**About author, Portia MacIntosh: When she was fifteen-years-old, Portia MacIntosh fell in with a bad crowd… rockstars.
After disappearing on tour and living the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle for a few years, Portia landed a job in the music industry – but only so that she didn’t have to join the real world just yet.
Now in her twenties, Portia is ready to spill the beans on the things she has witnessed over the years. Well, kind of. If her famous friends knew that she was borrowing their lives to inspire her fiction, they would stop inviting her on tour and banish her from the inner circle. Then she really would have to rejoin the real world, and she’s still not ready.
Portia only started writing novels to share her secrets, but then she realised she actually quite liked writing – maybe even more than she likes living on a bus with a bunch of smelly boys – and has since tried her hand at writing about other things.
INTERVIEW
Describe your writing style in five words: Good old fashioned chick lit.
Tell us about your book, “Between a Rockstar and a Hard Place”: Between a Rockstar and a Hard Place is a sort of prequel/teaser for my full-length novel, How Not to be Starstruck, which is out in March. My books tell the tale of music journalist Nicole Wilde, and the situations she finds herself in thanks to her famous mates, newsworthy relationships and generally chaotic lifestyle.
What was the writing/editing/publishing process like for you? Writing was an odd process. I had to fit it in around real life, writing when I could, using my laptop, making notes on my phone and writing things down to type up later. I didn’t have much editing to do, which was great. The Carina team are wonderful to work with.
Hard/paperbacks or eBooks? You can’t beat physical books, but eBooks are great because you can carry so many around with you at once.
How did you celebrate you first book being published? When you spend so much time with musicians, rock ‘n’ roll behaviour is fairly standard… so for that reason, I’ll be celebrating the publication of my first book by going to Starbucks. Say no to cocaine, and yes to calories.
Coffee or tea? Coffee. I’m hooked.
When writing, do you work best with silence or noise? I love listening to music while I write.
How has social media helped your career? I’ve made some amazing contacts and friends through social media, I owe it a lot.
If you could meet any author, who would it be? I’d love to meet some of my fellow Carina authors – especially the chick lit writers. The likes of Rebecca Raisin and Katie Oliver are not just my friends, I’m massive fans of theirs too.
What is one thing that people would be surprised to know about you? I have questionable taste in music. My band friends are all brilliant, but I love listening to cheesy pop and Disney soundtracks.
Do you have any writing goals for 2014? To get four books out there – at least. After Between a Rockstar and a Hard Place comes out on 20th February, the follow-up is out in March – that one is called How Not to be Starstruck.
Can you tell us about any of your upcoming projects? After How Not to be Starstruck, I have third book out in the summer called Like Father Like Son – that one isn’t about the music business.
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