Tour Dates
She was born in the West of Ireland in 1963.
I was a month overdue and I often wonder what my life would have been like if I'd been born on time and been a dynamic, sunny Leo, instead of a perfectionist Virgo; it was a hard lesson to learn and since then I've always been very punctual.
She was brought up in Dublin, and then she spent her twenties in London.
When I left school I went to college, got a law degree, then put it to good use by going to London and getting a job as a waitress. Eventually I upped and got respectable and got a job in an accounts office, where I worked (I use the term oh-so-loosely) for a long, long, long time. I thought I'd be there forever, that I'd end up as a grumpy old woman with forty cats and that small boys would throw stones at me. What I certainly had no notion of doing was becoming a writer.
During her twenties her life-long low self esteem gradually mutated into a drinking problem.
By the time I was thirty it had all come to a terrible head and, after a suicide attempt, I was lucky enough to get into rehab. (Mind you I didn't feel lucky at the time! I thought my life was over.) However, I've been one of the fortunate ones and I've stayed sober and - more importantly - happy about it, ever since.
She started writing in 1993 and her first book Watermelon was published in Ireland in 1995.
I began writing short stories four months before I finally stopped drinking, and after I came out of rehab I decided to send them off to a publisher. So that they'd take me seriously, I enclosed a letter saying I'd written part of a novel. Which I hadn't. I had no intention of so doing, either - I was much more into the instant gratification of short stories. But they wrote back and said, send the novel, and for once in my self-destructive life I didn't shoot myself in the foot. I wrote four chapters of my first novel Watermelon in a week, and was offered a three-book contract on the strength of it.
Since then she has become a publishing phenomenon. Nearly 5 million copies of her five books have been sold worldwide.
In November 1996 I was finally able to give up my day job and become - allegedly anyway - a full time writer. Except that almost from the moment all my time was free to write with, I began to try and distract myself and do anything but write. I'm up and down the stairs, checking to see if the mail has come. (Even after it already has.) I pray for the phone to ring, I make appointments for root-canal treatment and toy with the notion of scrubbing the kitchen floor. Anything other than switch on the computer. Of course, once I start it's not so bad, I always find.
Her books are an unusual blend of comedy and darkness and cover subjects like depression, addiction and illness.
Last Chance Saloon is about three life-long friends, one of whom contracts cancer. Okay, so a book about someone with a terminal illness doesn't exactly sound like a laugh a minute, but in my experience the best comedy is rooted in darkness. All five of my books are different but share a common theme of people who are In The Bad Place, and who achieve some form of redemption. I've been In The Bad Place myself many's the time, which wasn't very pleasant while it was happening but has since come in very handy for writing about it.
She's often compared to Helen Fielding.
We both started writing around the same time - my second book came out just as Bridget Jones Diary first hit the bookstores - and we're both comic writers who cover 'ordinary' women's issues.
Marian now lives in Dublin again.
Four years ago I moved back to live in Ireland. So that I wouldn't miss London too much I imported an Englishman (well, actually I married him.). I was worried that I'd hate the small-town feel of Dublin, but what I hadn't realised was that while I'd been away it had become Groovyville. It's now nearly impossible to buy "a grand cup of tea" because all that's available is skinny double mocha lattes.
She's recently finished her next book which is set in Los Angeles.
I spent a month there last year - well I had to. Research, see? And it's without doubt one of the maddest places I've ever been. No-one seems to eat, the gyms open at five in the morning and even the palm trees are skinny.
Her books are published in 35 countries worldwide and have been translated into several different languages, such as Hebrew and Japanese.
And that's about it!
To sum up, I can't cook and I'm addicted to shoes, handbags and chocolate in all its wonderful forms. All quite normal, really.
Click here to read the Bookreporter.com interview with Marian Keyes.
Tour Dates
BOSTON
- Monday, May 15 -
7:00 PM
Reading/signing
BROOKLINE BOOKSMITH
279 Harvard Street
Brookline, MA 02446
Contact: Mark Pearson
617-739 6002
events@brooklinebooksmith.com
Janet Potter- Events Coordinator
Main store number: Tel: 617-566-6660
- Tuesday, May 16 -
7:00 PM
Reading/Signing
PORTER SQUARE BOOKS
Porter Square Shopping Center
25 White Street
Cambridge, MA 02140
Contact: Ellen Jarett
617-491-2220
ellen@portersquarebooks.com
- Wednesday, May 17 -
12:30 PM to 1:30 PM
Reading/Signing
BRYANT PARK
Word for Word Series
Bryant Park Reading Room
42nd Street near 6th Avenue - Outdoors
New York, NY 10110
Contact: Susie Sigel
917-438-5151
ssiegel@urbanmgt.com
Rain Venue to be determined.
- Wednesday, May 17 -
7:00 PM
Reading/Talk/Signing
BARNES & NOBLE
Lincoln Center
1972 Broadway @ 66th St.
New York, NY 10023
Contact: Jennifer Stark
212-595-9340
crm2628@bn.com
Store number: 212-595-6859
- Thursday, May 18 -
7:30 PM
talk/signing
NEW CANAAN LIBRARY
151 Main Street
New Canaan, CT 06840
Contact: Angela Stamnes
908-337-9828 Ang's cell
elmstbookspr@optonline.net
Main number at the library is 203-594-5000.
Approx. 1 hour 15 minutes by car from NYC. Auditorium holds 200.
Booked in connection with Elm Street Books as part of their author series and they sell the books.
Ang's direct address: 170 Heights Road, Darien, CT 06820
- Friday, May 19 -
7:30 PM
Reading/Signing
BORDERS
5871 Crossroads Center Way
Bailey's Crossroads, VA 22041
Contact: Lisa Marie Greig
703-998-0404 STORE
dfromme2@bordersgroupinc.com
- Monday, May 22 - 7:00
TACOMA PUBLIC LIBRARY
3722 N. 26th Street
Tacoma, WA
- Tuesday, May 23 - 12:30 PM
BELLEVUE REGIONAL LIBRARY
1111-110th Avenue NE
Bellevue, WA
- Tuesday, May 23
*Waiting for confirmation. - 7:00 PM
UNIVERSITY BOOKSTORE
4326 University Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105
Contact: Stesha Brandon
425-462-4500
steshab@u.washington.edu
- Wednesday, May 24 -
12:00 PM pst
talk, signing
STARBUCKS
Corporate Headquarters
2401 Utah Avenue South
Seattle, WA 98134
Contact: Kristen Zaverson
206-318-7759
kzaverso@starbucks.com
This is a private corporate event
Set up by Kim Ricketts, formerly of University Bookstore.
206-579-1084 cell; 206-523-3458 office
kimrickettsbooks@aol.com
1505 NE 55t Street, Seattle, WA 98105
confirmed 6/21.
- Wednesday, May 24 -
7:00 PM
reading/signing
THIRD PLACE BOOKS
Reading/Signing
17171 Bothell Way NE
Lake Forest Park, WA 98155
Contact: Wendy Manning
206-366-3316 direct
wmanning@thirdplacebooks.com
- Thursday, May 25
*Waiting for confirmation - 12:30 PM
Reading/Signing
BELLEVUE REGIONAL LIBRARY
1111 -110th Avenue NE
Bellevue, WA 98004
Contact: Chapple Langemack
425.450.1770
chaplang@kcls.org
For more information on Marian Keyes and her U.S. book tour contact: Debbie Stier;
ph: 212-207-7788;
email: debbie.stier@harpercollins.com