Aucklander Kate Langdon always enjoyed reading chick-lit but never expected to be writing it, says Nicky Pellegrino.
KEY POINTS:
New Zealand writers have long had a reputation for producing serious, dark work but there's a new, lighter writing voice in town.
Rollicking good reads are their stock in trade; stories with no particular message, simply designed to entertain and hopefully raise a laugh or two.
That's just
the kind of fiction Aucklander Kate Langdon enjoys.
She's just released her third novel, Making Lemonade (Harper Collins, $24.99), the lively story of three 30-something women whose lives aren't turning out quite how they imagined.
Jools is pregnant and not sure who the father is, Sally is saddled with a supremely vain TV evangelist husband and Kat's discovered her man is having an affair. The story is fast-paced, fun and ticks all the boxes for lovers of chick-lit.
Surprisingly, Langdon didn't set out to be a writer.
She never had a long-cherished ambition to be published and her first book, That Slippery Slope, happened pretty much by mistake.
"I sat down one night, had a few wines and started writing something," she says.
"The next night I was bored so went back and did a bit more. At first I thought it was a short story, then it got longer and I thought, oh, I might be writing a book.
"It was a very painless process. I sort of chipped away at it for a couple of years."
Langdon sent the manuscript to a few publishers to see what would happen, Harper Collins came back with a positive response, and the book went on to spend two weeks on the New Zealand bestseller list.
Langdon, who runs her own event management business, says she's always written.
"As a teenager I went through writing that deep, dark, introspective stuff that sounds so life changing at the time but is just embarrassing when you read it later."
To complete her second book, Famous, Langdon hid away in the Bay of Islands for three months.
"I went a bit bonkers writing solidly on my own every day. I had these stripey socks I'd pull on to get into writing mode and by midday I'd be drinking vodka.
"I see now how writers can lose all ability to socialise and go stark raving mad!"
Langdon's life has since changed markedly. She's turned 31, split with her partner of 10 years and had a baby, Jasper, now two.
"I've grown up a lot and that's reflected in my writing," she says. "The first two books were very much about going out, drinking too much and getting into trouble."
Those things still happen in Making Lemonade, but the story is less about lurching from one funny episode to the next and more about dealing with the poignant situations women can find themselves in. "Changes in my life definitely played a part," says Langdon.
Motherhood has severely altered Langdon's writing schedule. "In an ideal world my best creative time would be between 3pm and 8pm," she says. "Now there's just no way because that's feeding, bath time and bedtime.
"That's been quite hard, but I'm lucky Jasper has an amazing Dad who takes care of him for half the week."
Langdon loves the writing process, having "found something I like doing and am not too bad at".
"Although I don't think I'd be any good at writing a life-changing, serious novel - I can't imagine it. And I don't have a problem with being categorised as chick-lit."
One of her key motivations in finishing the first book was her love of Marian Keyes' novels.
"She's hilarious but there aren't enough like her. Chick-lit is such a broad category. To me they're supposed to be humorous books but a lot of them are just lovey dovey.
"I like reading the funny ones and thought there weren't enough around."
Fun aside, Langdon is about to take her writing a lot more seriously. She's pared back other work commitments and plans to pursue an overseas book deal.
"I want to make a career of this as opposed to it being a hobby," she explains.
For three years she's organised the AUT graduate show at Fashion Week but this year she's taking time out to think about other writing projects, including a TV show she'd like to develop and more magazine articles. "I definitely want to take control now and make things happen," she says.
- Detours, HoS