Ten Terrifying Questions with Kimberley Allsopp!

Kimberley Allsopp has had her work appear in Kidspot, The Sunday Telegraph and WHIMN (now Body & Soul) and she co-hosts the rom-com podcast, Meet Cute, which allows her to justify some of her otherwise questionable life choices. Kimberley has worked in bookselling and publishing since 2008. Love and Other Puzzles is her first book.

Today, Kimberley Allsopp is on the blog to take on our Ten Terrifying Questions! Read on …

Kimberley Allsopp (Photo by Peter Rowe).

1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?

I’m from the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. I moved to Brisbane to finish my Bachelor of Communications and then to Sydney, a little over ten years ago, to start working at HarperCollins Australia.

All my family are still on the Sunshine Coast. I definitely miss the pace of Queensland!

2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?

I’ve always wanted to do something in a creative industry. At twelve, I wanted to be an actress, then a director and then a screenwriter. I also really wanted to be married to Jonathan Taylor Thomas. That might have been the biggest life goal at that stage, honestly.

At eighteen I knew that I wanted to be in books. Being a writer, as a job didn’t seem like a tangible idea, so publishing felt like the next logical step. I was a bookseller before I went into publishing and I had brief stints at Donut King and Howard’s Storage World so it certainly wasn’t a clean line to when I got my foot in the publishing door, let alone to how I ended up as a Campaign Manager.

At thirty, I just wanted to be fulfilled and happy. I say ‘just’ but I don’t mean to make it sound like those two things are easy to achieve. I think I’ll spend the rest of my life, continuing to chip away at that goal.

3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you don’t have now?

I measured my personal success on outside validation and one of the joys of getting older is that the amount you care about what other people think, is worn down to a nub. At least it has been in my case! I still don’t want to disappoint those that I care about and of course and I love praise. Give me more of it. But it’s not what makes up my self worth. What a relief to have shed that belief!

4. What are three works of art – this could be a book, painting, piece of music, film, etc – that influenced your development as a writer?

Anything by Nora Ephron. Her writing. Her movies. Her interviews. I love the marriage of honestly and wit in everything she did.

It might be because I’ve just recorded a podcast on Bridget Jones’s Diary and binged everything around it, but I think anyone writing in commercial fiction with a strong, real, funny, flawed female protagonist owes Helen Fielding a round of thanks.

Anything by Stephen King. I feel like I couldn’t have read as much Stephen King as I have, without his novels influencing me. Thanks to the amount of reading that I do (for enjoyment), I feel like the elements of what carries a story, creates full characters and delivers a satisfying ending, has all been absorbed by osmosis and I have absorbed a LOT of King.

5. Considering the many artistic forms out there, what appeals to you about writing a novel?

There’s never been anything else for me. I haven’t considered another artistic pursuit. I don’t have the patience for anything else. If you see me trying to sculpt, something is very wrong.

6. Please tell us about your latest novel!

Love and Other Puzzles is about Rory. Rory’s life is perfectly predictable, ordered and on track – just the way she likes it. She walks her 12,000 steps a day, writes her to-do list and each night she prepares her breakfast chia pods and lays out her clothes for the next day. She’s doing everything right. So why does everything feel so wrong?

Deep down, she knows her life and career – not to mention her relationship – are going nowhere, and so Rory, in a moment of desperation, takes an uncharacteristic step: letting the clues of The New York Times crossword puzzle dictate all her decisions for a week. Just for a week, she reasons. Just to shake things up a bit. What’s the worst that could happen?

7. What do you hope people take away with them after reading your work?

I just want people to enjoy themselves and have a good time. I would also like lots of laughing. The com portion of the rom com is terribly important to me.

8. Who do you most admire in the writing world and why?

I think there’s an incredibly supportive community of female, Australian authors and it’s wonderful to be a part of.

9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?

To finish the next book by deadline! And to do the ideas that I have in my head justice. It’s easier said than done.

10. Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

Write what you love. If you’re not enjoying what you’re putting on the page, that’s a sign that you need to be writing something else.

Thank you for playing!

—Love and Other Puzzles by Kimberley Allsopp (HarperCollins Australia) is out now. Limited signed copies are available while stocks last!

Love and Other Puzzles

Limited Signed Copies Available!

by Kimberley Allsopp

Rory's life is perfectly predictable, ordered and on track – just the way she likes it. She walks her 12,000 steps a day, writes her to-do list and each night she prepares her breakfast chia pods and lays out her clothes for the next day. She's doing everything right. So why does everything feel so wrong?

Deep down, she knows her life and career – not to mention her relationship – are going nowhere, and so Rory, in a moment of desperation, takes an uncharacteristic step: letting the clues of The New York Times crossword puzzle dictate all her decisions for a week...

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