and It Happened in Venice.
Happy Publication day, Molly!
The idea to write It Happened at Bootcamp, the novella with three different endings, was formulated in a very posh restaurant around the corner from Little Browns equally posh offices, opposite Blackfriars Bridge.
‘Shall we have a glass of wine?’ Rebecca my clever editor asked, peeping over the top of the wine list.
‘Why not?’ Manpreet, my other clever editor piped up, rather keenly for someone on their lunch hour that had to go back to work.
‘We might as well have a bottle,’ I suggested, ‘’you know we’ll drink it.’ I said, with a nod of certainty, ‘and it only costs a couple of quid more.’
I hid my face in the huge menu.
‘OK, we’ll have a bottle,’ Rebecca said conclusively, ‘we’ll have our usual?
I crunched on a breadstick while Rebecca rattled our order to the waitress. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted someone who looked suspiciously like Sean Connery. I love Sean Connery. I tried not to stare.
Rebecca gave me a wise look, mirrored by Manpreet. They tipped forward officiously.
‘Molly, we’ve been thinking . . .’
And they certainly had been thinking.
The idea was for me to write a novella featuring my two main characters Evie and Lulu, as an introductory springboard for It Happened in Venice, the second book in the series. The novella had to be stand-alone, so that readers did not have to be familiar with the It Happened storyline. We wanted to showcase the girls at their hilarious best. Subsequently it was decided to take them completely out of their comfort zone and place them against a backdrop totally alien to them. A Bootcamp! In fairness a Bootcamp is alien territory to most of us. We all like the idea of losing half a stone in six days, but we’re not overly enthused at the prospect of dragging ourselves on an assault course and de-toxing to achieve it. Are we?
‘Obviously I’ll have to go to a Bootcamp for research purposes,’ I said sensibly.
‘Good idea,’ Rebecca and Manpreet chorused.
After all I absolutely love watching my Davinia McColl DVD, but . . . I don’t actually do it. And I’ve bought a Wii Fit, but there again; I haven’t gotten around to using it yet because I’ve only had it for two years. And suddenly I was thinking. Hang on a minute. Me, go to a Bootcamp? I’m lost in thought and hesitant. I know authors spend a lot of time researching, but I’m positive Dan Brown didn’t murder four cardinals before he wrote La Da Vinci Code. Do I really need to do this?
‘Now, let’s talk about the three different endings concept,’ Rebecca said brightly, ‘have you ever wondered what would happen if we’d chosen differently . . .’
And suddenly I’m back in the conversation, because . . . yes, I have often wondered what would happen if I’d chosen differently. I was excited, my mind was shifting with ideas; I would go to a Bootcamp, lose loads of weight, get fit, meet new people and write a funny story with three different endings. I took a mouthful of wine and leaned in closer. I liked this conversation. I liked it a lot.
If you want to know how I got on at Bootcamp read my blog at www.mollyhopkins.co.uk
To find out how Evie and Lulu got on at Bootcamp, read It Happened at Bootcamp.
Also coming soon, from Molly Hopkins......
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