Coleman, Rowan

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Coleman, Rowan

Personal

Born in England; married; children: one daughter.

Addresses

Home and office—Hertfordshire, England.

Career

Author. Previously worked as a bookseller and in publishing.

Awards, Honors

Company magazine Young Writer of the Year award, 2001; Romantic Novel of the Year Award nomination, 2008, for The Baby Group.

Writings

FOR CHILDREN

Ruby Parker: Soap Star, HarperCollins UK (London, England), 2005, published as Ruby Parker Hits the Small Time, HarperTempest (New York, NY), 2007.

Ruby Parker: Film Star, HarperCollins UK (London, England), 2007.

Ruby Parker: Hollywood Star, HarperCollins UK (London, England), 2007.

Ruby Parker: Musical Star, HarperCollins UK (London, England), 2008.

FOR ADULTS

Growing up Twice, 2002.

After Ever After, Century (London, England), 2003.

River Deep, Century (London, England), 2004.

The Accidental Mother, Century (London, England), 2005, Pocket Books (New York, NY), 2007.

Woman Walks into a Bar, Arrow (London, England), 2006.

The Baby Group, Arrow (London, England), 2007.

Sidelights

British author Rowan Coleman began her career writing novels for women, two of which, The Accidental Mother and The Baby Group, made it onto bestseller lists in her native England. Before she was a writer, Coleman was a bookseller and also worked in publishing. In 2001, she won the Company magazine Young Writer of the Year award, which helped her to sell her first novel, Growing up Twice. After she sold her second novel, she left her job in publishing to write full time.

In Ruby Parker Hits the Small Time—published in England as Ruby Parker: Soap Star—Coleman introduced her spunky thirteen-year old starlet protagonist, Ruby Parker. As a six year old, Ruby was cast on a daytime soap opera, and her career has grown to the point that her peers at her performing-arts school are jealous. Aside from being a star, Ruby is a normal teen, and her life is full of the same angst as everyone else's. When her parents announce that they are getting a divorce, Ruby is devastated, and she realizes she needs friends to help her get through.

Ruby Parker Hits the Small Time is told through both Ruby's narrative and the letters the young teen writes when responding to her fans. "The writing is realistic; the language is suitably naive and particularly poignant," wrote Amelia Jenkins in School Library Journal. Shelle Rosenfeld, reviewing Coleman's middle-grade novel for Booklist, dubbed the story "an adept blend of spoof and heart in a fast-paced, lively read," while a Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote that "Coleman is both witty and insightful, and she makes her points clearly without being didactic." Noting that the romance in the plot goes where readers may expect, a Publishers Weekly critic predicted that "Ruby's perky first-person narration will likely be a hit."

Ruby's adventures continue as her career expands beyond television and into Hollywood in the books Ruby Parker: Film Star, Ruby Parker: Hollywood Star, and Ruby Parker: Musical Star. As Coleman explained during an interview for the Pink-World Web site, she decided to write for teens because Ruby's adventures capture "the teenage life that I never had and desperately wanted. I had a few weeks off from writing my other books and put together a few chapters of Ruby to see if it worked. I thought it was pretty good and luckily I wasn't the only one who loved Ruby."