McInerney, Monica

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McInerney, Monica

PERSONAL: Born in Australia; immigrated to Ireland; married.

ADDRESSES: Home—Dublin, Ireland. Agent—Jonathan Lloyd, Curtis Brown, Haymarket House, 28-29 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4SP, England.

CAREER: Worked as a book publicist for ten years; freelance writer. Also worked as a public-relations consultant, scriptwriter and wardrobe assistant for children's television, and event manager; worked in arts and marketing.

WRITINGS:

A Taste for It (novel), Poolbeg (Dublin, Ireland), 2000.

Upside down, Inside Out (novel), Poolbeg (Dublin, Ireland), 2002.

Spin the Bottle (novel), Poolbeg (Dublin, Ireland), 2003.

The Alphabet Sisters (novel), Penguin Australia (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), 2004, Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Family Baggage (novel), Tivoli (Dublin, Ireland), 2005.

Contributor to anthologies, including Penguin Australian Summer Stories, Girls' Night in II, and Scorched: Penguin Australia Summer Stories.

Author's books have been translated into Thai.

ADAPTATIONS: A Taste for It, Upside Down, Inside Out and Spin the Bottle were adapted as audiobooks.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Another novel.

SIDELIGHTS: After many years as a book publicist, Monica McInerney decided to fulfill an early ambition and start writing her own novels. As she put it on the Dymocks Web site, "I grew up as the middle child in a rowdy household of nine, surrounded by people, conversations and drama, and I'm sure that's what's sparked my love of stories and storytelling." In addition to her strong family ties, McInerney also draws on her experiences of moving from Clare Valley in Australia to County Clare in Ireland to tell stories that capture the experience of travel and the adventure of uprooting oneself.

In her first novel, A Taste for It, a chef named Maura Carmody travels to Ireland to introduce the food and wines of Australia to the Irish public. What begins as a simple business trip turns into a whirlwind of romance, rivalries, and comedic mishaps. Upside down, Inside Out is a similar tale, but this time it is an Irish woman who goes to Australia to begin a new life after a failed relationship. There she meets an Englishman who is also seeking an escape from his life as a businessman. Both of them soon find new ways to look at themselves and, despite many obstacles and misunderstandings, discover a romance that will dramatically change both of them.

Spin the Bottle continues to explore the idea of finding a new life in a new country. When Australian Lainey Byrne agrees to take over a bed-and-breakfast in Ireland for a year, she knows she will miss her boyfriend, Adam, and her rambunctious family. But she is not prepared for the feelings she has when she reconnects with an old school friend. At the same time, distance gives her a new perspective on her family's antics after she hearing that her father has taken to his bed and her brothers are running wild.

Family drama is more central, and more serious, in The Alphabet Sisters, the story of three sisters. Once a successful singing trio, Anna, Bett, and Carrie have not been on speaking terms since Carrie ran off with Bett's fiancée. When Lola, their imperious grandmother and onetime musical director, summons them home for her eightieth birthday, the three are forced to reunite. Then Lola announces that she has written a new musical to benefit a local hospital, and she wants the three of them to star in it. As a Publishers Weekly reviewer summarized it, "In this heartening if predictable novel, three struggling women relearn how the bonds of sisterhood can steady them against life's ebb and flow." MBR Bookwatch contributor Harriet Klausner felt that the "story line is at its best when it concentrates on the three sisters especially their desires and darkest secrets; by extension through the trio, readers obtains somewhat of a glimpse of their extended families."