Let's not fight this Christmas, just Shut Up and Eat!

Interview with a guilty blogger

You have been neglecting debbiedoesbritain again. What is your excuse this time?

I have been very busy indulging in my new found fame. My book has hit the shelves last Tuesday, you see.

All the more reason to blog about your experiences, no?

Of course, my blog should have been the first medium to distribute the news. But I've got a proper website too now, www.deborahklaassen.com, and I have been updating that one.

So what's it like to be a published author? Are you enjoying it?

I was interviewed by the Mare (the newspaper of Leiden University) last week. I spent an afternoon taking pictures of myself because I didn't have any suitable photos. They also printed an especially saucy fragment from my book with it. [see text box] It's weird. I know that, if I were back home, this would be huge but because I'm still in Cardiff, the only results I see are a couple of tweets and emails. It's probably more real for my mum. She said she couldn't sleep because of the explicit fragment they'd reprinted.

Isn't she proud?

I may hope she is! But I understand. I wouldn't like to read erotic stories either if she were the author. And she was worried about what my teachers would think of it.

Aren't you?

I was very nervous to learn what Matt Thorne and Fay Weldon thought of Shut Up and Eat!. But I know now that they think it's creative, original, fresh, truly disturbing and darkly comic. The same way I don't expect Matt and Fay to be swept off their feet by my dissertation on Walter Benjamin's translation theory, I don't expect my philosophy teachers to be impressed with Bek Dicht en Dooreten!. It's a novel, not a work of philosophy. And chick noir might not be their taste in literature.

What's the most important lesson you learned at Brunel?

Ouch, that's a difficult question. One of the most helpful tricks they taught me was to construct a plot and write an outline before you start the novel. But I think their lectures on publicity are also very useful now that my book is available. I'm still awaiting the first reviews, but I'm sure Celia Brayfield's advice on how to deal with nasty reviews will soon be on the very-important-lessons-list too.

Why are you interviewing yourself?

Because it makes me feel important.

Good times!

Hurah! I've got a job! In March I'll start as a copywriter at BLM Quantum!

Last year, they spotted my blog and thought it was great. In reply to their request to cooperate with them, I sent them my CV, and the next day I was invited to visit their office on Tottenham Court Road!

Over Christmas, I had to write three articles to prove that I could do the job - about Flights to Antayla, office supplies and car insurances. (I bet you all know what my next post will be about...)

They were pleased with what I wrote, and last Tuesday they offered me the job! I want to finish my internship at Elwin Street before I start at BLM, though.

Also, I got great news about Shut Up and Eat... a major Dutch publishing house has let me know they were very pleased to read it, and I'm going to Holland in a couple of weeks to discuss the practical details with them!

Shut Up and Eat!

Hurah! I've finished my novella! I handed it in yesterday and had champagne with Fay Weldon afterwards (oh how I love name dropping!).

Leave a comment or send me an email if you want a little preview of Shut Up And Eat.

Thanks everyone!