We were meant to post up this interview during our Little Black Dress week, but for some reason it got delayed, so here it is (finally): our interview with Sarah Monk!

1. Tell us about your latest book Taking The Lead.

Well, most romantic novels are about the journey two people take to become a couple, and this time I really wanted to write a journey that was totally different, something where the main thing keeping them apart wasn’t a misunderstanding, or instant attraction mistaken for instant loathing, but simply geography. So Taking the Lead is about two people, Theodora (Theo) and Jonas, who are perfect for each other and should be together, but the fact that they don’t actually even know each other, and Jonas is soon to be married to someone else, is kind of getting in the way of their own personal happily ever after. But fate has a way of working its magic, and with help from an unlikely cupid in the form of a cute stray dog called Dylan, a random act of unkindness finally sets them both on the right path to finding each other.

2. Are you currently working on a new book for Little Black Dress? Can you tell us about it, if so?

I’m not at the moment, no, although I would absolutely love to write another book for LBD, its such a fabulous quirky imprint, and I’ve adored working with them. I am currently fully occupied writing my latest book for my lovely German publisher Piper who recently (and very kindly I think) poached me from Random House with a four book contract that is half chic lit and half love and landscape. I finished my first chic lit book for Piper, Kann Ich Den Umtauschen which translates roughly to “Can I Take him back/get a refund” earlier this year, and this comes out in March 2011. It’s basically about the sweet but nicely naive Alice Cooper (not the rock star, although she thinks that the mirror sometimes shows similarities after a heavy night out) finding out that her seemingly perfect man is not so flawless after all. And I am currently halfway through the first love and landscape, “The Rose Garden”, which is about the impact a devastating accident has on the relationship of the two main characters.

3. Taking The Lead is a very clever novel, taking two separate stories and giving them aspects that connect them. Where did you come up with the idea for the book?

Aw, thank you so much for that. Well my books usually arrive through an amalgamation of things or people I encounter as I skip merrily through life, but this is the one book that came literally from just one thing. I am heavily influenced by Cornwall where I live, I just love it here, and we were in one of our favourite local pubs, the Rashleigh Arms in Charlestown, when I saw a poster on the notice board about a gorgeous dog who was missing. I have three dogs myself, two of them rescues, and they become such a huge part of your life and your family, and it just broke my heart that there was someone out there who’d lost this little hairy friend that they love so much they’ve been traipsing round the county sticking up notices everywhere they can to try and help find him. It made me think about the person who’d lost him, and wonder if there was someone out there who’d found him…and whether the two would ever meet.
I still wonder if they ever found their dog…bless ‘em.

4. You used to write books under the name of Sarah Harvey, why did you decide to change your name to Sarah Monk when you began writing Little Black Dress novels?

Harvey is my maiden name as I got married in 2005. I do still write under Sarah Harvey, as I am contracted to my German publisher in this name, so when LBD asked if I would write for them as well, it was really nice to be able to use my married name instead.

5. A Romantic Getaway was your first Little Black Dress novel, did you originally intend for it to be a Little Black Dress novel?

6. How did you come to write for the Little Black Dress imprint?

I think the following actually answers both questions 5 and 6 hope this is okay.

I’m afraid this is quite a long story, so I’ll just try and give you a short version. I used to write for Headline in my youth but got sidetracked writing for the German market as I am really very lucky to be bestselling over there and have been so busy. Then the lovely Claire Baldwin at LBD read some of my latest Sarah Harvey manuscripts and liked them, but because LBD also publish throughout Europe and the world, they couldn’t take my existing German novels and so asked if I would write something specifically for LBD. Being older and more experienced (and a much speedier typist) I felt that I was at a point where I could handle (and enjoy) the workload of writing two books a year, and jumped at the chance to work with Headline again and the fab LBD imprint.

7. What is your normal writing day like? Do you stick to any kind of schedule or do you just wing it day-by-day?

Erm, well we are always so busy with so many different things, as my husband runs a business and we also have two holiday cottages in our garden which I look after, so you can often find me in my pinny running round them with a hoover, and a duster hanging out of my back pocket! But writing does of course take precedence over practically everything else, and I do write most days (weekends and bank holidays don’t really exist in our house!) with the main body of each day given over to sitting at my computer, tapping away, and everything else being slotted in when I need a break. (Apart from the dogs of course who have their own schedule which they consider to be far more important than mine and will literally sit in a row and bark at me until I stop working if they think its walk/food/fuss time!)

8. When you’re not writing your own books, what books do you like reading?

One of the sad things about doing something that makes me so happy is that I have so much writing to do that I rarely have time to read, but when I do, its usually old favourites like Jilly Cooper’s Rivals, which I must have read at least twenty times, and anything by HE Bates, Douglas Adams, and Tom Sharpe, all of them simply fantastic writers, with deliciously different but equally wonderful wit. As for contemporary writers, I have recently really got into RJ Ellory; I’ve been recommending his “A Quiet Vendetta” to everyone, and am looking forward to “A Simple Act of Violence” the next time we go on holiday (chick lit author murders tour rep). I’ve also read tons of autobiographies as I don’t get sidetracked from my own work by them (and they satisfy my acute attacks of nosiness about other peoples lives!).

9. Does Dylan from Taking The Lead actually exist, or is he a completely fictional doggy?

The original Dylan is of course a tribute to the lovely Bearded Collie in the missing posters, but the actual Dylan is a total crossbreed of the many wonderful rescue dogs I’ve met throughout the years, and an amalgamation of the personalities of my two eldest dogs, the fabulous laid back “tub of love” that is Freddie, and Ruby who is just amazingly clever and utterly adorable. Ziggy the puppy wasn’t around when I was writing Taking the Lead, but she has an absolutely insatiable shoe fetish (shoe does after all rhyme with chew) so Suze, and Imelda, Theo’s shoe loving best friends certainly wouldn’t have appreciated her being written in.

10. If I wanted to write a novel specifically for the Little Black Dress imprint, what advice would you give me?

Think fresh, funny, fun and friendly. The other LBD authors I’ve had the privilege of dealing with such as Julie Cohen, Nell Dixon and Phillipa Ashley are all so warm and vibrant and lovely and I think this really comes across in their writing and that’s perhaps what LBD are looking for, a book that will be this fabulous funky little friend that will make you want to laugh and cry and ultimately put a smile on your face and add a warm glow to your day. I truly hope that’s what I achieve with my LBDs.

Thanks for having me guys

No, thank you Sarah!

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