Interview with Liane Moriarty and book giveaway

**Giveaway is now closed**

This week we are featuring two authors from Down Under. The first is Liane Moriarty! She was born in Sydney and still lives there now with her husband, ankle biter son and new baby daughter. She made a quid in advertising and marketing for a while, eventually starting her own business and then working as a freelance copywriter. In the meantime she dreamed of becoming an author and finally finished her first novel, "Three Wishes" after she was inspired by the success of her younger sister (YA author, Jaclyn Moriarty.) Liane is now a full time author of adult novels and a series of children's books.
Her latest novel coming to our neck of the woods is "What Alice Forgot", which will be in stores on Thursday! Fox 2000 has bought the film rights to this novel, so it will be interesting to see if they went with her casting choices or not. Thanks to Stella Connell of the Connell Agency, we have two copies for some lucky readers in the US or Canada. Ace!

Liane is a cool chick with a great sense of humor and we are rapt that we had the opportunity to chat with her without even jumping on a plane! If you like what you've read today, check out her blog! You can also visit her at The Debutante Ball starting June 4th.

MP: How do you like to spend your time when you are not writing?
LM: Reading in bed, reading in the bath, reading in the TV commercials, sleeping, eating chocolate, working off all that chocolate doing gym classes, skiing (not that I ski every weekend but I thought I should mention something outdoorsy) and now it occurs to me that I haven’t mentioned my children, and we’ve just had Mother’s Day, where I happily accepted all manner of accolades. What I actually do when I’m not writing is take care of my 3 year old son and 15 month old daughter, and I like that very much.

MP: What was the biggest challenge you faced while writing "What Alice Forgot"?
LM: The ending was my biggest challenge. I don’t write to a plan, and I had no idea how Alice would reconcile the two perspectives she now had on her life. Also, I was meant to deliver the manuscript just before I delivered my first baby and he made an unexpected appearance five weeks early. (We were also renovating the house, as you do just before you have a baby, so everything was in chaos.) I ended up finishing the novel six months later, while my baby kicked and cooed in his ‘jungle gym’ on my office floor and that’s when the ending became perfectly obvious.

MP: What is your usual writing routine?
LM: I have a wonderful babysitter who looks after my children for 3-4 hours at a time, 3 days a week. I close the door and write. I’m satisfied if I write 500 words, happy if I manage 1000 and delirious if I reach 2000.

MP: If you were not a writer, what job would you like to have?
LM: I’d like to be the beloved queen of a small kingdom in Europe.

MA: If "What Alice Forgot" were made into a movie, who would you cast as the lead roles?
LM: I have sold the movie rights and the producers were talking about someone like Jennifer Aniston or Reese Witherspoon for the role of Alice. I also think Sandra Bullock would be wonderful. I’d cast Brad Pitt for the role of Nick. He’d been entirely unsuitable, but I’d still cast him.

MA: If you were to take us on a tour of your hometown, what would be some highlights?
LM: Coffee and almond croissants at my favourite beach, a ferry trip on Sydney harbour, creamy cocktails at a bar with city views

MA: What is your favorite thing to do at the beach?
LM: Swim, and then rush straight to the shade for my hat, shirt and more sunscreen (I don’t have the right complexion to live in Australia).

MA: Where do you see yourself in ten years?
LM: I’ll be over fifty, so I really don’t want to talk about it. Oh, all right. I expect I’ll be ferrying my children from soccer to ballet, I’ll still be writing, perhaps my tenth novel, I’ll be living in a castle, thanks to the startling success of my ninth novel … actually this is starting to become more enjoyable.

MA: What was the last romantic movie you watched?
LM: The Adjustment Bureau with Matt Damon and Emily Blunt. I loved it. Except then I spent 40 minutes with a friend driving around in circles while she tried to help me find my car in an enormous shopping centre car park, designed to trap you forever, during which time all the warm and fuzzy feelings created by the movie vanished.

MP: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
LM: My dream holidays always involve skiing, so this question gave me the excuse to google ‘world’s best skiing destinations’ and study photos and descriptions, as if I was actually planning this mythical trip. I’ve already been to some of the top ten locations like Aspen and Whistler, so after much dithering, I have finally settled on Lech & Zurs, Austria, for no other reason than it had the most stunning photo.

Special thanks to Liane for a great conversation and to Stella for supplying the books for the giveaway.

How to win "What Alice Forgot":
Please comment below with your e-mail address.
(Please note: Entries without an e-mail address will NOT be counted. You can use AT and DOT to avoid spam. Or provide a link to your facebook page or blog if you can receive messages there.)

Bonus entries (can be listed all in one post):
1. Please tell us: What was the last romantic movie you watched? 2. Please tell us: If you could visit Australia in the near future, what is the first thing you would do?
3. Follow this blog and post a comment saying you are a follower (if you already follow, that's fine too).
4. Post this contest on Facebook or Twitter or in your blog, and leave a comment saying where you've posted it.
5. Join Chick Lit Central on Facebook. Edit settings if you don't want to receive a lot of messages at your e-mail account. (If you're already a member, let us know that too.)
6. Add a friend to our Facebook group. (Tell us who you added.)Be sure to remind them to edit their settings.

US/Canada only. Giveaway ends June 5th at midnight EST.

More by Liane Moriarty: