The next installment of interviews with writers about giving up their day jobs features Emma Darwin, author of historical fiction novels The Mathematics of Love and A Secret Alchemy, which has just been named as one of The Times’ Top Fifty Paperbacks of 2009.

MT: Hi Emma. Can you tell us abou the day jobs you have done?

ED: As a student, front-of-house in the West End and for the RSC at the Barbican Theatre; then marketing and distribution for academic publishing; then part-time in a music shop, fitting little fiddles on five-year-olds and ordering sheet music; writing and editing for a magazine about childcare.

MT: Anything in those day jobs that has inspired your writing?



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Dear Literary Santa,

I think I’ve been a good girl this year. Just look at this blog! Just look at my latest book! Um – okay, it hasn’t found a home yet, but it’s the best I’ve produced in terms of editing, taking on board criticism and research. Although I know I’ve been ratty; wept at rejection; eaten too much chocolate. But I’ve not given up. I’m determined. So, please, may I request the following gifts?

1) A large bottle of patience, two spoonfuls of which I can take directly after each submission.

2) A generous slice of humble pie, for those moments when I come over all X-Factor Contestant, and tell myself I should already be choosing my dress for the world movie premiere of my novel.

3) Contact lenses to hide the green in my eyes when yet another writing friend gets a deal. Envy is not an attractive quality, Santa, I know, but I can’t escape it and have decided camouflage will be more effective than seeking a cure.

4) Vouchers for cognitive therapy to help cure me of my email obsession.

5) Clear instructions on how to write in the First Person without being too introspective.



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One of the Chapter Titles - one of the Big Issues - in the how-to-write books and courses and seminars is Characterisation, and I'm putting capitals all over the place because that's how it feels that aspiring writers talk about it. Whereas when agents and editors and experienced writers talk about it, they just say, 'I love the characters.' And having written that first sentence as a run-in to what I really want to say, I'm realising that it's the abstraction of the idea of characterisation which is daunting for beginner writers, not the process. After all, thinking about how different humans tick is what we all do most of the time, as soon as we enter a room or a world which has other humans in it. Non-writers may not be aware that we've been speaking prose all our lives, or that we emplot our existence as a way of understanding and finding meaning in it, but we all know that we spend an awful lot of time trying to work other people out: what they are, why they're like that, whether they're telling the truth, what they'll do next, what they'll do if we do X.

Indeed, working out how things work is the fundamental nature of childhood, and it's not an accident that so much of the best and/or most popular children's fiction involves the protagonist landing in a strange world, without parents who can or will help, where they have to work out the rules in order to survive: boarding school, space, time travel, shipwreck, being orphaned, evacuation, or anywhere with magic or science which operates differently from the known world. The experience of working it out, and eventually understanding if not altogether mastering that world, embodies a child's experience of the real world. And not just children, either: I write as one who's just started reading Robinson Crusoe.

So I don't think it goes without saying that the best way to develop your characters and write your novel is to work them out in detail beforehand, but you wouldn't think that to read some of the how-to books.

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As I mentioned here, I hugely enjoyed Cally Taylor's Heaven Can Wait when I read it a little while ago. It's a terrific book, funny and sad and affecting and one I wouldn't hesitate to recommend. So it really is a huge, huge pleasure to welcome Cally to my blog for a little chat (and I know I say it's a pleasure to welcome everyone I interview here, but it really is - I don't interview people I don't like or whose work I don't think is awesome!).

Cally Taylor. Hello!

Hello Nik! Thanks so much for inviting me onto your blog.



First things first (let’s get this out of the way). Your book, the brilliant Heaven Can Wait, made me cry. How does it feel to have written something that made a grown man weep?

Pretty gobsmacked to be honest, and a little bit guilty for upsetting you! When I wrote ‘Heaven Can Wait’ I never imagined that

a) men would read it and

b) it would touch them

but I’ve heard back from a couple of men who’ve read it now and had nothing but positive comments (the ones with negative comments probably decided to keep them to themselves!). Interestingly the part of the book that made you cry made me cry when I wrote it and I think maybe that’s what touches people, the genuine emotion I put into ‘Heaven Can Wait’.



Can you tell us what the book’s about?

‘Heaven Can Wait’ is a supernatural romantic-comedy (yes, despite the crying there are funny bits in it!) about a woman called Lucy Brown who dies the night before her wedding and ends up in Limbo. She’s given the choice between going to heaven to be reunited with her parents or returning to earth to complete a task that will allow her to become a ghost so she can be reunited with her fiancé Dan. Lucy decides to return to earth, joins two other ‘wannabe ghosts’ in a grotty house in North London, and has twenty-one days to find love for a total stranger. The pressure is on, and it just gets greater when she realises her so-called best friend Anna is intent on making a move on Dan.



When and why did you start writing it?


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My novelist’s group were discussing getting agents (as you do) recently. The prevalent feeling was that most published writers were lucky enough to have got an ‘in’ - a chance meeting, a recommendation, someone who knew someone else who knew… I’ve heard of a few writers who’ve been picked up off the slush pile, but they do seem to be in the minority. Of course, your book has to be sh** hot as well. But I couldn’t help but wonder (a la Carrie Bradshaw):

Do we have to learn how to network as well as how to write?


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‘Who’s got a beard that’s long and white?’
‘Santa’s got a beard that’s long and white.’
‘Who comes around on a special night?’
‘Santa comes around on a special night.’

Special night; beard that’s white …

Must be Santa, must be Santa, must be Santa, Santa Claus.



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Over the summer I was asked if one of my stories could feature in a US online fiction writing course for high school students, and to cut a long story short I said yes.

Yesterday I saw the part of the course that contained my story, and that made me happy for a number of reasons. I liked that it was under the 'advanced fiction' banner (I've never been called advanced before) and I also liked that it was in the section that dealt with 'going beyond the rules'.

But the best bit was that my work's mentioned in the same sentence as Dave Eggers. Yes. Mr McSweeney's and Pullitzer Prize Finalist.

Here's a little quote:

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Is anyone out there old enough to remember the beloved (by me, anyway) children’s television programme How? Even if you’re not, here’s a riddle for you.
Question: When is a 109,000 word novel not a 109,000 word novel?
Answer: When it’s a 130,000 word novel pretending to be a 109,000 word novel.

Confused? Read on my friends…

Earlier this year a publisher invited me to submit a full ms for my thriller Standpoint. I went through my synopsis with a microscope, printed off another pristine copy of the manuscript (curse you, ink and toner manufacturers) and rechecked the word count – 109,000 so under the maximum limit. Then I dashed to the post office, paid my £20 for outward / return postage and returned to my prayer candle.

Three days later, my manuscript was returned to me, unread. The reply letter informed me that the word count was far beyond their stated limit, totalling over 130,000. Cue Twilight Zone music, as I checked Word again and found my original 109,000 word count to be correct. So what gives? Well, here comes the science bit.

The publisher also enclosed their method of ‘wordage calculation’, which is as follows:


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Lovely news today. The editors at Cinnamon Press have selected my flash story, I cannot carry a tune, for inclusion in their next anthology, Exposure, due out in September 2010. They had over 4,000 submissions, so the odds of being chosen were slim. Congratulations to everyone who was successful in having a story selected, including my good friend (and neighbour!), Tania Hershman. I'm really looking forward to reading the anthology when it comes out.

The acceptance from Cinnamon came hot on the heels of the news that the editors at Prick of the Spindle have nominated my flash, Flood Plain, for the Pushcart Prize.

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