Ava McCarthy, a Dublin-based mother-of two, wrote her first published novel, 'The Insider', in her parked car before work and while waiting for her kids on the school run, writes ITA KELLY.
AVA MCCARTHY, 40-year-old mother to Mark (10) and Megan (nine), says that the natural antidote to the solitary nature of writing is family life. Yet it was an attempt to get space from the family to write in the first place that drove her to write in her car.
“I really didn’t want to be always saying to the children ‘not now, I’m busy’, when I decided that after a career as a nuclear physicist and a computer programmer I now wanted to be an author. There simply was no other place to do it, so, armed with my laptop, I pushed back the driver’s seat and kept writing.”
Dublin-born McCarthy says that the absence of a fridge or kettle in the car also helped keep her writing rather than becoming distracted by the mundanity of domestic life. She is honest, unlike so many first-time authors, when she admits that it has taken three long years to go from idea to bookshop.
“There were false starts along the way. I initially tried my hand at women’s fiction after reading a Joanna Trollope novel but soon realised that it was not my genre when my manuscript was swiftly rejected. That kept me quiet for a year or so, but then I started again and almost by default fell into crime-thriller writing. I remember the kids saying to me ‘what if nobody likes your book?’ but I just kept at it because I really wanted to do it.”
SHE WROTE THE bulk of the book by getting up early every day and driving to work, parking her car, turning up the heat and working for two hours before going into the office. The remainder was completed while she waited outside the school gates to pick her children up.
Her timing has been impeccable. Her tale of golden circles, chicanery, high finance and missing millions could not have been released at a better time. A stint working at the London Stock Exchange also proved useful research. Nine foreign translations have swiftly followed as has interest from a UK-based film-maker.
“I did what everyone tells you not to do when you first decide to write a book. I told everyone what I was doing but I did so because I knew it would focus my mind and make me finish it and succeed at what I was doing. I think my science background also helped. I approached the book in a very logical way. I researched extensively and I took advice.”
The next book, provisionally titled The Courierwill be once again set in Dublin, but South Africa will also feature this time. While the trusty Mazda is still in service, McCarthy has acquired a more orthodox work station – a desk at home. A sabbatical from her part-time job as a computer programmer means that she can start writing at 8am and work through until 2.30pm, when the school run kicks in. A promise by her accountant husband Tom to take some time off in the near future means that she will be able to write full-time, a prospect she relishes.
“My father encouraged me to pursue a career and to be independent. I suppose that is why I chose science. But I have always been creative as well, so now I am getting the best of both worlds. I am now living my dream. I always wanted to be a writer. While the kids were impressed at first when I took them to visit a few book shops, they are blasé now and much less interested,” she laughs.
McCARTHY SAYS that while she loves writing, she couldn’t do it without the natural rough and tumble that family life provides when she closes the laptop.
For other mothers out there who feel, in these recessionary times, that they might write a book to bring in a few extra bob, McCarthy has this advice. "Don't waste your time . . . until you have mastered the craft of writing first. That was my mistake. The best advice I got with a rejection letter was to go back to basics and read extensively on the craft of writing books. I did this and The Insideris the successful result."
The Insiderby Ava McCarthy is published by HarperCollins
