the education of our children? What do we lack?
Kids don't read. AND every kid should have music lessons. It ought to be seen as a human right. Don't get me started.
If you were allowed 3 wishes – what would they be?
World peace would be #1. World peace would be VERY cool.
What is your favorite music?
This one's easy. Bach is the greatest composer who every lived. Mozart... Beethoven... Brahms all wrote great music, but also lousy music. Bach never wrote a bad piece. They are ALL perfection. Every single one! How did he do it?!? This is off-the-charts genius.
Share a secret with us 🙂
ADHD people don't do secrets. We're kind of unbuttoned, somehow. But when I was diagnosed - so recently and so appallingly late - the expert herself burst into tears. She said, 'This is the second-highest ADHD score I've ever done. How have you LIVED until fifty, with a score this high?' And I said - through my own tears - 'Tell you this much, it reads easier than it lives.'