Struggles with
writing the book
I was lucky with this book as I
had the ideas for the actual plot and the higher concept – ie, the emotional
point – at the same time. I knew from the outset that it was about one girl
finding her identity when I hit on the idea of her ‘trying on’ different
lifestyle and personalities first.
Having worked in the fashion industry as a fashion
writer, I had had access to a highly-desirable and closed world that I knew
would fascinate my readers and I had been mulling over the idea of setting a
book in the big fashion cities London, New York, Paris anyway. I had been
trying to work out how to have a character in each city and somehow thread them
together, but having one girl moving between the three cities in a linear way made
much more sense.
It meant I had
to give each city a very strong, standalone identity – the mood of Paris had to
feel different from London, which in turn had to contrast with New York. I used
iconic emblems like Manhattan’s yellow cabs, London’s red buses and Paris’s
bikes as quick visual references and thought a lot the different urban sounds
and the changes of the seasons. But more than anything, I relied on the support
cast of friends – Kelly in New York, Anouk in Paris and Suzy in London – to become
a living embodiment of each city: how each girl dressed and exercised, the
décor in her home, what she ate and drank, the clothes she wore…every detail
had to reinforce the identity of the city she lived in.
Amidst all that,
I also had to show Cassie finding herself, her way. I used her mistakes, partly
for comedy purposes but also to highlight who she wasn’t, so that the
journey towards who she really is becomes partly a process of elimination.
One of the
trickiest aspects of the book was getting the timeline right. With roughly each
third of the book based on a different city, it was hard work getting the
pacing just so. On the one hand, over-arching everything, I’m documenting a
woman’s emotional recovery from her marriage breakdown - that is therefore
necessarily slow and erratic; nobody gets over a ten-year long marriage in even
a year, much less a few months; But on the other hand, I had only about
eighteen chapters per city to build up a new life for her: new job, home, look,
social life, her relationship with her friend to flesh out…Each segment
therefore had to feel authentic and dramatically compelling, but it also had to
coincide with the bigger emotional journey.
Paris was by the far the hardest
segment to write as there was bound to be a lull after the rebound excitement
of New York – Luke really super-boosts Cassie’s immediate recovery – and before
the resolution of the plot, ending in London. So the question I had to focus on
answering there was, what she was supposed to learn about herself in Paris? I
knew she wouldn’t just glide into another relationship and it took me a long
time to really get to grips with the character of Claude. I didn’t quite know
what I wanted him to be for her, but when I did – and the twist of it surprised
me as much as it will you - he broke my heart as well as hers.
About the Book
In the wake of a heartbreaking betrayal, a young woman
leaves the Scottish countryside to find her destiny in three of the most
exciting cities in the world—New York, Paris, and London—in this funny and
triumphant tale of fulfillment, friendship, and love.
Ten years ago, a young and naïve Cassie married her first serious
boyfriend, believing he would be with her forever. Now, her marriage is in
tatters and Cassie has no career or home of her own. Though she feels betrayed
and confused, Cassie isn’t giving up. She’s going to take control of her life.
But first she has to find out where she belongs . . . and who she wants to be.
Over the course of one year, Cassie leaves her sheltered life in
rural Scotland to stay with her best friends living in the most glamorous
cities in the world: New York, Paris, and London. Exchanging comfort food and
mousy hair for a low-carb diet and a gorgeous new look, Cassie tries each city
on for size as she searches for the life she’s meant to have . . . and the man
she’s meant to love.
Biography
Karen Swan began her career in fashion journalism before giving it
all up to raise her three children and an ADHD puppy, and to pursue her
ambition of becoming a writer. She lives in the forest in Sussex, writing her
books in a treehouse overlooking the Downs. Her first novel, Players, was
published in 2010, followed by Prima Donna and Christmas at Tiffany's in 2011.
Twitter:
@KarenSwan1
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