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Congratulations
on your two-book contract with Red Dress Ink (RDI). Can you tell
us how it came about?
Thanks! And I hope you’re ready for a long story…!
Funnily enough, it all came about through my first novel,
allmenarebastards.com being a finalist in the Romantic Book of
the Year Award 2002. Karin Stoecker happened to read it during
her trip to Australia and New Zealand and spoke to a member of
Romance Writers of New Zealand saying how much she had enjoyed
it. The member emailed me, I emailed Karin within about 35
seconds (just call me a contact hussy!) and she asked to see any
manuscripts I had lying around. It was great timing as I was set
to go to London in four weeks and, while I was there, Karin and
Sam Bell made me the offer. I knew everything was perfect when
they plied me with some Dior makeup, RDI books and dessert. They’ve
obviously got me pegged…
What was special about No Beer in Hawaii that clinched
the sale to RDI?
Specifically Sam has mentioned the mental journey the two
main characters (who are old friends) take through the story and
how they learn things on this journey not only about each other,
but also about themselves. Sam also liked the fact that they
were both misfits. Then, of course, there are the more
non-specific things, like the voice and the humour which are
author-personal. While I was waiting to hear from Karin I was
quite worried about how Australian my mss are, but this is
something both Karin and Sam really seem to love. They’ve both
said several times how excited they are to be signing an
Australian up for the RDI line. I have to say it’s a bit
daunting being the only one. I’m hoping to have some friends
in the sandpit with me soon! (Note: am toilet trained and
willing to share bucket and spade…).
Do you have a release date yet?
It should be sometime in 2004, but that's all I know so far.
How long did it take you to get published? Tell us a little
of your history.
It felt like forever, but really wasn’t very long when I
hear other writers’ stories. After school, I did a BA majoring
in Journalism and Russian (don’t ask!). The best things I
learned were how to cut the bullshit out of my writing, that I
didn’t want to be a journalist and that there’s heaps of
different kinds of vodka and they’re all pretty damn good.
Especially the infused ones. The infused ones are great. Come to
think of it, my majors may have been Journalism and Vodka. Well,
OK, what I’ve just said isn’t entirely true, there was one
more thing I came away with – during a journalism class one
day the lecturer mentioned that some sad journalists write dodgy
articles for wedding magazines. So, when I graduated this is
what I started doing. I ended up writing for seven or so
magazines, mostly overseas. I also started whingeing to my
boyfriend about how great it would be to write a novel (I’ve
always been a big reader and this was about the time chick-lit
was taking off). After six months or so of whingeing, he pretty
much told me to sit down, shut up and put my fingers on the
computer keyboard before he hacked each one off slowly with a
rusty knife. So I did!
I wrote the first three chapters and synopsis of my first
novel (still unpublished and if you read any of it, you’d know
why…). I sent this off to several publishers and an editor at
Penguin picked it out of the slush pile and asked to see the
rest. Penguin eventually passed on the ms (as did every
Australian publisher with a listing in the phone book), but the
interest from Penguin gave me the guts to start the next ms,
which was allmenarebastards.com. The second publisher I
showed the ms to made me an offer. All up, it was almost spot-on
four years from writing the first words of my first novel to
seeing allmenarebastards.com the shelves.
Oh, and I married the rusty knife/fingers on the keyboard
guy. I’ve found it’s a great incentive to keep writing…
Allison’s first novel allmenarebastards.com was
published by Random
House. Visit her at www.allisonrushby.com
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Alison
Rushby's first published novel, allmenarebastards.com was
a finalist the 2002 Romantic Book of the Year Awards.