Me, Myself & Irene: The Interview

photo credit

I am delighted to bring you a special interview with Irene Zutell, author of Pieces of Happily Ever After, a novel that answers the question of "what happens after happily ever after". 

Q: How did you come up with idea?

Irene:  My neighbor down the street was dumped by her husband for another woman--but not just any woman--Julia Roberts. I tried to get the wife (Vera Moder) to do a tell-all book with me about it. As a former People reporter, I'm pretty good at stalking :). I rang her bell and left her notes. I didn't hear back from her, so I let it drop. Time went by, but Ididn't forget about it.  I thought it would make a great jumping off point to a book about lots of other things. I'm a New Yorker who now lives in the San Fernando Valley (the suburbs of Los Angeles) and I find that the San Fernando Valley provides so much great material. It's truly one of the most bizarre places on the planet.

Q:  How so?

Irene: Well, for about a year, we lived right below a house that was shooting porn movies day and night. My then five-year old, Olivia, was obsessed with princesses. She believed the moaning was caused by a princess who was being held prisoner in a tower (the house was pretty big)! Crazy stuff! One day, we got so sick of it, we brought out all our instruments--congas, bongos and microphones--and with some neighbors, we drowned out the sounds. They weren't happy about it. A few weeks later, they moved. All this was great material for my book. And I used every drop of it. (In my book, the noise gets really loud during a child's birthday party).

Q: Was it hard to get it published?

Irene: This is my third book, but it's still never easy. A few publishing houses rejected the book because they said I couldn't write in a five-year-old's voice (one of the main characters, Gabby, the protagonist's daughter, is five). Anyway, my agent and I had a laugh over that, because I actually STOLE most of her dialogue from my daughter, Olivia, who was then five. I always tell people Olivia's an old lady trapped in a little girl's body. When Olivia was four, I read her Cinderella and she was angry after it was done. I asked her what was wrong and she told me it just didn't make any sense. "If everything goes back to normal at midnight, then why didn't that glass slipper?" That's when I knew I was in trouble!

As an added bonus to this very interesting and personable interview, Irene has given us a snippet of her new novel right here: 

---

I don't have to be psychic to know that the love for your child is a heartbreaking kind. I love my daughter so much, but I also know that one day she will leave me and be out on her own. One day she'll say say goodbye to Barbies, then Bratz, then High School Musical, then Hannah Montana. And then, one day, me. As much as I love her, she is not mine forever.

You hold her hand. She holds yours. One day she holds it only when she's sure no one's looking. But she eventually lets go and doesn't hold it for years and years. Then one day she holds it again.

But this time it's because you need her to. She helps you cross the street.

And one day, if your life is as perfect as it can be, she continues on without you. She'll long for your hand in hers. She'll imagine it in her dreams. And the best you can do hope for is that you've taught her well. You hope she doesn't make mistakes, but of course, she will. And hopefully, she'll feel your phantom hand holding onto her and comforting her along the way.
 
  ---An excerpt from Irene Zutell's PIECES OF HAPPILY EVER AFTER

You can read more about Irene at her personal website and enter to win your very own copy of her book at the Escape with a Great Book Giveaway (ends October 8).   If you can't wait, you can buy it now: Pieces of Happily Ever After.
  

Happy reading!