Today, we welcome author Pip Drysdale to the blog. We’ll be talking about Pip’s latest release, THE CLOSE-UP. First, tell our readers a little about yourself.Â
Where you’re from, where you live? Is writing your full-time job?
I grew up in Africa, Canada and Australia and became an adult in New York and London. I currently live in Sydney and yes, writing is my full-time job!
How long have you been writing?
My first book came out in September 2018 but I started writing that in 2015… so it depends when the clock starts. I mainly wrote songs and poetry before that. But I did study Creative Writing at University.
What does your typical writing day look like?
I wake up, put on coffee, and write for an hour or so before my inner critic can wake up and ruin everything. Then I go for a walk, have some breakfast, write some more. Do some research. Go about my day. Write some more. Watch TV. Fall down a google-rabbit-hole. It’s all quite flexible really throughout the first draft. Rewrites are another story altogether. At that point I work solidly from the moment I wake up until the moment I go to sleep.
Tell us about your latest release? Where the idea came from? Perhaps some fun moments, or not so fun moments?
It’s called The Close-Up and it centres around Zoe Ann Weiss, a struggling novelist living in LA. Once billed as the next big thing as a writer, things have not gone to plan. Her first novel—a thriller—failed and now she’s stuck in a dead-end job. To make matters worse she has writer’s block. But everything changes when one night she runs into an old flame— Zach Hamilton—who is now a movie star. They start dating in secret but soon Zoe’s face and name are leaked to the press and her first novel goes viral… But Zoe is about to learn that when it comes to fame, sometimes it’s a case of being careful what you wish for. There’s a dark side to everyone knowing your name. Like Zach’s stalker who wants her out of the picture. The stalker who has now read her first novel and is enacting all the creepy plot twists in it… except now Zoe is the victim.
The most fun part of writing this book was probably going back to LA to do research. I spent a lot of time around where she lived in West Hollywood and where she worked on Abbot Kinney in Venice, together with spending time in venues where specific scenes take place. I also really loved exploring some of the books Zoe loved, like Eve Babitz and Didion and Bukowski, together with many more.
Could you share one detail from your current release with readers that they might not find in the book?
There are a couple of nods to The Great Gatsby in there which astute readers will pick up on (and which is why Zoe is reading that book at the beginning of the novel). The Close-Up (like Gatsby) is a dark critique of the modern American dream—the search for fame. I loved exploring the underbelly of LA and celebrity through Zoe’s story—how much she’ll sacrifice for success, but also how far others will go too in their relentless search for fame.
Who has been the most difficult character for you to write? Why?
Hmmm, I find them all difficult until I understand them properly. I know I’m not ready to write a character if I’m judging her choices in any way shape or form. It needs to feel like it’s me. Like I’d do what she’s doing too. Then I know I understand her, and I’m ready to write her.
If you could spend the day with your character, what would you do? What would that day look like?
If I could spend the day with Zoe we’d hang out by Zach’s pool all day, talking about books. Then we’d go past the florist and get some flowers. And then I’d suggest we quickly get on the first flight to London before things get… complicated…
What’s your take on research and how do you do it?
I tend to immerse myself fully in my characters. So I choose a perfume for the character (in Zoe’s case it was Killian’s Good Girl Gone Bad), read all their books, eat their food, hang out where they hang out, watch their TV shows etc. I tend to base my books in places that I know and then I travel there again to make sure I get the sensory details right. It helps me to write a book when I can mentally ground myself in the character’s apartment, when I have walked on the soil. When it feels real to me.
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Are there any particular authors that have influenced how you write?
Every book I read, every TV show I watch, every interaction I have influences how I write.
Do you have a secret talent readers would be surprised by?
Well if I told you it would no longer be a secret!
Your favorite go to drink or food when the world goes crazy!
Coffee. Always coffee.
What is your writing kryptonite?
I can’t check my phone before I write in the morning otherwise it throws off my whole day. I have to force myself to write first, while I’m still in that half-dream state.
Thank you so much for joining us today, Pip, and sharing a fascinating insight in your latest book. Readers, here’s a quick look at THE CLOSE-UP which releases today!
A struggling author discovers the dark side of fame when a stalker begins reenacting violent events from her thriller in this electrifying and twisty new novel.
When Zoe Ann Weiss moves to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of becoming a writer, her whole future is wide open. But then Zach, the bartender and aspiring actor she’s falling for, ghosts her. Her debut novel, a thriller, fails. And she has writer’s block worse than ever before. Now, three years later, Zach is famous and Zoe is…not.
She’s facing her thirtieth birthday, a dead-end job at a flower shop, and a demanding agent, terrified she’ll never get her life back on track. But when she goes to make a flower delivery and Zach is at the address, it’s like no time has passed at all. They start casually dating in secret, her writer’s block disappears, and Zoe begins to wonder: Zach inspired her first novel, so why can’t he inspire her second?
But then the inevitable happens and photos are leaked, landing Zoe in the press. Her first novel goes viral, and now everyone seems to know her name. Except the problem with everyone knowing your name is that everyone knows your name—including the mysterious stalker obsessed with Zach. A stalker who begins reenacting violent events from Zoe’s book, step by step, against her…
