Hens Reunited - Lucy Diamond

(Note to reader: I’ve TWO COPIES of this book to giveaway and all details can be found at the end of this rather long (but perfectly interesting!) post)

Hens Reunited is a novel about three women – Katie, Georgia and Alice. They used to be the best of friends, and all went to each other’s hen nights, but unfortunately their marriages have since bitten the dust, and their friendships have been tested to the limits. Hearts have been broken and feathers ruffled – can the hens ever be reunited?

Hens Reunited is easy to read, about love and about real women, likeable women who are grounded and have flaws. Controlling and weaving together three lives and three stories (not counting the depth of back stories that each of them have) with such ease, shows craft and the sheer skill of the writer. I am left feeling that Katie, Georgia and Alice exist, like they’ve shared their lives with me and I know them completely. I am left with that feeling that only ever happens when you read a book quickly, you thoroughly enjoy it and you’ve been thrown into their worlds in such an intense way. I’m left missing the story.

Being Lucy Diamond’s third novel and having read both of the others, in my opinion, this is the best of all three novels, lifting Lucy Diamond to the heights of this genre. Lucy Diamond has not taken her readership for granted, rather she’s created a story that is clever, current, real, different and an utterly enjoyable read. Hens Reunited is touching, witty, edgy and quick. For me, the test of good fiction is when I’m left with images of characters, with knowledge of their speech traits, their appearance and the way they interact with others.

This novel is a perfect summer read. And, as Lucy Diamond is clearly a Take That fan she gets an unequivocal recommendation from me.

Asking Lucy Diamond:

Great title! Where did you get your inspiration to write this novel? I must confess, the title came first and I wrote a story to fit in with it! I know that sounds an odd way to work, but I find choosing titles really difficult whereas this one just popped into my head one day and I thought, Ooh, YES, that might work… So I was really unravelling the plot backwards if you like – thinking that if the ‘hens’ in question were going to be reunited, something must have happened to split them up in the first place, hmmm… how could I engineer that? I knew I wanted to feature each character’s hen night, so that gave a basic structure to the novel, and then I threw in some betrayal, love disasters and difficult choices along the way.

It helped that I wrote the novel in the run-up to my own wedding, so I just HAD to have my own hen night as part of my research, obviously!

There are three main female characters in Hens Reunited – control freak Katie, career-driven Georgia and faithful Alice. Which of them did you enjoy writing most, and why? It’s got to be Georgia – partly because I envy her her job (she’s a tabloid gossip columnist) but also because she’s the bitchy character that I hope readers will love to hate. She was great fun to write – really quite egotistical and self-centred at the start of the book, and not somebody I’d particularly choose as a friend. I wanted to show that even the most hard-hearted of characters has a chink in their armour though, and enjoyed bringing out her more vulnerable side as the novel progressed.

How long did Hens Reunited take to write? It took about a year from start to finish. I was having to juggle it with all sorts of children’s book deadlines too, so some months I wouldn’t write any at all, and then I’d come back to it with renewed energy and blast through some chapters with great enthusiasm. It was a frustrating way to work, sometimes, and I’d be itching to get back to my characters, but it did mean that I never got too bogged down with the writing, as it always felt a bit of a treat to work on, if that doesn’t sound too mad!

Every chapter starts with a Take That song title (making me have to sing out loud). Everyone knows that Howard is mine, but which Take That boy is your favourite? Gorgeous Howard is yours? Hmmm. Well, that’s strange. He didn’t mention it the other night when we were…

Ahem. I mean… Favourite Take That boy? Oh, I couldn’t possibly comment. *crosses fingers that a rumour starts*

Writers often find redrafting and self-editing difficult. Can you offer any words of wisdom? I always try to put a bit of distance between that initial first draft and the editing stage. I’ve just finished my fourth novel and put the printed manuscript away in a box for a whole month, trying not to even think about it in all that time. Then, when I came back to make the first edit, I was able to read through the ms with a really fresh eye, seeing it much more objectively as a whole.

I also find reading aloud my work really helpful. It flags up every weak line of dialogue and any overlong description. Each time I finish a new children’s book I read it aloud to my kids and I can tell if it ‘works’ by how much they fidget!

You’ve written for children and for adults. Which came first and how did you come to be published? The children’s books came first. I worked in children’s publishing for a while which was brilliant training for later swapping sides and becoming an author. Not only did I learn what made a good story (and what didn’t), I also learned that editors much prefer authors who meet deadlines, take editorial suggestions on the chin rather than throwing hissy fits, don’t expect the world when it comes to marketing and publicity, and appreciate all the work that goes into producing a book.

I began writing teenage novels, under my real name, Sue Mongredien, and was then commissioned to write a number of TV tie-in books for different publishers. The workload built up gradually with plenty of rejection letters along the way, but now I write about twenty children’s books a year – a mixture of my own series fiction, plus some co-authored projects which are published under generic author names, such as Daisy Meadows, Tabitha Black and Alexandra Moss.

I wrote my first ‘adult’ novel, Any Way You Want Me, about five years ago. I was a full-time mum looking after my one-year-old daughter and newborn son, and I just wanted to write down all the conflicting feelings I was having about motherhood (and how bloody difficult I was finding it, frankly!). It felt liberating, being able to write a full-length novel and really get stuck into the characters.

So, Lucy Diamond isn’t your real name (shock horror!). Where did Lucy Diamond spring from and why not write under your ‘real’ name? My real name is quite unusual and my surname (Mongredien) is not the easiest thing to spell, pronounce or remember. Also, there was the fact that my first novel was quite racy and I felt it was best to keep the two genres separate with two different names. My agent thought of the name ‘Lucy Diamond’ – I’d just told him that I’d recently written a children’s book called ‘Lucy the Diamond Fairy’ and he suggested it. I love having an alter-ego – and Lucy Diamond is certainly a far more glamorous name than Sue Mongredien!

How do you shift from writing for adults to writing for children? Does this ever cause any problems? I enjoy writing both kinds of books and could never choose one over the other. I really love writing about big juicy topics like relationships, jealousy, falling in and out of love, betrayal etc in my novels, but I also love letting my imagination go wild in children’s books, throwing magic into the mix and coming up with stories that my own children love. It is just the best thing doing a school visit and seeing the kids get really excited about stories, and reading.

Can you offer any tips for people wanting to be published? Get an agent, and don’t let the rejections get you down. It’s all part of the process. The trick is to keep trying. And trying. And trying…

What are you currently reading? I’ve just read The Children’s Book by A S Byatt which I absolutely loved – the best book I’ve read so far this year. It’s full of the most wonderful characters and families, with huge tangled storylines and fabulous visual detail throughout. An utter treat!

On which reality TV show are you most likely to appear? It’s got to be X-Factor. I’m a closet karaoke queen!

Who is the most loveliest - Piers or Simon? Oh, Simon, of course! I do like Piers but he’s a bit oily for me. Whereas Simon has that lovely twinkle in his eye…

And, finally, (with the skilful smoothness of the finest of interviewers) do you in any way know Simon Cowell? I’ll tell you what, you surrender Howard to me, and I’ll fix you up with Simon. Do we have a deal?

You can buy a copy of Hens Reunited HERE.

About the author: Lucy Diamond is thirty-nine (and planning to stay that way for at least five years, thank you very much). Originally from Nottingham, she now lives in Bath with her husband and their three children. She worked in publishing and at the BBC but gave up the day job after her second child was born, and now writes for a living. Her third novel, Hens Reunited, is published on August 7^th by Pan Macmillan, and she has also had over 100 children’s books published under a variety of pseudonyms. She blogs HERE. And she is hosting a limerick comeptition with a whole host of fabulous prizes here.

And, the rather nice people at Pan Books have agreed that I can give away TWO COPIES of Hens Reunited by Lucy Diamond. All you have to do is leave a ‘please pick me’ comment by 3pm (GMT) August 6, then I’ll pop all names in a mug and ask a small child to select a winner. This competition is open to all.