Phoebe Fox: Phoebe is the author of the Breakup Doctor series—The Breakup Doctor, Bedside Manners, Heart Conditions, and Out of Practice, coming fall 2016—and has been a contributor and regular columnist for a number of national, regional, and local publications (she currently writes about relationships for the Huffington Post, Elite Daily, and She Knows). She has been a movie, theater, and book reviewer; a screenwriter; and is a close observer of relationships in the wild.
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INTERVIEW
Describe your writing style in five words: No clue where it’s going.
Tell us about your writing/editing/publishing process: I’ll tell you in numbers (my math-geek husband will appreciate that): 2 completed manuscripts and 113 queries before finding my agent, 1-dozen-plus rejections from publishers, 1 complete rewrite and 1 more year, and 1-dozen-plus more publisher rejections before the Big Yes.
What does that add up to? 1 word: Persistence. If you’re serious about writing, and you want to know my best advice for pursuing it, that’s my answer. There’s no trait that will serve you better at every phase of your writing career: writing, querying, marketing, etc.
When did you know you wanted to be a writer? I wrote my first novel at age six, a short work entitled “All About Me,” printed (literally) on construction paper in crayon in a very messy font, bound with string, and filled with insightful revelations like, “I like eggs.” I think we all knew I was headed for a literary career at that point.
Hard/paperbacks or eBooks? That’s like asking “missionary or doggie-style.” It’s all good, thanks. 😉
At what time of day do you think you work best? Mornings, no contest. I might dribble out a few more pages later in the day if inspiration strikes, but generally if it doesn’t happen by noon, it isn’t happening.
If you could meet any author, who would it be? At this point I suspect she thinks I’m a crazy stalker fan, because I talk about her in so many interviews, but Liz Tuccillo is not only one of my favorite authors and screenwriters (How to Be Single, coauthor of He’s Just Not That Into You, executive story editor for Sex and the City), but was unbelievably gracious enough to blurb my first book—an unknown, untried author and total stranger to her. I will love her forever, and she is endlessly wise in the ways of human relating, and she makes me laugh so hard I snort. Yeah. I want to buy her a few beers.
How do you come up with your titles? For this series, I knew they all needed to fit the “doctor” theme of Breakup Doctor. The first book titled itself. Bedside Manners, book 2, was the title I had in mind that ended up kind of dictating what that story was about, which was an interesting reversal. Heart Conditions came after hours of brainstorming once the story was outlined. And Out of Practice, the final book in the series that I’m finishing now, was lit on by my marvelous editor at Henery Press.
Salty or sweet? Depends on the time of day, time of year, and time of the month. 😉
Every author needs (a): Dog. Or two. Not sure I could write without my buddies at my feet.
How do you come up with ideas for your books? For the Breakup Doctor series, I’d like to thank every guy who ever dissed, dumped, or otherwise shat upon me in my dating life.
What do you want people to take away from your readers? Other authors’ books—take those away from them! Ha, just kidding. You mean what I’d like them to take away from my books? One reader told me that my books kept her laughing through chemo when she was fighting breast cancer. That touched me really profoundly. And I’m also using it as my new series motto: “The Breakup Doctor: Funnier than cancer.”
What are you working on right now? Book 4 in the series is almost finished (Out of Practice), and then I’m on to a new series—this one’s about a very unconventional matchmaker and dating coach.
Blurb: Running a massively successful relationship counseling practice should guarantee smooth sailing in a girl’s own love life…
Breakup Doctor Brook Ogden has spent the last year sifting through the fallout from the disastrous decision that led to her unconscious uncoupling with boyfriend Ben Garrett. Despite advising her clients you can’t be friends with an ex, she and Ben have somehow begun to stitch together a friendship—one Brook hopes is slowly turning into more. That is, until Ben introduces his new girlfriend, Perfect Pamela, a paragon of womanly virtues who is everything Brook is not.
While Brook navigates her newly volatile emotional life, an unwelcome surprise shows up on her doorstep: the ex-fiancé who broke her heart two years ago—one month before their wedding. Between her ex’s desire to rekindle their attachment, her best friend Sasha’s unexpected crisis, and her own unsquelchable feelings for Ben, Brook finds herself questioning the personal progress she’s made in the last two years—and threatened with the highest-stakes Breakup Doctor failures she’s ever faced.
**A note from the author: BEDSIDE MANNERS, book two in the series, is on sale the week of release (Feb 8-14) for just 99 cents for the e-book version everywhere they’re sold. I’d love it if you could share that info with your readers!
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