10 things you didn’t know about…

Ber Carroll, author of The Better Woman






‘This feels different,’ he said, reading her thoughts.
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
His hand reached through the dusk and touched her cheek.
‘Can I kiss you?’
Her eyes scanned his shadowed face, the new chiselled lines to his cheekbones, the hair on his jaw that would eventually need to be shaved. Her childhood friend was gone. This was someone else: a grown-up stranger. And she wanted nothing more than to kiss him.His lips were soft and tentative and warm. He tasted like red wine. Intoxicating.

………………

Got to stop there... can't give the game away.

We all love a book that is hard to put down, don’t we? Well, Ber Carroll’s latest novel The Better Woman is such a book.

Traversing the very different lives of two intelligent, highly successful women, this book speaks with raw honesty to anyone who have has ever loved and lost, who has trusted and been betrayed, and who has woken to the stark realisation that their life has not gone according to the script.

At a recent book launch that I attended, Ber admitted that The Better Woman was inspired by an event in her own life where she landed her dream job. It had been a two-woman race right from the start and Ber has wondered, to this day, who really was the better woman.

Here, Ber – who hails from Blarney, Ireland, but now lives on Sydney’s northern beaches - reveals 10 things we didn’t know about her and tells us what makes her feel all gooey inside.

1. The best part of my job is… being able to make things up as I go. In any other profession, this could pose a serious problem, but as an author of fiction it’s par for the course. I love the blank page, the infinite possibilities, and having no idea what direction the story will take until the words come out, one by one, and fill the page with something unexpected, even to me.

2. The worst part of my job is… having nobody to talk to during the day. Yes, my publisher, editor and agent are all a phone call away, but for the most part it’s me and the computer. Sometimes I talk to it, the computer, just an utterance here and there. If I’m not careful I could end up like Tom Hanks and Wilson in the film Castaway.

3. If I wasn’t an author, I would be… an accountant. No accountant or calculator jokes, please! All the accountants I know are fun . . . really, they are.

4. I feel that the term ‘chick-lit’… is an absolutely fine way to describe modern women’s fiction.

5. The worst comment on one of my school reports was… I was a very swotty child and had glowing school reports, thank you very much! Now, if there were reports for uni, that would be another story as I saved all my rebellion/badness for then . . . skiving from class, playing cards in the cafeteria, alcohol abuse.

6. The one object I could never live without has to be … a pen or pencil or something to write with. No matter where I am or what I’m doing, I need some way to put the thoughts that flit through my head down on paper. It would seriously freak me out if I didn’t have a pen in my bag (actually, I just counted and there are seven in there).

7. My favourite book is… Anyone Out There, by Marian Keyes. I love the book because it’s funny and uplifting, but also has enough depth and darkness to contrast the funny parts. I love all of Marian Keyes’ novels. She was the first author who made book reviewers sit up and finally admit that female fiction can be a quality product . . . she paved the way.

8. My least favourite book is… I never abandon a book, no matter how hard going it is. I think most books have a redeeming feature, something to be admired or learned from, it just takes a while to find what it is . . . so, nothing stands out as being my least favourite.

9. My favourite film is…. Once. This is a beautiful film about the friendship and would-be love of an Irish busker and a Czech immigrant girl. The film shows the gritty side of Dublin, the music that’s found on every street, and the struggles of the Czech and other immigrants as they strive to find their place. Falling Slowly, the theme song, makes me feel all gooey inside.

10. I’d like to be remembered for… lots of things. Creating female characters who have substance and backbone. Bringing a taste of Ireland to Australia, and vice versa. Not being predictable in what I write.








* Ber Carroll’s other books are Executive Affair, Just Business and High Potential.

To learn more about WriteSmart or Pamela Wilson, log onto www.writesmart.com.au